Built for the whole membership.
Most gym equipment is designed around one kind of body. Pulse designs its Inclusive range for everyone else too: wheelchair users, people with limb difference or low vision, older members, anyone coming back from injury. Same frames, same consoles, same floor.
Getting through the door is the first battle. The machine should not be the second one.
Pulse has been designing for adaptive use since 2002, when the work began as a partnership with the UK government’s Inclusive Fitness Initiative. The initiative has since ended. The design work never stopped, and the range has been refined ever since with the people who train on it.
Ian Marsden, a two-time Paralympian and champion powerlifter, joined Pulse as its adaptive design consultant and works on the range machine by machine. Dan Richards, a former British soldier who lost his right arm and shoulder in a motorbike accident and now races as a para-cyclist, tested it and gave his verdict.
Both of them say the same thing about good equipment: you should be able to get on with the session yourself.
How to make a gym actually accessible
From Melissa Rodriguez, the research consultant who spoke on inclusive fitness alongside Pulse in 2026. A gym can be welcoming at the front desk and unusable twelve feet inside it, and the difference is design, not intent.
- 01
Ask the right question first
Most gyms ask “is this welcoming?” The right question is whether people can actually access the equipment, the classes and the programs. Those are two very different things.
- 02
Look at your equipment spacing
There are standards for how far apart equipment should be placed, and they exist for a reason. Walk into a lot of gyms and the machines are packed so close that someone in a wheelchair cannot get between them. Cannot transfer. Cannot load the pin.
- 03
Think about adjustability
Her research found that people with disabilities are more likely to use cable machines than people without disabilities, because cables adjust to height, length and position in a way most fixed machines cannot. That is a data point worth paying attention to when you are selecting equipment.
- 04
Design for every sense
A deaf member in an interval class cannot follow the beep, the verbal countdown or the correction from across the room. A blinking light, a vibration, a visual cue built into the class format. None of it is complicated. It just requires someone to have thought about it first.
- 05
Invest in the right training
The disability population is diverse: cognitive, mobility, sensory, chronic illness, psychiatric, each with specific needs and specific ways of engaging with exercise. A fitness professional without training in this area may be the reason someone does not come back.
“If you’re serious about inclusion, start here. Not with the marketing. With the actual design.”
Melissa Rodriguez Research consultant, Datagonist. Reproduced with permission.
Download the full guide (PDF)The details that decide whether someone can train
Strength training should be available to all bodies, all levels and all goals. These are the design decisions that make that true on a busy commercial floor.
Swing-away seat
The seat swings clear with one hand, so a wheelchair rolls straight into the machine and back out again.
One-handed adjustment
Every adjustment is a single oversized handle, reachable and turnable without a second hand or a second person.
Handles you can find by feel
A stainless ring marks the end of each grip, so a member with a visual impairment locates the handles by touch.
Weights that start light
Selectorized stacks start low and move in 5.5 lb (2.5 kg) steps, with a pin large enough to grip properly.
Numbers you can read and feel
Raised, high-contrast iconography on the stack and the adjustment points, not printed decals.
Instructions that fit on one placard
A few short steps and an illustration, in text large enough to read from the seat.
The swing-away seat, move by move
Worth knowing before a member’s first session, and worth teaching every trainer on the floor. In this order it takes about ten seconds.
1Reach for the release
Set the machine up first: back pad all the way back, press arms at their start position, so the seat has room to swing. Then reach under the seat for the release handle. It sits within reach from the chair.
2Swing the seat round
It rotates on its post. No lifting, no second hand, no second person.
3Seat clear, path open
It stays where you put it. Nothing is left between the chair and the handles.
4Roll in and train
Square to the handles, brakes on. Handing it back to the next member is the same moves in reverse.
See the equipment in use
Swing-away seat
One handle under the seat swings it clear of the frame, so a wheelchair rolls straight in. The next member swings it back.
Easy-grip selector pin
A pin big enough to grip with a closed hand, on stacks that start light and climb in small steps. Every cable station works from a chair.
One-hand adjustment
Every adjustment is a single oversized yellow handle on a numbered rail, reachable and workable without a second hand or a second person.
Step-through frame
No frame to climb over. Walk in, sit down, close the pedal strap with one hand and ride.
Getting on is the hard part, so the design starts there.
Step-through frames, elliptical pedals that lock while you mount, and controls built for hands and eyes that work differently.
Step-through frames
No frame to climb over. The recumbent cycle opens on the entry side and the seat slides back on a rail.
Raised icons on the controls
The key controls carry raised symbols, so a member with a visual impairment can find the right one by touch.
Low-profile footplates
Pedals sit low with a contrasting footplate, so the first step onto the machine is short and obvious.
Console keys you can hit
Oversized, colour-coded, labelled keys on a high-contrast display, alongside the touchscreen.
A step-up box that lifts out
Three click-and-lock heights, 6 lb (2.8 kg), and it lifts off the machine when nobody needs it.
Edges you can see
Reflective strips mark the running surface, so where the belt ends is never a guess.
Ask the people who train on it
“Ideally you need equipment that you can just roll straight into and get on with the session. I can move the seat out of the way, and then an able-bodied person can move the seat back again. It doesn’t stand out.”
Ian Marsden Two-time Paralympian, champion powerlifter, and Pulse’s adaptive design consultant
“Being able to adjust the seat and position it with just my one hand, it’s definitely a bonus. It’s great that things are inclusive, but it’s nice to standardise.”
Dan Richards Former British soldier, para-cyclist and model, who lost his right arm and shoulder in a motorbike accident
Inclusive cardio and strength, in the U.S. catalog
Every machine below quotes with U.S. list pricing, alongside the rest of the floor.
Buying the machines is the easy half
The 2010 ADA Standards ask that at least one of each type of exercise machine be reachable by an accessible route, with clear floor space positioned for transfer or for use from a chair. That is a layout requirement, not an equipment one, and it is where most facilities fall short: the right machine, boxed in.
Our team designs the whole room. Send a floor plan and a training brief and we return a layout with the circulation and clear floor spaces an inclusive floor needs, a full equipment schedule, and one quotation covering freight and installation. Or draw it yourself in Pulse BluePrint, which places every machine at true scale with an ADA overlay, and send the plan back to us.
- Accessible routeTo and around each machine type
- Clear floor spacePositioned for transfer or seated use
- CirculationWide enough for a chair between stations
- MixCardio and strength, not one token piece
- Staff trainingACSM Inclusive Fitness Specialist Certificate
Inclusive fitness, answered
What is inclusive fitness equipment?
Inclusive fitness equipment is commercial gym equipment engineered so that a disabled member and a non-disabled member can use the same machine, one after the other, without adaptation or assistance. In practice that means an accessible entry path (a seat that swings away or a frame you step through), adjustments a person can make one-handed, controls that can be found by touch and read at a distance, and resistance that starts light enough to be useful. It is a design standard, not a separate category of machine.
How is it different from rehabilitation or medical equipment?
Rehabilitation equipment is specified for supervised clinical use and prescribed protocols. Inclusive equipment is ordinary commercial gym equipment that happens to have been designed for a wider range of bodies, and it sits on the main floor with everything else. The Pulse Inclusive range shares its frames, stacks, consoles and warranty with the rest of the Pulse commercial catalog. Medical and rehab facilities buy it, but so do health clubs, universities, YMCAs and multifamily amenity gyms.
Does the ADA require accessible exercise equipment?
The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design require that at least one of each type of exercise machine in a covered facility be served by an accessible route and a clear floor space positioned for transfer or for use from a wheelchair (Sections 236 and 1004). The Standards regulate the space around the machine, not the design of the machine itself, so meeting them is a layout question as much as a purchasing one. Equipment designed for inclusive use makes that clear floor space worth having.
Who uses this equipment?
Wheelchair users and members with limited mobility, members with a visual impairment, members with limb difference or limb loss, older members, members returning from injury or surgery, and members who simply find a low starting weight and a legible console easier to get on with. More than one in four U.S. adults reports a disability, and about 12% report a mobility disability (CDC Disability and Health Data System, 2024).
Does it look different from the rest of the floor?
No, and that is the point. The Inclusive machines carry the same frames, upholstery colourways and console options as the standard range, so an inclusive floor reads as one coherent room rather than a separate corner. Ian Marsden puts it plainly: “it doesn’t stand out.”
Can it be quoted as part of a whole facility?
Yes. Inclusive machines quote alongside the rest of the catalog, in the same proposal, on the same freight and installation schedule. Our team can lay the floor out with the clear floor spaces and circulation an inclusive room needs, using the same build-to-suit service that designs the rest of the facility.
Where can our trainers get qualified?
The American College of Sports Medicine offers an Inclusive Fitness Specialist Certificate, developed with the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD), covering disability standards, adaptive training protocols and exercise adaptations. It is an online course carrying continuing-education credit. Equipment is half the solution; a trained team is the other half.
Fitness should unite us, not segregate us.
Ian Marsden, on joining Pulse Fitness