DPI Adaptive Fitness Celebrates 10 Years Of Serving Fairfax City

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Fairfax City Mayor Catherine Read and local business leaders joined the Adaptive Fitness Legion Thursday morning for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the 10th anniversary of DPI Adaptive Fitness.

"When somebody's been in your community for 10 years, it's because they chose you every day," Read said, during the ceremony. "You could move this anywhere and you decided to stay in the city. I always feel fortunate the city not only attracts great businesses, but that we are able to retain them and what you're providing is unique in the city."

Before opening DPI Adaptive Fitness in Fairfax City, Devon Palermo had already started his career as a physical therapist assistant, working in rehabilitation. It was there that he first noticed that there was a gap between therapy and fitness.

"Most people just kind of cycled through therapy and then once that's over with, they didn't know where to go, especially if you have a physical disability," he said. "I saw that area that needed to be filled, and I started moonlighting as an adaptive trainer after working in the therapy clinic and that kind of evolved."

What that evolved into was DPI Adaptive Fitness, which has since grown into a 2,500-square-foot gym located at 3545 Chain Bridge Road, suite 101 in Fairfax City. The center provides adaptive fitness training to supplement physical therapy for people recovering from an injuries or those who live with a physical disability who want to improve their strength and flexibility.

"We offer a lot of fun programming," Palermo said. "We have a really good connection with the local spinal cord injury society and to stroke specialists, so we do get a lot of that. We either do one-one adaptive fitness training to supplement their therapy that they're currently in, or as that next step traditional rehabilitation. That's basically the bread and butter of what we do, but then we offer lots of group classes that are free for the community."

In 2020, Russell Torres of Woodbridge came to DPI in a wheelchair after receiving a referral from Inova Mount Vernon Hospital.

"As a stroke survivor, I didn't know what was ahead for me," he said. "I thought that whatever happened to me was going to be a permanent thing. Doing the physical therapy at the hospital helped train me to get ready for the stuff that I didn't know that I was going to do in this gym."

Palermo created a one-on-one training program that included weightlifting and balance exercises. Torres even took up boxing, which was a sport he always enjoyed watching but never thought it was something he would do.

"I've grown to love the sport and even participate in those drills that he's teaching us," said Torres, who now walks with a cane. "You don't see too many stroke survivors getting into boxing. It's helped me out a lot."

Adaptive Fitness Legion, a nonprofit organization co-located at DPI, offers personalized adaptive fitness programs designed to empower individuals with physical disabilities to push beyond their perceived limitations.

"What he does, not everybody does, and he hasn't given up on our community," AFL President Joanna Bonilla told those gathered for Thursday's ribbon cutting. "It is really cool to see that he's hung in there with us, giving us opportunities, giving our community doors that we didn't think that we could open, but now we're not only opening them but knocking them down."

Helping Palermo and Bonilla celebrate its 10th anniversary were Jennifer Rose, the executive director of the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce; Tara Borwey, program manager for Fairfax City Economic Development; and CFCC Chairman Doug Church.