Edwin Rivera makes boxing fitness training accessible to all

A lifelong boxer from Huntington Station is introducing individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities to the sport after being inspired by his daughter’s journey with Down syndrome.

Edwin Rivera is the co-founder and CEO of New York Fitness and Boxing in East Northport, which offers programs specifically designed for those with special needs and Parkinson’s disease. The gym also offers two free classes a month to people undergoing cancer treatment, he said.

Rivera, 56, and his 22-year-old daughter, Alexia, who has Down syndrome, co-founded the special needs program titled “The BoxFitness Experience.” The father and daughter’s mission is to make fitness “accessible to all ages and abilities,” he said.

“My daughter and all of her friends don’t typically get invited to a lot of social events, so it was important for them to feel like they’re all training together as friends,” said Rivera, who was recently honored for his inclusion efforts with a proclamation from Suffolk County Legis. Rebecca Sanin (D-Huntington Station).

Rivera, who previously worked as a regulatory compliance officer on Wall Street and also owns Harbor Paint in Huntington Station, said he developed a love for boxing as a child watching with his dad as Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton fought in the 1970s. He went on to practice the sport himself as a teenager at local gyms and by “street boxing” in Brooklyn, he said. He also coinvented the aqua training bag, a water-filled punching bag that has been used by boxers including Canelo Álvarez and Mike Tyson, he said.

Today, Rivera is particularly proud of the noncontact cardio-boxing classes for special needs individuals that he and Alexia launched in 2019. The 45-minute classes, which are also accessible via Zoom, are held twice weekly and attract more than a dozen participants with a focus on “getting their heart rates up using elements of boxing,” he said.

“Edwin is a great motivator,” said Christy Gudaitis, of South Huntington, whose 23-year-old autistic son, Timmy, has attended the gym for five years. “These kids a lot of the time lack muscle tone, so this really helps them.”

The gym also hosts quarterly dance socials for its special needs members and five weekly classes for people with Parkinson’s disease that mostly focus on balance, core movements and hand-eye coordination, Rivera said.

Philip Michaels, a Kings Park resident with a neurological condition called Multiple System Atrophy-Parkinsonian type, has been attending those classes for four years and has seen a boost in his balance and coordination. “It’s a slow progression and takes time, but it gets better,” Michaels, 74, said.

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.