“Taylor Lewis is an amazing friend to the cystic fibrosis community. He developed his fitness program to meet the unique needs of individuals with CF. CFRI is proud to offer Taylor’s CF Knowledge in Motion Exercise Program online to our national CF community. Taylor’s program, a combination of strength training and cardiovascular endurance training, is geared to improve health and quality of life among those with CF. Taylor’s knowledge and sensitivity to the physical challenges often presented by CF make him an excellent and inspiring instructor and coach.”

“Taylor Lewis astounds me. Few people in the profession spend more time, energy and capital expanding their knowledge like Taylor. His concept of continuing education inspires me to dig deeper every day. Moreover, he is also an outstanding “hands on” coach with a interesting mix of clients. He could be more famous by bragging about his professional baseball clients, but he rarely discusses them. His true passion is with the CF community and he stands alone in his approach to assisting these people with strength training. He is breaking ground and “leading from the front” with his insights on using traditional
weight training to impact cardiovascular health. It is an honor to be his friend.”

“Working with Taylor has helped me gain a lot of strength. He is very technical in his instruction and provides the proper exercises to help you reach your goals. My performance and strength has increased
since working with Taylor. His focus on positional breathing has also helped to increase my pfts slightly. It has been great to see the benefits of exercise!”

“Exercise is an important element of well-being for everyone, but it is especially crucial for people with CF, as regular exercise has been shown to not only be a life-enhancing activity but also a way to slow down the progression of CF. The key is regular practice in the context of knowledge about the best way to exercise for each individual, and that requires not only self-awareness but ideally the help of an expert.
Taylor, as a trained exercise physiologist, has taken the time and made the effort to learn how best to help people with CF help themselves, and to motivate an ongoing commitment to regular exercise.”

“We are happy to be working with Taylor from the Cystic Fibrosis Fitness Institute. He has donated his time to our organization by participating in and helping with our stage presentation at the beginning of our Great Strides events. We look forward to our partnership in the future.”

I have really enjoyed CFFI’s workout programs. For years I would exercise on and off, whether it was going to the gym and working with the equipment or doing a fitness class. I never really knew what I was supposed to do with all the weights and equipment and the classes were often times too challenging for me and my breathing. I felt like I had to stop and rest more so then doing the actual workout.

With CFFI’s program I have been able to do it on my own time and at my home, no equipment needed. I spoke with Taylor and told him my needs for a workout program and how often I could work out and for how long. He created a program that was very specific to my needs and wants. The workouts pushed me but not to the point where I felt like I couldn’t do them or was too out of breath. They were workouts with exercises very specific to those with CF.

I am a mother and have a 22-year-old daughter (who does not have CF). I worked as a nurse full-time for 23 years. I consider myself very fortunate for all of these things. Three years ago, I had a severe decline in lung function and stopped working. CF became my full-time job and in devoting much of my waking hours to treatments, medications, exercise, nutrition, and rest, I have been able to avoid moving forward with lung transplantation thus far, though I am being followed by my clinic’s Transplant Team. In a conversation with another adult with CF that I was mentoring in CF Peer Connect, Taylor Lewis and his program came up and it was not familiar to me. I reached out to him and quickly received a response which led to a detailed conversation with Taylor about what he is doing. If you ever get the opportunity to speak with Taylor, you will instantly feel his passion for what he is doing. It is motivating. I have a treadmill, recumbent bike, mini-trampoline and a yoga mat in my home. I had been doing what I thought was exercise on my own prior to meeting him as I knew exercise was as important to do as any other treatment I do to maintain my health and lung function. When I completed the initial evaluation that Taylor requires and then started his personalized program, I realized what I had been doing on my own before was not only minimal of my potential, but without direction. Just as CF is unique to each individual, that is what is special about what Taylor provides. He creates a personalized and knowledgeable exercise program tailored to each individuals’ specific needs, weaknesses, and deficits while also incorporating body mechanics for breathing relating to CF which is what I feel separates him from any other exercise that I have tried. We have kept in close contact throughout the 5 weeks I have been working with him. He adjusts my program every 1-2 weeks according to my feedback, and then thoroughly goes over the next week’s program providing direction and motivation. The program is sent over email with hyper-links to each exercise so I can watch his video of how to properly perform each exercise. During my re-evaluation after completing the first 4 weeks, I had already added time to my 6-minute walk test and wall-sit test. By this time, he had added cardio into my program where I was running for 15-minute intervals, then walking for 2 minutes in between. This is the first time I had run, for any amount of time, in at least ten years. TEN YEARS. I didn’t really think I’d ever run again at my lower lung function, but that is the beauty of his program. Not only is he a motivator, his program allows you to reach attainable small goals and in doing them consistently (making them part of your daily routine just as you do your nebulized treatments and chest PT), you find yourself working up to doing more and that is a feeling that is beyond wonderful. It helps you with your health, and also with your hope.

I have had an extremely positive experience in working with Taylor Lewis so far. I have been referring his program to other adults in the CF community because I truly feel the services he is providing could greatly benefit everyone fighting this disease, and the sooner they can incorporate this into their daily routine, the better I believe.