Class helps participants tackle Parkinson's

LORI NICKEL

Milwaukee Journal SentinelOctober 30, 2014 One can't move much at all, needing assistance to remove a cardigan and a scarf. One man is legally blind. Almost everyone is in their 70s.

It is incredible to watch them assemble here and prepare for their Monday afternoon River Shores YMCA exercise class - but that's not the half of it.

They are all battling Parkinson's disease.

The symptoms are harsh: tremors, often in the hand and fingers; slowed movement; rigid muscles; impaired posture and balance; or loss of automatic movements such as blinking, smiling or swinging the arms while walking.

It affects them in different ways and to varying degrees; no two have exactly the same condition. But today, right now, in this gym, Parkinson's does not define them, and so together, they begin at the same starting line.

They get on their treadmills.

And they start walking.

"This is not the worst thing that can happen in your life, to have Parkinson's. You just deal with it - like you deal with anything - as best you can," said 71-year-old Anna Zwygart as she walked backward on her treadmill.

Parkinson's is the progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. It is caused when nerve cells in the brain gradually break down or die, according to the Mayo Clinic website. Many of the symptoms are due to loss of neurons that produce dopamine. When dopamine levels decrease, it can cause abnormal brain activity that leads to signs of Parkinson's.

Medication and physical therapy are the most common forms of treatment. Terry Steffen, a physical therapist who has worked with Parkinson's patients her whole career, wanted something more. She believed there should also be an exercise class that became a regular routine for people with Parkinson's.

"Exercise is known to improve functional mobility and quality of life for people with many neurological conditions," she wrote in a research paper she co-authored for the Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy.

No such class existed. So she started one about 15 years ago, then at the Rite-Hite YMCA in Milwaukee. It's now held at 14 locations throughout Wisconsin. She hired physical therapists who were educated and trained in Parkinson's and created classes at regular gyms like the YMCA to make them accessible and affordable.

"One of our issues in physical therapy is to get what we do out into the community and have it supported by the community," Steffen said. "This is not going to go away."

The classes are designed specifically to help those with Parkinson's.

Walking on a treadmill promotes symmetry and balance. Floor exercises help with strength, mobility and flexibility. Participants do bridges and leg extensions while they do verbal exercises to practice speaking loudly and clearly, since Parkinson's can take that away, too.

Most importantly, Steffen said, it is a group exercise class, which has proved to be very beneficial. Pain, she said, is not the biggest issue with Parkinson's patients.

"It's motivation," she said. "They have to take some of the responsibility for their movement - not their spouse, not their PT - but them. Group stuff always works better. 'How do I keep myself motivated? How do I push myself?' In class, they're shown how."

Tom Bittner, 76, was one of the first to sign up for this class at the River Shores Y seven years ago. He's a retired middle school teacher who cared for his father who also had Parkinson's. He said the class has helped him straighten his posture.

"I watched my father go through the stages and I recall them as I go through the same stages," Bittner said. "We're all going through the same thing. We have fun together. We give each other support. It encourages you to go above and beyond."

That's why Dick Boppre is here. He's seen what Parkinson's has done to his friends, one in particular, who is nearly immobile. It saddens and angers him at the same time.

Before classes a year ago, he was taking short steps. Now, he's taking longer strides. The neurologist even noticed that after a couple of weeks, Boppre was walking better. A former employee of a printing company, Boppre stays active with this class twice a week and goes to the Y three or four more times a week at 6 a.m. for his own workout in the heated pool.

"This keeps your body limber," said Boppre, 74. "It keeps you going."

It also might help with depression. The debilitating affects of Parkinson's are very sobering. In this class there are clients who cannot roll over on their own from their front to their back on the ab mat. They need trainer Stephen Mayorga to roll them. Others are restricted to whatever exercises they can do in a chair.

And yet - they're here. They're trying. They're doing what they can.

Margaret Nielsen is 92. She's smiling almost the entire time on her walk on the treadmill.

Zwygart has already seen improvement since coming to class. She used to have resting tremors and a "frozen shoulder."

"My balance was not good, my walking was not good," she said. "It was hard to do something, like go shopping with my family, and keep up. I figured it was older age.

"I am so thankful I have this group. I know others who have this disease; it really limits their life. There are days you don't feel like coming - but if it weren't for this group, maybe I'd be in a chair.

"I'm going to be the best that I can, so I can do things."

Adam Gerbert, with arms still muscular and ropy from his Georgia football days, is a cancer survivor - and still a competitor. He pushes the incline to 6 on the treadmill. The medication he takes for tremors makes his mouth dry, but he loves this class because it keeps him fit - and it shifts the focus from what can't be done to what he can still do.

They're all guided, nurtured, pushed and protected by Anne Langenfeld Smith, a physical therapist from the Aurora Sports Institute in West Bend. She directs Thomas Koch, who is legally blind, back to the hand rails of the treadmill. She knows how to look for any respiratory issues in case someone isn't feeling well. She challenges the class to count up by threes: "3, 6, 9, 12 ..." until they've counted to at least 24, loudly.

She loves the personalities of everyone here and appreciates their sense of humor, because without it, Parkinson's might be too much.

"Parkinson's is like diabetes: every single, solitary day, you need to do something to combat it," Langenfeld Smith said. "They need to own it. They need to be ambassadors for it. There are a lot of things that this class can combat that drugs won't. This helps their strength, their posture, their mobility."

On her best day? What happens?

"They leave here feeling taller than when they came in," Langenfeld Smith said. brightens with a smile.

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