Boxing class is in session at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill, and instructor Stacey Macaluso is fired up.
"Hands up!" she barks as her eager-to-learn trainees shadowbox their reflections in the mirrored wall. "I see a lot of you with your hands down. You're gonna get your butts kicked if your hands are down! Aim for your face! Punch your face!"
The gloved participants, the oldest of who is 82, comply, throwing jabs, crosses, hooks and uppercuts at the air, pivoting their feet when Macaluso tells them to.
If you closed your eyes and just listened to her exhortations, you'd never know that these weren't "real" boxers, that they won't be punching anybody in this class or anywhere else.
They are, however, fighting back.
The class is Rock Steady Boxing, a national nonprofit organization founded in 2006 in Indianapolis that offers people with Parkinson's disease the chance to stand up to their symptoms through rigorous, noncontact fitness training that includes heavy bags, speed bags and other boxing-related exercises.
"My friends think, yeah, right, Dianne boxing," Dianne Fisher, of Mount Laurel, who was diagnosed seven years ago, said after the hour-long session. "Then I explain what it does for me. I feel really good now, I feel like I could do what I was typically doing before I was diagnosed. But it doesn't last for a long time. You've got to keep doing it, you've got to come back."
Fisher and Lori Katz, of Cherry Hill, have been participating in the program for four years in Philadelphia, and both are happy that it's now available in South Jersey. The JCC is currently offering four different eight-week classes of eight people each, although 29 of the 32 spots are filled.
"Rock Steady Boxing is what's called forced exercise, which means you're pushed to do almost more than you can do," said Katz, who was diagnosed in 2005. "The more forced exercises you do, the better the outcome of the Parkinson's, rather than sitting in one place not doing anything."
The program also is offered at Unbound Synergy in New Hope, with four different sessions during the week.
"They're real fighters," Anne Haneman, who co-coaches the program in New Hope with Joanne Haug, said of the participants. "We're in this together with them to help fight the disease process. Joanne and I are both physical therapists, we've been educated in all the physical therapy treatments for people with Parkinson's, and we feel this is by far the most beneficial."
Back in Cherry Hill, Maculuso would absolutely agree. Her fervent, nonstop energy is contagious as she rouses the participants through warm-ups, group exercises and individual drills, shouting over the uplifting rock 'n' roll music she has playing in the room.
"Do you want to talk to me or punch me?" she asks 82-year-old Norbie Fuchs, of Evesham, as he approaches her during a break. "I know, it's hard to decide."
Fuchs, who was diagnosed nine years ago, is one of the few people in this class with real boxing experience, having competed in the Police Athletic League in the Bronx in 1949. And while he doesn't see many similarities to those days ("the gloves are different, the tape is different, it's all different"), he absolutely loves this program, in large part because of Macaluso, who worked with him at the Rohrer Center in Voorhees.
"I really felt like I couldn't do anything until I got this maniac," he said. "She's a dynamite lady, a tough lady. That's what you need."
Macaluso and fellow JCC instructor Melanie Montana were trained in Indianapolis, where they received the required certification to run the program. Their trip was largely financed by Parkinson's patient Kevin Murray, whose wife, Susan, started the Livin' La Levodopa foundation in 2002 to raise money and awareness. Murray, 59, of Berlin, is also a participant in the program.
"Exercise is very important for people with Parkinson's," said Murray, who was 41 when he was diagnosed. "I tried different exercises — water aerobics, Zumba, all that stuff, but I found this is the exercise I enjoy. My balance is better, my range of motion. And it doesn't hurt to sweat a little and punch the bag."
Punching the bag is just one of the individual activities available to the participants, who are accompanied by spouses or other volunteers — their "corner men" (or women). Some stations are harder or more physically taxing than others, but nobody seems reluctant to move to the next one. At one of the stations, they get to don gloves and punch at Macaluso, wearing sparring mitts, who encourages them to come at her harder.
"You notice how everybody's smiling," Murray said during the session.
Before the program begins, participants go through an orientation and their skills are tested so they can be placed with people with similar levels of the disease, JCC assistant fitness director Jayne Miller-Morgan said. This particular class features veterans of the program but also a newcomer in Carmel Dorsey, of Moorestown.
"I'm really hoping to, not eliminate, but downplay my symptoms," she said. "I'm not a physical person by any stretch. It's a little bit harder for me because I was totally uncoordinated when I was well. To do this kind of stuff is a little bit on the other side of what I thought I'd do, but I'm willing to try anything. My kids think it's awesome."
Macaluso marvels at the way the participants have responded, and also at the physical improvements she's seen. Just two weeks ago, she said, Fuchs had a lot of trouble getting his feet over a heavy bag, one of the exercises during the individual activities. On this day, she noticed how high he was able to lift his legs.
"His wife was astounded he was able to do that," she said.
The session ended with a group huddle and a rallying cry led by Macaluso to "Show Parkinson's what we can do, we're going to kick the (heck) out of you. Who are we, we're Rock Steady!"
Macaluso was still buzzing as she talked about the program after the last of the participants had left the room. She was introduced to the Parkinson's community through dance therapy and has taught that for five years, but this takes the fight against the disease to another level.
"I love my dance for Parkinson's disease class, but that's a little bit more of a gentle format, so people come in with a little more gentle mind," she said. "When people come to this Rock Steady Boxing class, they're ready to fight back, ready to kick Parkinson's in the butt and stop the progression, reduce the symptoms and see the improvements that can be done by forced intense exercises.
"That's the whole idea, really — working with your students to push them a little further than they would go on their own. What they've found is that forced intense exercise really makes a difference."
http://www.theintell.com/life-style/local-feature/rock-steady-boxing-lets-people-with-parkinson-s-battle-the/article_52885841-467b-5b32-a20f-26015bf7a9b1.html
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