EDWARDSVILLE — Dealing with Parkinson’s disease is an everyday fact of life for Audie Gregg, but he’s not going to let the disease define him.
“It’s easy when you’re diagnosed with something like this to just sit down and quit, but I decided to look at it and see what I could do to beat it or deal with it better,” said Gregg, a 69-year-old Troy resident who has had Parkinson’s for just over four years. “You need to have a good positive attitude and a will to live.”
Gregg is among the people who participate in an exercise class for people with Parkinson’s disease at the Niebur Center YMCA, located at 1200 Esic Drive in Edwardsville.
The class, which started in June, meets at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays. A YMCA membership is not required, and all levels of participants are welcome.
The YMCA’s Parkinson’s class is something new for Gregg, but he feels it has made a huge impact on his life.
“It’s been a blessing and it’s something I look forward to,” Gregg said. “It’s showed me tips about exercising that I didn’t know. When I first started out, I was dropping a lot of things, but now I don’t drop nearly as many as I used to.
“I feel better and I stand straighter and my body seems to be more alive. I breathe better.”
Parkinson’s is a progressive disease of the nervous system marked by tremor, muscular rigidity, and slow, imprecise movement, chiefly affecting middle-aged and older adults.
Along with improving overall health, exercise has been shown to help manage Parkinson’s symptoms and improve quality of life. The class works on movement strategies, coordination, balance and flexibility.
The first 30 minutes of the one-hour class is spent on a spinning bike. The second 30 minutes is spent on lightweight training with a variety of exercises.
“The cycling is really good for people with Parkinson’s because it’s a movement they usually don’t lose,” said Ann McLean, health and wellness director for the Edwardsville YMCA. “Even when they get off the bike, it helps them to keep their movements smoother.
“While they’re on the bikes, they also talk, which is good for them, and it’s good exercise in general. It’s like it’s part of their prescription for a Parkinson’s patient because it changes everything about how their body works.”
A recent 30-minute session on the spinning bikes featured instructor Mary Tebbe leading the class, keeping a steady dialog and encouraging feedback from the participants as they went through cycling workouts of varying intensity.
It is evident that she had taken the time to get to know her clients, and she made the class a fun, sociable experience even as they got valuable therapy.
“She motivates us, and she does a wonderful job,” Gregg said. “You can tell she cares about as her students.”
After the cycling session, the class moved to the next room, where Tebbe led the group in exercises with small hand-held weights and plastic balls while most of the time they remained seated in specially designed sturdy chairs.
Many of the exercises are designed to help Parkinson’s patients deal with everyday activities where their abilities may have been affected by the disease.
“They’ll do specific things like being able to lift your feet like you’re stepping in and out of a car,” McLean said. “Everyone tells me that when they walk out of here, they feel a lot better. We have different instructors on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so they each kind of do their own routine.”
Rick Vaughn, 66, of Granite City, is another member of the class, and he has become a believer in exercise therapy for Parkinson’s.
Vaughn was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in April 2015, but probably had the disease for a year before that.
“It’s been a godsend,” Vaughn said. “I feel 100 percent better than before and I look forward to Tuesdays and Fridays. I didn’t realize they would help me this much until after two or three weeks.
“I was told from the early onset that exercise is just as important as medicine and that’s what the top neurologists in the country say. It’s something you have to live with, and you have to make the most out of each day.”
Vaughn also does exercises in his home, including using a speed bag.
“That helps me a lot, especially with my handwriting,” Vaughn said. “I’m lefthanded and after I do 20 to 30 minutes with the speed bag, I’m able to print and write longhand better than I was before.”
Dropping objects because they can’t get a firm grip on them is a common source of frustration for Parkinson’s patients, and the exercise classes at the YMCA deal with that issue.
Losing your balance and falling is an even bigger fear for Parkinson’s patients, and the classes deal with that issue as well.
“Right now, I’m predominantly disabled on my left side, which is my weaker side, but it’s gotten stronger through some of these exercises,” Vaughn said. “Sometimes, I find myself stumbling and going backward and it feels like someone has pushed you. After some time in these classes, the balance issue hasn’t disappeared, but it’s a lot better.”
“We work on things like balance forward and balance backward and how you can catch yourself if you lose your balance,” added Lara Collman, who is the instructor on Tuesdays. “We also work on movement from side to side. We work a lot with the back because that is going to help you with your posture.”
Other exercises are designed to help in picking up kitchen utensils such as pots and pans.
“We do a lot of hand motions to develop strength in the hands,” Collman said.
The YMCA offers a support group for people with Parkinson’s disease at 2 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month. But the exercise class, which typically consists of 10 to 12 people, also serves as a support group.
“With Parkinson’s, it’s important to be around people,” Gregg said. “We can relate to each other and we can talk about our feelings. I have good days and I have bad days, but hopefully, I’ll have more good days than bad.”
“When we first started, everybody was kind of quiet, but not anymore. We’re encouraged to sing and shout out on the bikes and it’s like we’re in a club now.”
All the instructors in the Parkinson’s classes at the YMCA are certified by the St. Louis Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association.
Tebbe, who is the instructor on Thursdays, tries to incorporate all her training skills into her classes at the YMCA.
“I have a lot of different training, but I’m also a yoga instructor and a mobility person,” Tebbe said. “I know that (Parkinson’s patients) are slowly crawling forward, so I’m always trying to get them to be able to have more control from a better posture.
“When we put them on the bike, I specifically put them on 10 minutes of higher effort. Studies show that if they can do a high effort for a certain amount of time, then they have more control.”
The classes are designed to benefit Parkinson’s patients from a mental and physical perspective.
“Any kind of multitasking helps their brain function,” Collman said. “With the spinning bikes, while their legs are moving, a lot of times they’ll have arm movements. The more they can multitask, it keeps their body from locking up.”
For people with Parkinson’s, something as simple as getting dressed in the morning can become a challenge.
“You wouldn’t think that getting your clothes on would be tough, but with Parkinson’s, it’s a lot harder,” Gregg said. “It’s something you take for granted. It can be frustrating, but this class has been a tremendous help.
“I recommend anybody with Parkinson’s to get in a program like this because it’s really worth it.”
For more information about the Parkinson’s exercise class and support group, call 618-656-0436 or go to www.edwardsvilleymca.com.
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