[The following article appeared in the Prescott Daily Courier on March 28, 2009]
A new exercise program aimed at people with knee problems kicks off on April 6 at Prescott’s Center for Physical Excellence. Its organizer, Cheryl Van Demark, says it fills a need in the quad-city area.
“It’s taking all the pieces out there in the scientific literature about non-pharmaceutical ways to treat osteoarthritis and packaging it in a user-friendly eight-week program,” Van Demark said.
As a yoga teacher, she said, she sees how many people with osteoarthritis struggle in regular classes for the general public.
“They try to do right and they hurt themselves,” Van Demark said. “They don’t know how to do right by themselves in the gym and they end up thinking exercise is bad for them.”
She gave it some thought and came up with her Health in Motion program combining water exercises, Chinese martial arts, yoga and health education.
Seventy-three-year-old Sandy Swan, a Prescott resident with what she calls a “blown-out” knee, has signed up for the Wednesday arthritis health education and group movement class, which is part of the Health in Motion program.
She’s taken classes before with two of the instructors participating in the program.
“I’m just delighted to be able to hook up with the two of them again,” Swan said. In the past year she’s taken two bad falls and now wears a knee brace, which she hopes to eliminate after taking the classes.
Lack of mobility and loss of strength and balance are hallmarks of an arthritic joint, Van Demark explained.
Her program uses lots of props like blankets, straps and blocks coupled with “joint-safe” tips that emphasize proper body alignment.
“Pain can be devastating to how you move in the world and can alter your perception of how you feel,” she continued. “In these classes, you learn to feel certain body signals. People have the power to sense these things.”
Aaron Kravetz, a local Chinese Martial Arts instructor, will be teaching chi-gong and tai-chi movements as part of the program. If done correctly, the movements can be very effective at strengthening the muscles around the knees, he said.
“It’s just shy of miraculous,” he added.
The Arthritis Foundation, while not directly endorsing Demark’s Health in Motion program, says on its website at www.arthritis.org that health and exercise professionals have been identifying and developing alternative activities that people with osteoarthritis can do to improve their pain and function.
The foundation says water’s buoyancy allows easier joint movement and is virtually impact-free, making it an excellent choice for people with painful joints.
It also says tai-chi is an ancient movement practice that consists of slow, continuous movements that incorporates strengthening, balance, posture, relaxation and concentration – all of which are important elements for people with knee or hip osteoarthritis.
For more information or to register for any of the Health in Motion classes, contact Demark at 925-4388 or visit her website at www.HealthInMotionAZ.com.