Bob Lieske enjoys an athletic background. He ran Grandmas and the Twin Cities marathons, skied the American Birkebeiner, and he carried the moniker Long Bob while patrolling the net in local coed sand volleyball circles well into his 50s.
Lieske is now 70 and engages different physical challenges. He struggles at times with his gait and balance, and he has occasional hand tremors. This past Wednesday he confronted those challenges by moving through various yoga poses like the cat-cow and the bird-dog, accompanied by relaxing, New Age-type music. He also engaged in more rigorous workouts like simulated ladder climbing and boxing, these under brighter lights and stimulating tunes including James Browns I Feel Good.
Lieske experienced these two apparently disparate workouts in a single room during a single class. Lieske has Parkinsons disease, and as part of his fight against the illness he attends Yoga for Parkinsons, a weekly class taught by Ellen Dovre at The Yoga Center of Eau Claire.
This is a pretty different kind of yoga class, Dovre told me Wednesday after allowing me to observe the class.
For one thing, normal yoga classes are quiet. We make noise, especially when were working on fitness, which is why no one teaches yoga classes in there while were here, she said, gesturing to an empty adjacent yoga room. And in a typical fitness class, you wouldnt have this much work on breathing, stretching, calming the yoga aspects.
In developing the class, unique in Eau Claire, Dovre drew on her background she holds a masters degree in physical therapy and is a certified yoga instructor and visited other cities to research yoga classes focused on Parkinsons patients.
I wanted to combine the best of what I knew would be beneficial from yoga with what I knew would be beneficial from being a physical therapist, she said.
Parkinsons disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system. There is no absolute test to diagnose it, and theres no known cure. Doctors diagnose it by basically eliminating all other possible causes of the symptoms, which can include rigid muscles, slowed movement, and impaired posture and balance. Treatments include medications, diet and a heavy emphasis on exercise.
I hesitate sometimes when Im doing something, kind of come to a stop, Lieske told me recently in describing one symptom of the disease known as freezing. My train of thought of what Im doing kind of drifts away. And I have to watch when Im walking to pick up my feet. I have stumbled twice.
Lieske was diagnosed with Parkinsons about four years ago. He learned about the special yoga class while participating in a BIG for LIFE physical therapy program at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital. It pertains to exaggerating all your movements, he said. Move, move, move.
Everybody experiences Parkinsons differently, Dovre said, but when you think about it, everything seems to be drawn inward; walking in short, shuffling steps, small gestures, small voice. Were trying to reprogram the brain to move big again, which would actually be moving normally.
The Parkinsons yoga class is divided into three parts. Participants start out seated in chairs performing a variety of stretching exercises to natural light and soft music. Next, the class stands, the lights come up, the music shifts to up-tempo, and Dovre leads them through a variety of broad, exaggerated movements, often accompanied by the group counting out the reps in loud, united voices.
Finally, the class lies down on yoga mats, the lights dim, the music softens, and Dovre leads them through a variety of breathing and relaxation exercises.
Its getting everybody safely warmed up so we can do the big stuff in the middle, and then easing back, calming down both the body and the mind, Dovre said.
Another participant Wednesday was Ken Berg, 66, a retired Eau Claire County sheriffs captain. Berg went to his doctor a couple years ago because his voice was getting softer and his handwriting was deteriorating. Doctors eliminated every possible cause other than Parkinsons.
Berg heard about Dovres class, came once out of curiosity and has been coming back ever since.
If someone told me four years ago Id be going to a yoga class , he told me with a wry smile, leaving the rest unspoken. But I came, and I just got hooked.
Between medications, diet and exercise, the symptoms that Berg first experienced have diminished considerably. But hes still a yoga class regular.
The class for me is about prevention of symptoms that are yet to come, he said. Theres prevention, and theres also camaraderie, because this is the only place I go where I see anyone else who I know is a Parkinsons patient.
That sense of fellowship was obvious as the group members joked with each other as they prepared for the class or patiently waited for someone with more complex physical challenges to complete an exercise. Many have been coming to the class every week since it was first offered several years ago.The members often give each other a hard time if someone skips a session, Dovre said.
Lieske lived in Eau Claire when the class first started. He has since moved to Menomonie, but his wife, Vicki, drives him back to Eau Claire weekly to attend the class.
The people in the class do become close to each other, I think in part because we do share that common diagnosis, he said. We dont talk much about specifics, but we understand things about each other that other people might not.
Lieske acknowledged the emotional toll of his journey into Parkinsons. Hes had to give up captaining his own sailboat out of Bayfield. He no longer drives a car.
That one hit me the worst, he said.
He then spoke of another benefit of the yoga class, one which he struggled to articulate but hinted at the inner peace considered one goal of the practice of yoga.
Theres a psychological part to it too, he said. The movement, the concentration: If Im feeling kind of crummy, and I go to the class, when its over, I feel better. I feel brighter.
Contact: 715-830-5926, dan.lyksett@ecpc.com, @ECPC_DanL on Twitter
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Call Ellen Dovre at 715-831-6030 for more info on Yoga for Parkinsons at The Yoga Center of Eau Claire
