Day One Fitness in Beech Island looks like a typical gym.
The metal building has large open spaces with cardio and weight equipment. Speed bags line part of a wall, and heavy punching bags are under a circular sign reading “pain center.”
What’s different about this gym, though, are its clients.
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Most of them have Parkinson’s disease or some other type of neurological diseases, according to Tambra Wilkerson, who started the program more than five years ago, after reading about a woman who’d developed Parkinson’s disease at 36 and the importance of exercise in her prognosis.
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Wilkerson looked around the area to see what was offered here.
“There was nothing like that here,” she said.
A former electrical engineer at the Savannah River Site, Wilkerson did a lot of research and met spoke with doctors at Augusta University to find out the best approach.
“High-intensity, forced exercises; ones that push them harder and faster are successful in creating new neurological pathways to use dopamine more effectively,” said Wilkerson.
Sherri Rivers takes a fitness class at Day One Fitness in Beech Island. Rivers’ husband has Parkinson’s. Staff Photo by Charmain Z. Brackett
According to the Parkinson’s Foundation website, exercise is “more than healthy” for people than the disease.
“It is a vital component to maintaining balance, mobility and activities of daily living. Exercise and physical activity can improve many PD symptoms. These benefits are supported by research,” the website continued. It listed non-contact boxing as one of the beneficial exercises.
Wilkerson teaches a variety of classes at Day One for different ability levels. She incorporates non-contact boxing elements such as using the speed bags or punching the heavy bags into her classes.
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Boxing is food for hand-eye coordination, she said. She also works with them on balance and speed.
She also does other subtle things to help with symptoms that participants might not readily realize.
Choking leads to death in many people with Parkinson’s disease, she said.
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To help her clients keep their diaphragms strong, she incorporates her voice and wants them to use theirs. They yell or make animal sounds. She doesn’t blast the music in the gym, but she does keep it loud enough that they need to raise their voices and use those diaphragm muscles.
Lang Rivers started with another exercise program after his diagnosis a year ago, but it wasn’t boxing. Most of the exercises were done while the class was seated. When he and his wife, Sherri, heard about Day One, they decided to try it. Lang takes class three days a week. Sherri doesn’t have the disease, but she joins him at least one day a week.
“We thought ‘why not?’” said Sherri. The couple has been taking classes at Day One since December.
In about three months, they’ve noticed a difference.
He said he feels stronger, and she’s seen it helping his symptoms. He will start with a new doctor soon, and they will be able to chart his progress.
Sherri said she’s seen benefits for herself.
“I feel like we’re getting stronger,” she said.
The first class she took wiped her out. She said she needed a nap after taking it, but her endurance has increased.
Wilkerson had expanded her program outside the gym and to a different clientele. She’d also started working with people with Alzheimer’s, but she took her classes to the Jud C. Hickey Center for Alzheimer’s Care.
She was also working on a program for muscular dystrophy and people recovering from strokes.
The pandemic hampered some of her progress, she said.
Day One Fitness is open five days a week and is located at 257 Beech Island Ave., Beech Island, S.C. For more information, call (706) 799-9506.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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