FAIRFAX, Ohio — Tim Gorman says his doctor always asks if he’s fallen yet.
Keyword: yet.
Gorman has Parkinson’s disease. And has for more than a decade. Among other things, the movement disorder typically leads to balance issues.
Eventually, Gorman told his doctor to stop asking. Because for him, he couldn’t eat anything from a fork without it spilling all over the floor. He had surgery a few years ago that helped him tremendously. He holds out his hands to show me.
He’s sitting in a chair inside a workout room at Cincinnati Sports Club. It’s a place that’s helped him tremendously.
“It doesn’t go away. You just got to cope with it,” Gorman said. “And that’s what this class does — helps us learn to cope with it.”
WATCH: Go inside an exercise class for people with Parkinson’s disease
Gorman just finished an exercise class designed specifically for people with Parkinson’s disease. It’s been such a hit, the class quickly went from once a week to three times. And employees there are talking about expanding it even more.
“Write it down,” Gorman shouts during the class. “The quiz is next week.”
The instructor walks between chairs and laughs.
“Tim, you don’t have to worry about the quiz,” said Brad Messenger, a personal trainer at the club. “I’ve already failed you.”
Messenger pumps his fist when another class member walks in. He tells me this man is about to turn 95.
“How you feeling today, Dick?”
“Terrible.”
The class laughs, and Messenger smiles. Because although he talks about big and fast movements, sometimes laughter can help even more.
“My dad suffered from depression and Parkinson’s. He really didn’t like to leave the house,” Messenger said. “But he would leave for his Parkinson’s class.”
The instructor hopes he can build something like that here.
“This isn’t a class,” Messenger said. “It’s like a giant support group.”
But the class is tailored to people with the disease.
“Parkinson’s disease slows your motions and shrinks your motions,” Messenger said. “What we do in this class is do really big, really fast motions.”
Mary Decioccio shows me while waiting for class to start. Her eyes widen while her hands shoot into the air.
“It scared me half to death,” Decioccio said.
Before she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she never could have imagined herself doing something this. She doesn’t like to exercise, and her best friend had just died from the disease when she was first diagnosed four years ago.
Now, groups of people are playing pickleball in a room behind her.
“I can still have fun. And I’m going to have fun for a long time," Decioccio said. "I rarely miss class."
