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Health department’s community exercise class resumes
SIKESTON — After being forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a weekly community exercise class in Sikeston reconvened for the first time nearly two years to the day it closed.
Without missing a beat, the free exercise class offered through the Scott County Health Department from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays at the YMCA of Southeast Missouri in Sikeston, picked back up Monday as if no time had passed.
“We have not changed,” Brenda Freed, health educator for Scott County Health Department in Sikeston. “It’s just like we walked out two years ago, and we just walked back in here.”
The sign-in sheet from their last class in 2020 was even still where they’d left it, Freed said on Monday.
“Some of us have not seen each other in two years,” Freed said.
What enabled the group to finally meet again, Freed said, was the fact the COVID case numbers have stayed down for an extended period of time.
“The class is focused around exercise and good health, but along with exercise, the socialization is a big aspect of it,” Freed said.
And socialization is needed, she said.
“In particular with this class, some have husbands, so me do not, and especially those who live alone, they need this — that friendship and social aspect,” Freed said. “It helps us keep up with each other. For example, if someone who usually attends is not here, we want to know why? She might be home with a broken leg.”
At the time of the shutdown, the class had about 20 people who attended weekly, Freed said. In the past two years, they’ve lost five of their regular participants, including two to COVID.
“With anything, you’re going to hear things, and COVID was no different,” Freed told the group as they discussed how COVID had impacted them. “Unfortunately with COVID, it was a pandemic and it’s something that in my lifetime — and I don’t know about your lifetime — we had never experienced in public health so it was scary, and we did take it very seriously. We still take it very seriously.”
The group discussed the importance of the class’ return.
“You could say it was like a family reunion,” one participant said from the circle of 13 participants who were stretching in unison.
Another said if the participants weren’t at the class, they’d be sitting at home, having a relationship with their television.
And food, another added.
“It’s a wonderful program,” one said.
“But if you don’t use it, you lose it,” another added.
The participants agreed it was good to be back, and most of all, it was good to see each other in person.
“It’s a sense of normalcy,” participant Linda Tinnin said.
Attending the class provides a sense of focus going forward, an accomplishment and opportunity for perseverance.
“Another perk of this class is we’ve cried together. We’ve laughed together, and the laughter is very uplifting,” participant Marilyn Starks said.
One woman said she’s in an Alzheimer’s study, and socialization is the No. 1 thing she’s encouraged to do.
“For me, the doctor told me to walk three to five miles a week – a mile at a time — for the three B’s: the brain, the bowel, the back,” Starks said.
Participant Jeanne Stalker agreed there are many health benefits to participating in the program.
“It makes you feel so much better (when you attend class),” Stalker said.
Freed said in addition to the exercise class, some of the health department’s other community programs are also scheduled to start back up after the two-year hiatus.
The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, or CDSMP, has also returned and meets at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays April 7-May 12; 10 a.m. Wednesdays Aug. 24-Sept. 28; and 5:30 p.m. Thursdays Oct. 6-Nov. 10 at the health department located at 102 Groves Estate in Sikeston.
“The chronic disease class is for someone who has a disease or a caregiver or someone who wants to live a healthier lifestyle,” Freed said. “We address coping skills, the importance of taking medications and taking them correctly, nutrition, sleep, stress and emotional habits.”
The Walk with Ease program will return and will be at 9 a.m. Tuesdays from April 9 to May 10 at the Sikeston Recreation Complex. This is a program where participants meet and walk at their own pace with the intention of walking on their own other days of the week, Freed said.
Participant Mary Price said she was excited to return to the class.
“The first time I found out the class was coming back was a message online from the YMCA, and then I got a card from Brenda, and my thoughts were: ‘Yay!’” said Price, who also instructs an aquatics class at the Y.
But, Price said, it’s almost like they didn’t really leave. On Monday, it was like they just picked right back up where’d they’d left off, she said.
Freed agreed.
She said: “It’s like you have to pinch yourself to know that we’re really here, that we’re back.”
Anyone can participate in the health department’s programs. For more information, contact Freed at the health department at (573) 471-4044.