COVID-19’s decline means the fitness room at Oak Crest DeKalb Area Retirement Center is bustling again.
Residents of the senior living facility are back exercising under the careful guidance of students from the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education.
Dave Benner, instructor of gerontology, loves watching his Huskies lead much-older adults in activities that “improve their range of motion, strength, balance, coordination and flexibility.”
“This is one of the best hands-on experiences for our students to be able to use and apply the information and the knowledge they’ve been gaining throughout their degrees,” Benner says.
Students engage one-on-one with Oak Crest clients “to help them improve their physical fitness and make functional abilities a little easier to possibly prevent a fall or walk more efficiently,” he adds.
“Those are the things that really have big implications on quality of life: maintaining independence and your ability to go see things like your grandkids playing a ballgame, or being active in the community, or doing those important things that they like to do.”
Betsy Cantor moved to Oak Crest last November; she now works out twice each week with Terrence Hamby, who she finds “fun, enjoyable and with a good sense of humor.”
Workouts are “challenging and fun. There’s a social aspect to it, and that keeps me motivated to do more. My goal is to improve physically,” says Cantor, 78, who in 1983 earned her NIU bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education following several years away from school to raise her four children.
“I have encouraged other people: ‘Hey! Come down there! Even if you just do a little bit, your head feels better afterward,’ ” she adds. “It’s uplifting. It’s a feel-good feeling. It’s an accomplishment.”
No wonder: “I like to make the environment fun,” Hamby says. “I like to spice things up a little bit. Exercise doesn’t have to be boring.”
A licensed massage therapist, Hamby is currently working at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Health & Fitness Center in Geneva while also earning his bachelor’s degree.
“Massage therapy and kinesiology/exercise science go hand in hand,” says Hamby, who hopes to eventually earn a graduate degree in physical therapy. “It’s understanding the whole musculoskeletal system.”
Practicing his skills at Oak Crest is solid training, he says.
“Our professors and instructors do a good job of making sure that we’re well prepared before we come into this,” he says. “It’s about designing exercise programs, knowing how to work with people and implementing exercise programs around their needs and goals; listening to them is the main thing. Everyone’s going to be different. You’re not going to find the same client compared to last person and the next person.”
GRADUATE ASSISTANT JJ MITRA can confirm that.
Mitra, who earned his B.S. in Kinesiology in May 2022, was among the undergraduates who staffed the fitness room during the fall semester of 2021.
When Benner offered him the chance to return as a supervisor, he regarded the invitation as “a great opportunity to apply myself” in a situation where student and client “grow together as a trainer and as someone who wants to get into fitness.”
“It’s a necessary experience for you to learn to adapt,” Mitra says. “In a classroom, you have a rubric. You have a set schedule. Here, you have no idea how your person will react, and every day is changing. They could be feeling ‘wrong’ in a certain way, or they’re going to be feeling good, or they’re going to be feeling worse – and you have to react to that by setting up a fitness program for them that adapts to their needs and goals.”
He also glimpses proof of his philosophy.
“Everyone has the potential to be better and work harder, no matter the age group, no matter the skill level,” Mitra says. “The barrier of entry here is extremely low, and we facilitate that barrier of entry so that people can exercise more and perform. I believe that everyone is an athlete, and when everyone performs and does their best, that’s a big thing for me.”
Fellow GA Nick Kane sees another benefit.
Kane, who graduated from the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education in Fall 2022, is now pursuing his master’s in Public Health with a specialty in Health Services Management.
His time at Oak Crest was the spring semester of 2020, which abruptly switched to a virtual format when COVID arrived in March. Now, with a return to face-to-face practice, the impacts of that time are waning.
“I wouldn’t say that students nowadays are introverts, but they’re very shy in a sense because we’re in a digital age,” Kane says. “This really highlights the clinical side, gets them out of their shells and helps them to succeed in the world. This is a job where it’s not going to be primarily online – it’s going to be in-person – and working with different kinds of people really broadens their horizons.”
STUDENTS IN BENNER’S class open that horizon-broadening with a couple weeks of orientation where they learn the various exercises they can use, get a feel for the equipment, study the safety protocols and are told about “things to be aware or mindful of,” the instructor says.
“We tell them that they can’t just teach everything because every individual here at Oak Crest is different. They need to have that understanding of progressions, and how to progress based on the individual’s confidence and abilities,” Benner says.
“Some of the clients will need to stay seated most of the time while others will be standing and doing a lot of balance and fall-prevention exercises,” he adds. “Some will be able to progress quickly – and others slower. It just depends on what they’re starting with, like if they’re coming off a stroke or trying to work their way up and out of a wheelchair. Certain limitations impact their rate of progression.”
The positive influence of Benner and his students is not limited to the fitness room.
He launched a weekly group exercise program called “Mind and Body” to “activate the brain by coordinating different muscles and movements in a challenging way.”
“We start by doing some loosening, yoga- or tai chi-type movements, and then integrate more complex movements and coordination to that,” Benner says. “Then, we incorporate finger dexterity, and do short-term, memory-activation exercises.”
All of it is “to try to activate the right and left hemispheres of the brain to work those neural pathways and improve oxygen and blood flow to the brain.”
“We strive to increase the blood flow going to the hippocampus and the frontal cortex – to improve their short-term memory and their ability to perform executive functions like planning, scheduling and multitasking. Those little abilities sometimes get overlooked for older adults,” he says.
“For those who are starting to see some of the early signs of cognitive decline or disease, this can slow the progression or help manage the things they’re experiencing,” he adds, “so their brain can work more effectively and help coordinate and recall the things needed to improve their daily activities and their quality of life.”
