CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Inside of the ACAC Fitness Club Albemarle Square, local Parkinson’s patients meet twice a week to stay active using a simple exercise — cycling.

Pedaling for Parkinson’s is a nationwide program that offers cycling classes specifically designed for Parkinson’s patients at gyms across the country. The program is run by the Davis Phinney Foundation (DPF), a national nonprofit organization focused on improving the lives of Parkinson’s patients.

“Really since our founding, our focus has been on addressing the needs of the people who are living with Parkinson’s right now,”  Jenna Deidel, DPF’s Vice President of Programs & Community Impact, told Cville Right Now.

Parkinson’s is a neurological disorder linked to the loss of dopamine-producing nerve cells inside the brain. While symptoms manifest differently in every patients, the most visible are the motor symptoms, including tremor, stiffness and slowness. The disease is chronic and progressive, meaning symptoms get worse over time.

While there is no cure for Parkinson’s, there are many ways to manage the disease, with Deidel calling exercise “critical” for patients looking to manage their symptoms

The class at ACAC meets every Wednesday and Friday from 12:30-1:15 p.m. Two of its regular participants, Hal Evans and John Bean, told Cville Right Now they both enjoy the program.

“You get a high intensity workout,” Evans said, “and this machine kind of enforces symmetry. When I’m walking, sometimes my foot is wandering all around before it hits the ground, and where it hits the ground is kind of random. But here, you’re locked in, and your motions are intense but safe.”

Both men said they were regulars at ACAC, with Bean saying he joined as part of a group of Parkinson’s patients that take a boxing class together at the gym. He echoed Evans’ sentiment about the cycling class, expressing his appreciation for the way the class is tailored toward Parkinson’s patients.

“It’s one of the things that’s better to do,” he said, “It’s specifically oriented around our needs.”

The Pedaling for Parkinson’s program is designed around two decades of research done on the benefits of cycling for patients. That research came about in part due to DPF providing part of the seed funding for the research that eventually became the program.

The program is hosted at local gyms or community centers and run by instructors who are trained in group fitness but have also received training from DPF. Before every class, instructors make sure each rider is fitted onto their bike, then start with a 10-minute warmup, followed by a 40-minute “push-through” then a cool-down period

“The research behind Pedaling for Parkinson’s explores the idea of forced exercise, which is kind of a fancy way of saying ‘Going a little faster than you want to,'” Deidal said. “Our instructors are really skilled in helping to coach people to increase so people will work on getting their cadence up.”

Research recommends riders reach a cadence of around 75 rotations per minutes, but Deidal said it can be relative to each person’s ability.

“As long as they’re pushing themselves a little past where they might want to go for a sustained time, they’re going to see the benefits of the program,” she said.

All-in-all, Evans and Bean both expressed their appreciation to ACAC for bringing the program over to Charlottesville.

“I would certainly encourage ACAC to do as much as they can for people with Parkinson’s,” he said. “And I think they probably see that, also.”