Exercise program geared toward those suffering from painful conditions

Namita Gandhi has a mantra for her exercise class: No pain, no pain. Forget the "gain" part. To Gandhi, the only gain participants should experience in her classes is the ability to move in a way that doesn't hurt.

Gandhi knows that's no mean feat for people who suffer from arthritis, fibromyalgia, back injuries or other forms of chronic pain and fatigue. She developed her program, "Move Beyond Pain," because she needed it herself.

Now, she holds classes twice a week in both Albany and Corvallis, and demand is growing all the time.

Gandhi, 39, is a clinical exercise physiologist and president of Integrative Movement Clinic Inc. of Albany. The company's mission is to provide "powerful therapeutic modalities for healing the mind, body and spirit for effective chronic pain management."

It all started about a dozen years ago, when Gandhi was in a car accident. Complications from a neck injury caused her pain from head to toe. She couldn't even brush her teeth without monumental effort, and she'd have to rest afterward.

She also suffers from fibromyalgia, a disease of the connective tissue that causes chronic pain and fatigue.

"Little by little, the medical community just gave up on me and said, ‘This is how it's going to be for the rest of my life,' " Gandhi said.

That was something Gandhi couldn't accept. She'd always been interested in medical studies and decided she'd make herself the guinea pig for a new research program.

Gandhi, then a Washington resident, became part of the kinesiology graduate program at Washington State University. Her project was to design an effective exercise program for people with chronic pain.

Every therapist Gandhi saw recommended exercise, and she knew herself it was the right thing to do. The challenge was how to accomplish it without causing post-exercise pain and exhaustion.

She tried the standards at first; walking, swimming. But she found just undressing for the pool was an ordeal.

Gandhi, who is originally from India, had been trained in yoga. She found she couldn't do that, either — but she could accomplish some of its basic breathing and relaxation techniques. Gradually, she added some gentle stretches.

From there, Gandhi developed a progression of movements designed to strengthen deconditioned muscles without making pain symptoms flare. She found she could control her symptoms without medication and could sleep at night without muscle relaxants.

She tested the program on women with fibromyalgia, like herself, but people with other conditions — among them Parkinson's disease and peripheral neuropathy — have said it helps them, too.

"It works," she said. "I was as surprised as anyone else."

Her results became a research paper published in Women and Therapy Journal, and she won an outstanding research award in 2000 from the American College of Sports Medicine.

Gandhi's classes begin with several minutes of breathing and relaxation to teach muscles how to let go. Next comes gentle, thorough stretching, designed to conserve energy. After that comes careful toning and strength exercises using resistance bands.

A video, with Gandhi's voiceover instructions, leads the class. Participants do their breathing and stretches accompanied by soothing images of bubbling creeks, butterflies and sunlight through the trees.

The last few minutes of class concentrate on light aerobic/cardiovascular efforts, such as walking or using an inflated exercise ball.

Throughout the class, people carefully monitor their own pain and fatigue levels and do only what doesn't hurt. No one pushes. No one compares heart rates.

"No pain, no pain," Gandhi's voiceover reminds. "In this program, you only do what feels right to the body."

For Vickie Green of Albany, what feels right is being part of the class. She's in her fourth term and doesn't plan to stop anytime soon.

"I love it," said Green, who learned of the class from a friend's daughter who took it in Corvallis. "I teach a dance class, and I have to be limber, and she's a wonderful instructor."

Green has a crushed disc, as well as problems with her back and one shoulder. Gandhi's class relaxes her and makes moving easier, she said. Plus, she enjoys the camaraderie.

"I've got the tape, but who wants to do it by yourself?" she said, smiling.

Bev Weir of Tangent said Gandhi's class helps her better manage both her arthritis and her fibromyalgia. Bending and squatting are easier now, she said, and she's beginning to be able to lift small items. "It has helped tremendously."

Dr. Connie Hume-Rodman of Albany Internal Medicine is another fan. She took the class herself and encourages her patients to do the same.

"For most pain there is no one solution, so anything that takes an approach from many different angles works well," Hume-Rodman said.

People with chronic pain make up about a quarter of Hume-Rodman's practice, and she said she sometimes struggles with the best way to help them cope.

"There's a lot of people who really need exercise to manage their pain, and they try exercise programs that end up injuring themselves more, so they stop," she said. "(Gandhi's) approach gets people moving and stretching in ways that won't hurt them, so they can keep going."

Gandhi stresses that the class is not a cure, and that it can take a long time to see the effect. The day the magic pill arrives, she said, she'll be first in line.

In the meantime, though, "Move Beyond Pain" is about increasing quality of life, and about giving people the tools to better manage their symptoms, she said.

"People can learn these techniques and use them for the rest of their lives," she said, "and have some sense of control back in their lives."

Move Beyond Pain

Albany classes: 2:30-4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, through Albany Parks and Recreation, 541-917-7777.

Corvallis classes: 5-6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Chintimini Senior Center, 2601 N.W. Tyler Ave., 541-766-6959.

For more information: Contact the Integrative Movement Clinic, 541- 760-0894, namitagandhi@yahoo.com, www.movebeyondpain.com