Do you suffer from chronic back or neck pain? What about problems due to poor posture, high stress or anxiety? If so, the Alexander Technique (AT) may provide just the natural relief you’re looking for…

n innovative McLean County private-public partnership to help people with developmental and intellectual disabilities to achieve their health and fitness goals has exceeded expectations, so the program will…

The mind is a powerful thing with the ability to shape how we perceive the world. But can our perceptions impact our own health? Research into mindset, which is often called “the story we tell ourselves”, suggests that it is definitely possible. Here are a few examples…

When Julie Warner of Normal was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at age 25, “I was terrified that I’d end up in a wheelchair. “So I started walking,” When Josie Warren was diagnosed with MS at age 34…

Sometimes, exercise benefits the heart beyond making it stronger. Just ask eight adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities who worked out Tuesday with guest trainers…

An innovative private-public partnership to improve the health and fitness of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities and their support…

The Advocate BroMenn Health & Fitness Center is not just another gym. Far from it. Instead of focusing solely on how many reps or miles or laps you…

Sue Mullins and Karen Bennett lunged back and forth, stepped side to side, rotated their hips, bounced up and down and pulled their arms up and back. Then they did squats, bridges (lying down and raising their hips), knee raises, modified push-ups and modified planks. But, as they did these and other exercises under the direction of Stephanie Kates, all three women had a small exercise ball between their legs just above the knees. A band wrapped around the ball also was wrapped around the outside of the women’s legs.

Exercise programs for people with disabilities are nothing new.
But a new, medically supervised pilot program targets a group of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. After one year, program partners — the McLean County Health Department, Advocate BroMenn Health & Fitness Center and Marcfirst — will analyze each participant’s health and fitness data to determine whether to continue the program and perhaps expand it.

Forty-one McLean County residents with developmental disabilities have an opportunity to improve their health because of an innovative partnership of the McLean County Health Department, Advocate BroMenn Health and Fitness Center and Marcfirst.

According to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, as many as one million Americans live with Parkinson’s disease. Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year, and this number does not reflect the thousands of cases that go undetected. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive, degenerative neurological disease that, unfortunately, has no cure.

Rock Steady Boxing began a month ago at the Advocate BroMenn fitness center in the Center for Integrated Wellness and already averages seven participants each class, said Smeltzer, a veteran Bloomington-Normal exercise physiologist who is fitness center manager and a certified Rock Steady Boxing instructor.