TAMPA, Fla. — A former special education teacher from Hillsborough County made a sudden career change a decade ago.
Kathy Glazewski saw a TV story about boxing fitness classes for people diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. She was so inspired that the next day she was doing the paperwork to open her own Rock Steady program.
Glazewski leads her Rock Steady Fishhawk classes Monday through Thursday at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
Most of the participants range in age from their 60s to as old as 85. The classes are high energy. Glazewski and a couple of volunteers lead participants from station to station for various forms of exercise. There are two-minute sessions of hitting a heavy bag with gloves, lifting dumbbells and step ups among other things.
“Movement is medicine,” said Glazewski. “Parkinson’s takes away your movement, so you absolutely have to move more.”
Glazewski said she believes in pushing group members to max out how hard they push themselves.
“I was a special ed teacher and so I used to push kids to do better than they could do,” she said. “Now I push adults, and I love it.”
Glazewski isn’t surprised that some members see her as a bit of a drill instructor. Group member Bernard Kotrady, 85, served in the Marines. He agrees that Glazewski doesn’t cut him any slack.
“In fact, she makes it harder on us. She’s very mean. But we put up with it,” he said with a grin as Glazewski looked on with a smile. “If I have somebody pushing me or I’m competing with somebody I’ll do it.
“Otherwise, I’ll just say ehh and sit down and do this tomorrow or something.”
Glazewski has much admiration for the people who are suffering with Parkinson’s symptoms.
“I understand the aches and pains, but they want to push through it,” she said. “And they want to please me, and they want to please their families. They are not ready to give up.”