Taiji Brings Seniors Balance, New Mobility

 "A couple of years ago, I had a major spinal cord
injury," Jill Karuso, 62, explains. "I had to be dragged here the first
time." Three semesters of tai chi, she says, have dramatically
decreased her pain, helped her balance and her focus. WLWT.com

Caryl Crouch leads a tai chi class at the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale.

Paul O'Neill, Tribune

excerpt:
ANCIENT DISCIPLINE
"People hear 'tai chi' and think of little men running through the
forest or something," Crouch says. "Tai chi really is a discipline. It
dates back to 6000 B.C."
Leading the group from her chair at the front, the soft-spoken lady
with the green eyes and short gray hair could easily pass for 20 years
younger. "Tai chi strengthens you and improves your range of motion. It
works your breathing every time you lift your arms."
It's also the latest tool in Crouch's lifelong mission to offer
fitness training to the elderly and disadvantaged. A 51-year veteran of
the American Red Cross, she got her start teaching lifesaving and water
safety at a Chicago YMCA in 1957.
"I started teaching a swim class for special needs kids, and just
fell in love with them," she recalls. "I didn't know it was the first
class of its kind in the country." The class lasted 20 years, and she
took a delegation of students to the very first Special Olympics in
Chicago. When her family moved west, Crouch began teaching swim therapy
with the Arthritis Foundation.
A breast cancer survivor and mother of four, she discovered tai chi
while caring for a cousin in California seven years ago. "I said, 'This
is it!' " she recalls, and got certification for teaching arthritis tai
chi.
MODERN RESULTS
"It's great for seniors. It's challenging, but it never hurts. It
works like medicine for the body and it clears the mind. The hour you
spend doing tai chi, you're not thinking about your car keys or your
groceries. You're thinking about your body."
"My balance has improved so much," says Pat Hiel, a 54-year-old with
an artificial knee. "And my stamina is better. I feel like I'm getting
back fluidity of motion."
"Joan started coming here after her stroke," Crouch says, nodding
toward another student. "She'd be trying to get her arms moving. Then
they're moving, and then they're moving more," she chuckles. "Pretty
soon, she's moving that leg and I'm telling the others, 'Look over here
at what Joan is doing.' There are so many rewarding things to this
work."
https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/115756
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