With “Hang On Sloopy” playing in the background, Gurnee Meadows residents beat a pair of drumsticks on a stable ball half their height.
They smile and listen to the cues: Brush the side. Cha cha. Single cross over.
When “Be My Little Baby” plays, Gurnee resident Dee Capko says, “That’s good old 50s music.”
“Go ahead and sing if you want,” exercise instructor Terry Shebenik says. “You’ll burn more calories.”
Shebenik, of Waukegan, is teaching cardio drumming to a group of seniors who live at Gurnee Meadows.
Cardio drumming is based on a program that originated in Germany called Drums Alive!, which is providing a grant to the Waukegan school district to start a cardio drumming program for children at Little Fork Elementary School, Shebenik said.
“It’s fun. It gets you going. You can sit down and do it or hop around,” Shebenik said. “Either way you get a good work out.”
Shebenik, who said she lost 50 pounds 20 years ago and keeps it off through good nutrition and exercise, learned about Drums Alive! about a year ago. The exercise routine requires a stability ball half the height of an adult and a pair of drumsticks.
Carrie Ekins created the program after having a hip injury that required a long rehabilitation. She began drumming on boxes during recovery and said she experienced physical and mental benefits, according to the Drums Alive! website. According to research at the University of Oxford, drumming can help a person feel happier and increase threshold to pain.
Shebenik said she took several classes to learn to teach Drums Alive!
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At the Gurnee class, Shebenik instructed students to raise sticks in the air, hit the ball on the right side, then the left side and sometimes on the floor. They also kicked their feet back, and other times walked around the circle of balls hitting each one on their way back to the spot where they started. A constant beat of music played, which included tunes like “I Can See Clearly Now.”
“Anyone can do this and it feels good. You get your endorphins going” said Cruzanne Lewis, of Antioch, who also practices African medicine drumming and helps Shebenik teach the classes.
You can tailor it to your own fitness level, Lewis said.
One woman had to sit down on a chair in front of the ball half way through because she got tired. She kept on drumming.
Capko, who is in her 70s, said she has purchased the equipment so she can drum at home when she’s not at class.
“I exercise every day. I walk six times around the halls. But I love to come to cardio drumming,” Capko said. “You get a really good workout. It’s good cardio and its’ good for your body. It’s low impact. It’s easy on your joints.”
Her friend Joan Gramhoffer, also in her 70s, said she likes cardio drumming because “it’s fun and I get to socialize.”
Shebenik’s husband, Ed Shebenik, also joins the class. He’s a cancer survivor and said exercise is important for his health.
“I get these girls going,” he said.
The class is just taking off in Lake County, said Shebenik, and right now she is doing them for free — though she does sell protein shakes afterward.
In Bannockburn, the Midtown Athletic Club offered a Drums Alive! class but stopped after six months because the participants are excited by another exercise and movement class called WERQ Dance Fitness, Group Fitness Director Paula Kooperman said. They wanted an even stronger workout, she said.
“WERQ is like zumba on steroids,” she said.
Drums Alive! classes are being held south of the Lake County border in Mount Prospect, where River Trails Park District has two different cardio drumming classes, one for beginners and one for advanced exercisers, said Christine Powles, communications and marketing manager.
The Monday morning class does light cardio workouts performed sitting or standing with the stability ball and drumsticks, she said. The Wednesday class incorporates weights and stepping with the cardio drumming workout, she said.
Gurnee Meadows class members all said they like cardio drumming because it’s fun and keeps them moving.
“You’ve got to keep moving,” Capko said.
By Sheryl DeVore is a freelancer for the News-Sun