My Experiences Teaching Asahi at the Helsinki Alzheimer's Association Daycare Center

Kristiina Hohti, an Asahi Teacher trainer from Helsinki, shares her insights on leading groups for people with memory disorders, (Tr. Margaret Vainio)

Kristiina Hohti is now an A1-level teacher trainer from Helsinki, Finland. In this blog she talks about her first experiences teaching Asahi to Alzheimer groups:

Finnish A1 teacher trainers Kristiina and Sirkku Vaskimo

JUMPING RIGHT INTO TEACHING AFTER BECOMING CERTIFIED

I was still very much a novice when I was asked to teach Asahi as a volunteer for the Helsinki Alzheimer’s Association. One of the HAA employees had already been leading Asahi practices there successfully for a couple of years, and now wanted to broaden their offerings.

At first I was very hesitant, because of my lack of experience and also the great responsibility of working with people with memory deficiencies. On top of that, I had no background in medicine.

The director encouraged me to give it a try, and after consulting with Geriatric and Internal Medicine Specialist Dr. Yrjö Mähönen, one of the developers of Asahi, I decided to take on this new challenge.

FIRST EXPERIENCES

The first year the group was quite small, only about 10 people. It was mostly made up of married couples, one of whom had a memory disorder. This made it a lot easier for me to start out. Since it was a small group, I developed a personal relationship with each of the group members and was able to take their individual needs into consideration.

I soon realized that leading a group like this was really no different than leading any other group. I started out cautiously with Asahi Series One and combinations of the moves. The people with memory disorders each did their own versions of the movements. Many of the moves were simple for everyone to do. Other moves were a little more complicated, and not everyone did them “correctly”, but I didn’t point that out except in a very general way. I directed any corrections to the caregivers so they could work on the moves together at home.

From the very first practice, I felt that the whole group was engaged 100% and approved of the way I was teaching. I also realized that it wasn’t so important to strive for perfect technique, but rather the act of exercising in itself and doing it together in a group was the most valuable thing to focus on. The numerous repetitions helped make the moves familiar and brought a feeling of security and accomplishment.

Little by little, I started adding movements from Asahi Series Two and even a few moves from Asahi Series Three, but didn’t bother with the most complicated ones.

Kristiina has honed her own technique carefully.

SPREADING KNOWLEDGE OF ASAHI ON YOUTUBE

In order to reach more people, I collaborated with the Helsinki Alzheimer Association to make a video for their webpage about our special Asahi classes for memory disorder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O51IGBPqS5U (See English transcription below*)

This brought a few new people to the group the next fall, but the real breakthrough came after I held an “Intro to Asahi” outdoor event one very sweaty day in a park in Helsinki. This drew quite a crowd!

The outdoor practice that changed everything...

After that event, the group expanded to 20 - 30 people. Most of the participants were enrolled in the Alzheimer Association Daycare program and two or three workers from that program took part every week to help in case any difficult situations arose and to make sure everyone entered and left the gym together.

The increased group size brought new challenges. There wasn’t the same intimacy that the small group had, but, in this larger, more heterogenic group, we got to know each other, too, after a while.

DIVERSITY IS AN ASSET

It was fascinating to notice how different each of the Alzheimer patients were and the variety of ways Asahi affected them. Some were like sunshine every time and loving every minute of it. Another was very enthusiastic about Asahi, but did the movements in a way that hardly resembled Asahi at all. Another protested being there and kept threatening to leave, but stayed until the end anyway. One person expressed no emotion at all, but did the moves beautifully as if they had been doing Asahi their whole lifetime. A few sat on the sidelines and didn’t want to participate in any way.

Many did the move in the wrong direction, and it was useless to try to explain how the arm should be relaxed by the side during the shoulder rolls. I always repeated the directions each time, whether or not it made a difference in the way people executed the movements.

Kristiina in her "element"

THE THERAPEUTIC BENEFITS OF THE HUMAN VOICE

One particular thing I noticed was that the group loved making the “sound effects” to certain movements with their voice. For example, they loved the sudden “whoosh” as they thrust the arms forward in the “Cobra” move in Series Two, relaxation movement 3. We also experimented with adding different sounds at different volumes for the pendulum move from Series Three, relaxation movement 2. Having an opportunity to use their own voice during the practice seemed to bring the group a lot of relief and joy. It was as if the sound effects helped to release a lot of stored-up emotions. Here is an article on the effects of the voice. I ended the session every time by having everyone bend forward and shake out their arms and heads, accompanied by sticking out their tongue and loudly “letting it all hang out.” This brought them the most joy of all. Since then, I have ended all my Asahi lessons with this “goofy” final relaxation practice, even though doesn’t belong to any of the Asahi series.

IN GENERAL

Asahi provides a concrete, accessible and safe way for a person suffering from a memory disorder to practice coordination and body perception. The slowness of the moves and their simplicity guarantee a feeling of success. Even if the moves don’t come out exactly right, spending time moving and concentrating on body sensations is very important. And doing it in a group has many therapeutic social benefits.

Forty-five minutes has proven to be the maximum length of an Asahi lesson for groups like these. The basis for the lessons is Asahi Series One spiced up with moves from the other two series. Again, there is no reason to try to get everyone to do the moves exactly right, but it is important to bring up the principles each time a move is presented. Also, there is no reason to try to force someone to participate if they don’t feel like it that day. They will return for the next lesson…

The caregivers reported that the group members were always eager to come to the Asahi lessons and returned feeling relaxed and peaceful. I heard excited comments after the class, like “Oh, did that do me good!” And “I feel so wonderful now!” Or “My neck isn’t stiff anymore!” Do these sound familiar?

Kristiina with her class at the Helsinki Alzheimer's Association

IN CONCLUSION

Based on these two years of positive experiences, I encourage other Asahi instructors to seize the opportunity to start groups for people with special needs. It only takes a little patience and it doesn’t pay to set the standards too high.

Just as in all Asahi classes, the main focus is on peacefulness and easiness, but in this case these two principles are of the most important. Seriously, teaching a group of people with memory disorders isn’t that much different than teaching a regular class. There are a lot of other special needs groups who would benefit greatly from practicing Asahi. I understand that there are also Asahi groups for the Parkinson’s Association, the Heart Association and the Lung Association. It is my hope that Asahi will continue to gain a larger role in the fields of rehabilitation and nursing in the future.

Volunteering for the Helsinki Alzheimer Association has been very rewarding. Congratulations to the Association for the fine work it does!

Kristiina with her Asahi Nordic Teacher Training certification in August 2024

* Transcription of the text in the short YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O51IGBPqS5U

Asahi is a health exercise developed by Finnish medical and sport experts. One of Asahi’s developers, Internal Medicine and Geriatric Specialist Yrjö Mähönen brought his medical expertise to the mix. Asahi was developed to be an all-inclusive health practice with benefits for both the body and the mind. Asahi is accessible for everyone and that makes it easy to start practicing. The Asahi movement series progress slowly and gently exercising the whole body without the need for any sort of equipment.

By practicing Asahi, a person with memory loss can practice many skills such as body perception, coordination in a very easily approachable way. Asahi has been proven to be an invigorating and pleasant way to keep up or improve one’s health in a holistic way. Asahi became part of the Helsinki Alzheimer Association activities at the beginning of 2021. Asahi was received enthusiastically and since then the program has been slowly expanding and developing. Caregivers as well as the people with memory disorders participate in these Asahi groups together. Asahi provides a low-threshold group activity that unites the patients and their caregivers. The Asahi teachers in the Helsinki and Uusimaa Alzheimer Association program all have Asahi Nordic certification. For more information, contact Tuulikki Tarkiainen tuulikki.tarkiainen@muistihelsinki.fi

Kristiina & Head Trainer Margaret Vainio in Rhodes, Greece.

Categories: : Asahi and Finnish Sisu, Asahi Around the World, Asahi as a Warmup, Asahi as Physical Rehab, Asahi in Life Crises, Asahi Nordic for a lifetime, Asahi Nordic for All