Welcome to Exercise in Place
Safe strategies to Exercise in Place while we shelter in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic
With the global pandemic causing us to shelter in place, and realizing the importance and value of exercise for those living with myositis, we worked together with occupational therapists Megan McGowan and Lauren Burgess, and physical therapists Fin Mears and Ruben Pagkatipunan Jr., with the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center, to create the Exercise in Place webinar series. There is no particular order in which you must watch. Each video is a standalone session that you can easily share with your healthcare provider and physical and occupational therapy team. We hope you find value in the series. We thank Megan, Lauren, Fin, and Reuben for giving so freely of their time, experience, knowledge, and compassion.
Exercise in Place Part 5: Supporting the Caregiver, the recorded version, is now available below.
Watch all Exercise In Place videos, and share them!
Exercise in Place Webinar
Watch the session that started it all, the first Exercise in Place webinar with occupational therapists Megan McGowan and Lauren Burgess, and physical therapists Fin Mears and Ruben Pagkatipunan Jr., with the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center. They discuss safe strategies to exercise in place while we shelter in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Topics, along with demonstrations, include hand exercises for inclusion body myositis, breathing and lung exercises for those with interstitial lung disease and pulmonary fibrosis, getting started and sticking with exercise, ways to exercise at home without equipment, and much more.
Slides from Exercise in Place
The slide pack contains the BORG scale and Helene Alexanderson’s PM/DM exercise program, both discussed in the video.
Watch Exercise in Place Part 2
Working with your local PT/OT Team
Part 2 covers and answers important questions, and includes exercise demonstrations and how to modify them, to help you work with your local OT and PT teams.
Watch Exercise in Place Part 3
Falls, Prevention and Response
Part 3 is all about falls, from fall prevention to the response. This is an excellent webinar for myositis caregivers to watch with their partners.
Watch Exercise in Place Part 4
How to stay motivated
As Megan said during this session, Part 4 is the missing piece, motivation and resiliency. Megan, Lauren, and Fin talk about how to stay motivated not only with exercise, but in life with myositis.
Watch Exercise in Place Part 5
Supporting the Caregiver
Part 5 is all about supporting the caregivers. Megan, Lauren, and Ruben discuss exercise for caregivers and patient transfer demonstrations, and so much more. This is a session that has something for everyone in the myositis community.
Orthotics and Myositis
Watch our previous session with the same team to learn about different types of orthotics and braces that may be helpful for people who are living with myositis.
Our speakers for the session
Megan McGowan, Occupational Therapy
Megan McGowan received her M.S. in occupational therapy from Keuka College of Keuka Park, NY in 2012. Megan has been practicing at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for 5 years. Her clinical focus has been within acute care and within the Johns Hopkins Myositis Clinic. Megan has a clinical specialty in myositis and has been working in the clinic for 4 years. She has presented nationally at The Myositis Association conference and has held an active role in research studies being performed within the Johns Hopkins Myositis Clinic.
Lauren Burgess, Occupational Therapy
Lauren Burgess received her master’s degree in occupational therapy in 2015 at the University of Southern California. At Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center she practices in the acute care setting, working with a variety of patient populations. She is also one of two primary occupational therapists for the Johns Hopkins Myositis clinic, where she works collaboratively with other providers to offer a patient-centered, multi-disciplinary approach to care.
Fin Mears, Physical Therapy
Fin Mears received his bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 1990. He has been working at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center since 1990. Initially hired as an acute care therapist, for the past 15 years he has been Clinical Coordinator for Rehabilitative Services and Center Coordinator for Clinical Education. Since 2014 his clinical practice has focused on inflammatory myopathies and dysautonomia. Fin Mears and Ruben Pagkatipunan are the two primary physical therapists for the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center.
Ruben Pagkatipunan Jr., Physical Therapy
Ruben Pagkatipunan Jr. received his bachelor’s degree in physical therapy at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines in 1993. In 2016, he obtained his doctorate degree in Physical Therapy at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. Ruben is also a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties since 2014. His clinical practice and primary research areas of interests include evaluation and management of patients with inflammatory myopathies and dysautonomia. He is the primary physical therapist at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Neuromuscular Rehabilitation team, the Normal Hydrocephalus clinic, and the Dysautonomia clinic. In 2017, he published an article with the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center on the role of the myositis Functional Index-2 in identifying muscle impairment in myositis patients with near-normal or normal muscle strength. Currently, he participates in clinical research on inclusion-body myositis (IBM) that investigates the effect of the diabetes drug pioglitazone in the health and function of mitochondria in skeletal muscles of IBM patients.
