What’s a good exercise program for a person with a Parkinson’s disease?
Please include intensity, duration, frequency, modality, and methods utilized to determine progression of the exercise program.
There is no one size fits all when it comes to exercise for Parkinson’s disease.
As you already know, stiffness-rigidity, balance, breathing, depression, gait issues can make exercise much more difficult.
How one exercises may depend upon physical symptoms, the current physical condition of the patient, finances, accessibility to therapy centers and so on.
Many patients, especially younger patients already had an exercise routine and try to continue with that. They play sports and they work out in a variety of ways. Jogging if possible, lifting weights, swimming.
At a therapy center each patient is observed and a specific routine is designed for them. My husband’s program was designed specifically for him.
He uses mostly nautilus equipment and the swimming pool at the center. He has a check list of exercises and reps. He also uses the recumbent bike. The center recently added another type of recumbent, an elliptical one which took a while to learn as the settings are different.
He has not been in the pool recently because he felt that due to the pain from an arthritic knee on his "bad" side he needed to strengthen his leg muscles.
Swim therapy is mostly walking, knee bending and the like because the water supports a patient with poorer balance. He has still not been given the go ahead to use the treadmill even after many months. In total his time at the center is about an hour a day or almost 2 hours when he uses the pool.
Every few months he meets with a therapist who observes and tests him to determine his progress and revise his program. He says this particular therapist was even more thorough than his neurologist.
What the therapist observed was my husband walking, the distance he could walk, the way he walked (shuffled) stride, posture. Range of motion was tested in arms and legs. Ability to turn and maintain balance. The pitch of his feet – his left foot rolls over
Warm up on a recumbent bike for 10 minutes. Leg curls on nautilus 15 reps, abdominal machine 15 reps, triceps press separately on each arm 15 reps each, "vertical chest" pushing and pulling 50lbs or right side and then 30 lbs on left (bad) side. Exercise on table to stretch upper torso. Yoga neck exercises and then feet exercises. Then onto the semi-recumbent eliptical trainer bike for 15 minutes of cool-down.
Leg extension, leg curls are also included.
My husband walks slowly with a cane but can manage turning carefully – it is different for PD patients with stiffness and balance issues. If he didn’t have such painful arthritis, I think that his gait and balance would be quite different. He doesn’t like to walk through the pain and is concerned about his knee giving out.
There are a number of other specific exercises which can be done at home, in a chair or lying down to help individual areas. Breathing/swallowing/voice exercises are also a crucial part of an exercise routine for PD.
You can read about home exercises and see some photos by checking here:
http://parkinsonsfocustoday.blogspot.com/
Just scroll down the right column to the topic by topic index and also for quick voice exercises and photos.
It is important to exercise during "on" times if you are on levadopa meds. Equally important to be aware of balance issues so that you are working on them through exercise and do not put yourself in a posistion where you are alone but could fall.
Exercise is best in the morning or afternoon. It is not a good idea for PD patients to exercise in the evening – a few hours before sleep as sleep issues can be a serious problem for the PDer and late exercise can interfer.
December 30 2009 06:49 am | exercise program
December 30th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I can’t give you specifics, because what is good for one person may not be good for the next. Each person’s pd is different so there is no one size fits all. Some things I have heard that are helpful are yoga and stretching. I do weights which helps me. The best advice I can give you though is to find someone that can work with you one-on-one so you can get an exercise plan that works at the issues you are having most and that is reasonable for you. I don’t know where you live, but at least around me I know of several people who have expertise in exercise for people with parkinson’s. If finances are an issue, you could see about just getting a couple of appointments so at least they can get you started on a program that makes sense for you.
References :
December 30th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
There is no one size fits all when it comes to exercise for Parkinson’s disease.
As you already know, stiffness-rigidity, balance, breathing, depression, gait issues can make exercise much more difficult.
How one exercises may depend upon physical symptoms, the current physical condition of the patient, finances, accessibility to therapy centers and so on.
Many patients, especially younger patients already had an exercise routine and try to continue with that. They play sports and they work out in a variety of ways. Jogging if possible, lifting weights, swimming.
At a therapy center each patient is observed and a specific routine is designed for them. My husband’s program was designed specifically for him.
He uses mostly nautilus equipment and the swimming pool at the center. He has a check list of exercises and reps. He also uses the recumbent bike. The center recently added another type of recumbent, an elliptical one which took a while to learn as the settings are different.
He has not been in the pool recently because he felt that due to the pain from an arthritic knee on his "bad" side he needed to strengthen his leg muscles.
Swim therapy is mostly walking, knee bending and the like because the water supports a patient with poorer balance. He has still not been given the go ahead to use the treadmill even after many months. In total his time at the center is about an hour a day or almost 2 hours when he uses the pool.
Every few months he meets with a therapist who observes and tests him to determine his progress and revise his program. He says this particular therapist was even more thorough than his neurologist.
What the therapist observed was my husband walking, the distance he could walk, the way he walked (shuffled) stride, posture. Range of motion was tested in arms and legs. Ability to turn and maintain balance. The pitch of his feet – his left foot rolls over
Warm up on a recumbent bike for 10 minutes. Leg curls on nautilus 15 reps, abdominal machine 15 reps, triceps press separately on each arm 15 reps each, "vertical chest" pushing and pulling 50lbs or right side and then 30 lbs on left (bad) side. Exercise on table to stretch upper torso. Yoga neck exercises and then feet exercises. Then onto the semi-recumbent eliptical trainer bike for 15 minutes of cool-down.
Leg extension, leg curls are also included.
My husband walks slowly with a cane but can manage turning carefully – it is different for PD patients with stiffness and balance issues. If he didn’t have such painful arthritis, I think that his gait and balance would be quite different. He doesn’t like to walk through the pain and is concerned about his knee giving out.
There are a number of other specific exercises which can be done at home, in a chair or lying down to help individual areas. Breathing/swallowing/voice exercises are also a crucial part of an exercise routine for PD.
You can read about home exercises and see some photos by checking here:
http://parkinsonsfocustoday.blogspot.com/
Just scroll down the right column to the topic by topic index and also for quick voice exercises and photos.
It is important to exercise during "on" times if you are on levadopa meds. Equally important to be aware of balance issues so that you are working on them through exercise and do not put yourself in a posistion where you are alone but could fall.
Exercise is best in the morning or afternoon. It is not a good idea for PD patients to exercise in the evening – a few hours before sleep as sleep issues can be a serious problem for the PDer and late exercise can interfer.
References :
co-administrator, Parkinson’s Focus Today