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Alert! Tigard classes are cancelled tomorrow Friday Feb 14.

What Does It Really Take To Slow Down Parkinson’s Disease? Are You Doing It?

Instead of asking, “What is the bare minimum I must do to slow down the progression of Parkinson’s?” ask yourself: “What fun things can I do that will have the biggest impact?”

What if slowing your Parkinson’s included fun, learning, and making true friends who understand you and make you laugh? What if your coach felt like a friend who appreciates your challenges and celebrates your wins? Here at the Rebel Fit Club, you can feel stronger, faster, and more focused—almost as if during your time in class, you don’t have PD. As a coach, I hear this all the time. My fighters love attending class. It’s a safe place where they can be themselves.

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Do This Parkinson’s Toe Raise to Treat the Effects of Prolonged Sitting

Here is another great exercise to do while you are sitting in a car, on a plane, or just in front of the TV.  Often, people with Parkinson’s have a hard time picking up their toes and feet while walking. Instead, they shuffle along, which leads to falls. This is a neurological symptom, but the result of not picking up your toes is the weakening of the anterior tibialis muscle (located on your shin). If you don’t use it, you start to lose it.

The anterior tibialis helps you flex your ankle and lift your foot off the ground, which is critical to having proper gait. When this muscle gets weak due to Parkinson’s, it’s known as “foot drop,” and this can lead to catching your toes or falling.

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How to Use Your Noodle to Improve Parkinson’s Upper Back Rotation

With Parkinson’s disease, the upper back gets really rigid and stiff. This rigidity, compounded by forward rounding, prevents it from rotating correctly. As a result, the lower back (designed to stabilize, not rotate) must take over, leading to lower back pain. Using pool noodles, this seated exercise can help treat upper back rotation.

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Improve Parkinson’s Stiff Back and Eye-Tracking Issues With This Seated Noodle Exercise

With Parkinson’s disease, the rib cage gets stiff and flexes forward, causing a lack of rotation in the spine. This stiffness, compounded by the “lats” (the muscles in your back that attach to your arms) getting tethered down, causes difficulty when reaching and straightening your arms. When you can’t rotate in your upper back (thoracic spine), your body will start to compensate by rotating and extending parts of your body that are not meant to rotate. This almost always results in shoulder or back pain.

Furthermore, the eyes may have difficulty tracking a moving or stationary object or finding the next line in a book when reading.

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Try These Simple Tips for Correcting Your Parkinson’s Seated Posture

When you think of things that might threaten your life, you probably don’t think, “sitting.” However, research shows that sitting too much is one of the biggest potential threats to our health.

We are sitting ourselves to death. We weren’t designed to sit as much as we do,” says James Levine, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. “The chair is out to kill us.”

One hour of exercise doesn’t negate long periods of sitting, especially with poor posture. Exercise is vital, but it doesn’t undo the damage done by extended periods of sitting.

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