All of us need to work on our posture, especially these days when we are flexed over our electronic devices. But for people with Parkinson’s disease, it’s even more important.

The neurological progression of Parkinson’s pulls the body forward constantly. Fortunately, we can combat that effect with some great posture-correcting exercises.

In my previous two blogs, I showed you how to do the Modified Superman exercise. Why “Modified”? Because most people with PD are so stiff in their upper back and shoulders that doing the traditional Superman can hurt their lower back, shoulders, or they just can’t do it at all.

Today I am going to show you another way you can do the Modified Superman using a yoga ball.

To my dear Parkinson’s community of readers,

Memorial Day has special meaning to me since my own father served in the Aleutian Islands during WW2. He lost both legs due to exposure. He spent the first years of my parents’ marriage in military hospitals and experienced great pain the rest of his life as a result. But he never complained.

A gentleman with stooped posture from Parkinson’s recently came in for a personal training session complaining of lower back pain. He showed me a list of exercises someone gave him, and on it were “Wall Leans.”

I asked him to show me what this exercise was. He said, “You know, the one where you straighten up against the wall.”  He then went to the wall, turned his back, and went through the steps. Heels against the wall, touching your back and head to the wall. Then he said, “It hurts my back more and I’m afraid I’ll fall forward.”

Of course it hurt his back! And yes, he was pitched “falling” forward.

One of my fighters with Parkinson’s told me he wanted to lose some weight he had gained in the last couple of years. He developed a detailed spreadsheet and started tracking everything that he thought affected his health and his PD symptoms. For instance:

• Food intake (what and how much)
• Exercise (what kind and how long)
• Water intake
• Hours slept
• Hours watching TV
• His medication timing and doses
• PD symptoms (bradykinesia, tremor, stiffness, etc.) and their severity

There is a saying: “You can’t improve what you don’t track.”

He was surprised at the results. He said he knew he was eating too much, so he cut down on his caloric intake and lost over 25 pounds and still had more to lose.

I get pictures and emails all the time from my fighters with Parkinson’s thanking us for training them to do the things they love so they can keep their independence. We teach exercises based on real-life scenarios, like spending a day at the beach, walking on different textures of sand, picking up a shell, and stepping over a log.