When someone falls, our first instinct is to help them up quickly. We usually do so without thinking about our own back. People typically don’t fall in a convenient place or perfect position. Many times it’s in a shower or tub, by a bed wedged between a nightstand, or even in a closet. If your loved one is twice your size and has Parkinson’s, it could be hazardous to you if you try to lift them.
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People have been sitting around either in front of various screens (either TV or computers), and as a result are complaining of shoulder pain due to stooped forward posture. Here is a great exercise to help with that, and the equipment needed is just a pool noodle! You can find them for $1-2 this time of year.
Many people with Parkinson’s disease struggle with frozen shoulder and impingement from the forward stooped posture and tight chest. This chest tightness prevents the shoulder from rotating correctly, resulting in terrible pain, dysfunction, and can keep you from participating in your regular exercises. Using a pool noodle cut in half, you can improve and prevent Parkinson’s shoulder impingement with this seated or standing exercise.
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I know what you are thinking, “Oh my gosh! What’s wrong with socks?” It’s not socks in general; it’s wearing socks without shoes. If you exercise in my classes (either in the gym or virtually) you know I’m always saying “Put on your shoes!”.
Now that we all are spending more time at home, it’s more than likely you kick off those shoes and walk around your house in socks. I’d rather have you go barefoot than wear just socks. In the short video below, you’ll hear me talk about a gentleman that broke his hip during a research study because he was doing Tai Chi in only socks. This is a common mistake people make!
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Most often when people experience knee pain, I find the underlying cause is weak glutes. Even avid exercisers often cannot fire their glutes properly.
Strong glutes are vital for everyone, especially if you have Parkinson’s. The glutes are an incredibly important muscle group for many reasons. They balance out gait, assist in fall prevention, improve posture, and prevent back, hip and knee pain and injury.
Why is it that the glutes can be so difficult to activate?
Continue reading “The Best Exercise for Addressing Parkinson’s Painful Knees”
Gardening can certainly cause a host of aches and pains. Why? Because gardening puts us in precarious positions by twisting, bending, reaching, and often spending too much time in those positions that are not healthy for our bodies. This is all compounded by a time constraint of fair-weather opportunities.
Let’s start by thinking of gardening as a workout. First, you need a warm-up. You could walk, march in place, or maybe take a Parkinson’s Boxing-bootcamp class… anything you can do to raise your heart rate and increase your core temperature. Jumping right into gardening with cold muscles is never a good idea. It may save you time in beginning, but it will result in pain and may set you back for several days.
After you’ve warmed up you should do several extension exercises. Gardening and yard work are almost always forward flexing of the spine, which is particularly bad if you have Parkinson’s disease.
Continue reading “Great Tips and Stretches to Prevent Back Pain When Gardening with Parkinson’s”