About five years ago noticed slight tremble in left had… Doctor said don’t worry… four years later the right hand started to join in - again not to worry at this stage - occasional glass of red recommended and sure enough calmed down… However, then noticed feet carrying out there own way of walking - shuffle, effort to lift…
Now diagnosed early stages and recommended physio and exercise. Helped with the walking and adopted a new marching style.
Now following recommendations on the excellent Parkinson’s site but finding five x 30 minute sessions hard work - but effective feel generally much better but worn out. Appreciate no cure but questioning effort vs quality of life. Noticed someone on these discussion doing 4 x 50 minutes…. I start with 15 minute’s stretching then 15 minutes 4 kilometres on lying down bicycle- good sweat produced which understand really helped. - but how much? All different.
Hello SimonPeter
The recommended exercise time for people with Parkinson’s is 150 minutes (2 ½ hours) per week but most people will have to work towards this goal. Having said that I certainly had to take account of the balance between exercise and effort and it took me quite a long time to find a routine that suited me. The problem I had is that for most classes etc I have to go to the next town first, then get to the venue, have the class and travel home - the journey to and from negated any benefit from the class. I could do some at home but found it quite boring because I didn’t know how to vary it or move it on. The answer for me was to find a personal trainer who comes to my home. We have been working together for nearly three years now and the difference in me is huge - I am stronger and fitter than I have probably ever been but it has been a long slow process. I started with 2 x30 minute sessions per week, increasing that to 45 minute sessions before doing 2 hour long sessions twice a week, finally I moved to 3 hour long sessions per week. Fairly recently I found a series of videos with a whole range of exercises for people with Parkinsons and I usually do one of those on the days in the week when the trainer doesn’t come and sometimes on a Saturday too. Sunday is my day off.
I also make sure I have a break, some recovery time, after a session 20-30 minutes is usually enough. It might be you are doing too much too soon and perhaps test the theory a bit. For example do you allow for recovery time after your session, what about trying one day on one day off and see if that makes a difference, that sort of thing. You should look to include core strength/balance, cardio and stretching.
I’m not sure how much this will help as it is what I did but maybe it will help. By the way, I have done a few posts on what I went through to reach the point I am now at if you are interested.
This is a link to the first of these posts.
Tot