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May 25

Rock Steady Boxing program helps people with Parkinson’s fight back – Lincoln Journal Star

Exercise Programs Comments Off on Rock Steady Boxing program helps people with Parkinson’s fight back – Lincoln Journal Star

Eyes straight ahead, shoulders back, knees up, says Tony Kelly, as he leads participants in a skipping exercise at Lincolns Rock Steady Boxing program.

It is a small-but-mighty group using a boxing exercise regime to fight back against Parkinsons, a neurological disease that causes deterioration of motor skills, balance, speech and sensory function.

John Coffey was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease 2 1/2 years ago, when he was 49, after his children made fun of his slightly shambling gait as they were leaving the Grand Theater.

"The Ministry of Silly Walks," a sketch from comedy troupe Monty Python, they suggested.

Coffeys wife, a respiratory therapist, didnt see the humor. She was thinking a stroke, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, a metabolic syndrome, prediabetes.

But it turned out the flat-footed step on his left foot, the numbness in his left shin, the sometimes involuntary curling of toes and the slight tremor in his left hand was Parkinsons.

Since the diagnosis, Coffey has tried to mix a large dose of good humor, avoidance of self pity, and a healthier lifestyle with exercise as his response to the progressive, as yet incurable, disease.

A hobby photographer, focusing on landscapes and wildlife, he told his wife soon after the diagnosis: At least Ive got optical stabilization on all my (camera) lenses.

Coffey has been part of Lincoln's Rock Steady Boxing program from its beginning last summer and credits the workouts, other exercise and Toastmasters, a group that helps improve public speaking, for combating his symptoms.

The exercise program, based on a boxing regimen, focuses on the very things compromised by Parkinson's balance, coordination, strength.

For Coffey, the exercise program has helped build up the muscles on the left side of his body -- which are weaker -- and helped with his rhythm.

Rock Steady Boxing, developed in Indianapolis in 2006 by an attorney with Parkinsons, has spread across the country by word of mouth, news stories and a "CBS Sunday Morning" segment by Lesley Stahl, whose husband is a Rock Steady participant.

Today, Rock Steady has 372 affiliate programs in 47 states, and seven countries, with 20 international locations, according to the Indianapolis office.

Lincoln Parks and Recreation staff member Ryan Mohling and wife Michelle watched the CBS segment by Stahl in November 2015.

Dont you have that boxing space? said Michelle Mohling.

"But my mind was already turning, Ryan Mohling said.

The city's Air Park Recreation Center, where Mohling was center supervisor, had an underused gymnasium with boxing equipment, and he was sure there were plenty of people in the Lincoln area with Parkinsons.

Offering this program was really a no-brainer, he said. A win-win for everyone.

Mohling got some grants and found an additional coach, Tony Kelly. The two took the training in Indianapolis and began recruiting people who might benefit through Parkinsons support groups.

Lincolns Rock Steady Boxing program began at Air Park in July with six participants. Now, more than a dozen participate regularly in the program, which will soon be expanding to five 90-minute sessions of exercise based on training programs for boxers, coupled with knowledge of Parkinsons.

Its not all hitting. It is a full workout. It is intense and everyone leaves sweating.

There's evidence that forced intense exercise can hold back the progression of Parkinsons and restore some of the lost balance, Mohling said.

Doug Moss also heard about the exercise program from that CBS television segment. And when he learned about Lincoln's program he began the 70 mile each-way commute twice a week from Aurora.

You cant tell how things are going to turn out. You just do battle with it, said Moss, whose Parkinsons was diagnosed 10 years ago after he lost his sense of smell and noticed a deterioration in his handwriting.

The boxing program gives him a new strategy for that battle. It was something different. Moss had never boxed. He had been a basketball player. If a ball wasnt involved, he wasnt interested.

Rock Steady boxers do sometimes dunk a whiffle ball into the baskets in a gymnasium as one of the two-minute exercise segments.

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I think it helps. You use your body in different ways, said Moss, who also does yoga a couple times a week and walks regularly.

Lincoln hopes to expand the program since it can be adapted and modified for participants with varying physical limitations because of Parkinson's, Mohling said.

"We know that in Lancaster County, at least 2,300 people are identified as having Parkinson's, and we are going to serve as many of them as we can, said Mohling, who is now athletics supervisor for Parks and Rec.

The sessions are short intervals of exercise, everything from frisbee throwing to hitting the bags, with rest periods in between.

Judy Johnson was diagnosed with Parkinsons 10 years ago. "My right hand started tremoring and I no longer swung my arm when I walked, she said of the early symptoms.

Johnson, who is active in the Lincoln Parkinsons Disease Support Group (www.lpdsg.org), signed up for the city's first class almost a year ago.

Johnson, who played tennis as a girl, has always been active physically. Today she combines the Rock Steady program with tai chi and works out at a gym almost daily with her husband.

Beyond the benefits of the physical workout, Johnson enjoys the camaraderie of the group. And the trainer, Tony Kelly, is wonderful, she said.

"He makes the whole hour-and-a-half fun, rather than torture. But he pushes us and encourages us to do more than we think we can do when we walk in the door.

Johnson had never tried boxing other than box my sister once in a while, she joked.

And she thinks the boxing label is kind of a misnomer, which might keep some people away.

Actually, hitting is a minor part of the workout. Its more about flexibility, strength, balance and coordination, she said.

Read the rest here:
Rock Steady Boxing program helps people with Parkinson's fight back - Lincoln Journal Star

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