So, I've Got Parkinson's Disease by Terry Rummins

Author:Terry Rummins
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Matador
Published: 2012-08-21T18:30:00+00:00

12

EXERCISE

I have found the whole area of exercise and Parkinson’s to be quite confusing. Basically, I have found that I have two opposing sets of needs as regards exercise. One is to keep mobile and active and the other is to conserve my energy, trying to avoid becoming exhausted. It has been important to keep these two factors in balance.

When I first developed Parkinson’s, even before it had been diagnosed, I turned to exercise in order to try to help myself. When I didn’t know I had Parkinson’s and assumed that my shaking was because of stress, I decided that living a healthier life-style could only be beneficial. I joined a gym for the first time in my life, gave up coffee and practised relaxation. As regards the extra exercise I was taking, I vaguely assumed that it would increase my overall strength and that the chemicals released in my brain during exercise would be beneficial in encouraging me to relax. However, my symptoms did not improve although I did feel more relaxed and this generally made life easier to manage. Then I received the diagnosis of Parkinson’s. I felt this warranted a new look at my fitness schedule and I decided to find a new gym (mine was small and had become over-crowded) where I could look for a personal trainer.

Having a personal trainer would not have occurred to me, had I not been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but I now felt that I needed professional guidance in the whole area of exercise. Jack and I found a new gym, which was spacious and welcoming. There were various trainers around and I approached one of them, Jill, who was very friendly, to ask her how to go about arranging to have a personal trainer. I also told her that I had Parkinson’s. So started a relationship, which has now lasted several years and has only been interrupted by my travels to France. Jill and I have met weekly or fortnightly over the period of time and I cannot express how much this has meant to my selfesteem. Jill is much younger than me, positive, glowing with health and vitality, slim, very attractive, excellent at every exercise under the sun, intelligent and…patient. I have valued the last of these attributes above all the rest. She had not worked with anyone who had Parkinson’s before she met with me, but immediately grasped the important issues such as my ability to do something one week and not the next and my increasing tendency to become suddenly exhausted.

The wonderful thing about having regular personal training input is the privilege of regularly being the focus of someone else’s professional attention. In that sense it is a bit like receiving counselling, although counselling focuses on feelings and thoughts whereas Jill has focused on what I can do with my body. Having said that, I can think of many times when I have lost heart, lost confidence and Jill has encouraged me to think positively about my

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.