Quote:
Originally Posted by Nan Cyclist
Debi points to the greatest difficulty, or at least one huge hurdle: getting people in our community to participate. I'm in two long term studies and my husband is in PPMI. How hard can it be to find 600 people willing to be in PPMI? Harder than we expected.
Our biggest hurdle in Pedaling For Parkinson's is getting people out the door to YMCAs to get on the bikes or to get on the bikes at home. They just have to have a regular road bike on a trainer at home or hop on one at the Y, but getting people to do it is tough. I really don't know why. It's hard, but it must be harder to sit in one spot and watch life go by. There are lifelines. Why don't people grab them? What am I missing?
|
Nan,
You work tirelessly to motivate PWP to get off their duffs and pedal. I will chime in with my opinion (for what that is worth) and experience. First, think of how many people are loathe to exercise. Dr. Albert and you prove that exercise enhances dopamine, but to make us want to change our habit of lazing about we need immediate reward; exercise gives us a boost but not enough for us to go "Gee I need that and crave it" as in addiction, so it is easier to put it off if we don't note an intense immediate gain or something like that. I am going on memory of an article I read a couple years ago. To compound matters, dopamine can leave us addicted to bad habits or behaviors, and this makes us reluctant to change or upset what feels normal or requires little risk or change.
Take on that normal neurochemical relation to exercise and add in the PD factor and you get even more resistance. Having to pedal your butt off at 80 RPMs means having to admit you have PD. Not exercising is a convoluted form of denial. Pre-PD, exercise was good for us but once you liken it to a treatment it hits home. By engaging in Pedaling for Parkinson's, you have it. These two things can be potent barriers to getting your message across.
Exercise is more a long term reward, so the hurdle is getting people to 1) try it and 2) make it a habit. I did find this other piece that may be of some help:
http://nomoredirtylooks.com/2011/01/...ak-bad-habits/
Laura