Hello. I was wondering how exercise affects other people with PD. I have read that it is important for people with PD to exercise and my doctor continues to encourage me to do so, but I am always much more symptomatic after I exercise. When I exercise in the morning, I am pretty much off for the rest of the day even with meds. I am 21 and want to keep in shape, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to do. Sorry if this is not an appropriate post. Thank you for your time.

Hi,

Have a look at this :

http://forums.braintalk2.org/showthread.php?t=1462
"Everyone talks about it"

You raise a problem that I experience though I don't have PD (I have chronic fatigue) : when I exercise in the morning, I can feel exhausted all day, have to sleep to recover. But it is not systematic. The non-systematic and unpredictible pattern of my fatigue makes it hard for me to hold a schedule like "I will have exercise from X o'clock to Z o'clock". The advice I got was to have a quarter fom time to time rather than half an hour and yes, it doesn't wear me off. But I forget...

Ok, it's not like I don't get any exercise at all : I live in the woods and often go for walks, I have the housework and often do it while dancing, singing and playing music to boost me.

Greetings
Karine

Welcome Alstro..That is definately an appropriate question..I dont exercise, but I engage in alot of physical activity from time to time, and it does make me more syptomatic afterward, and fatigued..But I have noticed that it does make me stronger, and after a peroid of time I dont get AS symptomatic..I do however notice that shortly after I rest on my laurels its back to square one, and if I dont engage in physical activities at all, then doing simply daily chores get to be a major production..There is alot of benefit from exercise for those of us who can exercise, and if nothing else it is one of the many simple ways of putting up a fight against the disease

One of the problems Ive had with pd is I have been vulnreable to this "lack of motivation" mode, and for me if I allow it to get the best of me it will destroy me physically and emotionally, and what begins to happen is that my world no longer consists of me and all this things I love about life..It consists of me and my illness, and this is bad..This is not an uncommon problem amongst us parkies..This lack of motivation is a form of pd related depression, and those of us who suffer from it have to be on our guard..When I find myself sitting in front of either the TV or the computer all day when I have other things that I should be doing, that I am perfectly capable of doing..then I have to recognize and confront these behaviors, because thats how it starts for me, and it will continue untill nothing whatsoever is getting done over long stretches of time..Ive done things like wash a load of clothes and leave them in the dryer for 3 days because I have to go down the cellar stairs..unload the dryer..and climb back up the stairs with the load of clothes, and then I have to fold them which is hard but not impossible because my right hand doesnt have much of the needed movement or coordination to perform this simple task..Then Oh My God!..Now I have to put them away....Sounds trivial, but sometimes this is a major crisis for me when Im caught up in this lack of motivation mode

My point is, that this is one of the reasons why execise can be beneficial to us..Its not only about stretching the limbs and muscles, and staying somewhat in physical shape..It contributes to emotional well being too

21? Wow, sorry to hear that.

I am the opposite when it comes to exercise. If I don't work out, then I feel more tired and lethargic throughout the day. I need to work out every day in order to function. I do light weight lifting, stretching, yoga, and other activities.

There are some important things to remember. Be sure you're hydrated before working out. Eat something small, like a banana, before working out. Hydrate through your workout. If you feel dizzy or lightheaded, stop or slow your routine. After working out, eat or drink a little protein. (I do fruit smoothies with protein powder.) Change up your routine. Legs one day, arms one day, aerobics the next day. Always stretch before and after. And add some variety. Take walks outside. Shoot some hoops. Ride a bike.

Exercise is good for you whether you have PD or not. And a good diet is just as critical. I know sometimes it's hard to get motivated when you don't feel all that great. And if you haven't worked out in quite some time, then it's more difficult to start, both physically and emotionally. Like they say, always talk to your doctor before staring any exercise program. But I'm a firm believer that the less you do, the worse you'll feel. But the more you do, while you may feel bad at first, eventually you'll start to reap the benefits of being in shape. And we need all the help we can get while fighting this disease. Good luck!

Todd
PDTalks.com

Hi! I do try to walk 20 minutes every other day. Well, really, I try to do it every day, but only manage about every other day. I do adjust my walking depending on what my work day is like - if it's going to be a physical day, forget it! I'll be wiped out! But, as has already been said, if I keep it up for a couple of weeks I get stronger. If I stop for, say, the summer (oops! I stopped for the summer!) I do drag. But for me, it's worth going through the icky first couple of weeks to get to the feeling good part. I also was diagnosed with hypothyroid, so gain weight by looking at food just about! So moderate excercise is needed, whether I like it or not.
Mouse

Exercise, definitely exercise.

I think that exercise is what has kept me relatively stable for the last two years. I work out three or four times per week, 35-45 minutes, mostly vigorous cardio, and some weight training.

This is something that I started - well, my wife got me to start - about 2-1/2 years ago, and I've kept it up since. I hadn't been diagnosed yet, but there was one day in which various odd things that I had noticed for several years all came together at the same time. We went on line and looked at all the various things that had tremors as one of the symptoms, and they all said, "Exercise helps!" (Also looked at the whole list of Parkinson's symptoms, and we said to each other ,"Uh-oh, this doesn't look good.") My wife went out the next day and got us both memberships in a gym.

There were several weeks of MRI's and neurologist visits, and a steady increase in symtoms, before a diagnosis was made. Since then, after having had that one-weekend severe increase in symptoms, and getting stabilized on a given set of meds, I have required very little modification or increase in medications. Now, I know that it is partially due to the perverse nature of PD that things have stayed stable, but am just as certain that the exercise has made a big difference in slowing it down.

One thing that I do is exercise in the evening, after work, instead of in the morning. I also found that the morning was far too tiring, and I ended up sleeping it off for the rest of the morning.

So, go to it, and good luck to you. At 21, you've got a long uphill row to hoe, and might as well do all you can to cut the hill down to size.

There are two things making us worse as the years go by - PD and lack of use. You know the phrase "use it or lose it"? For example, in ten years, two people could be affected exactly the same by PD - one works to maintain strength, flexibility, cardio-vascular fitness, stride length, co-ordination, balance, etc. and is doing pretty darned good. The other one hasn't done a thing and can hardly get around anymore. It's a lot easier to maintain ability than re-gain it, but there have been a few examples on this forum - Nikki, where are you? - of people who have gone on an extensive exercise program and improved unbelievably.

The difficult part is to stay motivated. I won't ever dare slack off completely while on vacation after what that did to me this summer. Never mind the loss of fitness, but it's been hard to get back onto routine. One of my big motivators is that if I don't exercise in the sunshine, I don't sleep as well. The other one is that if I don't exercise, I'll hold everyone back on our big summer hike. I love that hike so much, I'll do almost anything to be able to keep going on it.

Good luck with finding an exercise program that suits you and is fun.

Thank you all for all of your helpful replies.

Exercise is o so important, when and if you can. However PWP eventually "freeze-up" and exercise becomes not only naturally difficult, but you don't seem to "heal-up", so that in the next ensuing days and weeks you don't seem to feel the same as you did (that "alive" feeling) when you exercised when you were younger.
Vigorous excercise can make muscles sore and "tight"; so much so that the next day you can develop dystonias, and feel worse for the effort.
Now, is is "worse", well once again it's a function of advancement and general debilitation. If you can barely move and are near the end, exercise is an "impossible" thing, and I think contraindicated at advanced stages (too much of a risk in breaking bones, or pulling inept musculature on a fragile bone structural frame.
So, exercise is wonderful, if you can, but as you get worse to the stage where excercise hurts more afterwards, and keeps you in bed hurting the next day, just take it easy. Non-translational exercise (calinstetics, (sp?)) is useful to keep up the tone of muscles enough to do the things that are personal and neccessary in a day. And always try to get up off your butt and stand for as long as you can in a day without hurting. And (maybe I shouldn't say this as it's like the hog telling the piglet he's too fat) keep those pounds OFF. It's embarrrassing when they have to get an extra orderly to move your bod from one position to the other to get you to fit into the MRI
And parkies getting fat due to low excercise levels and bad nutrtional choices is a whole other thread that we haven't discussed here yet. WE did briefly in the old forum.

I almost took a walk today....the weather finally broke a touch in Florida and we have had a breeze for 3 days! exercise is right around the corner...tomorrow for sure.

paula