Article on walking benefits for parkinson's.

[marion11005]

I've been walking for a month now and have gotten up to 3 times a week for 1 hour. I've noticed I don't have nearly as much problem with my left leg and foot tending to drag. I found this article explaining why, as often mentioned by John Pepper. Having a friend to walk with has kept me more motivated! parkinson.org/Parkinson-s-D...

[JohnPepper]

Hi Marion. I am very surprised that you have ignored the warning to go at it slowly, or maybe you have not seen the warning. If you have not been doing regular ENERGETIC walking for a long time then you should start walking hard for no more than 15 minutes and add another 5 minutes every second week until you reach 1 hour, after four or five months.

I am very pleased you have felt a benefit already, but please take it easy and don't be in a hurry to get up to the 1 hour goal. I have had many injuries over the years, trying to do too much.

Thanks for filling me in on this.

Kind regards

John

[marion11005 in reply to JohnPepper]

Thanks for the warning. I had been doing 30 minute walks on my country road for several weeks prior to my increase in time and distance. So far the only damage seems to be to my shoes which are in bad need of replacing--I plan to get a new pair this week. I'm more worried about getting blisters breaking them in!

[JohnPepper in reply to marion11005]

Hi Marion. You must be quite young to have been able to suddenly start walking hard for half an hour. Perhaps you only walked a bit faster than normal or even fairly normal. The whole aim of fast walking is to get the breathing up high and the pulse rate up as high as possible, just a bit less than maximum. Then the brain produces GDNF, the magic repair kit for Pd. If you are still able to talk normally, while walking, you are not pushing yourself as much as you should, then start doing so, right now. Then tell me you are able to walk for one hour at that speed!

Kind regards

John

[dbean]

Good Morning, I am back again to support the walking exercising idea.I am Boxer and our program does it all. We are RockSteadyBoxing.org in Indianapolis Ind. and for over 6 years I have been doing the walking and exercise program. The program offers all levels of exercise, we box on speed bags, walk and all of the wonderful exercises to keep us moving. We have about 180 PD friends in our program and not only the exercise but the love of friends add to our continuing health. Keep up you good work