(Sensory exercise is low intensity and requires participants to complete exercise with their eyes closed)
EDIT 3/30: Full disclosure, one of the doctors running this (and all of these Sensory Exercise) study(s), Dr Quincy Almeida, is the creator of Sensory Exercise and offers it to clients carespace.health/pd-safex/ BUT I SHOULD ADD! One of the other people on this study, Kishoree Sangarapillai, is a certified RSB instructor. Just note that all of the Sensory Exercise research is coming from one place.
My takeaway from this paper is: Boxing can't lay a glove on Sensory Exercise for improving PD symptoms.
My challenge is finding guidance on Sensory Exercise. It is called SAFEx, Sensory Attention Focused Exercise, PDSAFEx. So far I can't find a video or a book or a guide on how it is done. I found some places that offer the training. I will keep digging.
Boxing vs Sensory Exercise for Parkinson’s Disease: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial 2021 ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
(I have trimmed these results comments)
"Immediately after intervention, the sensory exercise group indicated improvements to disease severity in comparison to the boxing group. This was further supported by gait parameters (improved stride length and velocity) linked to disease severity. These findings are consistent with previous literature suggesting that sensory exercise can improve the motor symptoms of PD.18-20 In comparison, immediately after the intervention, boxing did not improve disease severity. This is in line with a previous study that assessed disease severity and boxing, where researchers indicated motor scores fluctuated after boxing, where 2 of the 6 participants experienced improvements to symptoms.3 Of the gait parameters assessed, a slight increase in stride length was seen. This is contrary to a previous study that had reported improvements to gait velocity post-boxing."
"Once immediate effects were established, this study aimed to assess whether these effects wore off. At the end of the washout period, in comparison to the boxing group, the sensory group maintained improved levels of disease severity. Importantly, improvement in UPDRS-III scores from pre- to washout assessment for the sensory group is double the change needed to reach minimal clinical importance (greater than a 5-point change).35,36 This is line with previous research utilizing similar exercise protocols involving slow and controlled moment (external focused exercise,17 blindfolded balance training,37 balance training HIBalance,38 progressive modular rebalancing,39 and Tai Chi exercises40). The lasting improvements to disease severity post-sensory may have been due to the improved functioning of the remaining dopaminergic neurons as a result of the increased sensory stimulation passing through the basal ganglia during exercise.11,14,29,34,41,42 In comparison to sensory exercise, boxing did not have a lasting effect on disease severity. This is contrary to recent rehabilitation literature that have stated high-intensity exercise (e.g., treadmill training,43 tandem cycling,44 multidisciplinary intensive rehabilitation treatments,45 and aerobic exercise46) can greatly improve disease severity as well as potentially have a neuroprotective effect."
"Improvements to disease severity were also seen in gait parameters. Specifically, stride length and stride velocity remained increased (improved) at washout for the sensory group. This may be because sensory exercise has the ability to improve underlying symptoms such as rigidity and postural instability.15 Previous studies have noted that rigidity and postural instability may reduce forward propulsion and thereby negatively affect stride length and stride velocity.23,50-53 As such, sustained improvements to rigidity and postural instability due to sensory exercise may then translate to improvements in gait parameters.54,55 In comparison, stride length and stride velocity did not change at washout for the boxing group. This may be because boxing did not influence the underlying neurological disease, and as such, participants continued to have impaired gait."
"Despite these differing results at washout, both boxing and sensory exercise improved self-perceived QOL, which was maintained throughout the duration of the study. The maintenance of the improved self-perceived QOL despite exercise intervention was to be expected as participation in any exercise is likely to lead to an improved perception of QOL.56-58While improvements to QOL reflect disease severity improvement seen in sensory exercise, QOL improvements were also maintained throughout boxing despite lack of improvement to disease severity."
Mucuna Pruriens in Parkinson's disease, dosages and effects, A double-blind, randomized, controlled, crossover human study (2017)
Freezing of gait: exercises to imrove
