Parkinson’s disease attacks the body through the brain by
destroying the brain’s ability to send nerve impulses to the body’s muscles. Sounds
nasty, right? (There is no pain involved, so it could be worse. Always look for
the bright side.) However, what if you lose the ability to send muscles all the
impulses needed to do certain things like flex or contract so you can move or
pick something up, button your shirt, write, type, pour a glass of wine.? (Get
the picture?)
When that happens, life becomes a little more challenging. If
you simply don’t exercise or don’t exercise intensely enough, you are giving PD
a head start at putting you in a wheel chair. Why would you do that? No,
seriously. Why? When you look in a mirror at your naked body after you have had PD
for a few years, remember what it looked like before PD decided it wanted you
to look like a decimated cadaver. Then get pissed off and do something about
it.
If you exercise intensely, (intensely is the operative word
here) you can strengthen those parts of the muscle that still get impulses to
offset what you have lost to Parkinson’s. I don’t care what your age is. You
can regain muscle mass and strength. You can rebuild your body and feel good
about it. Based on my experience, I firmly believe that you can teach muscles
to develop new nerve paths and force them to do
what you want them to do. It just takes a lot of work. ( That is spelled
“A LOT”) I discovered the relationship
between reducing or reversing symptoms and intense exercise when I decided to
rebuild my muscles that were atrophied to the point of scaring me. And I don’t
scare easily. (Not true.) I exercised longer and more intensely and as I
rebuilt my muscle mass and strength, especially my abs. I was amazed that some symptoms just
disappeared. That’s right. Disappeared. As I did that, I realized that I was
staring down Parkinson’s and putting years between me and a wheel chair. Maybe
even never needing such a device.
Here is how I got better in bed. A typical loss of strength
for an average PD patient is the strength to move your body in bed. I know, this sounds strange, but it is very
real and this symptom in the last two years became very problematic for me
personally. “Do you have difficulty changing position in bed?” This is a standard benchmark question doctors ask to check
on PD progression. For me, over a period of time, it became very hard to change
position and location once in bed. It looked like it was a battle that I was
losing. I got fed up with this sympton and tired of taking shit from my little
friend, PD. It was then I decided this had to change. So I tested muscles to isolate those
used to move in bed and then set out to double the strength of these through a very intense and
extended routine focusing on building strength in my abs, triceps, legs and shoulders.
As I developed new
muscle and strength it was apparent that I needed even more improvement in my abs.
So I went about developing abnormal abs. (That was too easy.) My abs were sore
24 X 7 and still are., but you can literally see the transformation in the
attached photos. I’m feeling real good about building muscles beyond what they were
before I had PD. Did you catch that? I have more ab muscle now than I ever had with or without PD. Take that PD!
More on the transition. While I was at it, I thought that losing an additional 15 pounds can be of help when I try to lift my fat ass and then move about the bed. It took more than two months but I can now move so much
easier when I want to change position in bed and also in general. This morning
I weighed in at 174 pounds (at 6 feet tall), the weight I had as a sophomore in
high school. This entire experience is just
more proof that if you are determined enough, you can reverse Parkinson’s
symptoms. What do you have to lose? A wheel chair? Sure there are limits to
everything. Don’t focus on the limits. Focus how to get to the limit and then
focus on moving the limit.
Do it. Your body will thank you in more ways than one.
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