Traditional Fall Prevention Exercises for Parkinson’s Disease

The best exercises for individuals with Parkinson’s disease are fun, challenging, and, above all, safe. Depending on personal preferences and symptoms, a Parkinson’s patient may choose different exercises to work different motor or cognitive skills. However, an ideal exercise program incorporates a variety of activities that include aerobic exercise, strength training, balance exercises, and flexibility training.

How much exercise should a person with Parkinson’s be getting? Recent literature recommends that individuals with Parkinson’s disease strive for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

Traditional Fall Prevention Exercises

Aerobic Exercises

Aerobic exercise – often referred to simply as “cardio” – involves continuous, rhythmic movements that increase your heart rate over a period of time.

Aerobic exercise helps improve overall fitness and can enhance several aspects of motor function. In fact, research shows moderate and vigorous intensity aerobic exercise is particularly beneficial for individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

One study found that, for patients with mild symptom severity, getting 30-45 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week “had an effect similar to that of several conventional Parkinson drugs.”

Types of aerobic exercises include:

• Walking, jogging, or running (depending on your level of mobility)

• Swimming or water aerobics

• Cycling or stationary biking

• Rowing

Strength Training Exercises

Strength training exercises help build muscle mass, and maintaining strong muscles makes it easier to perform daily activities.

Fitness experts typically recommend strength training exercises that focus on one muscle group at a time and alternate between focus areas each day. This allows the muscles time to rest, repair, and grow stronger, thereby reducing the risk of injury.

For each muscle group, 10-15 repetitions in 1-3 sets should be performed. Each muscle group should be worked on 2-3 times every week on alternate days to avoid working the same muscle group multiple days in a row.

Some examples of strength training exercises for various muscle groups include:

• Bicep curls

• Tricep dips, kickbacks, or extensions

• Standard or assisted pull-ups

• Squats or repeated stand-ups from a seated position on a chair

• Leg Presses

Balance Exercises

Maintaining balance is especially important in helping to prevent or reduce the risk of falling. In addition to building stronger muscles through strength training, balance and mobility exercises are crucial for enhancing stability.

Fall prevention is a primary goal of balance exercises. That’s why working with a physical therapist to determine which balance exercises are best for the individual is strongly recommended. Physical therapists will focus on strengthening ankles and improving the body’s ability to “catch itself” to help prevent falls.

Maintaining balance is a crucial skill in various sports and daily activities, and it becomes increasingly important as people age. Parkinson’s patients should focus on improving their balance now to help prevent future falls and avoid the injuries that often accompany them.

Examples of community programs that also address balance:

• Yoga: Better sleep, better mood, better flexibility – yoga has a lot of benefits. A huge part of any yoga practice is balance. Yoga challenges the body to maintain balance as it flows through dynamic poses and maintains different positions. Releasing tight muscles and strengthening essential stabilizer muscles lowers the risk of falling.

  
  

• Tai chi: A low-impact exercise that can be done almost anywhere, tai chi is an excellent way to control stress and improve balance. The flowing movements from one pose to the next allow a person to practice shifting their weight from one foot to another with their arms outstretched.

Coordination Exercises

With Parkinson’s disease, muscle movements slow and decrease in size over time. This can make it more challenging to coordinate more complex movements.

Engaging in activities that challenge the agility, size, and speed of muscle movements can help improve and maintain motor skills.

Coordination exercises and activities that challenge muscle groups in the lower body include:

• Walking

• Cycling

• Dancing

• No-contact boxing or other martial arts

When it comes to working the upper body and fine motor skills, a couple of helpful hand exercises for Parkinson’s might include:

• Pickups are an exercise where a small object, such as a hairbrush, pencil, or coin, is selected and placed on a table. Then the patient practices picking it up, gripping it, and setting it down with each hand.

  
  

• Fingertip touches involve holding the arms up in a relaxed position, with the elbow bent and palms facing out. The exercise slowly bends the index finger downward to touch the thumb and then opens the hand. The exercise is repeated with the middle finger, ring finger, and pinky

Some hobbies and activities can also help improve coordination, including:

• Painting or drawing

• Writing a letter

• Gardening and planting

• Sewing, knitting, or cross-stitching

• Playing an instrument like the piano or guitar

But symptoms of Parkinson’s can vary widely, and their severity depends on how far an individual’s illness has progressed. Physical activities must be adapted on a case-by-case basis, which is what physical therapists like to do for their patients.

Exercising at Home

Working out in public can be intimidating, especially if you’re new to it. However, a gym membership or a ton of fancy equipment is not needed to get or stay fit. Find an open spot in your house where there is enough uncluttered room that is sufficient for large movement exercises and a yoga mat to provide cushion on a hard floor.

Small, easy movements can be a good place to start, such as marching in place and arm circles, and then gradually increase the challenge as you become more comfortable. There are numerous apps and videos online to help make the most of at-home workouts that incorporate strength training exercises using one's own body weight. A set of free weights can help build strength.

Alternative home exercise programs for individuals with Parkinson’s disease are available from some manufacturers. Many times, certain types of assistive devices and physical therapy tools can be used in conjunction with traditional fall prevention exercises.

For example, the ResQUp Fall Recovery and Mobility Aid is such a device. For more information about ResQUp exercises for fall prevention in Parkinson’s patients, see our article “Basic and Advanced Level ResQUp Exercises for Parkinson’s Patients”.

Conclusion

A wide variety of exercises and activities are readily available for individuals with Parkinson’s disease that are fun, challenging, and safe. All involve some combination of strength, balance, and coordination training, much in the same way elderly people should train to improve their overall health and, importantly, to prevent falls. Physical Therapists and other professionals who coach patients with Parkinson’s disease should present alternative exercises to be used in the home that are specifically tailored to the patient’s physical or mental disability.