How to Live Well with Parkinson’s… Even When You’re Locked Down

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The Parkinson’s community has shown up in a big way during this global health pandemic. From moving events online to offering virtual exercise classes and support group meetings, we’ve reached a point where it’s possible for you to keep up your regular live well routine all from the comfort of your own home. Even though connecting with people through hugs and handshakes and shared experiences is a key piece of living well, and we know you’re missing that in significant ways every day, we are grateful to those who are working to make this period as manageable as possible.

If you’re looking for ways to exercise, connect, and play online, here are just a few of the options out there.

BIAL and the European Parkinson’s Disease Association (EPDA) have created Keep ON Moving, a series of at-home exercises based on the dual-training method and combine voice, movement, and cognitive tasks. Each video is short (ten minutes or less) and can be done in combination with other videos and repeated as often as you would like.

Sarah King – 4-Part Exercise Mini-Series: Core Strengthening Exercises for Parkinson’s

Pedaling For Parkinson’s® is offering online Zoom classes. (Davis Phinney Foundation Ambassador Tom Palizzi leads one three days a week!)

Team DPF Program Manager Lauren Kehn leads weekly connection and virtual yoga sessions each Wednesday at 7:30 am MST (9:30 am EST) here on Zoom.

Amy Carlson, a Davis Phinney Foundation Ambassador and passionate dancer offers daily online dance sessions at 8:30 am Pacific here on Zoom.

Brett Miller, another Davis Phinney Foundation Ambassador and founder of 110 Fitness in Massachusetts is offering virtual classes every day called 110 Daily Grind. Brett has also recently launched the 110 Fitness app.

PD-Connect offers Monday-Saturday live Zoom exercise classes with an aim of higher intensity, but with modifications making this appropriate for all levels of Parkinson’s. Instructors are Parkinson’s certified physical therapists and trainers. Classes address functional mobility, posture, balance, strength, coordination, cognition, voice, and most of all, having FUN! Check out the schedule at PD-Connect.org.

Dominique Thomas – Zumba Movement Break

Susan Perlis – Dance for PD Movement Break

Brittany Walker and Sarah Sanders – LSVT BIG® & LOUD Movement Break

Get LOUD! Stay LOUD! Get access to 15+ voice practice sessions per week (based on LSVT LOUD and SPEAK OUT) as well as facial exercises, articulation practice, and more. Your first month is free.

Parkinson’s Voice – Practice vocal fitness with a daily live webinar. And, get the Loud + Clear app, too.

PWR! – At the moment they are offering two free videos to help you keep moving every day.

The Parkinson’s Fitness Project with Nate Coomer – Parkinson’s physical therapist offers online exercise classes to help you manage your symptoms.

Dr. Soania Mathur – Unshakeable MD YouTube Channel (not exercise, but great tips for living well)

Dance for PD – They’ve made all their archived classes available for free during this home-bound period.

Erica DeMarch – Balance Up: Generations Balancing Together – Join physical therapist, author, and founder of Step and Connect, Erica and her girls every day at 11 am Mountain/1 pm Eastern here on Zoom or via Facebook Live to explore balance, be silly, and move with friends and family. People of all ages welcome.

Jennifer Larsen – Parkinson’s personal trainer shares at-home exercise sessions via her YouTube channel.

Adaptive Yoga/Mindful Movement with Jennifer Jayanti Atkins

Yoga15 – This is not yoga specifically for people with Parkinson’s, but a couple of people (Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter Phinney) have told us they do it every day and love it.

DopaFit is offering all of their classes via Zoom. Their high-intensity workout sessions are 10-11 EST on Mon/Fri. Their modified workout sessions are 12-1 Mon/Fri EST. Please reach out to cmoir@mydopafit.com to sign up.

P.S. If you’re new to Zoom, here’s a great tutorial to help you get set up.

Did we miss an online class you think we should include? Please let us know in the comments.

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Comments (4)

You forgot Loud and Clear, the voice fitness app! Not to mention our newly added Parkinsons Voice Fitness webinars!
Check out parkinsonsvoice.com for the webinar and loudandclear.io for the app. Love you DPF!

Thank you, Steven. I updated the post with your links.

Hello there! I am a speech pathologist who has a global PD forum for speech/voice maintenance. We live stream 15+ voice practice sessions per week (based on LSVT LOUD and SPEAK OUT) as well as facial exercises, articulation practice etc. New members can try it free for a month. Is it possible to update this blog post and/or disseminate to your contact list. Our members are finding it extremely useful during this confinement period to be able to continue doing their voice/speech practice online. https://getloudstayloud.mn.co/

Thank you, Sarah. I updated the post with your link.

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