Gait Freezing: I Need to Warm Up Properly Before a Walk Outside
Hello everyone, I have PD for 13 years now. Quite athletic (played tennis before, now 3x/week of gym for strength & flexibility). However, I've started in the last year to suffer from gait issues and lack of balance. I take levocarb and safinamide, but they are not enough any more. I discovered that lately going out for a walk, e.g. for shopping, with no preparation presents the risk of gait freezing and/or falls at the most inopportune moments. I am confident now that a good way to avoid gait issues is a serious warm-up at home, say 10 min on a stationary bike or of tennis-related footwork, as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlI3s4h3ntY. I know e.g. I have to be able to do 2-3 crossover steps in order to know I am properly warmed up. Otherwise, unfortunately, I can have falls during normal walking. When warmed up, I am pretty much how I was 2-3 years ago- nimble on my feet with long and quick gait and able to avoid obstacles. Installing a 8' x 7' extra thick exercise mat, very good in terms of shock absorption, helped me a lot in terms of my training. I am using it for Yoga and Pilates too. Otherwise hard floors can damage your knees, and you generate a lot more noise in the building, which is important with neighbors.
Best of health to all of you.
I have had PD for over 30 years. I can offer a few suggestions based on my experience.
Freezing used to be a big problem for me, particularly in unfamiliar, confined or cluttered environments. Initially I found listing to music with a strong regular beat would prevent freezing. Now I have learned to recognise situations where freezing is likely and just think a regular beat. This seems to work very well. I still have problems in crowded situations where the people around me move in unpredictable ways. Carrying a walking cane causes people to leave more space and makes freezing much less likely.
On preventing falls. This is a very complex subject. Core body strength is important. Proprioception, or sensing what your body is doing, is compromised in PD. There are a few PD exercise programmes specifically designed to help, but availability is very much dependent on where you live. Simply regularly walking on the looser sand on a beach is excellent exercise. Tai Chi, yoga, or many martial arts supervised by an informed instructor is good.
For general movement difficulties I suggest learning a musical instrument. Any drum is excellent. Another good choice is any keyboard instrument. Electronic keyboards are cheap and headphones allow practice without annoying neighbours. Guitars are problematic for many reasons. A non fretted string instrument is my favourite. I have bass guitar, double bass, cello, violin, erhu. A teacher is enormously helpful in getting started.
A non musical alternative is to try drawing or painting. My preference is Asian style ink painting and watercolor.
In summary, for every day difficulties, try to reduce the impact of the problem. In training, try things which are challenging, but only in a safe environment. Above all, choose activities which you find fun rather than a chore.
Hello again:
I found this exercise is the most valuable for me:
STOP FREEZING with Parkinson's | The Parkinson's Gym
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heyYgDAh8jA&t=357s
the part from 7:09 to 9:19
in terms of doing a good start of walking.
Lead with your heel!
Best of health.
