Dragon Crane is pleased to launch wellness exercise classes designed for people who have Parkinson's disease. Morning classes will be available in-person and online beginning in March 2023. These classes are designed to bring brain and body together to build strength, flexibility and balance. Our Wednesday class is currently pending, but the Thursday Class is now open! Enroll here.
About Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, nearly one million people in the U.S. and 10 million people across the globe live with PD, making it the second most common neuro-degenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. Most people associate PD with its visible motor symptoms, including tremor, slow movement, stiffness, and difficulty with balance. PD can also present a host of non-motor symptoms, however, such as depression, constipation, disordered sleep, loss of the sense of smell, and cognitive impairment. There is no cure for Parkin-son’s. Current treatment includes medication, surgery, and lifestyle changes, including exercise.
Movement is Medicine
Exercise is a vital component to maintaining functional balance, mobility and cognition in daily activities. Parkinson's Foundation researcher, Stephanie Combs-Miller, found that people who exercise 2.5-3 hours a week are more likely to see benefits such as improved gait, balance, posture, endurance, memory, and concentration as well as decreased falls, freezing, depression, and anxiety. Forced, intense movement, like boxing, karate, and dance, is especially beneficial for people who experience symptoms associated with Parkinson's. Other forms of movement such as qigong, drumming offer equally beneficial intensity.
Why Karate and Qigong?
Dragon Crane teaches Shaolin Kenpo Karate and Ting Sing Qigong. Both of these arts deliver Attention State Training – achieving a state of mind and body leading to more efficient self-regulation. Training requires active cognition, while engaging High Intensity Interval movement through repetitive forms and sequences. With these arts, students may experience mental restoration and fatigue release, which encourages the autonomic nervous system to further regulate the brain.
Oxygen and Blood Flow - feeding brain and body
The brain is the biggest consumer of oxygen in the body. Key cardiovascular elements of our programs increase the flow of blood and therefore proteins and oxygen to the brain, helping it to help itself.
Neurotransmitters - made by the brain, used by the body
Exercise increases dopamine and serotonin production which can improve mind-body
connection in a number of key functional areas like pain processing, mood, and movement.
Attention State Training - connecting brain and body
Attention State Training changes the state of mind and the state of body to improve balance, reflex, cognition through sustained focus endogenously. This transfers to other areas of attentional control in our daily lives.
Hemispheric Synchronization - calming the mind
Rhythmic sound activity performed together in groups can trigger both the right and left sides of the brain to work at the same time. This not only produces a feeling of calm, but also helps improve information processing, ability to move and maintain balance.
Elements of the Dragon Crane program
Each of the 3 Dragon Crane classes includes the following elements of training specifically beneficial to people who have Parkinson's Disease.
Dual Task Training – Performing two moves at once
Intensity Inhibition – Stop start, aerobic, high intensity interval training
Cognitive Training – Choreographed sequences challenge the mind
Kinesthetic Balance – improves spacial awareness, large motor
In the context of karate and qigong, these training elements can help ease the symptoms of PD such as Rigidity, Bradykinesia (delayed reaction), Gait, Sensory Integration, Postural Instability, and Agility. Here's what you can expect with each class.
Strength and balance. Blended elements of attention state training unique to karate, along with the balance and breath work of Ting Sing Qigong. Students learn classic punches, blocks and footwork with core qigong movements to develop internal power.
Core stability and agility. This class introduces the choreographed movements with music, followed by high intensity training common in martial arts. Class ends with short form from Level 1 Ting Sing Qigong.
Tuesday and Thursday classes can be taken together or separately. They share training elements, and each class follows a schedule of warm-up, aerobic with high intensity, full body agility work, choreographed memory work and cooldown. The karate elements are modified individually for each student's abilities. Read more about the Parkinson's Class Outline
Sifu Robyn is certified by the Brian Grant Foundation in Exercise for Parkinson's. She was part of a wellness workshop series funded by the Parkinson's Foundation and is actively teaching and working with people who have Parkinson's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and other neurological diseases. Robyn holds a fifth degree black belt in Shaolin Kenpo, and is the only woman in the United States certified to teach Jook Lum Ting Sing Qigong from the Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu system (Jook Lum Ting Sing Tong Long Pai). If you have questions, or would like to discuss any concerns you might have about joining these classes, please contact her at robyn@dragoncrane.org.