After sliding on her hot pink boxing gloves, Gina kept her chin down and eyes forward, ready to face her opponent.
“One, one, two,” her husband, Gill, said instructively, bracing for the next punch into the boxing mitts.
After nailing the series of left and right patterned punches, she threw 10 continuous punches into the left mitt, following a sharp “beat it up” command. She drew back one last time, and threw the final “knock-out” punch, a left jab to the mitt.
Gina has Parkinson’s Disease, a slowly progressing brain disorder that affects the levels of dopamine being released in a person’s body, causing a loss of control of body movements, including tremors and body stiffness. She participates in the Frank P. Phillips Memorial YMCA’s adaptive fitness classes specifically for those suffering from the disease.
At the Tuesday Columbus Rotary luncheon at Lion Hills Center, Stephanie Gibson shared the YMCA’s plan to add a non-contact boxing gym to its current Parkinson’s program. A few of the program’s participants also shared their personal testimonies and experiences with the fitness classes.
Gibson, a certified fitness instructor and Christian missions director at the Y, said she did not want to restrict the program to just the aquatics and pedaling classes offered over the past decade.
“We want to be on the cutting edge of what is being done, so we are sending my son, (Salem Gibson) to Indianapolis to be trained and certified as a Rock Steady trainer and coach,” Gibson said. “We will be the first in Mississippi to bring this (Rock Steady boxing) to our state.”
Rock Steady Boxing, a nonprofit organization founded in 2006, offers the first boxing program of its kind, and hopes to improve the quality of life for those with Parkinson’s disease through a non-contact boxing fitness curriculum.
Similar to the pedaling classes at the YMCA, the boxing curriculum will feature sets of right and left patterning and movement. However, during a Rock Steady class, participants will take on exercises largely adapted from real boxing drills, including those focused on hand-eye coordination, footwork, speed and overall strength.
Although there is no known cure for the disease, research shows patients with Parkinson’s who exercise at least 2 1/2 hours a week experience a slower progression of the disease and a better quality of life, the National Parkinson Foundation says.
Gibson said the YMCA has applied for a grant in hopes to fund the equipment for the gym, such as boxing gloves, speed bags and heavy boxing bags. Gibson will present the grant by the end of the week, however, she said the Y is always accepting donations to directly fund the program, as well. Both beginner and advanced classes will be offered and will start in September.
10 years of success
Throughout the last decade, the YMCA has impacted the lives of 33 people living with Parkinson’s through its adaptive fitness programs. Although Gibson hopes the Y’s current Parkinson’s patients will continue their fitness journeys in the new boxing classes, she said they are trying to reach out to new participants, especially those who are in the early stages of Parkinson’s.
“One of the first questions people have after being diagnosed is ‘What do I do now?'” Gibson said. “We really want to help those people who are in the early developmental stages of the disease.”
Aquatics and pedaling participant Al Broadbent started the classes shortly after being diagnosed in 2010. He said they’ve turned his life around “180 degrees.”
“If I would have known about these classes any sooner, I would have been the first one at the door to sign up,” Broadbent said. “Stephanie and her staff, they treat you like family, and we all are like different pieces of a puzzle. We come in as individuals, and leave connected as a whole.”
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