Community Spotlight Rock Steady Boxing Greensboro
diagnosed each year. Parkinson’s is a brain disorder that can impair simple activities we take for granted like walking and talking, and there is no cure. “Imagine a doctor telling you that you have Parkinson’s Disease, and it is degenerative, meaning it will get worse every day, and it is incurable. Now if you put that together, you realize that as crummy as you feel today, THIS is the best you are ever going to feel.” These words are of Scot Newman, the founder of Rock Steady Box- ing. At the age of 40 he was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease. At first, he got angry and hid from the world as he lost his ability to write and type, until one day his best friend came by and suggested he try a boxing workout. And after only 6 weeks of intense boxing training he was get- ting better, he could sign his name and type again. He went to the kitchen table one day and told his wife “look my hands are Rock Steady!” and thus Rock Steady Boxing began in 2006.
A Initially intended as a program to help people battle
young-onset Parkinson’s disease, over the course of many years the program evolved to accommodate and help people at ALL stages of the disease. Word spread quickly of the suc- cess of the program, and people from all over the world began to call Rock Steady in Indianapolis asking for help. In 2012, the “Affiliate” program was created with the goal of spread- ing Rock Steady Boxing’s message of hope through boxing style training for people with Parkinson’s internationally. Today there are over 525 Rock Steady Boxing affiliates, and lucky for Greensboro, Julie Luther, a long-standing name in the fitness business here in Greensboro, has opened a Rock Steady Af- filiate within her fitness center, PurEnergy.
So why is boxing so effective? It has to do with what is called “forced intense exercise”.
Simply put, when exercise is done at a volunteer rate, there is less benefit than when exercise is done that pushes or forces someone out of their comfort zone. Recent medical studies, including one at the Cleveland Clinic, focused on intense “forced” exercise and found that this type of exercise can exert a neuroprotective influence and actually slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease. And what better way to get out of your comfort zone than to box?
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ccording to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, more than 10 million people worldwide are living with Par- kinson's disease and more than 60,000 Americans are
So exactly what do you get in a Rock Steady Class? First, Rock Steady Boxing classes are 90 minutes long, that
in and of itself, is pushing beyond most normal exercise classes. In addition to that, each class is completely different, like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates, our fighters “Never know what they are going to get!" But no matter how different each class is they all include high intensity punching, weaving and blocking along with a battery of other exercise formats that focus on speed, agility, balance, hand eye coordination, rhythm, timing, voice activation, cardio and strength. All those components attack specific Parkinson’s symptoms. I also have noticed that perhaps the biggest asset of the program is the group itself. Often when diagnosed with Parkinson’s people want to hide away at home and just give up. The group dynamic changes despair to hope because the fighters are all in it together. Rock Steady Classes also serve participants at all stages of Parkinson’s from the newly diagnosed to those who have been living with the disease for decades. A new member undergoes a complete fitness and balance assessment and are placed in a class that will best benefit their specific needs.
Rock Steady Boxing Greensboro opened it’s doors in June
of 2017 with just a handful of fighters. Today we have over 40 fighters and all of them have seen major improvements in their symptoms. Fighters that came in on walkers no longer need the help of any walker or cane, others that couldn’t drive are driving again and still others that had to quit work are working
for People with Parkinson's
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