Fast Walking

Hints

This will accompany the film on the email:

 

You may sometime freeze when you are walking then follow the same procedure you went through when starting to walk properly:

 

1. Relax
2. Place your full weight onto your left foot
3. Lift your right foot off the ground and move your right leg forward about eighteen inches (375mm), or even further, and land on the heel of that foot, with your right toes pointing up in the air.
4. Keep moving forward, while lifting the left foot off the ground and bringing it as far forward as possible and landing on the heel of that foot, with your left toes pointing up in the air.
5. Keep walking as fast as you can.

 

If you feel or hear that you are scraping your feet, it means that you are losing your concentration and walking badly.

 

When you get too tired, you will not be able to concentrate anymore. Don’t feel bad about this, because it is very tiring to begin with. The more you practices the further you will be able to walk.

 

When you have come to grips with the simple reality that you are now able to concentrate on your actual movements and have started walking normally, then you are on your way to ‘reversing your Pd!

 

As soon as you are able to do it more confidently, with him still holding your arm, as indicated above, then you should be able to walk every second day, as fast as you can, and start to reverse your Pd. When you no longer need him holding your arm then you can walk unaided.

 

How fast is fast?

 

If you cannot speak, when you are walking, then you are walking too fast.

If you can speak ‘normally’, then you are walking too slowly.

When you are walking at the correct speed for you, then you should only be able say, “One, Two, Three”, between breaths.

 

You should breathe as deeply as possible all the time you are walking.

 

Try not to talk to each other, while you are learning because you can lose your concentration and rhythm and could possibly fall. This is very important.

 

After fast walking for about a month:

 

You should start paying attention to pushing up on the toes of the back feet, before the heels of the front feet touch the ground!

 

Because this is all happening quite fast, you should be consciously aware that you are pushing forward on the toes of your back feet. You can’t look down to see if you are doing this, but you will feel that you are walking much smoother and you will be aware that the weight of your body is being carried on the toes of the back feet.

 

Check Your Posture:

 

If you are not standing upright, then stand erect with your shoulders back and your head upright! There is nothing stopping you from doing so, it is just a bad habit you have developed over the years. If you can lay flat on your back in bed then you can stand up straight. You may need some exercises to help strengthen your back muscles.

 

What is the Walking Plan?

 

To begin with, ten minutes maximum!

 

After every second week you can add an additional five minutes to your time.

 

That means, for the first two weeks you walk for Ten Minutes each walk. On the third and fourth week you walk for Fifteen Minutes each walk. Every second week you will add an additional five minutes per walk until you reach One Hour.

 

When you reach one hour you no longer continue to add an additional five minutes per walk. You stay at one hour per walk and concentrate on walking faster and faster!

 

Keep Records of Your Walks:

 

You must keep a written record of each walk, showing the time walked and the distance travelled. You can then divide the time by the distance and work out how many minutes it took you to walk one kilometre. Seeing your speed improving will give you an incredible boost. Put all these records in a log book for future reference.

 

How often must you walk?

 

You must only walk every second day!

If you walk every day, you will not give your muscles a chance to recover. That will result in muscle injuries and your muscles will start to eat themselves up, in order to get the energy they need to do what you are calling upon them to do.

 

You can walk seven times in a two week period, or have a day off each week and only walk three times a week.

 

What must your pulse rate be in beats per minute (BPM)?

 

As we are all different, we all have different pulse rates. Mine might get up to 100 BPM while yours might get up to 125 BPM. It matters not if you are walking as fast as you can!

 

Why is Fast Walking better than jogging?

 

I don’t know for certain the answer to this question. All I do know is that in the controlled studies done By Dr Beth Fisher in 2006, she found that the best exercise was, “High Intensity Walking”. By that I can only think it means “Fast Walking”. She tested jogging and running, although I don’t know how she got Parkinson’s patients to run or jog.

 

Is walking on the road better than on a treadmill?

 

Yes! Parkinson’s disease affects our brain. It does nothing to our body. However, because the brain controls all movements and if, as a result of having Pd, we don’t use certain muscles in our body then those muscles will atrophy. So, Pd affects the body indirectly. If we start using those atrophied muscles again, they will start to grow again and get stronger.

 

Walking on a road requires a lot more brain activity. It has to deal with uneven surfaces and if we walk on uneven surfaces the brain has a lot more work to do. So, the result is that when we walk on a treadmill, we can actually watch TV or even read a book. That means that we use the brain a great deal less when walking on a treadmill.

 

I would strongly recommend that you walk on grass, because if you have a fall you will not hurt yourself as badly as you would on the road.

 

Remember! There is always a risk of falling. I have fallen quite often, at the beginning, but never broke any bones, because of the exercise I have always been doing. That is why I recommend having someone hold the patient’s arm for the initial period, when you are getting used to using your conscious brain to control your walking.

 

Learn to turn your upper body sideways, when you fall. In that way you will roll on the ground and not hurt yourself as much.

 

 

Fast Walking

Hints

This will accompany the film on the email:

 

You may sometime freeze when you are walking then follow the same procedure you went through when starting to walk properly:

 

1. Relax
2. Place your full weight onto your left foot
3. Lift your right foot off the ground and move your right leg forward about eighteen inches (375mm), or even further, and land on the heel of that foot, with your right toes pointing up in the air.
4. Keep moving forward, while lifting the left foot off the ground and bringing it as far forward as possible and landing on the heel of that foot, with your left toes pointing up in the air.
5. Keep walking as fast as you can.

 

If you feel or hear that you are scraping your feet, it means that you are losing your concentration and walking badly.

 

When you get too tired, you will not be able to concentrate anymore. Don’t feel bad about this, because it is very tiring to begin with. The more you practices the further you will be able to walk.

 

When you have come to grips with the simple reality that you are now able to concentrate on your actual movements and have started walking normally, then you are on your way to ‘reversing your Pd!

 

As soon as you are able to do it more confidently, with him still holding your arm, as indicated above, then you should be able to walk every second day, as fast as you can, and start to reverse your Pd. When you no longer need him holding your arm then you can walk unaided.

 

How fast is fast?

 

If you cannot speak, when you are walking, then you are walking too fast.

If you can speak ‘normally’, then you are walking too slowly.

When you are walking at the correct speed for you, then you should only be able say, “One, Two, Three”, between breaths.

 

You should breathe as deeply as possible all the time you are walking.

 

Try not to talk to each other, while you are learning because you can lose your concentration and rhythm and could possibly fall. This is very important.

 

After fast walking for about a month:

 

You should start paying attention to pushing up on the toes of the back feet, before the heels of the front feet touch the ground!

 

Because this is all happening quite fast, you should be consciously aware that you are pushing forward on the toes of your back feet. You can’t look down to see if you are doing this, but you will feel that you are walking much smoother and you will be aware that the weight of your body is being carried on the toes of the back feet.

 

Check Your Posture:

 

If you are not standing upright, then stand erect with your shoulders back and your head upright! There is nothing stopping you from doing so, it is just a bad habit you have developed over the years. If you can lay flat on your back in bed then you can stand up straight. You may need some exercises to help strengthen your back muscles.

 

What is the Walking Plan?

 

To begin with, ten minutes maximum!

 

After every second week you can add an additional five minutes to your time.

 

That means, for the first two weeks you walk for Ten Minutes each walk. On the third and fourth week you walk for Fifteen Minutes each walk. Every second week you will add an additional five minutes per walk until you reach One Hour.

 

When you reach one hour you no longer continue to add an additional five minutes per walk. You stay at one hour per walk and concentrate on walking faster and faster!

 

Keep Records of Your Walks:

 

You must keep a written record of each walk, showing the time walked and the distance travelled. You can then divide the time by the distance and work out how many minutes it took you to walk one kilometre. Seeing your speed improving will give you an incredible boost. Put all these records in a log book for future reference.

 

How often must you walk?

 

You must only walk every second day!

If you walk every day, you will not give your muscles a chance to recover. That will result in muscle injuries and your muscles will start to eat themselves up, in order to get the energy they need to do what you are calling upon them to do.

 

You can walk seven times in a two week period, or have a day off each week and only walk three times a week.

 

What must your pulse rate be in beats per minute (BPM)?

 

As we are all different, we all have different pulse rates. Mine might get up to 100 BPM while yours might get up to 125 BPM. It matters not if you are walking as fast as you can!

 

Why is Fast Walking better than jogging?

 

I don’t know for certain the answer to this question. All I do know is that in the controlled studies done By Dr Beth Fisher in 2006, she found that the best exercise was, “High Intensity Walking”. By that I can only think it means “Fast Walking”. She tested jogging and running, although I don’t know how she got Parkinson’s patients to run or jog.

 

Is walking on the road better than on a treadmill?

 

Yes! Parkinson’s disease affects our brain. It does nothing to our body. However, because the brain controls all movements and if, as a result of having Pd, we don’t use certain muscles in our body then those muscles will atrophy. So, Pd affects the body indirectly. If we start using those atrophied muscles again, they will start to grow again and get stronger.

 

Walking on a road requires a lot more brain activity. It has to deal with uneven surfaces and if we walk on uneven surfaces the brain has a lot more work to do. So, the result is that when we walk on a treadmill, we can actually watch TV or even read a book. That means that we use the brain a great deal less when walking on a treadmill.

 

I would strongly recommend that you walk on grass, because if you have a fall you will not hurt yourself as badly as you would on the road.

 

Remember! There is always a risk of falling. I have fallen quite often, at the beginning, but never broke any bones, because of the exercise I have always been doing. That is why I recommend having someone hold the patient’s arm for the initial period, when you are getting used to using your conscious brain to control your walking.

 

Learn to turn your upper body sideways, when you fall. In that way you will roll on the ground and not hurt yourself as much.