My secret to successful living with Parkinson's

By Tim Hague Sr.

There is a local pizza joint that at one time ran television commercials with the tag line, ‘It’s All About the Sauce’. The claim being that they had the corner on how to make a great pizza and the secret was their sauce.

I remember the commercial spots primarily for the fact that I disagreed; I did not believe they had the best pizza in town. I liked a competitor considerably more and the commercials bugged me just a bit. Not to mention that ‘the sauce’ has never been my favourite part of a pizza anyway.

All of this talk of pizza leads me to a confession:  I have not been stretching as I should be. If you follow me with any regularity you will know the emphasis I have always put on this part of my physical exercise. Of recent I have changed some of my routines and gave myself ‘permission’ to let go of the stretching for a time.

This has been foolish.

Despite the fact that I continue to work out regularly I find that in this environment of Covid-19, my overall activity is down. Yet I have progressed in other ways. The new routines have added a freshness to my workouts that I was needing to keep me motivated.

I’ve also noticed the subtle changes though of not stretching, the return of symptoms that I have not struggled with for some time. I find I stumble more when first rising from a seated position, that I’m reaching for the arm of a chair or a wall for balance, my feet drag more, my posture is more hunched and it’s difficult to stand straight. I find my lower back, shoulders, arms and legs hurt more.

That is quite the (un)impressive list of ailments. All, for the most part, self-inflicted. When I stretch regularly I typically don’t struggle with these.

Not everyone likes pizza or for the sake of our conversation exercise. The amount of sauce on a pie can make or break it for some. But, here is where I am going to tell you my long-held secret to living well with Parkinson’s. Not only is exercise of absolute importance but the secret to exercise is in ‘the sauce’.

While the masses await a silver bullet of a cure that will simply take Parkinson’s away there is a critical core who are dedicated to the belief that ‘exercise is medicine’ and who participate in regular, intense exercise. There is an even smaller group of warriors who have discovered the secret of stretching. They experience a nimbleness and fluidity that impacts everything else.

I have come to a place where I have very little confidence in a ‘silver bullet’, however, I have found what I believe to be my #secretsauce in living my best with Parkinson’s. My advice to you now is, “Shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone! They’re not going to believe you anyway”.  Just do it.

Live Your Best!

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