Latest / Living with Parkinson’s | Bryce Perry / Parkinson’s Exercise: 7 Dopamine-Boosting Moves You Might Be Doing Wrong (Fix These Now)

Transcript

Parkinson’s Exercise: 7 Dopamine-Boosting Moves You Might Be Doing Wrong (Fix These Now) · Living with Parkinson’s | Bryce Perry

• 0:00
  All right, real talk. To start off today, there are
• 0:03
  some exercises out there that are amazing for dopamine, but
• 0:08
  the way most of us do them, including me, they actually end
• 0:12
  up working against us. And the scary part is we don't
• 0:15
  even know we're doing them wrong.
• 0:18
  I didn't. I made every mistake on this
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  list, sometimes for years, and I had no clue why my symptoms
• 0:25
  weren't improving the more I exercised.
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  Everybody said they would. So today we're going to talk
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  about the seven exercises that help Parkinson's, but only if
• 0:37
  you do them the right way, huh? And stick around till the very
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  end. Because Carmen, Yep, Carmen, she
• 0:44
  drops her very first ever Carmenism.
• 0:47
  And let me just say, my emotional support M&M peanuts
• 0:51
  were not enough to get me through it.
• 0:54
  And you'll see what I mean. You don't want to miss it.
• 0:57
  Welcome to Living with Parkinson's, The Good, the Bad,
• 1:01
  and the Reality. Real talk, real life, real
• 1:05
  community with Bryce Perry. Let's begin.
• 1:10
  Hey everyone, welcome back to Living with Parkinson's, the
• 1:13
  good, the bad, and the Reality. Now, if you're new here, my name
• 1:16
  is Bryce. And this is where we give real
• 1:19
  support, real hope and real talk about living with Parkinson's.
• 1:24
  And a great big, huge welcome to our new 2500 subscribers who
• 1:30
  just joined us in the last couple of weeks.
• 1:32
  You are part of a worldwide family now and you never, ever
• 1:36
  have to do Parkinson's alone, ever.
• 1:39
  But before we jump in, can I ask ask you for just one quick
• 1:43
  favor? If you could just quickly tap
• 1:45
  the like button right now, that would be amazing.
• 1:47
  And here's why. When you like this video, early
• 1:51
  YouTube goes. People are finding this helpful
• 1:55
  and it starts showing it to more and more people who actually
• 1:58
  need this content. So that one click actually
• 2:02
  pushes Parkinson's education and awareness and advocacy further,
• 2:07
  and that's you doing that. So thank you for doing that.
• 2:09
  And if you haven't subscribed, subscribe.
• 2:12
  OK, Now before I go on, if you missed the last episode about
• 2:16
  levadopa timing, mistakes and questions, the last two in a
• 2:19
  row, make sure you go back and check those out because this
• 2:21
  actually has something to do with that as well.
• 2:23
  And you'll get, again, a better idea of what I'm talking about.
• 2:27
  But if you're ready, let's just get right into this now.
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  First, I want to speak to the people who aren't exercising at
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  all right now, OK? And you know who you are.
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  Come on, you know what? You get it.
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  And I could be looking at myself in the mirror sometimes too, so
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  I get it too. But I've been there, you know I
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  want to. I want to take the pressure off
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  of your shoulders right away. OK?
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  Look, you don't need a workout program, right?
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  You don't need to be an athlete. You don't need to exercise for
• 2:56
  an hour every day. You know, I know it's difficult.
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  I know it's hard, but you just need to move, right?
• 3:02
  It's all about movement. Movement is the foundation that
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  exercise grows from. OK, stretch in bed, you know,
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  March while brushing your teeth, walk to the mailbox and dance
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  badly to one song. It all counts.
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  OK, so that's just for me to you.
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  So don't get overwhelmed here. All right, let's jump into this.
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  Let's start with something that almost everybody does, OK, And
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  that's walking, or at least something that we try to do
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  every day. Now, I'm going to be honest
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  here. I absolutely hate walking,
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  right? I hate it.
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  I absolutely hate it. I mean, unless I have to walk
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  somewhere, like I'm walking to a hockey game or I'm walking to a
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  restaurant or I'm walking on purpose, OK, I don't like just
• 3:46
  saying let's go for a walk and we just walk around or I just
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  walk around the block. I I just don't I I doesn't do
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  anything for me. OK, there.
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  And I know I said it. I said it out loud.
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  You know, Carmen loves to walk me.
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  I tolerate it, but barely OK, But I love walking with her but
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  by myself. But here's the part that I
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  didn't know, OK, walking too slow can actually reduce the
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  dopamine benefit you get from it.
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  OK, I didn't realize that. I thought, as long as we move
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  and go right, it's not so. And that's what most of us do,
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  right? We we, we shuffle, we stroll or,
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  you know, we baby step around the house.
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  But when we walk too slowly, our arm swing disappears, our stride
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  shortens and our brain basically checks out.
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  It's like, it's like the brain says, OK, well, he's not really
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  doing much here, so I'm just going to sit back and watch.
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  Now let me put it to you like this.
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  Walking too slow. It's like microwaving your food
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  on 10%, you know, sure, technically something's
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  happening in there. You know it, you heard it and
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  the lights on. But nothing meaningful is going
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  on. And that's what walking through
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  slowly is all about, you know? And I've lived this myself, you
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  know, one time I tried to like, power walk.
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  I'm like, OK, I'm going to power walk, power walk with Carmen.
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  And foolishly, I started with a pace that was way too fast for
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  me. I burned through my meds like
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  rocket fuel. Carmen had to escort me home
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  like a tourist who wandered away from the resort.
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  But here's all you have to do. Walk at a pace that's just
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  slightly uncomfortable. OK, not fast enough to panic,
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  but fast enough that you actually feel yourself working a
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  little bit. OK, So try walking just normally
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  for a minute. No pressure, just normal
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  walking. And then do a 10 seconds just a
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  little bit faster and repeat that.
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  Just keep repeating that. And if you continually do that
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  as you're walking, you'll notice that you're slow walking.
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  Your normal walking actually gets a little bit faster, a
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  little bit quicker, and therefore you'll actually get
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  some value out of walking. All right, let's move on.
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  Here's another one that gets a lot of people stretching while
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  you're cold. You know, so many people stretch
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  right after they wake up or when they're super stiff.
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  But the reality is cold muscles behave like frozen rubber bands.
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  OK, let me put it to you another way.
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  Trying to stretch cold muscles is like trying to fold frozen
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  laundry. Everything resists.
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  Nothing bends. It's just stiff.
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  You know, I learned this the funny way actually.
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  You know, 1 winter morning here in Winnipeg, which if you don't
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  Winnipeg, it's winter and it's cold, right?
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  I bent down to bent down cold just to stretch a little bit.
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  And my body made a noise that sounded like a, like a, like a,
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  like an old rusty screen door closing.
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  Great. I actually look behind me, like,
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  did someone just open something? Uh, uh, that was me.
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  That was my body. I needed some warmth.
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  OK, So what do you do? Here's the fix.
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  Do 3 minutes of gentle movement before stretching.
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  Just kind of March in place or do some arm circles or roll your
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  shoulders. Anything to warm up the muscles.
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  And I actually do that even when I'm lying in bed.
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  Often when I wake up in the morning, I wake up stiff, right?
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  And I take my first dose of, of my levodopa and I've got about
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  20 to 30 minutes where in the past I just lie there and stare
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  at the wall, but now I take advantage of that.
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  When I'm lying there for that 20 minutes is when I kind of start
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  doing my little warm ups. I just slowly start moving my
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  shoulders. Everything's slow, slow, slow.
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  It warms me up so that when I do am ready then to take the
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  stretches, I'm good to go. OK, let's move on.
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  Let's talk about balance. Now.
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  Balance exercises are amazing, but most of us do the same easy
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  version over and over again and when something becomes too easy,
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  your brain stops learning from it.
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  Isn't that interesting? You know I'm guilty of this one,
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  really I am. I spent months doing the stand
• 8:00
  on one foot routine on a flat floor over and over.
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  Same thing everyday my brain was saying like, OK, Bryce, we've
• 8:10
  mastered this, you know, are we ever going to level up?
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  Are we, are we going to live here now?
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  What are you doing? Let's move, let's move on.
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  OK. Your brain needs tiny
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  challenges, something new, something new to improve
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  balance. So try a softer surface or turn
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  your head or look side to side or count backwards or close one
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  eye. You know, small stuff, not crazy
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  things, just different. And that wakes the brain up.
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  It absolutely wakes the brain up.
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  OK, Speaking of doing things alone, let me talk quickly now
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  to my solo people, my solo warriors for one second.
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  You know, if you're doing Parkinson's solo, don't have a
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  care partner. This part is for you.
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  Exercise can feel lonely. It really can.
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  It can feel overwhelming. It can feel like, where the heck
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  do I even start? But you don't need to be.
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  You don't need motivation. What do you need is you need
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  momentum. One stretch, 1 mark, one
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  attempt, one tiny movement. You might think it doesn't
• 9:18
  matter. It really doesn't.
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  But solo wins count. Solo wins are actually some of
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  the strongest wins of all. OK, so drop a comment If you're
• 9:28
  doing this like Journey solo, I want to cheer you on.
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  I really do. And OK, let's get back into it.
• 9:35
  And hey, by the way, if you're enjoying this and you're not a
• 9:38
  subscriber of the channel, it doesn't cost anything to
• 9:41
  subscribe. Click that button.
• 9:42
  There's a little button on the right on the bottom of the
• 9:44
  screen. Just click it and subscribe
• 9:46
  again. Subscribing again shows YouTube.
• 9:49
  But maybe there's some value here, OK, And then it gets shot
• 9:53
  out to more people and there's a lot of people with Parkinson's
• 9:56
  and care partners that need help.
• 9:57
  So do that for me, please, if you don't mind.
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  OK, so we talked about balance and this next one, I'm almost
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  embarrassed to admit how often I did this wrong.
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  OK, it's almost embarrassing, but strength training with way
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  too much rest between sets. You know, I used to do one set
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  of an exercise and then I'd reward myself with like a 10
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  minute scroll session session, you know, right, 10 minutes.
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  And by the time I came back, my body thought we'd already left
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  the gym, right? Gone home, had a shower and made
• 10:32
  dinner. But here's the deal for strength
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  training to help Parkinson's, your muscles need rhythm, right?
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  If you rest too long, the muscles cool down and the whole
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  benefit disappears. You might as well not do them.
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  So just keep your rest around 45 to 60 seconds in between.
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  Then that's it, right? Not too little, not too much,
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  but that's what you need to do. And that will start your
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  dopamine, everything rolling the way it's supposed to roll.
• 11:01
  And then let's look at the next one.
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  This breathing, and we've talked about this before, remember
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  breathe with Bryce, and we did that in another episode.
• 11:08
  So do it again. Let's just take a second here
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  real quick, right? Deep breath in this, hold it for
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  a few seconds, 3 seconds, slowly release so your nose just like a
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  deep breath. Doesn't that feel good when we
• 11:21
  do that? I love that.
• 11:23
  Anyway, if you did that just now with me, hashtag breathe with
• 11:26
  price in the comments and I'll know that I just did make a fool
• 11:29
  of myself that actually people did it with me.
• 11:31
  But breathing exercises are amazing, but a lot of people do
• 11:36
  them completely wrong. And you know what?
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  You know what? It's when I say wrong the wrong
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  time. Deep breathing is most effective
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  when your dopamine is already flowing.
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  OK. If you do it when you're off,
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  your brain is your brain kind of says, like, look, I'm doing my
• 11:55
  best here, right? But we're both drowning right
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  now. It's like trying to meditate
• 12:01
  inside a tornado. For Parkinson's, that was good,
• 12:05
  actually. I like that one.
• 12:06
  I just, you know what? Anyway, sorry.
• 12:09
  Sometimes I laugh at my own jokes.
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  It's wild. But for Parkinson's, the best
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  time to do breathing work is about 30 to 45 minutes after
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  your meds. OK, That's when your body is
• 12:19
  calm enough to actually benefit from it.
• 12:22
  There you go. And let's talk about dance
• 12:25
  therapy. Whoo, dance therapy.
• 12:28
  Dance therapy is one of my favorites because it moves.
• 12:31
  It mixes movement with joy. OK, but here's the mistake that
• 12:35
  people make. They dance to music that's too
• 12:39
  fast or too slow. OK, if the music is too slow,
• 12:44
  you move like you're drifting around at a grocery store,
• 12:47
  right? And if it's too fast, it
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  becomes, well, a cardio emergency.
• 12:53
  You know? Carmen wants to pick the
• 12:54
  playlist that had to be at least 140 beats per minute.
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  OK, She's living her best life. Me, I lasted 8 seconds.
• 13:03
  My legs quit. They completely resigned.
• 13:06
  They didn't just resign. They retired early.
• 13:09
  It was wild. But my sweet spot for
• 13:11
  Parkinson's, like the sweet spot for Parkinson's is around 90 to
• 13:14
  120 beats per minute. OK, so if you can Google, you
• 13:18
  can Google songs that that say, you know, at 100 BPM and you'll
• 13:22
  find tons of great options like tons of them.
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  So you actually Google them and then put them in your playlist.
• 13:28
  OK, All right. And here's the last one.
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  And this one is powerful. This one is really powerful.
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  And before I go any further, don't forget Carmen is just like
• 13:38
  crazy. In a little minute here because
• 13:40
  it blew me away. OK, but here we go.
• 13:44
  Tai Chi Tai Chi is amazing for balance, amazing for
• 13:51
  coordination, amazing for flow, but only when you do it at the
• 13:56
  right time. Hmm.
• 14:00
  Tai Chi strengthens your appropriation, and that's just
• 14:03
  your body's internal GPS. But that GPS runs on dopamine.
• 14:07
  So when your dopamine is low, it's like trying to use Google
• 14:13
  Maps on a bar. 1 bar of Wi-Fi. You freeze, you spin, you
• 14:18
  buffer, and you go nowhere. You know, I once tried doing Tai
• 14:23
  chi before my meds kicked in because I thought maybe it would
• 14:26
  help. You know what I did?
• 14:29
  I look like a confused Flamingo stuck in slow motion.
• 14:32
  Carmen was trying so hard not to say anything and not to laugh,
• 14:36
  but I saw the look. You know that one?
• 14:38
  You know, she, she she was 2 seconds away from calling
• 14:41
  National Geographic. I know it.
• 14:43
  I guarantee it. But here's a simple fix.
• 14:46
  Do Tai chi 30 to 60 minutes after a dose, and that's when
• 14:52
  the magic happens. All right, it's time for another
• 14:57
  one of our newer segments. It's Carmen's Care Partner
• 15:00
  Corner, and I'm going to read to you what Carmen had to say to
• 15:03
  our care partners out there, and this is what she would have me
• 15:06
  say. So for my care partners out
• 15:09
  there, supporting someone you love through exercise is a
• 15:13
  delicate dance. You don't want to nag, you don't
• 15:18
  want to push too hard, but you also know how important movement
• 15:22
  is. What's worked with Bryce is
• 15:25
  building movement into the day. Little things, doable things.
• 15:31
  Let's stretch during the show or let's walk to the end of the
• 15:35
  street. Small moments that add up.
• 15:39
  And Bryce doesn't always love walking, but he does love when
• 15:43
  there's a reason to, when there's a reason to go.
• 15:47
  And now here is Carmen. The the here is the Carmenism of
• 15:51
  the episode. What?
• 15:54
  The car. The carbonism of the episode.
• 15:57
  Oh, my God. All right.
• 15:59
  OK, here's what All right, Movement is easier when you do
• 16:04
  it together. But if your partner is stubborn
• 16:08
  like Bryce, here's a little trick.
• 16:10
  Oh, my God. Walk a few steps ahead with a
• 16:13
  bag of peanut M&M's and shake it like you're calling in for
• 16:17
  dinner. It's not quite leading a horse
• 16:20
  to water, but trust me, he follows the sound every time.
• 16:25
  Like, OK, wow, now that was aggressively specific.
• 16:31
  Oh, wait, there's more. Let me know in the comments.
• 16:34
  Did Bryce laugh or was he offended?
• 16:39
  Oh, my God. Unbelievable.
• 16:41
  All right, I get this, Carmen. Now, I'm assuming this is a
• 16:44
  competition, a Carmenism versus a Brysonism showdown.
• 16:48
  Like, are we doing a dance off? A snack off?
• 16:50
  I don't really understand what just happened here.
• 16:52
  I think it's almost like a copyright infringement.
• 16:55
  But all right, you put you put it down.
• 16:57
  So that fine. Let's just see how well yours
• 17:00
  did against mine. So here's my Bryce, my Bryce ISM
• 17:05
  of the episode with Parkinson's. Movement is medicine and if you
• 17:13
  can't start without with a workout, then start with
• 17:15
  whatever part of your body is willing to negotiate.
• 17:18
  Ha ha, who won? Carmenism or the bracenism?
• 17:25
  Throw in the comments and if this episode help you hit like
• 17:28
  it really does help it reach more people, comment the number
• 17:32
  of the habit below that you're fixing this week.
• 17:35
  OK, if you do one of them, put one of them that one you're
• 17:37
  going to do. And if you're not an exerciser,
• 17:40
  pick one of those seven exercises and just do it slowly.
• 17:43
  OK, just do it slowly. Hey, and if you're doing this
• 17:46
  solo, let me let let me know. Let me know.
• 17:50
  I'll say hello. Personally, I always I read
• 17:52
  every comment. Just give me that hashtag solo
• 17:55
  in the in the hashtags or in the comments and again, hit
• 17:58
  subscribe. And if you want deeper support,
• 18:00
  check out the inner circle. The link is below.
• 18:03
  And I'm you know what I'm going to do.
• 18:06
  I'm just this is random. I'm just going to do it right
• 18:08
  now. I'm going to put some give out
• 18:10
  some more memberships today. So if you want a free
• 18:12
  membership, the inner circle to come check it out.
• 18:15
  I give it like a three month membership away.
• 18:17
  A few. I'll give it like four or five
• 18:21
  first people to comment to say I want in, say I want in.
• 18:26
  I'll send you a note. I'll get you in.
• 18:29
  All right, because I just love people.
• 18:31
  I want to be around people and it's so good.
• 18:32
  So come join me. Come join us.
• 18:34
  We are changing the way people think and live with Parkinson's.
• 18:40
  All right, until next time, keep showing up, keep laughing, and
• 18:43
  as always, keep doing LIFE today and I'll see you on the next
• 18:47
  episode. Parkinson's may be part of your
• 18:51
  life, but it doesn't get to define it.
• 18:54
  Thanks for listening to Living with Parkinson's, the good, the
• 18:57
  bad, and the reality. If this episode moved you,
• 19:01
  helped you, or reminded you you're not alone.
• 19:04
  Share it with someone who needs to hear it.
• 19:07
  Want to go deeper? The inner server was waiting
• 19:09
  Monthly Zoom calls, 24/7 community, and a Direct Line to
• 19:13
  Bryce. You'll find the link in the show
• 19:15
  notes. Until next time, keep showing up
• 19:19
  and keep doing life today.