It's a knockout
CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — “Up, up, up! Down, down, down! Side, side, side!” the trainer commanded as Jay Brunk, diagnosed five years ago with Parkinson’s disease, tried to punch the mitts on the constantly moving hands. “Perfect, perfect, perfect!,” the trainer yelled with each thump of Brunk’s boxing gloves against the targets.
“You are as strong as an ox,” trainer Jerry Morrison told him.
“Aw, I used to be,” said Brunk, a broad-shouldered 62-year-old man who spent much of his life in construction.
“You still are. You still are,” Morrison said. “Trust me.”
Brunk is fighting the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s by participating in the St. Louis area’s first Rock Steady Boxing class that began a month ago. The class, held at the Chesterfield Athletic Club, uses boxing-like drills to strengthen abilities that Parkinson’s attacks: agility, speed, endurance, accuracy, hand-eye coordination, footwork and overall strength.
Parkinson’s is a progressive, degenerative neurological disease with no cure. The brain declines in producing the neurotransmitter dopamine, which helps regulate movement.
Patients can experience tremors, loss of balance and coordination, stooped posture, slow speech and cognitive impairment. The disease progresses differently in each person, but symptoms can become so severe that patients need a wheelchair and assistance with daily activities. More than 1 million people in the U.S. live with the disease.
Several medications can temporarily relieve the symptoms of Parkinson’s, but research has shown that exercise is important in slowing the progression and improving symptoms in Parkinson’s patients.
Carolyn McKee, 47, of Frontenac, Mo., brought the Rock Steady franchise to St. Louis after researching ways to ease symptoms for her father, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about 10 years ago. It seemed like the perfect thing for her dad, who has long been fit and active, for two big reasons. “First, it’s cool. ” McKee said. “Second, is the explosiveness.”
Whenever her dad played golf, his tremors would go away as he hit the ball, she said. “I just knew the explosiveness of throwing punches would feel good.”
McKee sent two trainers she knew at the Chesterfield Athletic Club to earn certification to teach the program and has also become certified herself. Since starting the first week of April, five to 10 people attend classes.
Rock Steady Boxing was founded in Indianapolis in 2006 by former Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 39. A few years after his diagnosis, he discovered that training like a boxer lessened his symptoms and opened a gym.
As demand for classes increased, Newman created an affiliate program to train teachers in the method and bring it to other cities. Now there are more than 125 programs in 32 states, Canada, Italy and Australia.
Trainer Brent Meyer, 32, teaches the program in Chesterfield along with Morrison, 61. “When people get diagnosed with Parkinson’s. They get this feeling of, ‘Just give up,’ They fall into a cycle of anxiety about the future,” Meyer said. He’s found that after the boxing classes, their eyes brighten. “They start to realize, ‘I can do this.’ It gives them a whole new outlook on life,” Meyer said.
