288: Should You Add Exercise Coaching To Your Practice?

In this episode, hosts Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS and Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS discuss a new service Claire added for members of Rogue, her Parkinson's wellness gym in southern California. She added weekly, open exercise coaching sessions for all members. She decided to add these sessions because after sharing research articles with members there were a lot of questions about how to actually implement the advice into their lives.

Claire shares the research articles that prompted the idea of adding exercise coaching, an article from Frazzitta (see link below). The researchers performed a month-long intensive treatment involving three hours of daily therapy for people with dyskinesias. The study showed significant improvements in mobility, with some participants even reducing their medication dosages.

Claire's coaching calls offer an opportunity to teach people how to ramp up their intense exercise, which modes make sense to the individual, how to deal with pain, understanding medication adjustments, etc. Claire recommends a few resources, including Dr. Eric Ahlskog's book "The New Parkinson's Disease Treatment Book" as an essential resource for understanding medication optimization and challenging common misconceptions about Parkinson's treatment. Tune in to determine whether this intervention would work for your setting and how to incorporate it!

Read the article here: Intensive rehabilitation treatment in parkinsonian patients with dyskinesias: a preliminary study with 6-month followup

The New Parkinson's Disease Treatment Book by Dr. J. Eric Ahlskog, PhD, MD