Feb 02 2010

Table Tennis and Health

Published by admin at 12:09 am under table tennis

Looking for a new exercise venue that is fun and has the potential to offer sustained relief from the symptoms of Parkinson’s?  Brad has a novel suggestion that works for him: table tennis.

I wanted to mention a new idea for Parkinson’s Disease exercise: table tennis.  I am talking serious, competitive table tennis.  I have not played for 25 years, but I just spent 3 hours playing with NO symptoms (I have not medicated for a few days).  I’m pretty rusty, but I was able to execute high-speed movements, with eye-hand coordination, and no tremor for the duration.  Also, this level of play works up a pretty good sweat and cardio rate.

Brad

Robert Rodgers, Ph.D.
Parkinsons Recovery

Resources

Cruise to Alaska
Jump Start to Wellness
Parkinsons Recovery Chat Room
Symptom Tracker
Parkinsons Recovery Radio Network
Aqua Hydration Formulas

Books

Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease
Pioneers of Recovery

Five Steps to Recovery
Meditations for Parkinsons

Tags: , , , ,

2 responses so far

2 Responses to “Table Tennis and Health”

  1. [...] Read this article: Table Tennis and Health [...]

  2. Bradon 13 Mar 2010 at 3:01 pm

    Here’s a clip showing one woman’s struggle with neurological disease (not Parkinson’s) and how she has turned from swimming to table tennis for athletic competition.

    I have PD. When I return a table tennis volley the ball is coming at me at 25-65 mph with various degrees of spin and curvature. It traverses the 9 foot table in a quarter of a second or less and requires millions of neural pathways to fire precisely in order to position my body, plan my swing, and execute the return smoothly. While I am nowhere near as polished as these players, I am able to play normally. For up to three hours my symptoms of tremor, rigidity and slowness disappear. I cannot explain this, only finding that the human brain (and dopamine release at the synapse) is far more complex than any of us realize.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_k8eV-YF-0

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply