DVD touts Parkinson’s Boot Camp

Olympic cyclist Davis Phinney has a new, free, exercise DVD for people with Parkinson’s disease.

Boulderite Gary Sobol and his Parkinson’s Boot Camp are featured on the national video. Sobol has Parkinson’s, as does Phinney.

With the exercises, the former marathoner Sobol said he is back to hiking. He said he has seen firsthand how others with Parkinson’s improve when doing his exercises. The disease’s most common symptoms are movement related; it’s a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that shows up most commonly in people age 50 and older.

These days, as many as 75 folks show up at the Boulder YMCA on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to do exercises with Sobol.

The Davis Phinney Foundation teamed up with a professor at the University of Alabama-Birmingham to make the video. Sobol is one of 13 folks living with Parkinson’s around the United States who are featured in it.

Sobol was diagnosed with the disease in January 2012, after having symptoms for three years. In his 60s, Sobol got to the point where he needed help getting out of bed or into a car.

“The results have been the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my life,” Sobol said. “I’m walking better, I’m standing up straight, I can walk in the yard, I can hike.”

Sobol said the YMCA class is really positive. People cheer for others when they’re able to do movements they haven’t been able to do in a long time.

If you want to try the exercises, call the YMCA at 2850 Mapleton Ave., and get yourself there for a session: 303-442-2778. If you can’t get to the gym, you can order the video at www.davisphinneyfoundation.org/dvd. Or call 855-346-7564.

on Facebook on LinkedIn