At Arcaro Boxing in Seattle, individuals with Parkinson’s disease find strength and community in a unique boxing class that helps manage symptoms and boost morale.<\/p>\n
SEATTLE \u2014 For people living with Parkinson’s disease, the daily battle extends well beyond any single opponent. At Arcaro Boxing in the Central District, a dedicated class is helping patients push back \u2014 one punch at a time.<\/p>\n
The KO Parkinson’s class has operated for the past decade, offering a unique blend of physical training and community support for those diagnosed with the progressive neurological disease.<\/p>\n
Head coach Cassidy Bernaski said exercise won’t cure Parkinson’s, but it can slow its progression.<\/p>\n
“It’s a disease where there really is no cure and there’s not necessarily anything that makes it better, but what exercise does is it helps to plateau the symptoms,” Bernaski said.<\/p>\n
Student Sue Bay echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the importance of staying active and intentional about movement.<\/p>\n
“The more exercise you do, the better your symptoms will be. And you sort of have to force yourself to do big movements,” Bay said.<\/p>\n
The benefits extend beyond the physical. For Carl Carter-Schwendler, an original class member, the Central District gym has become a substitute for traditional support groups.<\/p>\n
“So, I don’t actually go to any support groups. For me, this is my support group,” he said.<\/p>\n
His wife, a fellow original member and supporter, Karen Carter-Schwendler said the class offers two things that are difficult to find elsewhere: specialized physical coordination training and a consistent community.<\/p>\n
“Really there’s two things, there’s the coordination part of it because it kind of gives an exercise type that people don’t get anywhere else,” she said. “And I think the other part is just to have a community to get together with on a regular basis.”<\/p>\n
Owner and coach Tricia Arcaro-Turton said welcoming the Parkinson’s community into the Seattle gym was an easy decision.<\/p>\n
“It’s our passion for the sport, it’s our passion for the people, and that’s very infectious,” Arcaro-Turton said.<\/p>\n
She added that the program is designed to be inclusive regardless of a participant’s fitness level or physical limitations.<\/p>\n
“No matter what afflictions you’re dealing with, you can come and train,” she said. “You don’t have to be a young, fit boxer. You can be anybody and come in and work out to your ability, and everyone can do that at the same time and that’s really powerful.”<\/p>\n
Bernaski said the program’s philosophy sets it apart from similar offerings elsewhere.<\/p>\n
“We’re treating these people like boxers, even though they can’t get hit in the head due to their Parkinson’s,” Bernaski said. “It’s a boxing class tailored for Parkinson’s as opposed to a Parkinson’s class with a little bit of boxing.”<\/p>\n
For the Carter-Schwendlers, the program has reshaped what they believe is possible after a Parkinson’s diagnosis.<\/p>\n
“There are things that people with Parkinson’s can do that are maybe outside of what they thought was possible,” Karen Carter-Schwendler said.<\/p>\n
Carl Carter-Schwendler said he hopes others hear the same message.<\/p>\n
“It’s not a death sentence. You can still have a vibrant and dynamic life after diagnosis and that the worst that you see may not even happen,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Arcaro Boxing in Seattle, individuals with Parkinson’s disease find strength and community in a unique boxing class…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-637650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}