In the 1976 film “Rocky,” boxer Rocky Balboa tells his girlfriend Adrian he fights since he can’t sing or dance. Elizabeth Stegem?ller, a helper professor in kinesiology at Iowa State University, helps those with Parkinson’s disease do the three.
In her latest outreach effort, Stegem?ller, a neuroscientist who leads Parkinson’s singing groups and music and movement groups, has formed an investigation partnership with Olivia Meyer, a National Collegiate Boxing Association national champion in 2014 and 2015.
Meyer, parent receiving last spring’s Barbara E. Forker Leadership Award, is a May 2017 graduate in kinesiology and health who this semester starts her graduate studies at Iowa State. The Cyclone Boxing Club’s assistant coach for girls is applying her familiarity with the sport to develop both cognitive and physical expansion of people that have Parkinson’s disease.
Big, fast, and forceful
“With the boxing program, we work a whole lot on proper footwork, since if people hit something, do not long for them to fall,” Stegem?ller said. “There’s the cognitive development – after we onsite visit the shadowboxing, they must can remember the right movement. With all the movement sequencing, we target big, fast, forceful movements.”
This one-two punch of cognitive and physical development gives people with Parkinson’s disease a chance to strengthen muscle memory and prevent the freeze of motion that could be common with Parkinson’s.
In each boxing class session, participants follow Meyer’s lead, while using the aid of undergraduate students. The moves are definitely the “real deal” – a similar used by Meyer during her days within the ring.
“With my graduate research, I have a large amount of control as to what I’m doing,” Meyer said. “This is a project that we’re really passionate about. It uses all kinds of things that I had learned I desired to perform – training, research, and teaching – all completed into one. Everything just fell into position, and that i couldn’t have asked for better mentors.”
A research-based, individualized approach
Bruce Schwering, a boxing class participant who met Stegem?ller through her music therapy outreach, first read about the boxing-and-Parkinson’s connection after viewing a 60 Minutes segment from 2015, all seasons he was diagnosed with the illness. He took part in a boxing class at Ankeny’s Lets start work on Life, and posed possibly an Iowa State boxing class to Stegem?ller.
“Dr. S continues to be very supportive of everything that uses ways to help with Parkinson’s,” Schwering said. “This holds true boxing. There are many camaraderie.”
Meyer senses the camaraderie, too. She said it does not take individualized attention generates the class unique.
“Previous research definitely fueled the way we communicate that which we want through the class participants,” Meyer said. “But I’m making modifications once i assist them and find what maneuvers take time and effort if you’ve got Parkinson’s. The gap with this boxing program is the fact that I’m training participants inside the fundamentals. We work a good deal on proper footwork to take care of balance – it’s just a large amount of one-on-one.”
Meyer said the research-based approach sets the Iowa State program above and beyond others bobbing up throughout the country.
“We purchase the big movements with the participants that research shows are beneficial,” Meyer said. “When they throw punches, we desire the theifs to make faces or make noises – breathing in the diaphragm. It isn’t friends fitness class. We’re teaching people the way to box. Almost all of the drills I’m doing along with them are drills I’ve extracted from my a great deal of boxing for Iowa State.”
For Meyer, working alongside those that have Parkinson’s is personally rewarding.
“The neatest thing is watching how much quicker they improve, and ways in which much they search to the category,” she said. “They aren’t sparring the other person, obviously, but just having the capacity to hit something and find out themselves improve is rewarding. Whenever i call out the numbers for shadowboxing, a number of them know them best of all than I would personally. It’s impressive how much quicker they recognize the patterns and in what ways much they eat the program and adapt very well.”
Parkin-A-Punch
Stegem?ller and Meyer also are partnering with Cathy Hockaday, a human sciences specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach, to grow the boxing program’s impact.
Hockaday oversees the Strengthening Families Program: For people and Youth 10-14 outreach initiative, a seven-week, preventative program geared toward helping families because their children approach adolescence. The Iowa State researchers will continue to work with USA Boxing to teach at-risk youth inside boxing program. The youth will work alongside individuals with Parkinson’s disease, forming a mentor-mentee relationship. This course is looking to get votes for just a $50,000 Encore prize. Online voting via EncorePrize2017 ends Aug. 31.
