Better Winnipeg: Boxing classes for people with Parkinson’s disease a hit

Better Winnipeg is a Global News series that highlights people and events that make Winnipeg a great place to live. If you have a story idea email us at betterwinnipeg@globalnews.ca

They may not look like your typical boxers, but a group of Winnipeggers are not letting Parkinson’s disease keep them down for the count.

“I felt muscles in my stomach I hadn’t felt before,” Karen Gilmour said.

Gilmour was diagnosed with the condition 16 years ago. This year she started taking boxing classes to help with her upper body strength.

“There’s always someone encouraging you, showing you what to do. If you do it wrong you don’t feel at all embarrassed,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "There's always someone encouraging you, showing you what to do. If you do it wrong you don't feel at all embarrassed," she said.

The classes called Rock Steady Boxing are put on by U-Turn Parkinson’s.

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“People do get intimidated when you first talk about it, at least some people do and I just want to encourage people that this is a non-contact sport, we don’t hit each other,” Tim Hague Sr., the executive director of U-Turn Parkinson’s said.

Hague stresses that the classes are for any skill level.

“We have people here who are like me, very high functioning to people who sit for most of their workout – with their walker or wheel chair and we accommodate where they’re at with their Parkinson’s.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We have people here who are like me, very high functioning to people who sit for most of their workout - with their walker or wheel chair and we accommodate where they're at with their Parkinson's."

More than 6,500 Manitobans have Parkinson’s disease according to Parkinson Canada. The disease affects their nervous system and impacts their movement.

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“What it does, it robs us of our strength. It weakens us. Some of us have tremors. I don’t have tremors, I’m lucky. But I have a soft voice, slurred speech, my muscles cramp, I have to move them, all that good stuff,” Gary Dikkema said.

Dikkema believes the classes are helping him.

“Boxing is good for us with Parkinson’s, it’s exercise that gives us strength.”

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Seeing the progress for the boxers is what fuels volunteer coach Maureen Black from In This Corner Boxing Fitness Centre.

“It’s a wonderful thing that something as simple as this can make a big difference in someone’s life,” she said.