Parkinson’s patients and seniors who use boxing are now alone amid coronavirus fight
When all of the gyms closed, the people who worried the most were not restricted to meatheads, yogis and weekend basketball junkies.
Those with Parkinson’s disease need the gym more than any of the above.
They feared the coronavirus as much as returning to — and forever remaining on — the couch.
“It is so hard for people with the Parkinson’s, the apathy,” said Dan Novak, who has lived with Parkinson’s for seven years. He is 63 and lives in Fort Worth, and he’s one of the millions who fight the disease by boxing.
Novak is part of a group of approximately 80 people who regularly train at ex-bantamweight champion Paulie Ayala’s boxing gym in West Fort Worth. For nearly 20 years Ayala has run a “Punching Out Parkinson’s” program.
For Novak, and millions of other Americans, especially those who live in retirement communities, life in the age of the coronavirus is isolating, not crippling. As much as anybody, those patients need to get out and move, but right now their radius is a glorified closet.
“When this outbreak started they were one of my main concerns,” Ayala said. “That’s why we shut it down right off the bat. I didn’t want to risk anything with them. But we want to take care of them and be sure they can maintain their workouts.”
Getting out to fight Parkinson’s
When Dan Novak reaches out to someone who has been recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s, he asks the person what they have been doing since they found out.
“The answer I get is, ‘Sitting on the couch,’” he said. When a person learns they have Parkinson’s Disease, depression typically follows.
Novak recruits all of them to become a boxer. Boxing has become one of the most effective ways to counter the effects of Parkinson’s disease. Punching a heavy bag, foot work, and other boxing-centric exercises to continually stimulate and confuse, the brain have proven to be most effective.
There is no cure for Parkinson’s, but there is a way to fight it to give the fighter a way to retain their quality of life.
Having worked out at this gym before, it’s inspiring to see these men and women train two or three days a week. Boxing workouts are tough even for those not afflicted with Parkinson’s.
Ayala will often get the men and women in the ring and go through a series of punching exercises. He’s not training the next Floyd Mayweather here, but he’s also not letting his trainees waltz through their workouts.
“Sometimes Paulie can really push you and almost forget you have Parkinson’s,” said Murray Zoota, 75.
Now the challenge for Novak, and everyone else in his position, is not necessarily getting back into the ring, but just getting to the ring itself.
Not only are the gyms closed, but the retirement and assisted-living facilities all over the country are now on lockdown. And the fear with that, he said, is “if people fall off from their training, they don’t come back.”
At Trinity Terrance retirement community in Fort Worth, residents basically can’t go out. There are some movement classes offered to the residents, but everyone has to follow the social distancing protocols, which limits the number of people who can attend.
Exercise classes are staples at retirement communities, but virtually all have been canceled. Even the exercise rooms are closed. Retirement and assisted-living centers that have pools typically restrict their access to one person at a time.
There is only so much these centers can do to accommodate the person while operating within the new social distancing guidelines.
Trying to workout during this time while strict social distancing guidelines are in effect puts the onus on the individual to do it all themselves, in tight quarters with virtually no help.
“People come to the gym not just to work out but because they want to be around the other people for motivation and to get them going,” Ayala said.
Hence Novak’s fear of his fellow Parkinson’s patients who return to the couch, and stay there.
Fighting Parkinson’s solo
Novak is a board member of Ayala’s “Punching Out Parkinson’s” foundation that raises money for, among other things, people to join the gym, and to fight.
Both Novak and Zoota, a fellow board member, have fought Parkinson’s with Ayala for years.
Ayala has made at-home workouts available online through his own website, and private Facebook page for his gym members.
Like every other small business owner, he is trying to retain clients however possible.
But Zoota and Novak have gone beyond normal measures and are having Ayala’s gym professionally cleaned. When the gym is legally allowed to re-open, they plan to return to the ring and get all of their friends to come back with them.
But until that time comes, Zoota, Novak and every other person who needs to get back to the gym continues their struggle at home, and typically alone.
“I do the workouts every day but Sunday,” Zoota said. “We are trying to deal with the now, and the tomorrow, and I think we have done a good job.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
