In July 2026, the Parkinson’s Foundation hosted a webinar titled “Moving through Parkinson’s: Does Intensity and Dose Matter?” The session featured Jimmy Choi, 2017 American Ninja Warrior and Parkinson’s advocate who has lived with young-onset Parkinson’s disease for more than two decades, and Daniel Corcos, PhD, Northwestern University professor of physical therapy. They discussed what research says about the type, amount, and intensity of exercise for Parkinson’s, as well as how care teams can help people build exercise into a lasting routine.
Key takeaways from the webinar include:
Exercise belongs in the main line of Parkinson’s treatment, not on the sidelines. When a person does less, they tend to move less, which makes them move even less — a downward spiral. Exercise interrupts that spiral, and certain kinds — aerobic activity in particular — appear to slow the disease’s progression, not just ease its symptoms.
You do not need the “perfect” program before you begin. The goal is not to do what any one person does, but to do a little more than you are doing now — and to keep challenging your body as it adapts. Walking is a fine place to start; from there, intensity and complexity can build over time.
All four domains of exercise matter. Aerobic activity, resistance (strength) training, flexibility work, and balance/agility/multitasking each target a different aspect of Parkinson’s, and a well-rounded routine touches all four of the exercises across the week.
Aerobic exercise is the only form shown so far to potentially slow progression — and intensity may be the key variable. This is the question at the center of the current SPARX3 trial, which compares high-intensity with moderate-intensity aerobic exercise.
Consistency and quality matter more than sheer hours. Recovery is part of the program, there is a point of diminishing returns, and recommendations should come from peer-reviewed sources rather than social-media trends.
Exercising safely and effectively with Parkinson’s takes forethought and a support team. Cueing and planning ahead can help with freezing during exercise; transitions between activities call for care because of orthostatic hypotension; a compulsion to over-exercise can develop on certain medications; and speech, occupational, physical, nursing, and medical professionals all have roles to play.
Webinar recording
A recording of this webinar is not currently available, however I was informed by Parkinson’s Foundation that it will be available at the end of August or beginning of September 2026 through their Learning Lab, registration will be required.
Resources:
Dr. Corcos and colleagues’ 2024 exercise “prescription,” referenced during the webinar is available online:
“Advice to People with Parkinson’s in My Clinic: Exercise,” Journal of Parkinson’s Disease (2024)
For more information on the impact exercise has on PD symptoms and for a list of online exercise classes, visit the Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach website:
Benefits of Exercise for Parkinson’s Disease
If you are lucky enough to live in Northern or Central California, visit our list of in-person PD exercise classes:
Keep reading for detailed notes,
— Elizabeth
Moving through Parkinson’s: Does Intensity and Dose Matter?
Speakers:
- Jimmy Choi, person living with young-onset Parkinson’s disease (YOPD)
- Daniel Corcos, PhD, researcher and professor of physical therapy and human movement sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
Webinar Host: Parkinson’s Foundation (parkinson.org) as part of their Parkinson’s Professional Exchange
Webinar Date: July 21, 2026
Summary by: Elizabeth Wong, Stanford Parkinson’s Community Outreach
Jimmy Choi’s Journey with Exercise
Jimmy Choi was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 23 years ago, at age 27. He recalled being told to spend the next seven to ten years getting his affairs in order and to expect life in a wheelchair by his 40s — with no discussion at the time of medication, nutrition, or exercise. What he heard felt like a roadmap to disability.
Exercise changed that trajectory. When Choi began moving more, he noticed he moved a little better, his reaction times felt quicker, and his confidence returned — that was reason enough for him to keep showing up, even before he understood the science.
Exercise is not about replicating what Choi does. It is about doing a little more than you currently do, and continuing to challenge your body as it adapts — which is where much of the neuroplastic benefit comes from. Someone doing nothing can start with walking; a brisk walk can become a jog, then running or strength training as confidence builds. No single activity is inherently “better”; the body adapts when it is challenged.
Choi highlighted the value of functional exercise — movements that map onto daily life. He described the burpee as essentially a controlled fall to the ground followed by the strength and coordination to get back up, which he framed as training a survival skill after a period of falling. Core training was another turning point: intense soreness around his core the day after a hard session made him realize that nearly every movement — standing from a chair, rolling over, reaching, even breathing — begins at the core.
Choi’s reframe for people with Parkinson’s: shift from “what exercise should I do?” to “what can I train today that will help me live better tomorrow?”
Why Exercise Is Treatment, Not Just Activity
Dr. Corcos placed Choi’s experience in a research context. In Parkinson’s, doing less leads to moving less, which leads to moving even less — a well-recognized downward spiral seen across many chronic diseases. Exercise counteracts that spiral. Functional exercises such as the burpee also build a practical skill everyone eventually needs: getting up from a fall.
The Four Domains of Exercise
A recurring theme was that exercise is not one thing. Much as a balanced diet needs protein, fat, carbohydrates, and vitamins, a complete exercise routine needs four components, described as equally important:
- Aerobic activity — good for the heart and cardiopulmonary system, and the only domain shown to be highly likely to slow the rate at which the disease progresses.
- Resistance (strength) training — beneficial for bone and muscle, with a strong link to improved cognition.
- Flexibility and stretching — important because rigidity is a cardinal sign of Parkinson’s; preserving range of motion supports everyday tasks like dressing.
- Balance, agility, and multitasking — including the ability to walk and talk at the same time, which matters for safety and for staying socially engaged.
Aiming to be active four to six times a week makes it easier to fit all four components into a schedule.
Intensity, Dose, and Slowing Progression
On the webinar’s central question — whether intensity and dose matter — a general starting point was offered:
Roughly 150 minutes a week of activity that raises the heart rate and breathing, combining aerobic work, strength training, stretching, and balance.
Beyond general activity, Dr. Corcos emphasized that aerobic exercise is the only intervention shown to be likely to slow disease progression — something no current drug does. By his account, four studies have now hinted at this effect.
His earlier SPARX work (a Phase 2 trial) found that high-intensity treadmill exercise slowed progression, and he noted the finding has since been replicated and pooled in meta-analyses.
Dr. Corcos is principal investigator of SPARX3, a Phase 3 trial comparing high-intensity with moderate-intensity aerobic exercise; he noted results are expected in 2029.
For a concrete prescription, Dr. Corcos pointed to guidance he published in 2024 with three co-authors, which he said helped informed the Parkinson’s Foundation and American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) exercise recommendations updated in 2026.
A roughly five-minute warm-up, about 30 minutes with the heart rate at 80–85% of maximum, and a five-minute cool-down — about 40 to 45 minutes, three to four times a week — plus weight training twice a week, with balance, agility, multitasking, and flexibility work built in around that.
Making Exercise a Lifestyle
Choi encouraged people not to treat exercise as something to do only when time allows, comparing it to eating meals or caring for a child — things done because they are necessary, not optional. The aim is for exercise to become automatic, a part of daily life. Both panelists suggested weaving activity into everyday routines, such as walking to do certain errands (instead of driving) when feasible, rather than always carving out a separate dedicated time for exercise.
Building an Interprofessional Care Team
Parkinson’s affects many systems of movement — Dr. Corcos noted it touches 13 organ systems — so no single professional can address all of it. A quiet voice may call for a speech-language pathologist, who can pair speech work with movement. Occupational therapists can help with the home and daily tasks, particularly later in the disease. Nurses and nurse practitioners are increasingly the first point of contact in many parts of the country. A neurologically trained physical therapist is important, as is a movement disorder specialist — though these specialists are in high demand and visits are often short.
Choi noted that in his early years none of his providers focused on exercise, but that the field has evolved and that he has taken ownership of assembling a team aligned with his individual goals — in some cases even joining him in 5Ks and half marathons.
Questions and Answers
Q: Some recommendations suggest exercising up to two hours a day. What are your thoughts on those kinds of recommendations — is it about timing, or intensity?
A: Jimmy Choi: When people say they work out for two hours a day, my question is: what’s the quality of those two hours? If you spend 45 minutes sitting on a bench scrolling your phone, you didn’t work out for two hours. I take as much time as I need to get done what I need to get done, and then I’m done — sometimes an hour, sometimes two or three.
The research points to raising your heart rate, so I make sure I hit my heart-rate target — about 30 minutes, four times a week, at roughly 80% — as my minimum, because that’s what’s shown to potentially slow progression. Anything beyond that supports my own goals.
Some days life happens and it takes longer, and that’s okay — give yourself grace and try again the next day.
I’d also add a caution that doesn’t get discussed enough: on dopamine agonists, we talk about compulsive behaviors like gambling, shopping, and sex — but exercise can become a compulsion too. If you see someone who seems addicted to working out, they may be setting themselves up for injury, overuse, and fatigue. Trainers and care partners should watch for that.
Daniel Corcos: I know of no recommendation that a person needs to work out two hours a day, and I don’t think it’s helpful — telling most people that will just paralyze them. What works for Jimmy works for Jimmy, and it’s brilliant, but for people struggling to get going I’d point to “exercise snacking”: a three-to-five-minute walk once an hour adds up to about 40 minutes by the end of the day.
Where the evidence lies, you need to go to primary sources published in good, peer-reviewed journals. The prescription I published in 2024 — written intentionally with three movement disorder specialists — is nowhere near two hours: about a five-minute warm-up, 30 minutes at 80–85% of maximum heart rate, and a five-minute cool-down, three to four times a week, with weight training twice a week and balance, agility, and flexibility around it.
More can be fine, but listen to your body — it isn’t true that if a little is good, more is always better. There’s a point of diminishing returns, and recovery matters as much as the work; you cannot beat up your body seven days a week.
There’s a great deal of material on Parkinson’s that is wrong, so go to the primary literature and make sure findings have been replicated. My earlier SPARX findings have been replicated closely several times, and there are meta-analyses pooling many resistance-training studies, so we understand the exercise prescription well.
Q: A personal trainer asks: A client with Parkinson’s has freezing episodes not while walking, but when transitioning — moving from the table to standing, or getting off the elliptical. How can freezing during exercise be managed?
A: Daniel Corcos: Freezing of gait is arguably the hardest symptom of Parkinson’s to manage. If a client freezes in certain situations, get familiar with a good physical therapist nearby and refer them — physical therapists can provide cues, which tend to work very well. Music can help; so can tactile cues. This is also a good moment to put in a plug for dance, where a partner can give a touch or cue to help someone move. There are even devices that attach to the leg to provide a sensory stimulus.
Separately, transitions themselves deserve attention: a subset of people with Parkinson’s have orthostatic hypotension, so every time they move — especially from horizontal to vertical — slow them down, watch for lightheadedness, and keep them well hydrated, with salt as needed.
Jimmy Choi: In my own experience, freezing happens when my focus shifts from one target to the next — which is also why people freeze in doorways, as the environment changes and the brain pauses to recalculate. What helps me is giving myself mental cues before I move: as I finish one exercise, I’m already programming the next steps in my head — which leg moves first, where I’m heading — so I’m not making those decisions at the moment. Staying ahead of my movement that way heads off a lot of freezing.
Q: There are many factors outside traditional clinical care — social determinants of health — that make it harder for some people to build and maintain an exercise routine. How can healthcare professionals help address those?
A: Jimmy Choi: One thing I want people to know is that, at the gym, nobody cares — and I mean that in a freeing way. I travel constantly and walk into unfamiliar gyms all the time; I might be at my best or my worst. If I drop a weight or stumble and someone gives me a side eye, at the end of the day they’re not going home to tell their family about the person fumbling at the gym — they’re focused on their own workout, on what matters to them.
A lot of people avoid social situations out of fear of embarrassment, but if you can develop a thick skin, you can go out and do what you need to do. Be safe, of course — but go be you. That’s how you keep your social independence.
Q: Can you speak to the neuromuscular and biomechanical relevance of power and explosive training for Parkinson’s?
A: Daniel Corcos: It’s very important, but it has to be approached carefully because of injury risk. The hallmark of Parkinson’s is bradykinesia, slowness of movement. People with Parkinson’s are not usually dramatically weak; they can reach a reasonable peak force, but it takes them a long time to get there. Power training targets exactly that, and while there aren’t many studies yet, it makes a great deal of sense.
The caution is injury: I ruptured my own Achilles tendon pushing power training too hard a few years ago, so build up gradually rather than going all-out on day one. Delayed onset muscle soreness can discourage people who aren’t already committed, so ease back in slowly after any time off.
A practical approach is to use a slightly lighter weight but emphasize speed — say, 15 repetitions done quickly — and to vary movements like burpees between slow and explosive. Anything that addresses bradykinesia is valuable.
Jimmy Choi: When I started doing burpees, it was slow — about 10 reps at the end of a workout, and I didn’t want to do more. But doing a bit more over time, I got faster and more explosive, and eventually set a burpee world record — something no one watching my first sets would have predicted.
Level up from where you are. I think of it like sprinters versus marathoners: a sprinter is built for short, powerful bursts, and building that kind of explosive power can help you move better in your own daily life.
Q: Looking at the future of Parkinson’s care, what gives you hope?
A: Jimmy Choi: I’ve seen the evolution over 23 years, and I like the direction. We all wish for more time with our movement disorder specialists, but I see other providers stepping in to fill that gap with attention and detail. What helps most is individualized, catered treatment — exercise, nutrition, and medication together.
Daniel Corcos: What gives me hope is the sheer number of people invested in helping. When Jimmy was diagnosed, more than two decades ago, options were few and far between. Now there are four major foundations doing excellent work, major medical centers across the country, and — at the grassroots level — a growing number of increasingly savvy support groups, including young-onset groups, since someone diagnosed between 28 and 40 is not in the same place as a 70-year-old. Because isolation is one of the disease’s real risks, bringing people together matters. I’m immensely optimistic.