The value of exercise progression and regression

There is no single ‘best’ exercise for individuals living with Parkinson’s because different exercises target the unique combination of symptoms each person with Parkinson’s experiences. A wide variety of exercises can be beneficial, depending on the specific symptom challenges faced by the individual.

Exercise progression refers to adapting the exercise to suit your age, health, and stage of Parkinson’s. Exercise regression involves making an exercise easier while exercise progression can make it more challenging.

When an exercise doesn’t feel right, it can often be adjusted to better meet your needs. Understanding how to progress (make harder) or regress (make easier) an exercise will help you select the most suitable level for your abilities.

Exercise progression means increasing the intensity or difficulty of an exercise, while exercise regression involves reducing the demand of an exercise. Here are five ways to modify exercises, either to make them harder or easier as necessary:

1. Intensity / Load / Resistance
2. Range of Motion
3. Height
4. Speed
5. Body Position

Intensity / Load / Resistance

When you become fatigued, it’s common to instinctively reduce the load. On the other hand, if an exercise feels too easy, increasing the weight or resistance can make it more challenging. Adjusting load or resistance is possible across most types of exercise.

Range of Motion

The range of motion during an exercise can significantly affect its intensity.   Larger, more expansive movements generally make an exercise harder, while smaller movements with less range are easier.

Adjusting the range of motion is one of the simplest ways to modify an exercise. For example, when performing a squat, a deeper squat increases the range of motion and makes the exercise more challenging. To make a squat easier, reduce how low you squat.

Similarly, the position of your arms can influence the exercise’s difficulty:

arms by your sides or on your hips make the movement easier, while raising your arms in front of you will make it harder and by raising your arms above your head increases difficulty even more.

You can also adjust the range by changing the physical distance of the exercise. For instance, in walking lunges you can shorten the step length to make the exercise easier.

Height

Changing the height of an exercise can also alter its difficulty. For example, lowering the height of a step or platform can make stepping exercises easier, while raising the height can make them more challenging. Similarly, in exercises like shoulder raises, lifting the arms only to shoulder height makes the exercise easier, while raising them higher increases the challenge.

Speed

The speed at which you perform an exercise can make a big difference in its difficulty. For aerobic activities like walking or running, moving faster increases the intensity.

However, for strength exercises, performing them too quickly will make the movement easier by relying on momentum – and will also increase the risk of injury.  Slowing down strength exercises, on the other hand, increases the difficulty and provides more significant strength gains.

Body Position

Changing your body position is one of the most effective ways to make an exercise harder or easier. This involves adjusting how your body interacts with gravity.

For example, during a push-up, performing it on your knees or with your hands on a raised surface reduces the force of gravity, making the movement easier. To increase the challenge, you can elevate your feet, increasing the gravity load.

By making these adjustments—whether increasing the intensity, changing the range, altering your body position, or modifying other factors—you can tailor exercises to your personal level and capabilities.

References:

Exercise Progression: How Much, How Fast, and Why It’s Important

https://simplifaster.com/articles/exercise-progression/

Exercise Progressions and Regressions: How-to’s of Scaling Movement

https://blog.nasm.org/fitness/exercise-progressions-and-regressions-how-tos-of-scaling-movement

Exercise Progression and Regression

https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/exercise-progression-and-regression