World Oyama Karate offers Rock Steady Boxing class for people with Parkinson’s

World Oyama Karate teacher Karl Julian has always believed karate can be a benefit to everyone. Through Rock Steady Boxing, Julian aims to “fight back” with a class designed to aid people with Parkinson’s disease.

RSB is a nonprofit organization that brings boxing and karate curriculums that fight Parkinson’s to coaches all around the world. Recently, Julian learned the curriculum to bring to Homewood. 

“A lot of people think, for example, that karate is just for people who want to get in shape and just for kids, but there’s something there for everyone, so that’s something that I want to reach out to with different groups,” he said. 

In May, Rock Steady Boxing began offering classes at World Oyama Karate, located in Homewood at 1804 29th Ave. S., on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.

Parkinson’s is an incurable, neurodegenerative disorder that slowly develops and can inhibit functions like movement, motor skills, balance, speech and sensory function. 

According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, nearly 60,000 people are diagnosed with it each year, and it is estimated 10 million people worldwide are living with it. 

Julian said the RSB curriculum involves a non-contact, boxing-style fitness program that improves quality of life, mobility, balance and strength for people fighting Parkinson’s. Non-contact, Julian said, means hitting bags, pads or other items, not other people. 

All participants, Julian said, must schedule an evaluation, which takes a little longer for people to get signed up for the class. 

“It is a little bit different of a process to get going, everyone has to have an evaluation to measure their baseline performance for different motor skills and cognitive skills, and also you have a chance for the caregivers or physicians to tell a little bit about the history of where they’re coming from,” Julian said.

As a karate instructor, Julian said, it seemed like something that suited his skill set and would allow him to have an impact on people’s quality of life. Each month, he said, over 25,000 people participate in boxing-inspired exercises in RSB programs around the world. Julian is one of more than 1,600 coaches trained worldwide. 

 “[The class] is designed specifically for people with Parkinson’s disease as a way of helping to slow down the progression when it comes to the symptoms,” he said. “… I got interested because I heard about it from a couple of people, heard about a place in Atlanta that was doing it.”

Julian said he started training at World Oyama Karate in Homewood in 2004 and worked his way into an apprentice-type role and eventually ended up teaching. Julian said he has had experiences with people struggling with dementia and other diseases, and he’s always been drawn to help people with what he knows best: karate.  

Once he decided he wanted to start offering a class to the Birmingham community, he got certified through the national organization. He said that included attending conferences about the disease, learning from a neurologist from UAB and attending a RSB class as if he was a student.

Julian said he was surprised to learn how much intervals of exercise like karate can do to help slow down the disease. 

“Karate can actually help people with various diseases, not just Parkinson’s, but with physical and mental diseases like dementia or cerebral palsy, so diseases where mind and body are not on the same page,” he said. “It can kind of strengthen those neural networks.”

At the beginning of each class, he said, there are warmups for the first 15 minutes. When he got certified, he learned how important voice activation is for Parkinson’s patients, since the muscles used to speak also are used to swallow food. That’s why it’s important, he said, to strengthen those muscles through shouting and “speaking with purpose.”

To add to that, he said, the class will also talk briefly about social topics to get to know each other as they are warming up with slow stretches and light aerobics. 

The core of the class will be about boxing and working out, Julian said, some of which involves footwork drills and hitting heavy bags. Depending on the people participating and how much they can or cannot do, he said, the exercise is modified to become more complicated or more accessible. 

The last part of the class involves core work, since Parkinson’s often affects people’s posture. 

He said black belt teachers in the program also volunteer with him and help with the classes.

“We’re really excited, and hopefully it will have an impact on a lot of people,” Julian said. 

For more information, go to rocksteadyboxing.org or call 205-879-4841.