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Michele, Maintaining or building up muscle mass has merits. Stronger bodies decrease the chances of broken bones whenever you fall. Also exercise helps you maintain equilibrium. The trick is to design an exercise program and stick to it. My personal exercise program is: 1. Set up a schedule. I work out on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays every week with my daughtier and sometimes other friend as partners. We share a personal trainer. Working together increases the chances of showing up for the exercise session. 2. We have three areas of focus: aerobic exercises, balance training, and weight training. Our aerobic training includes individual work on a stationary bike and treadmill sessions. We also get an aerobic effect by moving rapidly through step exercises and weight machine exercises. Balance training takes place on a Boce Ball (a sort of mid-sized ball that is sliced in half. We also do a variety of floor exercises that involve balancing on one leg. We do weight exercises using lighter weights with more repetitions. Core (stomach) exercises seem to be the most important. One session we work on upper body parts and the next on legs and other lower body parts. 3. When ever I have access to a pool, I do water aerobics. Being in the water seems to return me to my pre-Parkinson's state of affairs. Some day soon I'll add Yoga to the list. The trouble is that I don't fit in with those hard-body skinnies. I understand that not all PWP have access to trainers and exercise equipment. You don't need them to exercise. Do sit ups and leg lifts. Do them in bed if you have trouble doing them on the floor. Do push ups. You can even do them by leaning against a kitchen counter top. Stand on one leg holding on to the wall. Try letting go. If you don't have light weights use water bottles for weights. I use rubber band exercise equipment when I am on the road. Be like Rocky (remember Sly Stone's creative exercise routines), be creative. And good luck. Dick Puckett ----- Original Message ----- From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 6:36:56 PM Subject: Weight training Anyone do weight training all? And if so or not tell me more! Thanks Michele Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn