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This is a report on an exercise program for PD which I started 9 months ago and which has been going on since that time: We exercise 3 days a week at a local health club called Capital Nautilus. Spouses and persons with PD exercise together. The goals of the exercise program were many: 1. To improve personal autonomy and promote independence. 2. To gain strength via Nautilus exercise machines. 3. To demonstrate that persons with PD can be taught to train independently and (eventually) with little or no supervision. -- 4. To improve mobility and transfer skills used in activities of daily living. 5. To serve the needs of a variety of PD stages (I-III currently) 6. To provide balance training to those with PD. 7. To investigate (anecdotally) the effect that a health club atmosphere would have on psychological and sociological variables for persons with a degenerative neurological condition and on their relationship to their spouse. This program would not be possible without the help of many undergraduate and graduate students who, like myself, volunteer many hours of their free time to facilitate this group. Every participant practically has a personal trainer. Each trainer has been persoanlly trained by myself. I am a doctoral student with a BSE and an MA in Physical Education and am currently writing my thesis on the effect of strength and balance training on balance and activities of daily living in stage III PD. The results of our pilot work are very exciting: that persons who are fallers and have PD can benefit significantly from balance and strength training following 10 weeks of such an intervention. We are currently working on two manuscripts-submitted to BRAIN and the Journal of Physical Therapy. This work is still considered "highly experimental" by many, but I belive that soon exercise training will be as much a part of PD therapy as L-Dopa. My father is turning 88 this year. He is healthy. He started to lift weights at a club 9 years ago. He is in AWESOME shape. He is the driving force behind my ambition to become a gerontologist and to work with adults in a research or clinical setting. I am very thankful that I can express my ideas on this list...Thank-you to all of you who have written to me asking for advice on exercise. Since being on this list I have received 56 email messages concerning the requests for information on the benefits of exercise. Thank-you to all of those who have shown interest. Mark ([log in to unmask])