The Living With Parkinson's Blog
Karate ticks a lot of boxes
I started learning Shotokan Karate with the awesome people at Kapiti Karate without any intention of doing something to help improve my movement. I just thought I would give it a try as an activity I could do with my eldest child who was 11 years old when we started. I was terrified that I would be really bad at it and have to give it up in embarrassment. At the time I thought, oh well what more can they do to me, I’ve already got Parkinson’s. And I thought I would just try to do it, and to keep doing it until I couldn’t any more.
Genius
As it turns out though, karate ticks a lot of boxes. Out of a list of the key things you can get from exercise (particularly if you have a movement disorder), karate delivers most, if not all of them.
I find karate particularly great for:
- aerobic exercise
- skills development: it incorporates doing two or more tasks at once while moving, gets progressively harder as you improve, involves having success and getting feedback
- learning-centred, goal focused
- based on large amplitude movements
- builds in complexity, intensity, repetition
- improves your strength, flexibility, and balance
That’s a long list and is not even complete. Fundamentally, after a good training session I feel so good. It gives me a mental lift, and improves my mood. I feel lighter and happier. It has become an essential part of my life.

No Pain, No Gain
I’m not saying it is easy. Despite my intrinsic motivation (not doing it is worse than any pain of doing it!), it is still challenging to turn up sometimes, and to stay in the dojo when things get hard. But it is overwhelmingly worth it.
If you have the opportunity, I totally recommend giving karate a try. If you do – please let me know how you get on! I’d love to hear from you.
Emma.