From May 18 to 21, 2023, one of the largest and most spectacular table tennis tournaments in the world took place in Düsseldorf: the Quooker PingPongParkinson German Open 2023. 200 players with Parkinson's from all over the world fought for medals in the ARAG CenterCourt Hall, and if not everyone could win, so obviously everyone had a lot of fun at the successful event.
As someone who uses fascial training extensively for pain management, I was amazed at the results I was able to achieve through this training method. During my complex therapy in Bad Gögging, I received a detailed explanation of the importance of fascia and how it affects our physical performance and well-being. Since then, I have incorporated fascia training into my daily routine.
What are fascia
Fascia are connective tissue structures in the body that surround and connect our muscles, bones, organs and nerves. They are important for the stability, mobility and power transmission of the body. Fascia training is a training method that aims to strengthen and stretch these structures to improve physical performance and reduce pain.
We ask ourselves what possibilities there are for people with Parkinson's to make the path to an art of living instead of a burden of life and what role the inner attitude plays: with sport we have moving possibilities, these and thus motor and non-motor symptoms better to meet.
Videos about therapeutic boxing
Boxing is a popular sport that has recently become more popular due to its positive effects on people suffering from Parkinson's disease. It has even been recognized to lead to a significant improvement in walking speed in people with Parkinson's disease.
All about therapeutic boxing
At this time, everyone is talking about sport as an important resource for neurological diseases. Movement groups are forming everywhere and the information about this important pillar for the treatment of Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis or polyneuropathy is constantly growing, as are the results of research.
After more and more "Parkies" joined our project PingPongParkinson-VR and we already have our own ranking list, the step to the first tournament was only logical.
In the future, the "International PingPongParkinson-VR-ChampionShip" will take place on the first Sunday of each quarter.
We start unscheduled on Sunday February 5th at 18pm. Anyone with Parkinson's disease and who has the technical requirements for the TT simulation "ELEVEN TT" (VR glasses Quest1 or 2) can take part.
The tournament will be broadcast live on twitch and youtube. Interested parties should please apply as soon as possible, since only 20 starting places can be allocated in the first tournament.
What we know about pain
Pain is multidimensional. This means that different factors play a role in the development of pain.
Why are we in pain?
They are a warning signal from our body. Or much more an action signal from our body. He tells us that our threat level has been exceeded and asks us to change something.
This can be a change of position, for example, if we have stayed in one position for a long time. This can be pulling your hand away from a hot object.
This is because the individual threat level has been exceeded. When the brain receives too much threatening information, it triggers a pain response. For this purpose, information from different areas is evaluated, from our environment, from inside the body, from our body parts and is connected with our experiences, adventures, emotions, fears and expectations. The brain interprets all this data individually and decides whether there is a threat or not. It is only when this happens that a pain response is sent from the brain.
“I think of my Parkinson's disease as a kind of brain injury – specifically to small parts of the midbrain. I imagine the total volume of the damaged area is about the size of a golf ball. That means I can use the rest of my brain to come up with workarounds.