Online Course | Move with Purpose: Exercise Strategies for Parkinson’s Disease
$60.00
This product is an online, self-study course.
This course includes 3 lessons:
- Lesson 1 – Mirror the Movement: Powerful Group Training Strategies for Parkinson’s Exercise: Learn how to use instructor-led mirroring to drive powerful neurological change in people living with Parkinson’s. Participants move in real time with the coach, producing larger, faster, and more intentional movements than when working independently. This visually cued, follow-along format increases amplitude, challenges reaction time, and elevates cardiovascular demand. Layered fine motor drills and vocal work are integrated simultaneously, creating a full-brain, full-body training effect.
- Lesson 2 – Train to Fight Back: Essential Exercises for Parkinson’s Programming: The lesson shares 6 new warmup, strength and boxing drills utilizing the mirroring concept you learned in lesson 1. Parkinson’s impacts motor control, coordination, amplitude, speed, balance, cognition, fine motor skills, and vocal function. Effective exercise programming must be evidence-informed, purposeful, and repetitive. This lesson provides practical strategies to integrate foundational exercises throughout dynamic warm-ups, strength training, and boxing and/or other cardiovascular modalities. Exercises target multiple planes of motion, bilateral coordination, and crossing the midline, while incorporating agility, speed, cognitive challenges, vocal training, and fine motor skills.
- Lesson 3 – Competency Assessment: A 20 question exam covering the materials in lessons 1 and 2. Upon passing of the competency assessment, you will be issued a Certificate of Completion.
For those who have completed the Parkinson’s Disease Fitness Specialist course, this short course reinforces concepts and introduces you to new exercises to integrate with your Parkinson’s “fighters”. If you have not yet completed the specialist course, this course can serve as an introduction to exercise for Parkinson’s, but it is recommended you complete the Parkinson’s Disease Fitness Specialist course to fully understand how to best work with those with Parkinson’s.
*Note: Lessons were presented as part of the 2026 MedFit Global Virtual Conference.
Course Length: 2 hours
Course Author: Colleen Bridges, M.Ed
Description
MedFit Classroom CEUs
This online course provides 2 CEUs toward renewal of these MedFit Classroom Specializations:
- Alzheimer’s Disease Fitness Specialist
- Arthritis Fitness Specialist
- Cardiac REHAB Fitness Specialist
- Longevity Lifestyle and Fitness Specialist
- Medical Fitness Specialist
- Obesity Fitness Specialist
- Osteoporosis Fitness Specialist
- Parkinson’s Disease Fitness Specialist
- Type 2 Diabetes Fitness Specialist
- Weight Management Fitness Specialist
Other Continuing Education Credits
This course is not currently approved for credits with other certifying bodies. Upon completion, you’ll receive a certificate that can be used to petition for credit with your certifying body.
About the Author
Colleen Bridges has worked for nearly 20 years as an NSCA Certified personal trainer, group exercise instructor and fitness consultant and as an independent contractor for Nashville’s first personal training center, STEPS Fitness. Her passion for understanding the body in sickness and in health, and how it moves, as fed her interest in and enhanced her talent for working with senior adults, especially those living with a neurological disorder such as Parkinson’s Disease.
Colleen earned a BA from Ouachita Baptist University and an M. Ed from Louisiana Tech University and went on to earn certifications such as NSCA Certified Personal Trainer, “Rock Steady Boxing Certification”, “Brain and Balance Certification”, “Parkinson’s Cycling Certification”, she has attended multiple conferences offered by NSCA, IDEA and completed an internship with Dr. Irv Rubenstein in 2005. Colleen’s love for special populations took a unique turn in 2016, when she began teaching “Rock Steady Boxing Music City” classes for those living with Parkinson’s disease. Almost 4 years later, Colleen has two locations, 14 classes per week, 10 assistant coaches and over 120 boxers fighting against Parkinson’s Disease.
Vanderbilt University Movement Disorder Clinic took notice of the improvements of their patients attending Rock Steady Boxing classes and invited Colleen to participate in a research project studying how exercise intervention affects Parkinson’s Disease. The international headquarters for Rock Steady Boxing invited Colleen to present her seminar “Effective Program Design Part 1 and 2” at the 2018 and 2019 conferences. In February of 2019, Colleen was invited to lead a certification training camp for 37 incoming Rock Steady Boxing Coaches.
With a desire to encourage, educate and empower coaches/personal trainers, Colleen created, bridgesforparkinsons.com, with a mission of connecting people living with Parkinson’s Disease to a supportive community through specialized Parkinson’s exercise classes.
