Fighting Parkinson’s disease –in the boxing gym

Words and pictures by Mark Adler

IT’S a chilly March afternoon as the first of a small group of people arrive at the SJ Fitness Gym – home to Radstock Amateur Boxing Club – in Radstock, some walking slowly and purposefully as they climb the few steps to the entrance.

Inside, the walls are covered in hundreds of photographs and posters featuring legends of the sport as well as some local boxers who are progressing up the ladder. A ring – no-one is going in there today – takes up one corner of the gym whilst gloves, sparring equipment and weights are all around and punchbags hang from the ceiling.

Gym owner Sean Jenkins is all smiles and jokes as the group members, each clutching water containers, prepare to be put through their paces by him in an hour-long session.

But these are no aspiring kings – and queen – of the ring; they are all suffering, to some degree or another, from Parkinson’s Disease. The different boxing exercises help to address Parkinson’s symptoms such as tremor, balance, posture and strength, as well as increasing fitness levels.

The regulars come from all over Mendip; such as Pete, who is from Shepton Mallet, Jim, a painter and decorator from Faulkland, and Chris and Jane, who are from Frome. Most were introduced to Sean through a regular Parkinson’s Disease coffee morning in Frome.

Jane, who shares lifts with Chris, said: “It’s as much a chance to socialise as it is to train.”

Pete has since bought some training equipment to use at home: “You definitely feel better after a session”, whilst Chris, who is in his 70s, delivers newspapers in Frome and is a keen supporter of the Parkinson’s Society.

Sean started the weekly sessions after meeting Dennis Stinchcombe MBE, a boxing trainer who runs something similar at the Broad Plain Boxing Club in Bristol. The Radstock sessions began in 2019, only to be curtailed by the pandemic; numbers are only now slowly beginning to rebuild.

The session begins with gentle warm-up exercises to loosen the muscles before some of the group don headbands from which hang tennis balls for them to gently punch whilst Sean runs through a cricket-style throw-down to encourage hand-to-eye coordination.

Then it’s into the fitness suite next door for a session on the resistance equipment before they put on their own sparring gloves to tackle the punchbags. Each works at their own pace; there’s no competitiveness just gentle mutual support – and certainly no match-ups.

Sean said: “It’s great to be able to make the gym available for these guys and although they can have good days – and not-sogood days – they all say they feel the benefit afterwards.”