I’m constantly in the process of creating an exercise routine that works best for me.
A lot of practices claim they’re a fountain of youth: qigong, yoga, 20th century fitness, and 21st century ‘movement culture’. My goal is slowing the progression of HD. My quest is for something similar, even if I’m reluctant to admit it. I don’t want to live forever, I just want to live with the best quality of life.

My body isn’t the same from year to year (or day to day), so it needs to have a core set of goals that can be approached with flexibility.

Differences in anatomy and physiology (visible or not) aren’t built into any system I’ve studied so far. The tall, lanky basketball body versus the sprinter versus the gymnast. Differences in fast/slow twitch muscle fiber ratios. Tendencies to build muscle or not. It’s also super-important to consider pre-existing injuries and tendencies to re-injury.
Most systems work for one or two body types better than others. None work for me unmodified.

Incorporating Multiple Movement Systems

I’m ignoring systems designed to achieve some spiritual purpose (Kundalini yoga, Gurdjieff movements) unless they have integrated movement and fitness goals. Great stuff, but incorporated into other daily practices. Here’s a summary of my sources.

Hatha Yoga / Pranayama

The standard Ashtanga flavors of yoga have a lot of variation to offer, but I have to modify in a couple of ways.
Long-held static postures are a no-go. It makes my joints and tendons stiff. My body doesn’t care if it’s sitting on the couch, cross-legged for meditation, in corpse pose, or in an active balance. If it’s too long, it causes pain and seems to be counterproductive. This rules out Bikram and Iyengar.
Forward folds have to be limited: I have two torn tendons in my hip, one being a hamstring. All it takes for me to be out for weeks is to get serious in a folding-intensive class. Once.

Qigong

I’m looking at Yi Jin Jing for specific movements and combining energy work with the exercises, from qigong or other sources. “You can do vital breath through everything” – my instructor.
The stimulation from tapping seems to increase proprioception. People with HD misperceive where their bodies are in space. They won’t be aware that a hand is waving like it’s trying to flag a taxi. They often have injuries they don’t even notice.

20th Century Exercise Routines – J.P. Muller

In the 20th century, pre-physiologists like J.P. Muller and Eugen Sandow created daily exercise routines. Muller’s goal was lifetime fitness, Sandow focused on building muscle and strength. What they have in common with qigong, tai chi, and yoga is an emphasis on how to breathe while moving. Muller even wrote a 2nd book on his breathing exercises and focuses on fluidity in the movements. Muller created something that could be done daily, in 15-20 minutes.

21st Century Fitness: ‘Movement Culture’

Ido Portal took notes from Claude Victoria and capoeira. He stripped movement from context and created a philosophy of physicality based on play. Actions are given degrees of freedom and spontaneity that linear, proscribed fitness routines and physio training lack. That reduces the repetitive motion issues quite a lot.
I’m not into the extreme sport aspect of it: the one-handed handstands and flagpoles. I am one of the “people who weren’t willing to train many hours a day, six or seven days a week”. I met a movement guru who is more interested in the physiology and adaptability, and incorporating philosophy and health rather than competing like a bro.

Sport and Physical Therapy

I’m excluding sports generally and endurance sports in particular. They’re out mostly because I don’t have the coordination (HD), but some were off the table earlier.
This is not a humblebrag, I’m more of an experimenter than an athlete: I stopped triathlon training, HIIT sprints, and roller derby when I tore a hamstring in the 2000s. In the early 2010s, I took classes in trapeze, silk arts, parkour, crossfit, and gymnastics. I started climbing and capoeira.
The repetition of sport-specific training was too intense. Hand-intensive and impact-heavy sports were dropped because of the joint issues and tendinopathies: crack climbing, silks, parkour, gymnastics. I tried surfing (because I was terrified of being alone in deep water) and got surfer’s neck and flared a shoulder tendinosis from paddling out.
What playing with sports gave me was a range of training styles, exercises, and intensities.

Physical Therapy

After spine, hip, and knee injuries I went through several rounds of physical therapy and realized I didn’t need to spend 3 hours at the gym every other day to make a difference in how I move and feel.
I’m taking anything from PT and sports that hits a sweet spot: particularly efficient movement that exercises an otherwise overlooked area of my body. Rolling the IT band, wall squats, vibration therapies, superman (dorsal core, good for HD dystonia and ruptured disks).

Capoeira

The Afro-Brazilian (martial) art capoeira, is evolving proscribed movement (like a sport) and a philosophical worldview. What it has that other paradigms lack are the focus on inversions and balance in motion. Using the arms as much as the legs for stability on the floor adds a lot of fall resilience. Since I’m given the ok to modify in class as much as I need, it’s the only sport I’m (occasionally) continuing.

Thanks, Mom

Later than anyone would have expected her to be exercising, and long after she couldn’t drive, mom was at the gym. She was in much better shape than her family members at the same age with HD.
She “went to the Y for a yoga class.” Not mentioning the 20-odd minutes of cardio on the bike she did before walking (with her cane) to each of the weight machines. Before yoga class.
Mom’s the reason I’m including the strength training, too. HD increases bone loss as well as muscle loss.

Goals

The ultimate goal is a short, easy to remember, daily routine that incorporates everything in this checklist.

• Breath and Energy (Pranayama/Qigong)
• Complete ROM, All Joints (Fluid/Non-Impact)
• Core Fitness
• Neck and Spine Flexibility
• Extremities Strength and Flexibility
• Inversions (Lungs and Spine)
• Tapping, Vibration (Proprioception)
• Balance
• Non-Impact Cardio (Heart and Lungs)
• Oh, and under 40 minutes.

Details of the new 2020 routine (and an explanation of the 2019 cheatsheet) in a later post.
I’m planning to post a breakdown of each of the movements, its purpose and effects.

Hopefully what you’d take from my process is not my routine – but how to create yours, starting with your goals and listening to your body. Experimenting and noticing reactions, short and long term.

Happy moving!