Please read carefully before beginning the exercises!
"The regular carrying out of even the most simple exercise, combined with the right medication, can prevent the motility disorders caused by the disease and, over the long term, produces better therapeutic results. This integrated approach in the treatment of Parkinson's patients has long been recognised to be beneficial and is well reported in international literature".
Dr. Giuseppe Meco, Department for Parkinsons Disease and other extrapiramidial diseases, Department of Neurological Sciences, "La Sapienza" University, Rome.
From: "Esercizi Fisici (Physical Exercises)", Azione Parkinson Roma, 1994.

"In Parkinson's Disease it is useful from the earliest stages of the illness to carry out physical exercises to improve co-ordination and muscular trophism and to prevent muscle shortening and alterations in capsular ligamental articulation….
Exercises should be done on a daily basis once the patient has been properly trained during rehabilitation therapy.
Dr. Maria Rosa Salati, Department for Rehabilitative Medicine - Fidenza Hospital (Parma, Italy).
From: "Esercizi motori indicati nel Morbo di Parkinson (Physical exercises for Parkinson's Disease patients)", Unione Parkinsoniani, Parma 2003.

It is no coincidence that all the major Associations for patients with Parkinson's have produced exercise manuals. Some Associations have even produced video cassettes with exercises.
Both manuals and videos however can be difficult to use when you want to carry out the exercises.
A manual lies on the table top whilst one is trying to do the exercises it contains.
A video cassette runs in sequence and so, in order to carry out the same exercise several times, you have to wind the cassette to the beginning of the exercise, then wind it back every time you want to repeat the exercise.
The E-Gym Project (the Electronic Gymnasium) overcomes these problems: the exercises can be done in sequence, but it is also possible to go directly to a specific exercise by clicking on your choice in the menu.

Each exercise has its own web page with the following elements:
- an audio recording describing the exercise, its aims and the way it should be carried out (to listen to the description, click on the button, the recording is repeated every time you press the button);
- an animation of the exercise (similar to a cartoon) which shows every detail of how the exercise should be carried out;
- an audio recording of the exercise which beats out the rhythm (one, two, three...);
- the possibility to choose how many times the exercise should be shown (straight through, with a suitable pause and automatically);
- a button to start the exercise;
- a button to stop the exercise;
- a button to restart the exercise where you left off if you had an interruption whilst doing it;
- a button to return to the exercise menu.

Of course, the collection does not include every possible exercise, just those that can be simply and easily carried out by the majority of patients. It is up to the specialist to decide, according to each patient's individual needs, if other more complicated exercises are needed.
Other exercises can be added to the online collection on request.

Attention: before beginning these exercises, each patient should first get in touch with a physiotherapy clinic to find out the best exercises for him/herself. The exercises in the collection are not suitable for all patients. Your physiotherapist should be able to advise you which exercises are best for you. It should be underlined that E-Gym is only a guide of exercises to be done at home. It should not be used in place of your usual rehabilitation therapy. For safety, it is best to have someone with you the first few times you do these exercises, particularly those done standing up.

Please note: the pages with the animations are complex, in the sense that each one contains both the animation of the exercise and the two audio recordings (the description of the exercise and the timing whilst carrying it out).
They are therefore "heavy" to download using the standard Internet connection and might take some seconds to appear on your computer screen.
Once downloaded, the animations should move smoothly and in line with the accompanying audio.
If you find that the movements of the animations are slow or jumpy, this unfortunately means that your personal computer is not powerful enough to manage the animations.

We would like to thank Amanda Thursfield (British Council, Rome) for the translation in English.

The graphics for the animation were carried out by the students of the course "Graphics for the Internet" taught by Prof. Mauro Angelini at the Rome City Council Scuola Serale "Ettore Rolli".

..... and now go to the exercises