On a Friday in Leawood, Kansas, at the Parkinson’s Exercise and Wellness Center, classes are in full swing … literally. The gym, which is specifically dedicated to people with Parkinson’s disease, gives participants a way to fight back with boxing classes.
Sarrisa Curry is head coach and cofounder of the center.
“Our mission is to provide exercise for a stronger body, education and resources for a stronger mind, camaraderie and support for a stronger spirit,” she said.
Parkinson’s is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease that causes issues like tremors, balance problems and stiff muscles. There’s no cure, but exercise and physical therapies help people with the disease improve their brain health, sleep and motor skills.
Data from medical records shows Kansas, as well as other agricultural states, have the highest rates of Parkinson’s disease diagnoses in the country. Research on what causes Parkinson’s and how to cure it is ongoing, but groups like Curry’s help people living with the disease improve their symptoms and slow its progression.
How movement helps
Curry said she heard about boxing classes as a method to treat Parkinson’s about a decade ago. At the time, she was a coach at the TITLE Boxing Club in Overland Park.
She said when a news segment about Rock Steady Boxing, a curriculum developed for people with Parkinson’s, aired on Good Morning America, the boxing club started getting calls asking if they offered a class for people with Parkinson’s.
“People with Parkinson's, people who cared about people with Parkinson's, were desperate to find something like that in their area,” Curry said. “And of course, there was nothing in this area.”
So, Curry started her own class, using the Rock Steady curriculum. In the beginning, she taught four boxers.
“I recognized very quickly that this wasn't just helping them to be stronger, it was actually helping their brain to function better,” Curry said. “They were self-reporting that they were moving better. Their tremors were less. They were sleeping better. They were having less anxiety.”
Over time, as interest in the program grew, Curry branched off and co-founded a non-profit gym dedicated to people fighting Parkinson’s disease.
“I think that's really important because this community is very special,” Curry said. “They need to have a space that's for them and I think we've provided that.”
About a decade later, the gym services about 280 people and offers nine classes, ranging from pilates and boxing to theatre. The center is also a learning site for occupational therapy students. It has a space set up like an apartment, where students can help gym-goers practice things like making the bed, putting on their shoes and completing kitchen tasks.
Dave Connors boxes and takes classes at the Parkinson’s Exercise and Wellness Center. He said when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in early 2025, he started looking for exercise classes tailored to his needs. Now, he drives an hour from Odessa, Missouri, to attend classes at the center three days a week.
“Coming here just makes me positive that it's going to be okay,” Connors said. “I feel probably better than I ever have even before I was diagnosed.”
Connors said the gym offers support and camaraderie for people experiencing various stages of Parkinson’s. He learned from the positive attitudes of others in the program.
“Everybody has their troubles and everybody's at a different stage,” he said. “But their attitudes made me change my attitude to positivity.”
Connors said the exercise, in addition to medication he started, has worked wonders. He’s lost 30 pounds, and he said he falls less and is more confident in how he moves.
Parkinson’s typically impacts older adults like Connors. Curry said as the baby boomer generation ages, they’re seeing more need. Enrollment went up by 25% last year.
“And I anticipate that we'll see that this year, if not more, because more people are being diagnosed,” Curry said.
Curry said to prepare, they’ve purchased more equipment and are currently working on expanding their space.
Parkinson’s data
New data shows Kansas has some of the highest rates of Parkinson’s diagnoses in the country. Epic Research, part of Epic Systems, a health records company, analyzed millions of medical records to find diagnosis rates. Nebraska was the highest with 561 per 100,000 patients. Kansas was second with 517 and Missouri was fifth.
Researcher Kersten Bartelt said to get an accurate comparison, researchers adjusted the rates to account for age, sex and other factors.
“We wanted to account for that and Nebraska and Kansas both remained at the top,” she said.
According to the CDC, Kansas has a high Parkinson’s disease mortality rate. The state comes in third, following Nebraska and Utah.
Bartelt said more research is needed to determine why states like Kansas and Nebraska experience high rates of the disease. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, there’s no single, definitive cause for Parkinson’s disease. In some cases, it can be linked to genetics, but research also shows that exposure to environmental toxins like chemicals used in farming put people at higher risk.
A group helping people in Kansas farming communities
Elaine Ptacek is the founder of Parkinson's Families of Northwest Kansas, a nonprofit that offers things like physical therapy and art classes free of cost. She said about 90% of her group’s participants live on farms and are exposed to pesticides.
“We just have so many farm related jobs, agriculture and everything else, that it’s kind of hard to escape that,” Ptacek said.
Ptacek’s organization serves a rural area that she said desperately needs Parkinson’s support. She said the region is a medical desert and many of her group members see specialists more than three hours away in Denver.
The group meets on Wednesdays for a fitness class, support group session or physical, art or music therapy. But because there aren’t enough services to cover the broad region, groups in eight counties join a Zoom call and follow along with a fitness instructor based in Colby. Each group is attended by someone with a medical background in case a participant falls or injures themselves.
Ptacek said she founded Parkinson’s Families of Northwest Kansas because when she was diagnosed with the disease back in 2015, the closest workout and support group was about 4 hours away.
“Having Parkinson’s, you need a support group because you have good days and bad days,” she said.
Certain medications and a surgical implant called deep brain stimulation help slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease. But until there’s a cure, classes like these are bringing people together and helping them manage their symptoms.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio.
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