Parkinson's: An Athlete's Journey

Jodie was already a CrossFit athlete when she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2025. She had boxed for years, competed in bodybuilding, and had no intention of giving up competition. After her diagnosis, she set her sights on competing in adaptive CrossFit. In her first season, Jodie finished 11th in the world in her division in the Adaptive CrossFit Open and qualified for the semifinals. She ult...

Lorrie Karn has spent 36 years working in fitness and wellness, much of it with people who need exercise adapted to their individual abilities. Today, she directs Benefitness Adaptive Gym and is completing her doctorate in Health & Wellness Psychology, where she is studying the benefits of exercise for people with movement disorders. She works with people across a wide range of ages and abilit...

Kate McLaughlin knows what it means to rely on sport when things get difficult. A former Division I lacrosse player and longtime coach, she still draws on many of the things she learned as an athlete: repetition, hard work, relying on a team, and adapting when circumstances change. Those lessons have taken on new meaning since Kate was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s in 2023. Kate continues...

Ashley Ellis is preparing to row more than 5,000 miles around the eastern United States as captain of the Human Powered Potential Second Wave crew. Beginning in spring 2027, the six-woman team will row America's Great Loop — the roughly 5,200-mile waterway from Florida up the Intracoastal, through the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi, and back around the Gulf. If successful, they will become the...

Michael Lu has been playing hockey since he was four. In 2018, years after being diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s, he was recognized by the Anaheim Ducks as their honorary “21st Duck” and skated onto the ice with the team at Honda Center. Michael was diagnosed at 29, after experiencing symptoms as far back as high school. His younger brother was diagnosed even earlier, and the two have had v...

hris Hamper has been obsessed with climbing ever since he can remember. When he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 13 years ago, one of his first thoughts was that he wouldn’t be able to climb anymore. He soon found that wasn’t the case. Chris has continued climbing throughout his diagnosis, even as Parkinson’s has made some movements and parts of the sport increasingly difficult. That experience beca...

Becky Johnson has spent decades pushing her limits. She has raced ultramarathons, trained in CrossFit for more than a decade, and recently earned a spot at the CrossFit Adaptive Games. Training has always been part of how she approaches challenges, long before she was diagnosed with Parkinson's. When subtle changes began affecting her running, grip strength, and coordination, Becky assumed they we...

Jodi Brown is the CEO of Parkinson Association of the Rockies (PAR), a nonprofit serving people with Parkinson's and their care partners across Colorado and Wyoming. After leaving a career in corporate marketing and finance, Jodi helped transform the organization, expanding exercise programs, support groups, educational events, equipment loans, and community services while doubling its revenue, se...

Eric and Todd are back together on the pod, catching up on everything that has changed since they last sat down. Todd has started a new full-time job, Eric has been recovering from a medical procedure, and both of them have been trying to find their footing with movement, training, and the usual unpredictability that comes with Parkinson’s. They talk about getting back into exercise, building rout...

Rob Warner’s athletic life was built one challenge at a time. First it was climbing stairs. Then Mount Whitney. Then cycling. Then triathlons. Each step gave him a new way to measure effort, build confidence, and stay connected to what his body could do. When Parkinson’s symptoms first appeared, Rob thought he was dealing with an injury from a triathlon fall. Instead, after a long diagnostic proce...

Larry Grogin is nearing the end of one of the most demanding endurance challenges imaginable: 100 marathons in 100 consecutive days. With only a few runs left, Eric catches up with Larry as he nears the end of a journey that has taken him more than 2,500 miles across the United States. What began as a challenge built around Parkinson’s, exercise, and possibility has become something more personal,...

Ryan Cotton has been part of Rock Steady Boxing since it was thirty boxers in an aerobics room. With more than 20 years of clinical experience and a Doctorate in Health Science, he joined as a board member before becoming Chief Scientific Officer and eventually President and CEO. When his father was diagnosed with Parkinson's, the work became personal. By then he already understood what the resear...

Jorge Quintero’s work with Parkinson’s began in the operating room. As an electrical engineer working in neurotechnology, he supported deep brain stimulation surgeries and watched people with severe tremors experience immediate changes once stimulation was turned on. That experience led him deeper into clinical neuroscience and into a question that now shapes much of his work: how much can the bra...

Garrett Salpeter’s work began with a personal injury and a question that stayed with him: why did recovery often feel so limited? As a hockey player and engineering student, he became interested in the nervous system, direct current stimulation, and the ways the body responds after injury. That path eventually led him to found NeuFit, where his work focuses on helping people improve movement, reco...

Larry Grogin is halfway through running 100 marathons in 100 consecutive days. He started in New Jersey on March 24 and is making his way toward Southern California as part of Strides for Humanity, a run raising awareness and support for people living with Parkinson’s. Each day starts with the same challenge: cover 26.2 miles, manage what Parkinson’s brings, and get up the next morning to do it ag...

Before Gaia Forlani became a neuroscientist, she was a professional ballerina. Ballet gave her a direct understanding of movement at a high level: control, rhythm, timing, strength, coordination, and the constant feedback between the brain and the body. That background still shapes how she sees Parkinson’s. Today, she works at the intersection of neuroscience, coaching, and Parkinson’s performance...

Jay Freyensee has always moved through life as an athlete. Cycling, mountain biking, martial arts, Muay Thai, cross-country skiing, running, and Spartan-style events have all shaped how he understands effort, progress, and identity. His athletic life has never been about one discipline. It has been about staying active, learning what a sport asks of him, and finding the next way to challenge himse...

Jeff Martin helped shape what group fitness looks like today. Over nearly five decades, he built one of the early studio environments in New York City where people trained together, showed up consistently, and stayed connected to the work. That model spread, and companies like Equinox and Crunch grew out of foundations that started in studios like his. For 47 years, Jeff has been teaching classes....

Greg Schaefer is used to long races. Kona, Ironman, and years of knowing what his body could do. When that started to change, he noticed. In 2023, he was diagnosed with Young-Onset Parkinson’s. He still trains and races, but the approach is different, and some days require more adjustment than others. He speaks openly about the days when he pulls back, when patience runs thin, and when the mental...

Eric and Todd check in on training, setbacks, and where things are at right now. Eric shares how rethinking his heart rate approach has allowed him to start pushing intensity again. Todd talks through the cycle of trying to return to running and encountering the same knee issue tied to motor control on his left side. They also touch on the early phase of Parkinson's after diagnosis, when you're st...

Brendan Cusick wanted to do something big for his 50th birthday. That idea led him to ocean rowing, a four-man team, and eventually a 2,800-mile row from Monterey to Kauai. Patrick Morrissey came into the picture as Brendan’s friend, a fellow endurance-minded athlete, and someone recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s who initially thought he might help as a spokesperson. A couple months later, he wa...

Mike McCastle doesn’t talk about strength the way most people do. His definition of strength was shaped by watching his dad live with Parkinson’s. Watching the effort, patience, and composure it took to get through everyday moments most people barely think about. That stayed with him. It also inspired the Twelve Labors Project, Mike’s mission to take on a series of extreme endurance and strength c...

Jimmy Choi is known for doing things most people do not associate with Parkinson’s. Ultramarathons. Triathlons. American Ninja Warrior. World records. What comes through in this conversation is everything underneath that. Jimmy talks openly about the years after his diagnosis, when depression, apathy, and anger took over. He shares the reality of trying to live with a progressive disease, and the...

Parkinson’s changes how the brain controls movement. But movement can also change the brain.  In this episode, Todd Vogt and Eric Von Frohlich sit down with Julie Hershberg, neurological physical therapist and founder of re+active therapy & wellness, to talk about why exercise may be one of the most powerful tools we have for living with Parkinson’s. They get into neuroplasticity, symptom vari...

In this episode, Eric and Todd catch up on Eric’s latest health updates, including how he is managing AFib, recent cardiac testing, and the way those challenges are shaping his training. They talk through what it feels like when the numbers do not quite line up, including HRV, unexpected heart rate spikes, and body composition readings, and how they are learning to navigate uncertainty without spi...