Reclaim control of your mobility with our personalized, individually coached, exercise bootcamp, designed to intensively fight Parkinson’s freezing of gait.
ANTI-FREEZE BOOTCAMP
RESULTS
“I do not normally give 5 star reviews but Empower and Lindsey clearly deserve it . My Parkinson's freezing episodes really cramp my style, but the freeze bootcamp that I have been taking already have had measurable results in my daily living.”
- Bill, Anti-Freeze Bootcamp
“Empower has done an excellent job of helping my husband navigate, and understand what he needs to do to slow down the progression of his Parkinson’s disease. Lindsey’s expert Physical Therapy skills, along with her expertise with Parkinson’s, allows her to develop specific and unique treatment plans that my husband can do at the clinic and also at home. She is doing an amazing job! We tried several other PT clinics, with no success, before being referred to Lindsey. Her treatment plan for my husband is helping him improve his quality of life! Thank you Lindsey for all you do!”
-Janet, Wife of Anti-Freeze Bootcamp & PT Client
“I was practically immobile and in a wheelchair much of the time. I had lost my confidence after an illness. After working with Lindsey, I am much more confident. I am walking. My balance has improved greatly. I am using the wheelchair less and less. I intend to work with Lindsey again and again as my Parkinson’s Disease progresses.”
-Ellie, Anti-Freeze Bootcamp
$500 SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE!
For a limited time, until grant funds are exhausted. First come, first served.
Program Pricing
First Visit
Mobility Assessment $200
Follow Ups
Eight Pack: $1,000 ($125/visit)
Fifteen Pack: $1,650 ($110/visit)
*All visits are scheduled one-on-one with Dr. Hershberger and last approximately one hour.
FAQs:
The Process
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No. Simply call or fill out our waitlist form to schedule your first visit Mobility Assessment.
Your safety is our first priority. If during your assessment, your provider identifies something in your past or current medical history that requires medical clearance from your physician, we will guide you in the next steps prior to scheduling further.
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Absolutely! In our experience, people with freezing of gait require more frequent, targeted exercise than people without freezing of gait.
We recommends anti-freeze exercise at least 2-4 days per week to achieve the repetitions needed for positive change. If scheduling or insurance limitations are preventing you from being seen consistently at your Physical Therapy, Anti-Freeze Bootcamp can maximize your impact by serving as a powerful supplement.
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Wait times vary from days to months and are impacted by the needs of our current clients and your scheduling flexibility.
Current clients have priority scheduling and are offered the opportunity to renew halfway through their scheduled programs. While some clients complete only one or two rounds of their program before taking all the good stuff they learned to exercise on their own, others prefer to continue the benefits of individualized coaching and renew their programs continuously.
Once a client chooses not to renew their program, we then offer appointments to the next person on the wait list. We promise, these programs are worth the wait!
When you are next on the waitlist, we will reach out to you by both text and email with options to schedule your first appointment.
If we do not hear back from you within one week, we move on to the next person on the wait list.
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When you are next in line, we will reach out to you by both text and email with a few available dates/times for your first visit.
Once you let us know which appointment time works best for you, we’ll call you to get scheduled and answer any questions.
If we do not hear back from you within one week, we move on to the next person on the wait list.
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Improving freezing of gait requires LOTS OF CONSISTENT, TARGETED, PRACTICE, so we recommend scheduling at least two-four days per week. Our clients see the best results when they begin scheduling at a higher frequency and then are often able to reduce frequency as they improve.
After completing your mobility assessment, your provider will provide recommendations to best meet your goals.
Our wellness programs are scheduled in packages of 8 or 15, one-hour visits. Because of the complexity of freezing of gait, Anti-Freeze Bootcamp clients often require at least two rounds of 15 visits for best results.
We highly recommend booking the visits in your package in advance (instead of scheduling week to week) to ensure availability.
Once you have completed half of the visits in your package, you will have the option to renew your program. Because Parkinson’s comes with many different “seasons,” Anti-Freeze Bootcamp is available to schedule more when you need more and less when you need less. Clients may continue the program on an ongoing basis, quarterly basis, as a yearly tune up, or anything in between.
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No. All of our personalized exercise programs are cash payment programs.
Empower often receives grants through local Parkinson’s organizations which are used for partial scholarships to help reduce your participation costs. We will be sure to offer any scholarship opportunities available to you when you sign up.
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Payment options include cash, credit card, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and gift cards.
To help reduce fees, cash or check are greatly appreciated.
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All clients must complete a one time mobility assessment that costs $200.
You will then have the option to purchase an 8 or 15 visit package. Packages are paid in full up front.
8 Visit Package: $1,000 ($125/visit)
15 Visit Package: $1650 ($110/visit)
Empower applies for grants each year and often has partial scholarships available for our exercise programs. Staff will be sure to offer any scholarships available to you when you sign up.
FAQs:
The Anti-Freeze Basics
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The feeling like your feet are glued to the floor delaying or preventing you from walking
Trembling in your leg making it difficult to step
Stutter steps, delayed stepping, or inability to step when you want to
Difficulty starting or continuing stepping
Often proceeded by uncontrolled forward leaning and small, fast steps (festination)
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Walking through a doorway or narrow hallway
Turning, direction changes or stepping backwards such as backing up to a chair
Stepping from one type of surface to another such as carpet to tile
Stressful situations such as walking in a hurry or in crowds
Multi-tasking such as walking and talking or walking and thinking
When tired
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In addition to negatively impacting quality of life, people who experience freezing are at a higher risk of falling.
Understandably, people who experience freezing often report less confidence and higher fear of falling. This can reduce participation in exercise, social and leisure activities, which, in turn, causes more problems. Less movement and activity lead to disuse weakness and deconditioning, further increasing fall risk.
The earlier freezing of gait can be addressed, the better.
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Before your first visit, you’ll be emailed a detailed survey regarding your experiences with freezing of gait. Your answers to the survey, along with the results of the Mobility Assessment that you will complete at your first visit, will guide Dr. Hershberger to build your personal program.
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Anti-Freeze Bootcamp has several key advantages:
Specific: Freezing of gait is so complex! Each person experiences a unique combination of factors that contribute to their freezing. Rather than throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you hoping something sticks, our assessment helps tease out the factors that are most problematic for you (physical, cognitive, emotional or often, a combination). We then use that information as the foundation to design a program customized to meet your specific needs.
Safety: In order to improve freezing, its crucial to practice situations that trigger freezing, so that you can learn how to respond. This can be really difficult to do safely on your own because of the inherent fall risk. One-on-one coaching and guarding from a trained professional and access to safety a harness allows you to achieve high repetitions of practice required in your problem areas, without worrying about injuries from falls.
Expertise: Each visit is taught by an experienced physical therapist with advanced Parkinson’s training. Having a skilled eye coaching you, setting up each exercise for success, and providing anti-freeze tips and tricks along the way is a game changer.
Challenge: If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. Choosing exercise that results in the right combination of success and failure is a must to create meaningful improvements.
Progression: This concept is so important it’s worth repeating: if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. Doing the same set of exercises over and over again won’t cut it. We’ll help you understand exactly when and how it’s time to mix things up for maximum impact.
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Let’s start by saying I am a big fan of group exercise! There are many benefits. However, in my experience, group classes probably aren’t your best bet if your goal is to improve freezing, especially if a much of the class occurs in a chair!
Take a look at the question right above about individual exercise. Much of that information applies here as well.
Additionally, group classes, even Parkinson’s group classes, are often “too diluted” to get enough repetitions of the specific type of practice required to create meaningful change with freezing. Depending on the structure of the class, your focus may be on strengthening, cardio, posture, balance, walking, or some combination. Although improving any of these areas is a wonderful thing, people often feel discouraged when they don’t see improvement in their freezing.
Take hope in knowing that freezing can be helped! The best results occur with personalized exercise that provides high repetitions of specific training at the right challenge level for you.