Treadmill in the Rehabilitation of Parkinsonian Gait

10-minute treadmill walk with a support corresponding to 20% of his/her own weight, followed by a 5-minute rest and a second 10-minute session on the treadmill with a support corresponding to 10% of his/her own weight. In the initial treadmill session, the starting speed of the treadmill was set to 0.5 km/h, subsequent increments of 0.5 km/h per minute were added to reach the maximum speed that was comfortably tolerated by the patient. This latter was used for the entire training period.

Every 40-minute treatment session consisted in isotonic and isometric exercises for the major muscles of the limbs and trunk including cardiovascular warm-up exercises (5 minutes), muscle stretching exercises (10 minutes), muscle stretching exercises for functional purposes (10 minutes), balance training exercises (10 minutes), relaxation exercises (5 minutes)