‘It’s not just about the shakes’: Ninja Warrior Jimmy Choi on living with Parkinson’s disease

SINGAPORE – Ask Parkinson’s disease (PD) advocate Jimmy Choi for a short video clip on his invisible symptoms and how he is preparing for a future with the neurodegenerative condition, and he gives it to you in a single take. 

“They call me one-take Jimmy,” said Choi, a 51-year-old Taiwan-born American, who was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s disease at age 27.

Choi, a social media advocate @jcfoxninja and motivational speaker, is a seven-time American Ninja Warrior competitor and an endurance athlete who has completed an ultra-marathon, multiple marathons and triathlons, and a 161km bike ride in under five hours.

But beyond the confident public image and rippling muscles is the reality of living with a progressive disease in a body that is changing with time, he told The Straits Times. 

He and his wife Cherryl, 50, have arrived in Singapore to headline the Oct 31 launch of Warrior 24/7, an experiential exhibition designed to raise awareness of PD. Choi is also speaking at a fully subscribed symposium for about 320 people.

Organised by the Lien Foundation in collaboration with Parkinson Society Singapore (PSS) and other partners, the exhibition has six interactive stations that offer a glimpse of how someone with PD lives every day, for instance, with hands that will not hold steady, feet that freeze mid-step, handwriting that shrinks, and a voice that fades.  

It will be held at the Singapore Institute of Technology Punggol Campus from Oct 31 to Nov 4, before moving to City Square Mall from Nov 7 to 15.

Not just a ‘shaking’ disease 

Parkinson’s disease is an incurable movement disorder of the nervous system that worsens over time. Many symptoms are caused by a loss of neurons.

The biggest misconception that people have about the disease is that it is all about the tremors, Choi told ST in an interview at AMK Hub.

“But 30% of people with Parkinson’s don’t even ever have tremors.

“I have tremors, but it doesn’t really bother me that much. The top three things that I wish I didn’t have with Parkinson’s are dystonia (involuntary, sustained or repetitive muscle contractions), rigidity, and bradykinesia (slowness of movement).”

Choi is always actively keeping the right side of the body upright. “I’m always pulled to one side. So, the best way to help fight against dystonia is strengthening the other side,” he said.

Besides the motor challenges, many of PD’s most significant challenges are not related to movement, including apathy, difficulties with speech and voice volume, as well as changes in facial expression. 

Choi gets disrupted sleep every night, managing a total of just four hours because of PD symptoms.

“Cramps, movements wake me up. I am always tired,” he said. 

Yet, he seldom misses his 45-minute workout sessions. He is at the gym six times a week, often as early as 6am, working out at a target heart rate of 148, or 80% of his maximum heart rate.

On why he trains, he said: “Everything that I do in the gym has a purpose in my life with Parkinson’s.”

But his goals have evolved. “I’m not looking to always make improvements or gains. With a progressive disease, if I’m able to maintain (my current state), I’m actually winning.”

In Singapore, more than 10,000 people are estimated to be living with PD in 2026, up from more than 8,000 persons in 2019. 

As awareness grows, more people with PD have been seeking help earlier, leading to a drop in the average age of diagnosis from 67.3 years in 2008 to around 63.5 years in 2024, said Tay Kay Yaw, a senior consultant at the National Neuroscience Institute.

“This is encouraging yet we can do more to understand the disease and seek better ways to keep it under control for longer,” he said.

Roughly 10% of the PD patients are below 50 years old and there is no single factor that leads to development of a young-onset PD.

“Among movement disorders specialists, we tend to pay particular attention to family history which may suggest some genetic susceptibility,” Tay said.

Adapting to a changing body 

When people ask Choi where his disease is at, he would say that he is stage one – where a person has mild symptoms that generally do not interfere with daily activities -– when he is on his medications, and stage four – where symptoms are severely disabling – when he is off them and has a difficult time moving around. 

PD progresses differently for each person, with symptoms appearing at varying speeds and intensity. Those with young-onset PD often experience slower symptom progression and fewer cognitive issues.

Choi plans his days around periods of good movement, which can be six to eight hours or sometimes, just two. 

In between, he rests and takes naps.

He has shifted from high-impact endurance challenges towards preserving his joints and body for the long haul of living with the disease. His last marathon was in 2019; he has completed 16 marathons, more than 100 half-marathons and one 80.5km ultra-marathon.

“In the beginning, when I started my transformation, it was all about go go go… But I’m realising more and more that I need to rely on this body to work for much longer, so now it’s more about preservation,” Choi said. 

“That’s one of the reasons why I needed to stop American Ninja Warrior because the training has a very high impact on my joints. If your muscles fail, you can fix that. When your joints fail, you’re done.”

His last Ninja Warrior race was filmed in 2024 and aired in 2025.

Research has consistently demonstrated that regular exercise can play a significant role in slowing motor decline in Parkinson’s disease, Tay said. 

Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s (TTSH) senior principal physiotherapist Chloe Chung Lau Ha pointed out that a common misconception is that doing everyday activities such as walking the dog or grocery shopping provides enough exercise to manage PD.

“People living with PD benefit from structured exercise programmes that incorporate aerobic conditioning, strength training, balance exercises, and mobility training tailored to their individual needs,” she said. 

With early multidisciplinary care, they and their families can adapt successfully, and many continue to maintain their independence and lead fulfilling lives for decades after diagnosis, she added.

Tay said that many people living with Parkinson’s disease may not be aware of the locally developed community rehabilitation programme KEEP (Kickstart Exercises and Empower Parkinson’s), which provides not just structured exercise, strength and fitness training, gait and balance rehabilitation, functional optimisation but also early detection of mood-related issues.

The programme helps reduce fall risk while enabling participants to maintain function, independence, and overall well-being. It is co-developed by the Lien Foundation, Parkinson Society Singapore, TTSH, and the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI).

The first eight years

As Choi and his wife Cherryl, a senior project manager at a non-profit hospital, reflected on the early years after his diagnosis, they said that keeping his symptoms private led to a communication breakdown. 

“One of the biggest Parkinson’s non-motor symptoms is apathy. So for him, he wasn’t involved with the kids… It felt like he wasn’t sharing the time with us, like he’s just there. That was difficult,” said Cherryl. 

Choi’s diagnosis had shocked him into silence, denial and defeat. By 2010, when he was 35, he walked with a cane.

Then he fell down the stairs while holding his son Mason, who was 10 months old.

Although both were not harmed, the fall became a catalyst for Jimmy to take back control, and begin his exercise regime.

“When I look back, I realised that I was self-isolating. I thought I was protecting my family from the burdens of Parkinson’s,” said Choi. 

“But in reality, I was pushing more of it onto them because they didn’t know what was going on, and they had to figure it out themselves. They didn’t know where to look, and I wasn’t helping.”

Cherryl has learnt to support him with practical planning and logistics. She emphasises that caregivers should also ask themselves what they want because they often neglect themselves.

Son diagnosed with functional neurological disorder

In 2025, their son Mason, now 17, was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder, which stems from a problem with how the brain’s networks receive and send signals to the rest of the body.

Mason used to hit the gym with Choi, but his symptoms have progressed to the point where he has to use a wheelchair.

“I blame myself because the one person that I need to motivate the most I can’t, and it’s hard,” Choi said. 

“But he’s getting there. I have to realise that it took me eight years to make that realisation. People need time. That’s why I say allow yourself to grieve (if you have been recently diagnosed with PD). So I’m allowing him more space to go through that process himself.”

Cherryl said it feels like they are rewinding the clock.

“But I have to stop and think. It took us eight years to accept where (Jimmy) was and I know that we can come out of it,” she said.

“What’s difficult for anyone who’s got a movement disorder is you keep thinking back to what you were doing before, but you need to look at what you have in front of you, meet your body where it’s at, and then push forward.”

For Choi, preparing for the future means making sure that his family is going to be okay, and living for today. The couple also have a 19-year-old daughter, Karina.

“We’re not guaranteed the future… I don’t know a year from now what my body is going to be like, and I can’t worry about that. What I can still do is things for my kids, be with my family, and I know I can do that today.”