Jimmy Choi, 48, has run 16 marathons, won three Guinness world records (most recently for double-high-five pushups), and competed on American Ninja Warrior for the past seven years.
Pretty good for a guy with early-onset Parkinson’s Disease.
Here, in his own words, is how Choi moved from shame to celebrity with a little push from his daughter. In the process, he was able to lower the number of medications he takes; smart workouts and optimal nutrition help him get the max benefits from the lowest amount of pills. You can see him on American Ninja’s 17th season, airing in the spring of 2025.
MY LOW POINT came about eight years after my diagnosis. I was 35 years old, and weighed about 250 lbs., at 5’8”, and I had to use a cane. One day I fell down the stairs while carrying my 10-month-old son, Mason. He wasn’t hurt, but I will never forget the look of horror on my wife and daughter’s faces.
After that, I signed up for every clinical trial that would take me. I wanted to be the first to get a cure. One study was looking at the benefits of exercise. It felt good, so I started doing more at home, working up very gradually, at first walking small distances and then running.
In 2012, I competed in the Chicago Marathon, which was really part of a mind shift for me. I began to talk openly about my illness for the first time. That same year, my daughter Karina, who was then 10 years old and an American Ninja Warrior fan, cajoled me into competing on the show and I added a combination of plyometrics and calisthenics to my workouts. I’ve appeared on it now seven times, including an episode to air in the spring of 2025, in which I’ll proudly compete alongside my daughter.
How I Make Workouts Work
FITNESS AND MY family are my priorities. But the number of minutes I spend in the gym isn’t important. What’s important is the number of minutes I spend doing the work. I always wear a heart monitor in the gym, and my goal is to hit 45 minutes of total work in my target rate of 150 bpm or higher. I don’t start counting my gym time until my heart rate is above 150 and don’t count anytime it’s below that. That includes rest, warmup, cooldowns, and the initial time it takes to ramp up. On some days I can achieve that in about an hour but on others it could take up to 3 hours, depending on my symptoms that day. In 2019, I did a TED Talk on my illness, and a video I shared later that showed me having trouble opening a pill bottle inspired a new bottle design that’s now helping lots of other people with Parkinson’s.
Exercise has made a major difference in how much medication I need to take. Seven years ago I was taking 24 pills a day; today I’m down to half of that. With exercise and nutrition, I’ve learned how to get the most out of the medicine I need to take.
ANW training, in particular, has definitely helped me with my everyday living. It’s all about learning how to move my body in space, over obstacles. That has sharpened my muscle memory for simply moving my body in spaces around me. But I always tell people the best exercise, just like the best diet, is the one you’ll continue to do, that you actually enjoy doing.
