Packing a punch against Parkinson’s

Marvin Cypress made his way over between exercises to provide some perspective: “These exercises are easy — if you don’t have Parkinson’s. If you do, it’s like you’re drunk, and the boat is moving from side to side.”

Cypress, 76, was doing what he does every Monday and Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. — working out with Lori B. Havas at her Parkinson’s Warriors Gym in west Eugene.

When he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive movement disorder of the nervous system that leads to tremors, stiffness, impaired balance and other problems, Cypress told himself that he would not stop living.

Marvelous Marvin does a boxing workout during a class at Parkinson’s Warriors Gym in Eugene, Aug. 11, 2025. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

“This is part of it,” he said, after class ended. “Part of your treatment is doing exercises. And all of this would not be here if it wasn’t for her,” Cypress added, nodding toward Havas, who was busy straightening the 2,000-square-foot space she and her husband, Robert Havas, have leased in a West 11^th Avenue business park for almost a year now.

“Almost everybody knows someone with Parkinson’s,” said Lori Havas, 71, who’s been a personal trainer since 2010, and who has focused almost exclusively on clients with Parkinson’s for almost a decade. “And you can see what it does to them.”

But what we see on the outside — the tremors, the stiff gait, the “masked face” in which facial muscles become stiff and expressionless — is far less than what’s happening on the inside, said Havas, a certified exercise physiologist and Parkinson’s fitness specialist.

“What you see is only the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “It’s what you don’t see, all the things. It’s like this huge iceberg under the water that’s going on in the body. There’s anxiety, there’s sleeplessness, there’s constipation — it just goes on and on. The cognitive, the fuzziness, the slowness …”

‘Ready to be known’

No one else in Lane County provides what she does, Havas said, and now she wants to take it to another level to grow the nonprofit organization, Oregon Parkinson’s Warriors Foundation, she and others launched in 2023.

“There are over 1,200 people in Lane County with Parkinson’s, and I’m only seeing 65 of them,” Havas said, referring to the number of clients on her roster who pay anywhere from $120 a month for two classes a week to $200 a month to access any class.

Lori Havas, Founder and Executive Director of Parksonson’s Warriors Gym, leads a class in Eugene, Aug. 11, 2025. When she started the gym in 2018 there were seven boxers. Now, over 60 people attend her gym. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

An estimated 1 million Americans are living with Parkinson’s, according to Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon. 

Havas and the foundation will hold an open house from 4-8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, to celebrate the gym’s grand opening, even if it’s been almost a year since she had to find a new space after being forced out of a shared space in downtown Eugene.

Havas could possibly add a couple of classes a week, but what she really needs is another instructor or two willing to get trained and certified in leading exercise classes for those with Parkinson’s.

“I’m ready to be known,” said Havas, who leads 10 classes a week, “and if I have to have a waiting list, I have to have a waiting list.”

‘We’ll learn together’

Havas made a living as a big-rig truck driver for a few years, until a back injury in 2005 forced her to re-evaluate her life. She and Robert moved from Telluride, Colorado, to Eugene that year.

She enrolled in the Women in Transition program at Lane Community College and decided a new career as a personal trainer would not only help her figure out how to heal her back, but also allow her to help others. She received an associate degree in exercise and movement science in 2010 and went to work that same year at the Downtown Athletic Club in Eugene, where she still works one day a week.

“This kind of high intensity, Parkinson’s specific exercise — they need to retain their power, to regain their power. It shows every day when people show up with their courage,” said Lori Havas, founder and executive Director of Parkinson’s Warriors Gym. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Early on, a member with Parkinson’s asked if she could train him.

“And I said, ‘I don’t know anything about Parkinson’s, but I’ll learn, and we’ll learn together.”

She began taking as many classes as she could, through PeaceHealth, in Portland, through online classes with The Ohio State University Hospital.

After working with a few folks one-on-one, Havas started her first Parkinson’s group class with seven members in 2018 at Shamrock Boxing Club on West Fifth Avenue.

She’d started working with Shamrock’s owner, James Irish, learning basic boxing moves after some clients asked her if she knew about Rock Steady Boxing, an exercise program begun in 2006 by Scott Newman, a former Indiana prosecutor diagnosed with Parkinson’s at age 40.

High-intensity heroes

Some members of that first class are still with her seven years later — like 81-year-old Ron Johnson, who initially wanted no part of learning boxing.

But now?

“Oh, it’s the highlight of my life,” said Johnson, whose boxing name is “Old Skool.” That’s right: All of Havas’ clients have a “boxing name.”

Ron Johnson does a weights circuit during a boxing class at Parkinson’s Warriors Gym in Eugene, Aug. 11, 2025. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Cypress goes by “Marvelous Marvin,” while another member of that original class, Shimona Woods, 47, is “Double Trouble.”

“I love it,” said Woods, whose sister, Sherry Carter, 52, also has Parkinson’s and now serves as Havas’ office assistant. “It helps get out aggression and stress.”

The sisters — who both take the most commonly prescribed medication, a combination of carbidopa and levodopa, for Parkinson’s — both developed symptoms as teenagers growing up in Lowell and have a rare genetic form of the disease, Woods said.

The combination of the high-intensity exercise of dancing around and throwing punches while learning the footwork and sequence of the punches is of great value to those with Parkinson’s, Havas said.

Cristina Johannsen, an intern from the University of Oregon’s human physiology department, helps a student with an exercise circuit at Parkinson’s Warriors Gym in Eugene, Aug. 11, 2025. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

“Anytime we get high-intensity exercise, we create neuroplasticity — new pathways in the brain,” she said. “And high-intensity exercise is the only thing that builds the mitochondria in the cells. It’s what creates all the energy, every single cell in your body.

“These people are already moving slowly. They’re already starting to diminish. Their muscles are shortening, their joints are shortening, they lean forward. And to get them up and boxing and getting that high-intensity to where they are sweating … they feel better when they leave. They might come in feeling crummy, but they feel better when they leave.”

Jan Simmons, 75, concurred:

“You get diagnosed, and they don’t tell you much,” she said. Simmons was told she had Parkinson’s almost three years ago and started taking classes with Havas last year. “You have to do your own homework. And I found out exercise, exercise, exercise is the main thing, and it’s true. You wake up feeling miserable some mornings, then you come in and do class and just leave feeling a lot better.”

‘They helped build this’

Simmons is not only a client of Havas. She and her husband, Mark Portman, are donors and fundraisers for the Oregon Parkinson’s Warriors Foundation.

The couple moved in 2006 to Eugene from the San Francisco Bay Area, where Simmons worked in the music industry for years, including for the late rock concert promoter Bill Graham and for The Grateful Dead, the legendary San Francisco rock band.

With those connections, Simmons was able to facilitate the largest donation to the foundation, from the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation, and also a donation from the Grateful Dead’s Rex Foundation for the Warriors Gym floor.

“It really lit a fire, because we started to think, ‘Maybe we can do this,’” Simmons said of the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation donation. “I don’t think anybody really was convinced we could.”

When Havas would share her vision of helping as many people with Parkinson’s in Lane County as she could and establishing the nonprofit, many told her it couldn’t be done.

“When I started this, I started asking people for information about how to start a nonprofit, and how to start my own business. And nine people out of 10 told me, ‘Eugene will never support this. You’re fighting a losing battle.’” Havas recalled.

Her response? “It has to. It absolutely has to, because I have 60 people that we have to have a place to go.”

The first significant donation, $10,000, to the Oregon Parkinson’s Warriors Foundation came in January 2024, from 100+ Women Who Care, which provides money to local nonprofits trying to improve the Eugene-Springfield community.

The Richard Schulze Family Foundation matched that by half, and other fundraisers in 2024 brought in thousands more dollars, until about $200,000 was raised.

Boxers at Parkinson’s Warriors Gym give each other high fives after a drill in Eugene, Aug. 11, 2025. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

“Eugene has supported us so well, it’s so great,” Havas said.

It’s a cause that has become her livelihood.

“I just love these people,” Havas said of her 65 clients. “I love them. I love them for how hard they work. I love them for the sense of community. I love them that they keep trying — and they helped build this.”

If you go

What: Grand opening for the Parkinson’s Warriors Gym, with the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce and live music.
When: 4-8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16
Where: 4065 W. 11^th Ave., Suite 50 
Contact: Send an email to [email protected] or call Lori Havas at 541-556-0120 to schedule a consultation or if you’re interested in becoming an instructor.

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