Great story reveals that Muhammad Ali was able to use boxing late in life to find temporary relief from Parkinson’s

Some time later, Ali emerged from the locker room wearing boxing shoes, trunks, and a shirt. One of Roach’s men laced him into some gloves. The men Ali had come with then escorted him, gently and deliberately, over to the heavy bag and positioned him in front of it. Slowly, Muhammad Ali raised his hands.

“And the instant he did,” Roach says, “it all…went away.”

At this point in the relaying of his story, Roach stood up before me and acted out what he had seen—how Ali miraculously burst the cocoon of his Parkinson’s and began going at the heavy bag in earnest, and “with speed.”

This phenomenon, Corsello explained, is known as kinesia paradoxa. For those who, prior to suffering from Parkinson’s, spent their lives participating in muscle-memory activities, returning to that activity can temporarily pause the tremors and motor disabilities brought upon by the disease. Scientists can’t crack exactly why it happens, but there’s plenty of research showing that it does.

Fittingly for Ali, that muscle memory — and thus, that much-needed respite — came only when he laced up his boxing gloves.