The Davis Phinney Foundation and the Free Manual Every Parkinson's Household Should Own

Health information, not medical advice. Talk with your doctor before starting a new exercise program.

Quick answer: The Davis Phinney Foundation was founded in 2004 by Davis Phinney — one of the most successful American professional cyclists ever, diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2000 at age 40 — and it’s built around a philosophy I use in my gym every single day: live well today, and every victory counts. Their flagship resource, the Every Victory Counts® manual, is a comprehensive self-care guide for people with Parkinson’s and their care partners, and it’s free — supporter donations cover the roughly $15 it costs to produce and ship each copy. If your household has Parkinson’s in it and doesn’t have this book on the shelf, fixing that is today’s victory.

Of all the organizations I’ve profiled in this series, this is the one whose philosophy sounds most like what I say between rounds in class. That’s not a coincidence — it comes straight from who founded it.

A champion’s second act

Davis Phinney won 328 races in his professional cycling career — a record for an American — including two Tour de France stage wins and an Olympic bronze medal. Then, in 2000, at 40 years old, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Here’s the detail that gets me. A man whose entire life had been measured in podium finishes and race clocks rebuilt his definition of winning. In 2004 he founded the Davis Phinney Foundation around the idea that with Parkinson’s, the victories change size but not significance — buttoning a shirt on a stiff morning, finishing a workout, showing up to something you almost skipped. His phrase for it became the foundation’s heartbeat: every victory counts.

Ten years of coaching people with Parkinson’s has taught me he’s exactly right. The members who thrive aren’t the ones waiting for a cure to restore the old scoreboard. They’re the ones stacking small wins, week after week, and letting those wins compound.

The Every Victory Counts manual — get this book

If the foundation did nothing else, the Every Victory Counts® manual would justify its existence. It’s a thick, practical, genuinely readable self-care guide covering the whole terrain — motor and non-motor symptoms, medications, exercise, nutrition, emotional health, care partner guidance, planning ahead — written with input from clinicians and, crucially, from people actually living with Parkinson’s.

One of my longtime members’ physical therapists calls it the “PD bible,” and that mirrors what therapists say on the foundation’s own site. It’s the book I wish someone handed every person on diagnosis day.

And it’s free. The foundation covers it through donations — each copy costs them about $15 to produce and ship, which tells you where their donors’ money actually goes. Order one, and if it earns its keep in your house, send them a few dollars so the next family gets theirs.

The Victory Summit and everything else

The Victory Summit® — free live events that bring speakers, clinicians, and hundreds of people with Parkinson’s together in cities around the country. Members of mine who’ve attended one describe the same thing: the information was great, and being in a room that size full of people who get it was better.

Webinars and online resources. Their blog and resource library covers living-well topics with unusual depth — worth subscribing to their emails.

Care partner resources. The foundation treats care partners as full participants rather than an afterthought, which regular readers know is a subject close to my heart.

Who this foundation is best for

People who are ready to be active participants in their own care. The whole catalog — manual, summits, webinars — is built for someone who wants to understand their Parkinson’s and work it, not just endure it. It’s also, alongside the Parkinson’s Foundation, one of the two organizations I most recommend to the newly diagnosed: the manual answers a hundred questions you don’t know to ask yet, in a tone that steadies you rather than scares you.

How to reach them

Website: davisphinneyfoundation.org
Phone: 1-866-358-0285
Email: contact@dpf.org
Address: 357 S McCaslin Blvd, Ste 105, Louisville, CO 80027

Put it to work: three moves this week

Assignment time:

Order the manual. Request Every Victory Counts from their site — it’s free, remember, with donations covering the ~$15 each copy costs to produce and ship. When it arrives, don’t shelve it: put it where the remote lives.
Read one chapter — not the whole thing. A comprehensive manual can intimidate people into never opening it. Pick the single topic that’s been bugging you — sleep, medication timing, whatever your current opponent is — and read just that. Let the book prove its usefulness once; it’ll pull you back on its own.
Check the Victory Summit schedule. If one’s coming anywhere within driving distance, put it on the calendar now. Free event, and I’ve yet to hear a member regret going.

The philosophy is the product

Let me zoom out, because I think this is what makes the Davis Phinney Foundation more than the sum of its programs. Plenty of organizations hand out information. This one hands out a frame — and frames, in my experience, do more for people than facts do.

The frame is right there in the name of the manual. Every victory counts quietly reverses the scoreboard most people arrive with after diagnosis, where the only win that registers would be a cure and everything else is losing slowly. Under that scoreboard, apathy makes perfect sense — why train for a fight you’ve already conceded? I’ve written about how Parkinson’s apathy works, and one of the few things that reliably helps alongside medical treatment is structure with achievable wins built in.

That’s exactly what this philosophy engineers. Small victories aren’t a consolation prize for people who can’t have big ones. They’re the training method — each one rebuilding the belief that effort still moves the needle, which is the belief everything else depends on. Phinney learned that on a bike. I learned it in a gym. The manual teaches it in print. Pick your classroom; the lesson’s the same.

Clip-and-save summary: Founded 2004 by cycling great Davis Phinney, diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 40. Order the free Every Victory Counts manual — the single best all-in-one self-care guide in print — and watch for a free Victory Summit event near you. Phone 1-866-358-0285, email contact@dpf.org. The pick for people ready to work their Parkinson’s instead of just enduring it.

Every victory counts — in the gym, too

You can probably guess why this foundation’s message lands so hard with me. My whole program is small victories with gloves on: the first time someone throws a full combination, the day balance work stops being scary, the member who came in on a walker and now shadowboxes standing. None of that cures Parkinson’s. All of it changes how you live with it — and the research increasingly backs up what Davis Phinney figured out on instinct.

So here’s my assignment for you: order the manual, and log one victory this week. If you’re near Los Angeles or Ventura County, make it a free first class with us. Wherever you are, our free monthly support group counts too.