Exercise: The No-weight Squat.
There is a view of squats by many of the public, driven I’m sure by the magazines and other media, that squats are all about huge weights placed on the shoulders. Not true! In fact, you won’t be doing any of that as a stroke survivor, for many good reasons. For a start, there are lots of ways to do leg strength training that are very challenging and will build good functionality in the legs without weight. For example, this exercise right here is simply a ‘deep knee bend’, which was its original name before the term ‘squat’ was coined.
You don’t have to go as deep as parallel for squats to be really effective. But you do need to do them for them to be effective!
Find out more in The Successful Stroke Survivor book by Tom Balchin
www.arni.uk.com
#neuroplasticity #neurorehab #strokerecovery #strokerehab #strokeexercise #arnistrokerehab #strokerehabilitation #strokesurvivorscan
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A Powerful message direct from your brain after stroke:
Hello
This is your brain talking. I had to find some way to communicate with you. I feel like I barely survived WWIII and am still not quite all in one piece. That's why I need you. I need you to take care of me.
As time passes and you and I feel better and better, people, even doctors, will tell you that we are fine, "it's time to get on with life." That sounds good to me and probably even better to you. But before you go rushing back out into that big wide world, I need you to listen to me, really listen. Don't shut me out. Don't tune me out. When I'm getting into trouble, I'll need your help more than I ever have before.
I know that you want to believe that we are going to be the same. I'll do my best to make that happen. The problem is that too many people in our situation get impatient and try to rush the healing process; or when their brains can't fully recover, they deny it and, instead of adapting, they force their brains to function in ways they are no longer able too. Some people even push their brains until they seize, and worse... I'm scared. I'm afraid that you will do that to me. If you don't accept me, I am lost. We both will be lost.
How can I tell you how much I need you now? I need you to accept me as I am today... not for what I used to be, or what I might be in the future. So many people are so busy looking at what their brains used to do, as if past accomplishments were a magical yardstick to measure present success or failures, that they fail to see how far their brains have come. It's as if here is shame, or guilt, in being injured. Silly, huh?
Please don't be embarrassed or feel guilt, or shame, because of me. We are okay. We have made it this far. If you work with me, we can make it even further. I can't say how far. I won't make any false promises. I can only promise you this, that I will do my best.
What I need you to do is this: because neither of us knows how badly I've been hurt (things are still a little foggy for me), or how much I will recover, or how quickly, please go s-l-o-w-l-y when you start back trying to resume your life. If I give you a headache, or make you sick to your stomach, or make you unusually irritable, or confused, or disoriented, or afraid, or make you feel that you are overdoing it, I'm trying to get your attention in the only way I can. Stop and listen to me.
I get exhausted easily since being hurt, and cannot succeed when overworked. I want to succeed as much as you do. I want to be as well as I can be, but I need to do it at a different pace than I could before I got hurt. Help me to help us by paying attention and heeding the messages I send to you.
I will do my part to do my very best to get us back on our feet. I am a little worried though that if I am not exactly the same... you will reject me and may even want to kill us. Other people have wanted to kill their brains, and some people have succeeded. I don't want to die, and I don't want you to die.
I want us to live, and breath and be, even if being is not the same as it was. Different may be better. It may be harder too, but I don't want you to give up. Don't give up on me. Don't give up on yourself. Our time here isn't through yet. There are things that I want to do and I want to try, even if trying has to be done in a different way. It isn't easy. I have to work very hard, much harder, and I know that you do too. I see people scoff, and misunderstand. I don't care. What I do care about is that you understand how hard I am working and how much I want to be as good as I can be, but I need you to take good care of us, as well as you can do that.
Don't be ashamed of me. We are alive. We are still here. I want the chance to try to show you what we are made of. I want to show you the things that are really important in life. We have been given another chance to be better, to learn what is really important. When it is finally time for our final exit I would like to look back and feel good about what we made of us and out of everything that made up our life, including this injury. I cannot do it without you. I cannot do it if you hate me for the way being injured has affected me and our life together. Please try not to be bitter in grief. That would crush me.
Please don't reject me. There is little I can do without you, without your determination to not give up. Take good care of us and of yourself. I need you very much, especially now.
Love, your wounded brain
www.arni.uk.com
#strokerehab #strokerehabilitation #neurorehab #ARNIstrokerehab #strokerecovery #strokeexercise #neuroplasticity #strokesurvivorscan
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Have you heard of amazing Neuromersiv Ulysses system?! ✨ This groundbreaking VR technology is specifically designed to help us stroke survivors regain lost function in our arms and hands. 🧠
The system immerses you in virtual activities that simulate daily living tasks, such as cooking, dressing, and cleaning. This makes rehabilitation feel less like work and more like an engaging game, helping to promote the high number of repetitions needed for neuroplasticity! 🎉
Studies have shown that the use of this system can lead to significant improvements in upper limb motor function. The system is designed to be highly motivating, with the immersive environment and reward systems encouraging you to keep going with your retraining. 💖
You can find the Ulysses VR software available to buy in the UK; it's primarily offered to rehabilitation providers like clinics and hospitals, but options for our individual use are also available.
The company has made affordability a key consideration, offering a flexible monthly leasing option and aiming for a reasonable price point to make it more accessible for survivors.
For more information on how to access the system, you can contact Neuromersiv directly through their website or by phone to discuss options for individual use. This is a huge step forward in making innovative rehabilitation technology accessible and engaging for more people! 🥳
www.arni.uk#ARNIstrokerehabr#strokesurvivorvi#rehabilitationa#neuromersive#Ulyssesy#vrtherapye#strokerecoveryo#braininjuryn#UpperLimbRehabR#neuroplasticityi#InnovativeTeche#rehabilitationa#HopeAfterStroket#accessibilityility
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Prayer Finger Bends This exercise is self-explanatory: it involves working your bad hand so that a prayer-position can be assumed. This ‘matching’ of all the digits is an exercise in itself. If you haven’t tried this, which I’m sure you will have, it’s a good way for those who are perhaps training you to see immediately the action control that you currently possess. It doesn’t matter that your palms themselves may not be able to touch: approximating this position is, in itself, retraining.
Find out more in The Successful Stroke Survivor book by Tom Balchin
www.arni.uk.com
#ARNIstrokerehab #neurorehab #strokerecovery #strokerehabilitation #strokerehab #neuroplasticity #arnistrokerehab #strokeexercise
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US President Woodrow Wilson suffered an apparent stroke that left him incapacitated for the rest of his life on September 25, 1919.
But despite his serious illness leaving him unable to fulfil his duties as president, he was never replaced.
And for a year-and-a-half, the administration was effectively run by his wife Edith.
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#strokesurvivorscan #neurorehab #strokerehab #StrokeRehabilitation #neuroplasticity #strokerecovery #strokesurvivor
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Stroke survivor Dr Tom Director of ARNI Charity UK recovering his functional grip strength using the principle of timed carry of heavy, awkward objects. To put in rehab terms, the liquid in the barrel sloshes from one end to another during each step. This was extremely HARD to complete - places the fingers on the barrel tines with a climber's grip and forces the person to hang on throughout
Is this something you'v#strokesurvivorscanrvivorscan
www.arn#StrokeRehabilitationb#ARNIstrokerehabt#strokerehabt#neurorehabn#strokerecoveryk#strokeexercisek#neuroplasticityp#strokesurvivorscanrvivorscan
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“If we put exercise into a drug, it would be one of the most effective medications to prevent vascular disease and treat patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases including stroke.” Yep. This statement is reinforced by the finding that exercise interventions are significantly more effective than drugs in both rehabilitation and reducing the odds of mortality among stroke survivors.
Chronic inactivity related to stroke basically has a whole load of physiological consequences that result in cardiovascular deconditioning, increased cardiovascular risk and increased mortality and morbidity risk.
The majority of survivors are cardiovascularly unfit. It has been found that due to the effects of stroke, you can even be rendered half as cardiovascularly fit compared to someone who has not had a stroke.
This can be worsened by a pre-existing cardiovascular condition, such as hypertension, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, or pulmonary and metabolic diseases. This is bad news. The good news is that evidence now also suggests that your exercise train-ability may be comparable, in many ways, to that of your age-matched healthy counterparts.
Despite the fact that the energy expenditure required for you to perform walking varies with the degree of weakness, spasticity, training, and AFO usage.. and is elevated by one and a half to two times that of non-stroke subjects…you can increase your cardiovascular fitness by a magnitude that is similar to that of healthy adults who engage in endurance training programmes. Improving aerobic fitness may allow you to carry out everyday activities with less effort and for longer periods.
You’ve got to be active, right? Another crucial factor: there is growing evidence that exercise promotes brain neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity mediates cognition and the relearning of motor skills and other skills after stroke. Brains learn what they do. Remember, the brain loves repetition. Cardiovascular exercise is repetition.
For such adaptation to happen optimally, you must be prepared to do focused work with whatever movement you possess (with some caveats, to be explained shortly), even if you believe you have none at all. Over and over again, with as much attention to detail as you can.
The take-home from this is that I want you now to think of yourself as a CREATIVE stroke survivor. Take walking. Repetitions are required but ALSO you need to set goals and targets (actually, like me, you’ll find these are fast-moving targets): to get away from supports like wheelchairs, frames and sticks as soon as possible, to go further, to go for set distances, to feel less tired each time, to ramp up the quality of your walking by focusing on how you walk, to walk over different surfaces, to walk with an AFO and without, to tackle stairs, etc. etc.
Time to make a move! Get professional help if you need or ‘go-it-alone’. If you are setting up to ‘retrain’ by yourself, when attempting walking practice, dependent on your presentation, at least collar a young and strong family member or friend to help you. No-one will mind, especially when they see you making a darned good effort. The world is yours.
www.arni.uk.com
#strokerecovery #ARNIstrokerehab #strokerehab #strokesurvivorscan #neurorehab #strokeexercise #neuroplasticity #strokerehabilitation
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The best thing you can do is to try to use your hand religiously for as many things as you can reasonably do every day without going insane.
If you need help to get going give us a call on 0203 053 0111, or email support@arni.uk.com to find out if there's a trainer near you who can work with you.
www.arni.uk.#strokeexerciser#neurorehabr#strokerecoveryo#neuroplasticityi#strokerehabr#StrokeRehabilitationa#ARNIstrokerehabr#strokearmrehabrehab
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Have you ever heard the term ‘cryptogenic stroke’? 🤔 A cryptogenic stroke is a bit of a mystery: 1 in 3 ischemic strokes are this type where, even after extensive testing, doctors can't find a definitive cause.
‘Cryptogenic’ comes from Greek and means ‘of hidden origin’. It can be frustrating for both patients and doctors when the cause isn't clear. Even with a hidden cause, it's just as serious as any other stroke. So why can't doctors find the cause?
It might be because of a subtle issue that's hard to detect such as a hidden heart issue like a patent foramen ovale (PFO), an irregular heartbeat such as atrial fibrillation (Afib), that only happens sometimes and isn't picked up on a short-term monitor or a small blood clot from a large artery that isn't severe enough to be a clear cause or a blood clotting disorder that makes your blood more prone to clotting.
If you or a loved one has had a cryptogenic stroke, working closely with your ARNI trainer is key. The goal is to monitor your health and manage risk factors to prevent another stroke.
www.arni.uk.com
#ARNIstrokerehab #StrokeSurvivor #CryptogenicStroke #StrokeAwareness #HiddenCause #StrokeRecovery #KnowTheSigns #HealthEducation #MedicalMystery #BrainHealth 🧠💖
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Here's a great review of Had a stroke? What now? book by Tom Balchin
This is a really great book for stroke survivors, their families, and people working in the field of stroke care. It provides very concise and accessible information about stroke and is written with positivity and optimism that should motivate anyone wishing to improve their function. It includes lots of practical strategies and exercises as well as very current information about the latest developments in the field of stroke recovery. I am currently training to help stroke survivors and I can highly recommend it!
arni.uk.com/product-category/arni-recommende#strokesurvivorscanr#neurorehabr#neuroplasticityi#StrokeRehabilitationa#strokerehabr#strokeexerciser#strokerecoveryo#ARNIstrokerehabrehab
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