đ§ The power of neuroplasticity is enhanced by recording and evaluating rehab âš Your brain is amazing: research shows it can rewire itself after a stroke to regain a great deal of function in your more-affected upper limb. đ Repetitive, task-specific training is the key to this: by consistently practicing intentional movements, you help your brain forge new neural pathways. This applies to everyone, regardless of how long ago your stroke was.
đȘ So, how can you do this? Here are some evidence-based strategies to activate your brain's plasticity:
1ïžâŁ High Repetition: Consistency is key! The more you practice a movement, the more your brain adapts. Aim for high repetitions in every therapy session and incorporate them throughout your day.
2ïžâŁ Weight-bearing exercises: Placing weight through your affected hand or arm helps stimulate nerve connections to the brain. Try leaning on a table with your affected forearm while you do other activities.
3ïžâŁ Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT): For some survivors, restricting the use of the unaffected arm for a period can encourage the brain to focus on retraining the affected limb.
4ïžâŁ Mirror Therapy: This uses a mirror to create the visual illusion that your affected arm is moving, which can stimulate the motor cortex and help regain function.
5ïžâŁ Technology-assisted training: Devices like upper limb robots, wearables or VR games can help increase the intensity and repetition of exercises in an engaging way.
The first thing your ARNI rehab specialist will do is to help build up a personalised plan in your special 90 page daily ARNI training log, sent free to all ARNI clients - shown here ;) Every small movement is a victory on your recovery journey! đ
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Lay out an assortment of items in different sizes and textures. Then, try to pick them up with a pair of tongs and arrange them in a row from smallest to biggest. The spring in the tongs provides some resistance as you try to clench your hand, and the activity helps develop hand-eye coordination.
If you like this post then please share it with others. Each time that you share a post, you can directly help other people â as who knows which people in the world might find us and gain, either directly from the charity or simply by being able to copy an âinnovative and usefulâ move/trick of the trade that might help them manage after stroke.
Every time you share, you could directly help someone â as knowledge is power ;)
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Today's tip - walk five steps, ten 10 steps, looking only at one point on the wall ahead of you. Don't worry when you look down again , your feet will really still be there.
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I find that 30 months after my stroke, keeping my head UP when walking is difficult, it always seems to drop. Any pointers?
I am now trying this by focussing on a point as you suggest - standing tall, shoulders back, head up, helps to lift my foot to clear my drop foot from catching as I take a step. It’s not easy as I still have balance issues, but keep I keep trying!
Introducing ARNI Stroke Rehab UK Instructors, who are trained to use functional strategies that help stroke survivors take charge of their own recovery. There are over 140 active ARNI instructors available around the country to pair with people: this is done by calling the ARNI Stroke Rehab Charity.
Research has shown that ARNI community-based training programmes are overwhelmingly positive, helping survivors find purpose and improve function long after their formal therapy ends.
A trial a few years ago, funded by the Stroke Association down at Exeter University, also investigated an ARNI-based programme and found it to be safe and acceptable for participants. It's about getting back to real life with practical coping strategies and building resilience.
For example, survivors learn get up safely from the floor on their own after a fall; a skill that restores so much lost confidence and facilitates survivors to become independent again. It's the gatekeeper skill to learn after stroke đđȘđ
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Good morning. A thought for you.....
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Be creative. There is no excuse for NOT retraining in some way. If you want to, you will find a way. If you don't really want to you will find an excuse.
Not sure what to do? Call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com to find out if there's an ARNI trainer near you who can help you.
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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 âmatchingâ of all the digits is an exercise in itself. If you havenât tried this, which Iâm sure you will have, itâs a good way for those who are perhaps training you to see immediately the action control that you currently possess. It doesnât 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
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I'll position one finger then after I try to position the next, the first one curls, then I do the first one again and the second one curls. It's a battle and the fingers are winning.
For you........
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What if your stroke rehab happened in a gym down the road, not a hospital? Well, yes... that MIGHT be suitable for us at ARNI Stroke Rehab -what's your view??
I found that there IS one of these currently exists, that's run by the University of Strathclyde with NHS Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire Council and the local Health and Social Care Partnership, and grew out of Dr Andy Kerr's technology-enriched rehab work. The gym is fitted with equipment most survivors never get near; virtual-reality treadmills, balance trainers, power-assisted machines and upper-limb systems, with games and puzzles built in to keep you engaged and working for longer.
The part I like most is that this started in the hospital, in the acute phase, right after people's strokes. What's happening at Blantyre LIFE is the next step, and to my mind the more important one; taking the same intensive, tech-driven rehab (if possible/really hapends rather than just talk..) out of the hospital and into a community gym, for people further down the line, as this is the phase, as we know, that usually falls off a cliff. You do your stint on the ward, you're discharged, and then the intensive stuff mostly stops... and you're left to get on with it.
A local gym you can keep coming back to, months or years on - and if you've not got an ARNI Instructor already - it's really the next best thing for many survivors; so seeing it trialled in the community (with sister sites in Edinburgh and Dundee too) is hopeful -
So, ARNI Stroke Rehab & Recovery says: this is the right direction; intensive, technology-backed, high-repetition practice, in the community where people actually live. It's the gap the ARNI Instructors support people with every day. More of this, please, and everywhere obviously, not just Scotland!!
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Yes saw this the other day.... This would be life changing for do many people if the Scottish government took Stroke seriously. A lot of the equipment would or could be a game changer for people in recovery..... sadly not my area....
Unfortunately, at the moment, it’s a university study consisting of a series of 8 weeks courses running until the end of next summer. Once you’ve completed your 8 weeks stint there’s no facility to allow you to return to make use of the equipment. You then have to rely on a referral to a local sports centre, that may or may not have any specialised equipment such as that currently at Blantyre Life. It’s an excellent course, with qualified physiotherapy staff, but it’s only 8 weeks. It needs to be rolled out across Health Boards and be accessible and bookable for anyone to be able to continue their physical and cognitive rehabilitation.
Amazing. We see every day the difference Innerva Power assisted machines make.đ©”
âIf 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.â 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 subjectsâŠyou 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.
Youâve 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, youâll 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 âgo-it-aloneâ. If you are setting up to âretrainâ 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.
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