Stroke rehabilitation works on promoting neuroplasticity, the process required to create changes in the brain that lead to improvements in function post- stroke.

Don’t expect it to happen overnight. It’s a process which requires weeks to months, often years and a lot of hard work from both the therapist and the client.

Its common to get stuck, and feel that progress is too slow or that you have plateaued in our recovery.

Here are some tips to help get un-stuck and to make steps to move forward again in your stroke journey:

• Focus on what you are doing well and where you have made progress. Engage in positive strategies and keep working with what is working.
• Engage in task specific exercises that have the right amount of challenge – tasks need to be challenging and intensive but not so complex you are unable to complete them. Think of these as your ‘goldilocks exercises’, too easy or too hard and you wont make progress, you need the just right challenge!
• Get creative with your exercises – to be consistent you need to have some drive to want to do your exercises – they need to engage you and be enjoyable
• Keep reassessing your goals, you need to know what you are working towards and be ticking these things off as you achieve them. Keep it simple, focus on one thing at a time so you can give it your all!! Don't make it complicated

What is the point of picking up some weights or doing strength training?

Strength training not only gets us stronger, but also makes us more sturdy on our feet and can provide the following benefits:

• Increased confidence with balance
• Increased mood and self-worth
• Improved quality of life
• Injury prevention
• Improved bone health and bone density, reducing risk of fractures
• Improved joint mobility as muscle tension reduces
• Enhanced brain health
• Reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes
• Health Ageing and longer life span 
• Reduce and change sarcopenia (gradual loss of muscle mass, strength and function due to ageing). 
  

Why wouldn't you want to give it a go? 

Strength training comes in many different forms. It's not always about having to go to a gym.

It can be working with bands at home or body weight. It can be yoga or pilaties classes. It is about doing more than whole body exercise such as walking, swimming or cycling. Its about targeting specific muscles to build strength and power. 

These are both common symptoms if someone sustains a concussion.

After a brain injury, our sensory systems can become overloaded and sensitive to both light and/or sound. As the brain is having to use energy to heal due to the concussion, it takes extra energy to process bright lights and loud noises.

This is why complex environments (such as the mall, supermarkets, etc) that have bright lights and lots of noise can be overwhelming, because it overwhelms the brain and nervous system. As a result, people with concussion can become very fatigued as the body is trying to process so much all at once.

If you are sensitive to light, try wearing sunglasses or a cap where you know there will be bright light, both indoors and outdoors as needed. You can also try coloured lenses, such as blue light glasses which at times can help with headaches. 

If you are sensitive to noise, try using earplugs or earmuffs/noise cancelling headphones to help reduce the intensity of sound in complex environments.

Theses are switch stratergies which can help alleviate symptoms, however it is important that you are working with your therapy team to treat these symptoms. Such as vision exericises or desensitisation programmes for noise. 

Stance phase of gait

When we work on standing on one leg or putting more weight through one leg that has contact with the ground, we improve our walking speed, step length, leg strength, balance and so much more!

If you have poor balance and/or have some difficulty or reduced confidence when walking, chances are we will work on this in the clinic with you! Having strong, stable legs is key when wanting to improve your walking and balance.

Improving stance phase of gait helps too:

• Strengthen hip stabilisers
• Improve balance
• Improve hip, knee and ankle stability
• Prevent falls
• Improve lower limb proprioception
• Improve step length
• Improve confidence when walking
• Reduce pain due to excessive loading in joints
• Improve swing phase of gait. 
  

Working on stance phase of gait allows to provide a solid stable leg to advance the other limb forwards and is a great place to start with improving walking ability.