Exercises for Stroke

A stroke occurs where oxygen supply is cut off to part of the brain, essentially suffocating the most vital area of your body. While recovering from a stroke is never easy, recovery can be made swifter and your overall prognosis can be increased if you incorporate a rigorous regime of daily exercise into your schedule. Planned physical and mental training can help your body bounce back from a stroke as optimally as possible.

Stroke

• Symptoms and effects of a stroke can vary widely depending upon which portion of the brain was affected. In general, you can expect your fine motor control skills to suffer adversely in addition to losing some level of muscular control, usually occurring predominantly on one side of the body. The speed with which you identify and treat a stroke improves the overall prognosis considerably. When more than three hours have lapsed between onset and treatment, the outlook for recovery becomes considerably more grim.

Physical Exercises

• According to an article published in the August 2008 issue of Science Daily, exercise as basic as treadmill walking can help to substantially reprogram both the body and brain of individuals affected by a stroke. Exercise increases metabolic activity in the brain, helping it to effectively "rewire" itself around the faulty neural pathways caused by the stroke. Patients in the article were prescribed a total of 40 minutes of treadmill walking performed three days a week. However, if you are new to exercise you might want to begin lightly, aiming for two to three days of at least 20 minutes of walking, adding five to 10 minutes to your daily time every week until you reach your goal.
  Depending on the severity of the stroke you might also want to incorporate balance training using an exercise (Swiss) ball or regimented coordination activities like closing your eyes and trying to touch your nose with the tip of your finger. The necessity of these additional activities will understandably vary, but regular walking is something that can be performed by almost everyone.

Mental Exercises

• In addition to physical activities you should incorporate visualization techniques into your training to improve your motor skills. According to a University of Cincinnati Academic Medical Center study conducted by Dr. Stephen J. Page and published in the journal Stroke, just imagining yourself successfully performing physical tasks can help you perform them in real life. To incorporate this, simply devote a 10- to 20-minute period every day in a quiet environment. During your training time, simply close your eyes and imagine yourself completing a target task--something that you have found difficult to do since your stroke. When visualizing, incorporate as many details as possible into the scenario--the more realistic you can make it appear to your mind, the more effective it will be at allowing you to regain control over your body.