Arm and Leg Exercises for Physical Therapy From a Stroke

According to the American Heart Association, stroke is the third leading cause of death and the prevalent cause of disability in adults. If you or someone you love has experienced a stroke, you need to understand that rehabilitation may take months, even years to regain many of the functions lost. This can be frustrating but does offer hope that with physical therapy, you can continue to improve the strength and function of your arms and legs.

Evaluation

• The first thing you will do in rehabilitation is determine your limitations. This means looking at the ability to move, the range of motion, and strength of your arms and legs. When a person experiences a stroke, he may have weakness and paralysis in arms and legs. Your therapist will review what muscles are affected and to what degree. Understanding what you can or can't do and how strong the muscles are will give you a starting point to measure success and tailor your therapy to specific muscles that require the most work. Additionally, your doctors want to be sure that your heart is strong enough to endure an exercise program.

Aerobic Activities

• Each patient will be different when it comes to starting an exercise program after a stroke dependent on what the pre-exercise evaluation discovers. For aerobic activities, your therapist will seek to set a limit of 40 to 70 percent of peak oxygen consumption to prevent over-stressing the heart. Aerobic training may include individual arm or leg ergometry or a combination of arm and leg ergometry three to seven days per week. Ergometry involves spinning or pedaling a crank. At first, there will be no (or little) resistance but this will be increased based on improvements. As patients are able to improve balance and coordination, treadmill training will become part of the program.

Resistance Training

• For clinically stable patients, resistance training is incorporated. Your doctor will work with your therapist to determine the ideal load for resistance training. There is no set method for starting resistance training and it is specific to each patient. Your therapist will most likely have you do some resistance training at least two to three days per week focusing on the major muscle groups first: arms, shoulders, chest, hips and legs. You can also expect stretching to be incorporated to help maintain balance and prevent injury while recovering. Fine motor muscles in the arms will be worked by sponge and ball squeezes while promoting use through other skills, such as painting or clay molding.