After the body has suffered from a stroke, some parts of the body cease to function. Excessive muscle tension causes resistance when trying to bend or bend your arm. You will need competent restorative gymnastics after a stroke, including complex exercises. This therapy can be carried out at home, with the help of loved ones or on their own.
Exercise goals
Gymnastics after a stroke is performed to restore all the motor abilities of the body, from simple squeezing of the hand to complex rotational pirouettes during the dance. Often, it is not possible to fully restore abilities, but by making maximum efforts, you can ensure that the patient can perform the functions necessary for life.
Rehabilitation may be limited to a year, but in reality, recovery lasts the rest of your life. Gymnastics after a stroke at home should be carried out constantly - with the help of loved ones in the first months and on their own until the ability to exact movements is fully restored.
What do you need to achieve?
Gymnastics after a stroke is intended for the following purposes:
- restore all previously acquired skills and abilities to make complex movements;
- make blood flow more intense, which will favorably affect the condition of the whole organism;
- normalize the lymphatic system;
- shorten recovery time.
All of the listed results of therapy are realized if daily therapeutic exercises are carried out after a stroke at home. Additionally, medication and apparatus therapy are used. If the patient has a personal motivation to recover, then the effectiveness of the exercises will be much higher.
The basis of physiotherapy exercises is a competent sequence. The patient should not experience overload and stress. Mental experiences negatively affect the effectiveness of the therapy. At the entire stage of recovery, it is the brain that controls all movements. If it blocks the nervous system, then you can get the opposite effect from training.
Sequencing
It is not recommended that independent forces try to restore their mobility. Physiotherapy exercises are prescribed individually by the attending physician. The main factor guiding the path to a successful recovery is the systematic following of step-by-step instructions. The frequency of repetition of the complex of exercises is constantly adjusted taking into account the well-being of the patient.
Gymnastics after a stroke includes:
- assistance in the clinic aimed at returning the basic abilities of body motility;
- independent exercises that need to be done constantly even in bed;
- help relatives with body immobility in the first days after a stroke.
There are three consecutive stages in the rehabilitation period:
- Preparing for the exercises.
- The beginning of passive movements aimed at restoring muscle memory.
- Active occupation.
What is the basis of treatment?
Therapeutic gymnastics after a stroke is based on a simple principle: the more often elementary exercises are done, the higher the probability of being healthy until the end of life. During rehabilitation, the patient performs the exercises systematically, without reminder and at any possible moment.
All types of repetitive movements are aimed at returning abilities:
- distinguish between specific colors and respond to them;
- hear and distinguish sounds well;
- carry out simple mathematical calculations;
- reactions when triggered by nerve endings;
- make complex hand movements when playing the piano, conducting or drawing.
The brain must gradually restore its functions, including the ability to joke, enjoy, and show other feelings through facial expressions and movements.
Doing exercises in the early days
Gymnastics after a stroke is carried out only after preliminary heating of the muscles. More often this procedure is carried out using:
- ointments;
- heating pads;
- hot tub;
- warming massage.
Immediately after discharge from the clinic, the patient should begin the so-called passive method of performing physical training. They begin with elementary movements of the arms, legs, eyes, head. All classes are held in a supine position, because it is still difficult for a person to even sit.
The initial period lasts no more than two weeks, all manipulations with the body are carried out under the supervision of a doctor. Close people help the patient, helping to move the limbs and supporting him at a moral level.
Do-it-yourself exercises
At the hospital bed, the patient is already starting to carry out the same and simple movements. Each completed exercise is complicated by agreement with the doctor: the duration or intensity of the manipulations increases. With personal desire, a person will be able to continue to perform the previous training, but combining it with a new one.
Consider what you can do. Therapeutic exercises after a stroke in bed may include:
- The muscles of the eyelids, eyes . Attempts to turn the eyes, squint tightly.
- The movement of the front . Grimaces in the form of a smile, an expression of sadness. Conduct classes in which frown forehead, frown, etc.
- There is a constant development of brushes, fingers and toes.
- The patient can bend the knee, rotate the foot.
- Exercises for the head: turns to the sides on the bed while lying, an attempt to raise and lower.
- Any attempt to straighten up, holding onto the top headboard will be helpful.
Exercises for the lower extremities
To restore the body, the restoration of the movements of all parts of the body is carried out. So, a separate gymnastics is performed after a stroke:
- Finger gymnastics is performed on the foot to restore blood circulation and sensitivity.
- Rotation of the foot with alternating straightening like a ballerina.
- Full bending and extension of the limbs is not yet possible, therefore, it is possible to make exercise machines using a linen gum or towel so that you can control the movement of a paralyzed leg.
- Attempts to move a ball or other objects with your foot.
- Circular leg exercises on the bed or while lifting.
Exercises for the upper limbs
Initial gymnastics after a stroke involves the development of hands, the quality of human life and all the movements performed depend on them. Passive exercises begin immediately, when the patient is still. These include clenching fists, flexing all fingers, extending the hand, and rotational movements.
Counting the fingers, bending each of them in sequence, will be useful. All exercises can be built in the form of a game to immediately restore emotional memory. After the hand is fully developed, go to the stretching of the muscles of the hand. Passive training achieve unrestricted movement of the joints.
The initial stages of exercise are always the most difficult. But, having achieved the first independent movement, the patient feels confidence in the cure. Although such an achievement can be a simple startle. Such a minor jerk means that muscle control has appeared, and the signal from the brain has gone where it should.
After the first victories over your hand you can not stop. The patient must constantly try to extend the influence of the brain to all muscle tissue. A positive result will gradually come, after which complex arm movements will already be possible. Not all patients return the ability to write after a stroke, but this is more likely due to motivation.
Speech training
Often patients cannot fully pronounce sounds. To restore lost opportunities, articulatory gymnastics is carried out after a stroke. They are combined with facial movements. Such gymnastics may include the following exercises:
- Puffing out their cheeks, patients try to make simple sounds. At the same time, the lips are pulled out with a tube, they are compressed. Letting out air, they try to draw in their cheeks.
- The movements of the tongue inside the mouth are practiced. To restore sensitivity, you can bite it slightly.
- Strength exercises inside the oral cavity are carried out, trying to move their jaw, cheeks or lips.
Lung work
All types of training for patients should be accompanied by breathing exercises after a stroke. This type of exercise is aimed at restoring blood circulation and supplying oxygen to fixed parts of the body. It is carried out at any slightest muscle tension.
The task of training with the help of a doctor or a loved one is to make the chest move more intensively. To do this, exert pressure on the movement of the lungs with alternating shocks on the exhale or inspiration. The situation is constantly changing. This method makes the patient breathe on their own more confidently, with large volumes of air.
Intense exercise
The initial period, characterized by successful achievements on the path to recovery, should gradually change to more difficult types of training. They are necessary for the full work of the heart, lungs, brain. The active phase of gymnastics is already more fun, the most unpleasant moments are left behind.
This rehabilitation period is combined with squats, full morning exercises. Workouts in bed can also be done to avoid stress on the body. These may include raising both legs, pelvis, and back.
For charging standing torso, squats, swing arms and legs. All sets of exercises must be selected together with the attending physician. It is recommended to avoid congestion in the first months of recovery.