Physical Therapy For Stroke Patients At Home

There are numerous approaches to physical therapy for stroke patients at home. How do you know which techniques are best for you? Every stroke is unique, and each survivor will benefit most from different at-home therapies. As a result, experimentation is essential.

Following discharge from outpatient therapy, stroke patients must maintain a strong recovery program at home. For you to continue on the road to recovery, the brain requires constant stimulation.

Here are 10 tips for effective physical therapy at home for stroke patients.

1. Day-to-Day Stroke Rehabilitation Exercises
While exercise focuses on muscle strength, stroke recovery exercise activates your brain to send messages to your muscles for movement. Rehabilitation focuses on triggering neuroplasticity, the brain’s mechanism for rewiring itself and learning new skills.

Muscle strengthening is also a goal of stroke rehabilitation to help combat any muscle atrophy caused by inactivity.

2. Mirror Therapy To Stimulate Movement In Hands
Mirror therapy is a procedure for activating hand-to-brain signals, particularly for those people with hand paralysis or extremely restricted hand movement. This stroke therapy method involves using a tabletop mirror to cover the impacted arm with the reflection of the operable one. Then, while looking in the mirror, you perform tabletop hand therapy exercises.

Although you are aware that you are only moving one hand, the brain gets tricked into believing that you are setting in motion both your hands. It stimulates neuroplasticity and gradually improves mobility in the affected hand. 

3. Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy For Arm/Leg Paralysis
Constraint-induced movement therapy is a challenging type of physical therapy. Stroke patients can find this therapy beneficial. If you have hemiplegia or hemiparesis, it can work well. It works by limiting movement on the unaffected side and forcing the use of the impacted side. 

4. Mental Exercises To Improve Paralysis
Mental practice is especially beneficial for patients who are paralyzed and cannot move without support. It allows the brain to rewire itself without necessitating mobility.

Try mentally practicing your rehab exercises for 5 minutes before attempting them in real life. According to research, visualizing yourself moving activates neuroplasticity in the same way physically moving does. 

5. Home Rehabilitation Tools
Home therapy tools can make the process easier while recovering from a stroke at home if you’ve grown weary of following along the written sheets of exercises. Inquire with your therapists if they have any recommendations for home exercise equipment. 

6. Daily Therapeutic Movement
The majority of physical therapists have one primary objective for stroke rehabilitation at home: continue moving. During stroke recovery, any movement is beneficial. Daily, do your best to engage in therapeutic mobility exercises.

Because how consistently patients pursue long-term rehabilitation is one decisive factor of a successful recovery. If you take consistent steps over time, it will yield the best results. 

7. Kaizen
Kaizen is a Japanese term that refers to the practice of continuous improvement through small, consistent steps. Sounds too simple to be true? The hardest part is the simplicity. Kaizen entails patience and persistence, both of which find a requirement for physical therapy after a stroke. 

8. Maintaining A Distraction-free Environment
When your attention gets split between physical therapy and something else playing in the background, you aren’t getting the full benefit of physical therapy. To maintain your concentration for exercise, create a quiet, secluded environment. Your brain is busy rewiring itself. So, don’t let distractions get in the way of your progress. 

9. Keep Going After Reaching Plateau
Because each stroke is unique, all will recover at a different rate. However, there is a well-documented technique known as the stroke recovery plateau, in which results frequently slow down after three months.

It is normal, and you should expect it to occur. However, don’t let it prevent you from continuing your physical therapy at home. Although the results may take longer to appear, recovery will continue until you stop. 

10. Treatment For Root Cause Of Spasticity
Stretching is beneficial for spasticity, but combining it with daily rehab exercise is indeed better. Spasticity gets caused by a breakdown in communication between the brain and the body. When the brain finds it unable to send signals to the muscles telling them whether to move or relax, the muscles tighten up to safeguard themselves.

Stretching aids in the prevention of contractures and learned nonuse. It, however, does not address the underlying cause of spasticity. Rewiring the brain addresses the underlying problem. As a result, your daily at-home exercise improves mobility and reduces spasticity over time.