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stroke & neurological physiotherapy

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Exercise

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Life during lockdown is certainly a massive change from our normal life. Maybe you would normally attend an exercise class, go to the gym or for a swim as a way to keep fit and active. It may be that you also have a specific programme of exercises recommended by your physiotherapist to work on at home.

As therapists we often see that patient’s general fitness, muscle strength and endurance can diminish over the winter months as we are generally not as active. Therefore, it is even more important during lockdown to keep as active as possible and work on those home exercises and maybe that regular walk.

Motivating yourself to exercise regularly is for many people an ongoing challenge.

Here are a few top tips to help you to keep motivated. Through lockdown …and beyond!

  1. If it is a daily exercise programme try and do this at the same time every day so that it becomes part of your daily routine. If it’s a programme several times a week, allocate a day and time and add in to your calendar for the week ahead and try to stick to it.
  2. Break it up into bitesize chunks. Some people prefer to do their full programme in one go. For others this is too much so you could break it up into 2-3 10-minute sessions. Do what works best for you but try to keep to the same routine.
  3. Record your exercise for a while on a chart or tick it off on your calendar until it is established part of your daily/weekly routine.
  4. Reflect on how you feel when you have completed your exercises. How did your body feel? How was your mood? Did you enjoy the sense of achievement?
  5. Set goals for yourself. If you can link doing exercise to achieving what is important to you it can boost you to keep going. Discuss your goals with your physiotherapist.
  6. Anything is better than nothing. If for whatever reason (and this happens!) you don’t do so well one day, don’t beat yourself up. Get back on track as soon as you can. Start afresh the next day.

You can do it!

And remember that at Heads Up we are here to guide, support, and encourage you to achieve your goals.

We also have a new online exercise group for patients that have been assessed by us. It is a weekly class in standing and sitting aimed at improving general mobility, strength and balance.

Please speak to your physiotherapist or give us a call on 01306 888171 if this interests you and you would like to find out more. We would love you to join us.

 

 

 

Why hands-on physiotherapy matters

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3 reasons hands-on neurological physiotherapy treatment helps recovery of control of movement after stroke.

Working together
People who have had strokes or have other neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s or balance disorders often find moving around difficult. Movement may be weak and limited, slow or lack co-ordination. Simply telling people to move, talks to the part of their brain which is responsible for producing movement. This part may not be communicating clearly with the other parts of the nervous system, which are responsible for actually doing movements. This may mean that movements are simply not able to be initiated without a little help.
During hands-on physiotherapy treatment the neurological physiotherapist and person receiving treatment work together, so that the patient can again feel how to move with more control and less effort.

Information
Stroke and other neurological conditions often affect the feeling, or sensory part of the nervous system. This means that the body may feel numb or not normal. Hands-on therapy gives information, through pressure, touch and manual guidance to help the nervous system learn to feel again.

Training
Physiotherapists are trained in using their hands. An experienced neurological physiotherapist will use their hands to re-align muscles and stabilise the body so that it can be more efficiently active when movement is difficult.

headsup! are a team of specialist neuro physiotherapists covering London and the South East. We are always happy to discuss individual requirements and explore suitability for treatment over the telephone. If you would like to talk to one of the team, just get in touch on 01306 888171.

When our balance is gone, we never think about anything else

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For us to feel balanced we rely on information from three sources: vision, muscles and joints together with the vestibular organs in the inner ears. Receiving accurate information from these about how we relate to the surrounding environment makes it possible for us to switch on the muscles that control our eyes, head, neck, trunk and legs so that we stay upright and have clear vision when we are moving.  A person can become very disorientated if the sensory input from one of these sources conflict.

Balance problems are particularly distressing for the individual suffering them.  It is not just the effect of the symptoms but worrying about when the symptoms may appear can drastically affect someone’s confidence in their ability to carry out daily activities.

There are three systems in the body that are especially important for balance:

1. Information the body gets from the muscles, joints and skin tell us where our body parts are both in relation to each other and in relation to the supporting surface

2. The vestibular system is a 3-dimensional spirit level which orientates us in the environment and gives the brain information about whether the head is moving up or down or from side to side

3. We rely on our vision. We use our eyes to tell us about our surroundings and objects in our way. Our eyes stay steady whilst our head is moving.

Normally we don’t think about our balance. However, when balance is impaired we often have to think very carefully about doing things we would normally just do without any thought.

At heads up! we see with people who have balance problems everyday and it is incredible to see how the introduction of simple techniques can improve our patients lives.

Get in touch to talk to a physiotherapist and find out how we can help you, a family member or friend and keep in touch with our latest news by following us on twitter.

 

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