1. Try to use your weak limb

Your brain is very clever! When I studied at university, one of the key things we learnt about within neurorehab was NEUROPLASTICITY. Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to grow and evolve in response to experiences. In other words, even though you may have had an injury to your brain (stroke), it still has the ability to adapt and change in order to relearn how to do tasks. It does this by active participation – ie: you trying to use your limb.

Even if when you try you see little movement or even none at all, neural connections can still be made by visualisation of a movement including thinking about how it might feel, what it would look like and using tools like a mirror box to give your brain feedback that your arm can move.

2. Give your affected limb lots of SENSORY stimulation

Sensory feedback is key for neuroplasticity to form the right connections in your brain. Whether its simply massaging your arm or leg with your favourite moisturizer, or you or someone is able to assist with stretching your muscles and moving your joints through range, this is all giving sensory feedback to your brain on your limb being in different positions and having different pressures put through it. Weightbearing (if safe to do) is an excellent way to give sensory feedback to the brain – whether its standing up, sitting up or leaning through your hands or forearms – this is all sensory information your brain will love!

3. Repetition

Practise makes perfect! The brain can’t learn a movement from the body doing it once or twice – its needs lots of repetition, and that repetition needs to be of a good quality – meaning if your muscles fatigue very quickly doing a certain movement, you shouldn’t continue as this may cause unwanted changes to muscles, joints and movement patterns. Take regular rest to make sure that the repetitions you are able to do are of a good quality movement, ensuring that the movement patterns are as near ‘normal’ and ‘functional’ as possible.

4. Routine

Recovering from a stroke can be very strenuous both physically and mentally. Physical rehab is very important, but so is time to rest as well as time for enjoyment like seeing family and friends (although this may also be tiring in the early stages). Setting out a routine for your day or week can help to keep you motivated as well as ensuring you don’t get too fatigued for the other things which are important to you. Recovery from a stroke can be a lengthy process, and so keeping a routine is a good way to ‘keep on track’ but also a way of reflecting how your are making improvements. But don’t be afraid to break routine once in a while! We all need a change sometimes!

5. Be kind to yourself!

Suffering a stroke can be very traumatic. Not only might you have significant changes physically, there can also be mental and emotional changes too. It can be a very hard time for both you and your loved ones, so it is important to remember to try to not be too hard on yourself or those around you. Remember its ok to have a bad day or a bad week. The important thing is to give yourself some time, try to reset and get back into your routine when you feel able and ready. If you feel like you need mores support in certain areas there are a lot of professionals and support groups available nationwide. The Stroke Association is an amazing resource for support on every day things. If you feel your problems are more medical in nature it may be worth speaking to your GP, physio, stroke nurse (if you have one) or other health care professional who’s care you are under.

So there’s Jess’s 5 things you can do yourself to aid your stroke recovery. I hope you enjoyed reading and good luck on your journey to recovery!

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Here are our top tips from Jessica Woods Physiotherapy on being active this summer!

Getting Started

This is often the hardest part of exercise! And its so easy to find an excuse to put it off…

‘I haven’t got enough time’ or ‘I’m too tired’.

My mother in law once said to me ‘If you’re already tired, but then you go and do some exercise, you may still feel tired at the end, but you’ll more likely feel energised and pleased with yourself for your achievement’. I’ve always remembered this – particularly after I had my two children – I felt as though I was in a permanent state of tiredness with sleep deprivation, trying to work and run a household! Making time for exercise was hard, but whenever I did I always felt so much better for it. I tried to remember this to help me prioritise exercise, even when I was running on little sleep and 6 cups of tea a day to get me through!

Do something you enjoy!

Sometimes the thought of exercise can be enough to put you off even starting, particularly if you plan to do something that you don’t enjoy! For instance, I hate running! I have tried so hard to get into running on more than one occasion. But it just isn’t an exercise that I remotely enjoy! So if someone suggested that I go for a run, I am highly unlikely to even attempt this form of exercise, and much more likely to sit on the sofa watching Netflix! But if someone suggested that I take my dog out for a walk – I would do this in a heart beat, because it’s something that I love.

If you pick something that you enjoy, you are much more likely to do it and keep it up on a regular basis.

Routine

Try to plan your exercise into your weekly routine. If you can plan time for your exercise regularly week on week you are much more likely to stick to it. Having a young family has meant that I often do have free time in the evenings, but my husband and I have had to set days each of us can do our own activity or exercise, so that the other stays in with the children! Having a set routine each week does help me have that regular allotted time for exercise… its just about finding the motivation sometimes!

Reminders/ Nudge

When life is so busy, sometimes things that we are struggling to prioritise get missed. Setting yourself a reminder or ‘nudge’ on your phone or watch can be a helpful way of helping to kick start and maintain your exercise routine. Another good motivator can be to try and exercise with someone. One of my main forms of exercise is walking. I usually try to arrange to walk with a friend. Not only do I find it a good way to catch up one on one with friends, but I also find it holds me to account to complete the exercise – I don’t want to let my friend down, therefore I am more likely to prioritise that session of exercise.

Exercise and Pain

Being in pain can not only be distressing, but can cause you fatigue, tiredness, lower your general mood. So it seems reasonable to believe that trying exercise when you’re in pain may not only be a challenge, but you may also have the fear of making your pain worse.

However, movement and activity are often key elements in rehabilitation and pain reduction. As a physiotherapist it is my goal to help you to be pain free and move as a freely as you would like to. There are many causes of pain, and depending on what condition you have, exercise can help. For example for someone who has back pain – if they stop all activity and move as little as possible, not only will they have their original back pain, but their joints will stiffen up and potentially cause them to have more pain. Whereas keeping moving can reduce stiffness, increase blood flow to the area which can help with the healing process as well as giving all the other benefits that exercise offers you (improved fitness, reduce tiredness/ fatigue, serotonin release).

So there are our 5 top tips for starting and maintaining being active this summer! Good luck! We hope to see you out and about in the fresh air soon!

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A little about me

I’m from Camberley, which is where I live with my husband, our two children and our dog.

I qualified as a physio from the University of Nottingham in 2010, when physio jobs were quite scarce! I managed to get a job at my local hospital – Frimley Park, and stayed here for 2 years to complete my junior rotations. I then moved to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough where I developed my skills and gained a passion for neurology. I loved it and stayed for nearly 10 years in various departments within physiotherapy.

After I had my two children I decided I wanted more flexibility for my job to work around my family, and so I said goodbye to the NHS and started my own business. Working privately wasn’t completely new to me – from when I first qualified I’ve always worked privately in some form for various private practices and sports teams, however this is the first time I have been solely self employed!

When I worked for Frimley Park hospital, I also worked for a private practice called Watchetts Physio – now known as The Physio Camberley. I worked here 2 evenings a week for several years, and although I stopped doing regular hours once I left Frimley, I still came back to do holiday cover. When I was on maternity leave I started considering my work options, and so I asked Jan Hughes (the owner) if she may have any regular hours for me again. Amazingly she said yes! So I have restarted working at The Physio Camberley one day a week and doing some more holiday cover. I really enjoy working here, and in some ways it feels like home coming back to work somewhere that I was so early on in my career.

Later on when I was working at Wexham Park Hospital I had a chance meeting with Sophie Dhenin (the owner of Scorpio Clinics). I was at Gatwick airport with my husband and his family. My father in law knew Sophie well as he’d been a regular patient of hers when he was running marathons. He introduced us and Sophie said if I was interested in any more work to send her my CV. I did, and from then I started to do some work for Scorpio Clinics, mainly seeing any neuro patients who were referred to them. I stopped for a short while during my pregnancies, but still on occassion will see patients at Scorpio Clinics.

Leaving the NHS

Having always worked in private practice in some form, it has been in the back of my mind that I would like to start my own business and work for myself. I found after having my two children that my work life balance looked rather different to what it did before, and it felt like the perfect time to consider my options! I felt I had a good bredth of experience to support me moving forward, and luckily a very supportive husband who also runs his own business! So I returned to the NHS for a short period before handing in my notice to start solo! It has been quite a challenging transition at times, but also really exciting! I’m looking forward to seeing what the future will hold for Jessica Woods Physiotherapy.

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