Stroke/Brain Injury

Brain injury can occur in many ways a stroke is one of those ways, a fall or RTC might be others.

Each and every brain injury is different. Just like every person is different. The way the injury has occurred, the area of the brain affected, the age of the person affected, the severity of the injury, the extent of damage that has occurred, the speed and type of treatment given. These all impact on that person's ability to recover. Two different people having a stroke at the same time could have two very different outcomes. For that reason the exercises I might give one client might differ massively from one client to another. We always start by trying to assess the client's current abilities and any specific strengths and weaknesses.

Then we start the corrective exercise process starting with trying to build basic movement patterns. These may be very small movements and often assisted in some way. For others they may be bigger movements with rules or verbal cues to try to reinforce the best possible technique for the abilities of that client. And this is important to understand that some brain injuries will lead to the total or near total loss of ability to move parts of the body. The nerve signals that would normally come from the brain either aren't produced or along the way through the brain the signal is stopped or misinterpreted resulting in no or poor movement. In these situations it is about finding solutions, ways around the problems which often just means finding a different way to do something. It may mean that you can only go up stairs one step at a time but at least you can get up the stairs. It may be that you have to come down stairs backwards. You may have to learn to use the opposite arm to what was normal for you.

For me the goal is always to try and enable you to be as independent as possible. This might be to enable you to move yourself around your house. It might be for you to return to a sport you used to do or help you find a different sport or activity. Or to return to work.