Stroke is one of the leading causes of long-term physical disability in the United States, with damage ranging from complete paralysis to loss of fine motor control. But many stroke patients are able to regain some of the skills lost, particularly when they regularly undertake rehabilitation exercises. According to MayoClinic.com, stroke patients should begin rehabilitation as soon as their condition is stable. The faster you begin rehabilitation after your stroke, the more likely you are to recover lost skills and abilities.
What Are Fine Motor Skills?
Fine motor skills are those involving small muscles in the hand and arm, usually in coordination with the eyes. These motor skills are essential for everyday activities such as holding a fork or pencil, buttoning your clothes, or picking up a coin. During a stroke, the part of the brain that controls fine motor skills often becomes damaged and the muscles used in fine motor skills, usually only on one side of the body, can weaken. As a result, many stroke victims lose or have greatly reduced fine motor skills and need to perform exercises involving the hand, arm and fingers to help them regain those skills.
How Can Exercise Help Regain Loss Motor Skills?
Exercise helps retrain and strengthen muscles weakened due to stroke. Moreover, according to occupational therapist Rondi Blackburn in an article in Stroke Connection magazine, rehabilitation exercises may create new pathways in the brain that compensate for injured areas. To reap the most benefits, use your weak side as much as possible and perform strengthening exercises several times per day.
Simple Exercises to Strengthen Arms and Hands
For stroke patients with some feeling and movement in their affected arms and hands, you can improve hand and arm functioning by doing simple repetitive exercises. Practice removing and replacing pegs from a pegboard, flicking marbles into a cardboard box, or squeezing a small rubber ball. You can also practice making a fist, fanning out your fingers or raising your affected arm up and down, either with the help of a friend or with your unaffected arm. If you have little or no feeling in your fingers or hand, use your unaffected hand to loop a rubber band around one of your affected fingers, and then pull on the rubber band to lift and exercise your finger.
Nintendo Wii Therapy
The newspaper Daily Mail Online reports that Nintendo Wii can be useful exercise for stroke patients. This video game requires you to act out all physical motions related to certain sports, such as baseball and boxing. In other words, by swinging a virtual bat or throwing a virtual punch, a stroke patient can strengthen his arm muscles. However, just as with more conventional therapy, it may takes months of repeated practice to see results.
Precautions
Before undertaking any form of exercise, consult your doctor. Moreover, although you may be eager to recover as quickly as possible, regaining lost skills due to stroke can be a long and arduous process. Be sure that the exercises you do won't promote further damage or overtax your body.
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