There are many effective methods for regaining arm and hand movement after a stroke. The fact is that regaining mobility after a stroke, works differently for each person depending on their peculiar conditions, such as whether it is loss of partial movement, or post-stroke paralysis (Hemiplegia).
Interestingly, when it comes to rehabilitation methods, there is always something for everyone. It can be adapted to meet every individual’s needs, irrespective of levels or stages of impairment.
Another good thing about available methods, is that they are not rigid protocols. They are subject to trials.
You can experiment with various methods, until you discover what suit you and your needs. Experimentation therefore is one of the key to successful rehabilitation.
This article, will consider different therapy methods and approaches, that can help improve mobility in the arm and hand after stroke. Lookout for how each relates with the other.
You will discover common links such as practice, repetition, and movement. These are the important keys to stroke recovery.
Below are some methods you may find helpful for regaining arm movement after stroke:
- Arm and hand exercises
As have been explained repeatedly, practicing arm and hand rehabilitation exercises is one of the best, and most effective way to regain arm and hand movement after a person suffered a stroke. The reason is because it activates the brain, and promote neuroplasticity.
When you, and your therapist, are creating any kind of rehabilitation exercise program, it is very necessary to find a balance. For example, your exercise program should aim at making you feel challenged, but not frustrating.
It should also help you, pay attention to the quality of your movements. While it is true that the quantity of exercises helps an individual form, and solidify neural pathways, practicing good quality movement patterns, are very essential for optimal arm and hand mobility recovery.
- Passive exercises
No matter how severely, or badly your arm and hand mobility have been affected by stroke, it can be regained through neuroplasticity. Passive exercises also known as (assistive movements), does not require the active participation of the affected side.
Therefore, if your affected arm and hand have no movement, you can do exercise passively. This can be done by using your unaffected hand or arm, to move your affected arm through therapeutic arm and hand exercises, or by having a therapist or trained caregiver help move your affected arm for you.
This kind of movements help stimulate the brain, and activate neuroplasticity. With consistent practice, some survivors may be able to regain arm and hand movements using this method. Bear in mind that regaining movement does not come automatically, the results may happen slowly.
For example, you may start to notice twitches in your arm and hand after a few weeks or months of practice. This can be a good sign that your arm or hand are reawakening.
However, even if results did not show up right away, do not feel discouraged, the brain is surely benefitting, and with time the effects will become obvious. When engaging in passive exercises, it is important to move flaccid (paralyzed) limbs, through their range-of-motion. This will help, to prevent muscle shortening and joint stiffness.
- Mental practice
This kind of therapy, requires a survivor visualizing his or herself practicing the desired movements. Even though, he or she can not actively do the exercises, but mentally rehearsing, and forming pictures of them helps with regaining arm and hand movement movements. Mentally practicing something, helps activate neuroplasticity the same way, that physically practicing does.
“Mental practice”, has positive implications for stroke survivors with paralysis. Even if you can’t move your arm and hand yet, you can still visualize them and activate neuroplasticity.
Combining mental practice with physical practice, leads to better results than just mental practice alone. It is good, to first spend about five to fifteen minutes visualizing your arm or hand exercises, before actually doing them.
- Mirror Therapy
This is another therapy that help the arm and hand regain mobility. Like mental practice, it help survivors better visualize their affected arm, hand, or limb when it is moving. A mirror is placed at the center of the body facing the non-affected limb.
When a survivor who is working to regain arm mobility moves their non-affected arm or hand, the mirror reflects an image that appears to be their affected arm or hand moving, thereby leading the brain to think that it was the affected arm or hand that was moving.
- Botox Injections
This is a nerve blocker, that temporarily reduces spasticity. Spasticity is a condition that is characterized by muscle stiffness, and it is a common aftereffect of a stroke. When difficulty with arm mobility occur, it is most likely that you are having some form of spasticity.
Arm rehabilitation exercise helps reduce spasticity, but sometimes spasticity itself interferes with exercise.
If spasticity is severe, some survivors use nerve blockers like, Botox to temporarily reduce it. Because the effects is temporary, it does not treat spasticity but provide relieve for awhile, requiring repeat doses. When taken, it help loosen the arm and hand enough to allow you practice exercises.
This creates a window of opportunity, to get neuroplasticity activated so that at the end, you will not need to take several, or repeated doses of Botox injections. Rather, your arm and hand spasticity will naturally go down, and mobility improvements you achieved, will continue to progress through further rehabilitation programs.
- Arm/hand Splints
Splints help survivors who suffered severe spasticity especially those that have graduated to clenched arm and hand. If you suffer from severe spasticity, or paralysis in your arm and hand, you can also use splints to prop, and support your arm or hand to help it open.
- Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy
Another rehabilitation method, used for regaining arm and hand movement after stroke is constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT). This involves restricting the non-affected arm and hand, to encourage the use of the affected arm or hand. This type of therapy, has some evidence of it’s effectiveness, but it can also be frustrating because a survivor cannot use the non-affected arm and hand.
As earlier mentioned, a successful therapy should be challenging but not frustrating. It is advisable to consider trying (CIMT) for a short period of time, and combine it with other therapies if you find yourself getting too frustrated.
- Arm and hand Pedaling
An arm and hand peddler, is a very good and useful stroke rehabilitation equipment for arm and hand mobility, because the movement is bilateral (two- sided). This means, that a survivor can use the unaffected hand and arm to assist the affected hand and arm, which has therapeutic benefits when used during rehabilitation process. This kind of training is especially beneficial, for stroke individuals who are experiencing, or struggling with reduced arm mobility. Even though the individual is depending on the unaffected arm and hand to initiate movement, both sides will be moving together, and this helps activate the brain to promote neuroplasticity.
- Weight Bearing
This is another effective method, of improving the use of your arm and hand to help regain mobility. There are many ways it can be done. It can be done when sitting or standing, and may require setting your affected forearm, or hand on a surface or platform, and putting some of your body weight through it. This will help to provide information from your arm and hand to your brain, to rewire their connections by means of neuroplasticity.
This rehabilitation method, can easily be built into regular daily activities, by leaning on your affected arm and hand. For example, when teeth brushing, you can place your affected arm and hand on a platform, instead of hanging it or leaving it to drop down.
Similarly, you can place your arm and hand on the armrest of your chair while chatting, or on the table while you are playing games, or watching a program. In this way, you will be helping your brain activate neuroplasticity, and subconsciously promoting recovery without sweat.
- Massed Practice
Your brain relearns skills like this by rewiring itself through neuroplasticity, which is activated by means of rehabilitation exercises. The more you practice rehabilitation exercises, the more your brain rewires itself, and the more movement you will recover.
Experts in neurology, refer to this method as “massed practice,” which is practicing multiple repetitions of a skill you want to improve. In this case, it means many repetitions of arm and hand exercises.
This means that if you want to regain the use of your arm and hand after stroke, you need to use your hand and arm more often. This will stimulate your brain and encourage it to improve the control of your hand and arm functions.
- Consistency
Repetitive practice becomes even more effective when done consistently on a daily basis.
You fuel your brain with repetition to rewire it, and then fuel your brain consistently to get more recovery and healing. In the next section, we consider how long it may take to regain movement on your affected arm and hand after stroke. Please follow along.
Regaining Arm and hand Movements, what is the timeline?
Several factors need to be put into consideration, when trying to determine the timeline for arm and hand recovery or any other impairment after a person suffered a stroke. This is because every stroke is different, and therefore every recovery will be different.
In general, the following factors can significantly influence how long stroke recovery can take:
- The size of your stroke.
- The location or area of the brain affected by stroke.
- The intensity of rehabilitation.
- Age.
- Whether there are other underlying health conditions.
So it is difficult, if not impossible to determine any single individual’s stroke recovery timeline. Some of the above factors may obviously be beyond your control. This may include; the size of your stroke- whether it was mild or massive.
However, there are factors you can control. For example, you can control how intensive your rehabilitation activities will be, and the level of devotion that will be given. This is very important because the intensity, and consistency level of your rehabilitation program, influences the way your brain will respond.
Consistency is a key to improving an individual’s chances of arm movement and overall stroke recovery. It determines to a large extent the recovery and how fast the results will come.
Not everyone will experience the same results. Therefore, instead of focusing on how long recovery will take, focus more on finding the right rehabilitation methods, that meets your needs and try sticking with it.
The takeaway
Regaining arm and hand movement after having a stroke, is based mostly on getting and using the right rehabilitation methods that works for a person.
Rehabilitation therapies such as passive exercise, or mental practice are good methods to begin with, if you are having problems moving your affected arm and hand after a stroke. Gradually you can include, other therapies that encourage high repetition, and intensity to speedup rehabilitation results.
Don’t forget that in choosing what will work for you, attention should be paid to something that is very motivating, and not frustrating. Doing so will help you, to comprehensively achieve your arm and hand recovery goals.
Book to link: How to regain hand and leg movement after Stroke.