Strokes rank fifth in the top causes of death according to the American Stroke Association. They are the leading causes of disability. There is Yoga. It offers excellent benefits to stroke patients since their mobility and independence will increase. Yoga is a very good way to improve cognitive capabilities and flexibility, as it also enhances breathing. Even when there are limitations of movement, they can be done.
What is Yoga?
It is a set of exercises both in the body and mind originating from ancient India that aims to perfect the body, mind, and spirit. It generally involves several postures, breathing exercises, and meditations. During classic yoga classes, participants normally do several floor activities on a yoga mat. Such may range from simple sitting to full-standing postures.
But special yoga classes are available for those people who have problems moving. These classes teach poses you can do while lying on a bench or sitting on an armchair. You might also use a cane, walker, or wheelchair to help you balance while doing standing poses.
You find a lot of yoga classes at nearby local hospitals, recreation departments, and senior centers. But before you decide to enroll, make sure to consult your doctor or therapist. You want to make sure the yoga class addresses special needs you might have and doesn’t exacerbate what you already live with, like stroke consequences.
Benefits of Yoga for Patients with Stroke
Comforting for stroke patients is Yoga. Now let’s have a look at some of the ways Yoga can help recover from a stroke:
Better Cognitive Functioning
Yoga requires your undivided attention during changes from one pose to another. It is a therapeutic technique that entails taking your attention. You direct your energy into processing your mind when you practice Yoga; hence, the brain relaxes from force.
Each yoga posture needs to be done very accurately, and this minute detailing helps stir up your brain, keeping it quite functional. These minor and major stimulations to the brain are very important for stroke patients, helping them bounce back to a hopeful life span.
As far as applying Yoga to assist in stroke recovery, the therapeutic nature of Yoga most definitely comes into focus. This is due to the deep focus and attention one must apply to every slow, deliberate movement.
Even though one cannot master the move, the concentration required activates and stirs the brain. Any movement, but more so repetitive, activates the brain’s neuroplasticity or rewiring process.
Improvement in Balance, Range of Motion, and Strength
A 2014 study involved 37 stroke survivors practicing Yoga twice weekly for 8 weeks. Patients reported better pain management and increased neck and hip motion, strength, and stamina.
This was the yoga routine they followed in poses, breathing, meditation, and relaxation in sitting or standing or on-the-floor positions. This clearly shows that one need not be a master in Yoga to benefit from yoga exercises for stroke survivors.
Even the simple aspects of meditation will have unparalleled benefits. Every yoga pose is designed to strengthen a particular part of your body. One single pose may benefit more than one area of your body. A low plank yoga pose can encapsulate the powers within your shoulders and core.
A move like a downward dog strengthens your arm and leg muscles. It also allows balance and full-body stretch, which is important in opening pathways for improved recovery.
Improvement in Lower Mobility
Joint stiffness and body imbalance are the major problems of the patients during their recovery process. They all wish to recover their body movements. Yoga is one of the best exercises from which they can benefit.
Do not think that a person with limited leg movements cannot perform them. Yoga is a practice process. It takes some time to learn, but over time, with persistence, it develops flexibility. This opens a way to easy movements, which helps in faster stroke recovery.
Better Walking and Balance
Commonly, suppose you are a stroke survivor with mobility difficulties. In that case, you can notice the effects on balance and how one walks, commonly known as gait.
A study regarding stroke recovery and its impact focuses on how yoga improves balance and the stride speed of walking in stroke patients. Their gait was significantly improved; they took longer steps and walked in a much more coordinated manner. Most astonishingly, the study was not designed to find any connection between Yoga and improved gait!
Researchers explained that Yoga program was really targeted at improving balance, not how patients walked. They never had any plans to specifically improve their gait. But then, when they looked, much to our surprise, they saw big improvements in many of the clinical measures of gait.
That they find new benefits outside of what they were initially looking at helps underpin how beneficial Yoga can really be if practiced by stroke survivors. Changes in Yoga Initially, learning the yoga poses can be somewhat challenging.
The health status and age of the stroke patient determine how much of each pose the patient can handle. The yoga trainer shall first assess the patient’s potential and create a routine wherein they can work. They may indicate that they start with meditation and breathing and then gradually engage with yoga poses. They can also utilize chairs or stretchy bands to support their bodies while doing those poses when they get fitter.
Yoga is Accessible
Modifications can help make Yoga adaptable for all individuals, which is great for stroke patients. For patients suffering from post-stroke paralysis, Yoga has options like meditation and mental exercises that do not even require you to move the bed is good enough to do them on.
As you see progress and become a bit more mobile, you may like to transition into chair yoga or take advantage of props such as foam blocks to help support your postures. If your stroke’s effects have been more cognitive rather than physical, Yoga can also be a great way to challenge your brain.
Yoga and other forms of exercise that require concentration and attention to a sequence of steps- even problem-solving- can enhance the brain’s capacity for change, which neurologists call neuroplasticity. Yoga becomes an excellent avenue to adapt and use new compensatory techniques for one’s impaired vision in victims of an occipital lobe stroke.
Stress Relief and Relaxation
A stroke does not only end in physical challenges, but it invites mental disturbance and depressive thoughts. This can shake the self-assurance of a victim and impact the patient’s determination.
As Yoga develops a connection between the mind and body, adding it to the recovery plan can calm the nervous system and make recovery easier. Focused brain activity can improve the possibility of a successful recovery and getting back to the rhythm of regular life.
Breathing during Exercise
The most important thing is to breathe properly during all exercises, especially those utilized for healing, such as rehabilitation exercises. Many survivors of stroke have movement problems, which make them unable to fully expand and take deep breaths. This decreases oxygen supply in the body and reduces the ideal state of the brain, especially during rehabilitation.
Yoga strongly focuses on the coordination of breath with motion: you inhale and move one way, then exhalate and move another way. The focus on the breath can also help a person get into the pattern of deep breathing during the stroke recovery exercises, which will help in daily life. Yoga provides many benefits to stroke survivors.
No Long Term Disability
Treatment focuses on reducing the long-term impact of the stroke. The physical therapist employs a range of equipment and methods to improve muscle tone, balance, and locomotion. The occupational therapist offers advice on how to cope with daily tasks in household chores, personal hygiene, and work the stroke may have interrupted.
Stroke Types
A stroke can affect your physical health differently, depending on the location and the precise extent of the brain injury it may cause. Did you know that about 87 percent of all strokes are caused by a clot obstructing the flow of blood to your brain? It’s known as an Ischemic Stroke.
Then there is the other type, where the blood vessel bursts and bleeds into the surrounding area of the brain, which is known as a Hemorrhagic Stroke. This is often attributed to a problem caused by high blood pressure that has not been treated properly. Ischemic and Hemorrhagic strokes are usually no more than one side of the body.
A Brain Stem Stroke, as it occurs in the brain stem, as its namesake would suggest, will often affect either side of the body. The actual physical trauma from a stroke can range anywhere from slight memory loss or a slight limp to full-blown paralysis or loss of speech.
Take Away
Injuries from yoga help patients who have gone through a stroke to gain strength physically, balance out their bodies, and make them flexible while managing to overcome stress and anxiety simultaneously. Recovery is assisted in Yoga, stimulating neuroplasticity through well-balanced, non-violent movements in breathing control and light stretches.
