If you are a loved one of a person who has suffered a stroke or if you have suffered a stroke yourself, chances are good that you're not going to be satisfied with where you are currently in your stroke recovery. Losing control of a primary limb, such as an arm, can feel devastating in the moment, and you probably want yourself or your loved on to be back to normal as soon as possible. The reality is that recovering from a stroke can take a decent amount of time. Here are some exercise tips that you can utilize in order to speed up the pace of recovery and move on with your life more quickly. 

1. Stretch Regularly

One major problem that people encounter when trying to regain the use of their arm or arms after a stroke is the level of spasticity that they encounter. Spasticity can be very frustrating because it feels like you don't have control of your arm, since the signals that your brain is sending through your arm might be a little bit jumbled. Luckily, even just simple stretching can reduce the spasticity that a person might encounter after a stroke in his or her arm. To properly stretch your arm, take the arm that you have full control over and use it to apply force to your other arm in a downwards direction while your spastic arm is extended. This will help stretch out the arm, increase blood flow, and manage spasticity. In order for stretching to be truly effective, you need to be sure that you are doing it multiple times through out the day.

2. Use Your Arm More

Another option to restore full functioning to your other arm is to willingly restrain the arm that is working properly so that you don't have use of it for several hours a day. This will force you to use the arm that is experiencing spasticity and will allow you to work through repetitive motions for long periods of time. You are essentially reteaching yourself to use your arm, in the same way that you taught yourself how to write your name when you were a child. Your brain will gradually relearn the signals that it needs to send to your arm in order to get it to work properly.

For more information, talk to a center that specializes in stroke recovery, such as Project Walk.