The Long Road Ahead

– breakdown plus info on each of these

I usually wake up around 9.30am and I take the next 30 mins to start off my day the right way it’s something that I believe is in the core of my recovery and it anchors me to the moment at the start of the day in a way it’s like meditation because I just put my headphones in and go I would also suggest looking into the Joe Rogan MMA podcast with Firas Zahabi he talked about flow workouts and this really resonated with me that you can work out smarter not harder.

The main story about these where exercise given by the stroke team that was put in charge of my initial recovery but the main worker had to leave after the first day as she was ill and there was a shortage of workers available this I would have to say was the defining moment for me as I sat in my chair and thought that if I didn’t do it on my own It would not be done so I decided to do it I had the list written down from the day before so the next morning I got up and I did it.

I had doubt that I was going to fall or trip and my body felt like a huge weight my muscles creaked and shook and were sore and my hand and arm constantly reacted to my movement – don’t get me wrong it scared me but I did it because i was told about “Positive risk taking” which helped me come round to doing something on my own and at first I didn’t notice anything but as the months went on I felt my muscles where lighter I never really noticed till I started to get out for my daily walking I noticed that I was quicker and it wasn’t as tiring.

I tend to do these exercises in sets/reps and I can increase the rep each week to 30 and on the 4th week of the month I knock it back to 10 so I go a bit easier at the end of the month as a good job to my body and then I start over again, you should not push yourself to go overboard on these exercises and even if you can’t do 10 or multiple sets one after the other you can only do what you can do and no more if you push yourself your body may push back I can attest to this as with the weakness in my arm when I started to do these my left arm would react by shaking or even tightening up toward my chest so I needed to pace myself but it was good because I learnt to have discipline and to listen to my body.

The excercises i do in my order that i like

o Squats (10,20,30)
o Single leg squats (10,20,30) on each leg
o Pendulum leg swings (10,20,30) on each leg
o Leg swings forward and back (10,20,30)
o Step up’s (10,20,30)

Yoga poses – switch sides if you are doing both
Warrior stance – hold for 3 mins
Tree pose – hold for 3 mins