It has been a while since my last update. I've been working hard on my recovery and my fitness. I noticed my right/good side was gaining muscle mass faster/more than the left side with regular bilateral training so I switched to training exclusively unilaterally. Normally I feel muscle fatigue when working and soreness after working on my good side but not my left side, so since a few weeks I've been adding an extra set on my left side, also because my muscles on the right had grown during the bilateral training so the left side had to catch up. Since I've started doing that I can feel the muscles on my left side during and after a workkout, which feels amazing. I haven't quite figured out yet if the left side just fell behind because of the period of bilateral training or because it is simply harder to make muscles grow on stroke affected limbs, since I didn't feel any fatigue before, it could be due to paralysis and I just don't feel it well, or because that side simply needs more sets in general. Less growth impulses maybe? But I feel I should figure that out after a few months of training with an extra set on the left.
I'm also happy to report I can now stretch my left index finger individually. I can stretch all fingers simultaneously in a certain position, but I can't isolate my fingers, except for the index now. I've been stretching religiously every day for 15 months and it's starting to have effect, so I'm confident the other fingers will soon follow. Yes, 15 months is a very long time to see effect. It's a little like learning a language or new skill, you need to repeat repeat repeat until it sticks. I've been pointing at things non-stop now and it feels great. In my previous post I mentioned I applied to go to a new rehab that uses robotics, that's still in progress, meaning the health insurance is being a difficult little b*tch about it, so I don't think they'll approve my application.
I'm currently down about 12 kilo, all fat and my face more or less looks like it did pre stroke, I still need to lose a little more in the belly area, but I think a total of about 5 kilo will do the trick so I'm optimistic I'll get there soon.
Last November I had a big setback when I fell and broke my wrist. I'm currently more or less back to the weights I used before I broke my wrist, but there's still pain there. Patience is a virtue!
I'm currently doing:
B stance (supported single leg) hip thrust: 50 kilo/110 lbs
B stance (supported single leg) deadlifts: 40 kilo/88 lbs
Single leg leg press: 123 kilo/271 lbs
Single leg hip abduction (gym machine): 52 kilo/114 lbs
Bulgarian split squat: 40 kilo/88 lbs
single arm bicep curl: 8 kilo/17 lbs
Single arm overhead press: 5 kilo/12 lbs
Single arm chest press: 6 kilo/13 lbs
lateral/ventral raise: 2,5 kilo/5,5 lbs
I'm incredibly happy and proud of my progress in the amount of weight I can lift now. Some are even higher than what I lifted pre stroke, like the Bulgarian split squats. Bicep curls I was also happy with since it's what I lifted pre stroke. I'm starting to feel strong again. And I know that if I keep doing what I'm doing I'll also look like my pre stroke self again. And there's hope the stretching I'm doing will give me back a lot of hand function, so I'm very excited because it seems like good things are in my future!
If you made it all the way to here, thank you for reading and the support!
Stroke progress/recovery update
It has been a while since my last update. I've been working hard on my recovery and my fitness. I noticed my right/good side was gaining muscle mass faster/more than the left side with regular bilateral training so I switched to training exclusively unilaterally. Normally I feel muscle fatigue when working and soreness after working on my good side but not my left side, so since a few weeks I've been adding an extra set on my left side, also because my muscles on the right had grown during the bilateral training so the left side had to catch up. Since I've started doing that I can feel the muscles on my left side during and after a workkout, which feels amazing. I haven't quite figured out yet if the left side just fell behind because of the period of bilateral training or because it is simply harder to make muscles grow on stroke affected limbs, since I didn't feel any fatigue before, it could be due to paralysis and I just don't feel it well, or because that side simply needs more sets in general. Less growth impulses maybe? But I feel I should figure that out after a few months of training with an extra set on the left.
I'm also happy to report I can now stretch my left index finger individually. I can stretch all fingers simultaneously in a certain position, but I can't isolate my fingers, except for the index now. I've been stretching religiously every day for 15 months and it's starting to have effect, so I'm confident the other fingers will soon follow. Yes, 15 months is a very long time to see effect. It's a little like learning a language or new skill, you need to repeat repeat repeat until it sticks. I've been pointing at things non-stop now and it feels great. In my previous post I mentioned I applied to go to a new rehab that uses robotics, that's still in progress, meaning the health insurance is being a difficult little b*tch about it, so I don't think they'll approve my application.
I'm currently down about 12 kilo, all fat and my face more or less looks like it did pre stroke, I still need to lose a little more in the belly area, but I think a total of about 5 kilo will do the trick so I'm optimistic I'll get there soon.
Last November I had a big setback when I fell and broke my wrist. I'm currently more or less back to the weights I used before I broke my wrist, but there's still pain there. Patience is a virtue!
I'm currently doing:
B stance (supported single leg) hip thrust: 50 kilo/110 lbs
B stance (supported single leg) deadlifts: 40 kilo/88 lbs
Single leg leg press: 123 kilo/271 lbs
Single leg hip abduction (gym machine): 52 kilo/114 lbs
Bulgarian split squat: 40 kilo/88 lbs
single arm bicep curl: 8 kilo/17 lbs
Single arm overhead press: 5 kilo/12 lbs
Single arm chest press: 6 kilo/13 lbs
lateral/ventral raise: 2,5 kilo/5,5 lbs
I'm incredibly happy and proud of my progress in the amount of weight I can lift now. Some are even higher than what I lifted pre stroke, like the Bulgarian split squats. Bicep curls I was also happy with since it's what I lifted pre stroke. I'm starting to feel strong again. And I know that if I keep doing what I'm doing I'll also look like my pre stroke self again. And there's hope the stretching I'm doing will give me back a lot of hand function, so I'm very excited because it seems like good things are in my future!
If you made it all the way to here, thank you for reading and the support!