Stroke recovery does not have to be a dragging and burdensome task. You could actually have fun by literally dancing your way to recovery!
Dictionary.Com defines Dance as the movement of one's feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps, especially to the accompaniment of music. Dancing incorporates walking, bending, and stretching, which are forms of exercise meant to strengthen the body and keep it flexible.
Dancing also improves movement and muscle control. Through steady rhythmic beats and musical timing, dancing reverses the effects of neurological deficits after stroke. This makes dancing the perfect exercise regime for you regardless of the fact that you previously loved to dance or not.
After all, exercise training and music therapy are effective efforts used for stroke rehabilitation. Putting these methods together makes one fun-filled activity you can look forward to.
Freestyle dancing is beneficial for starters as you need to learn to keep your balance and to learn to move with the beat of the music. Once balance is mastered, you can move on to learning choreographed steps to develop your coordination and memory recall.
Dancing is so easy that you can enjoy it at home with your loved ones in any way you want or with video accompaniment. You can also hire a dance instructor or enroll in a dancing class like stroke survivor Dennis Reed.
Reed suffered an ischemic stroke that resulted to seizures, depression, memory loss, blurry vision, slurred speech, and partial paralysis of his left side of the body. He was only liberated from his debilitating condition after enrolling at a ballroom dancing class despite previous speech and physical therapy. He now proudly calls himself a dancer of intermediate level as he already joins dances recitals.
A more extensive way of dancing are aerobic dance classes as these normally focus on an area of the body. A good basis of its benefits is a study spearheaded by Richard F. Macko at the Baltimore Veterans Affair Medical Center .
The Baltimore study used focused, repetitive, task-oriented movements such as those applied in a regular aerobic dance class except that their aerobics exercise program for stroke patients included two focused movements only: lower-limb workouts and upper extremity exercises. The program proved that aerobic exercises helped stroke patients reclaim mobility and physical functioning.
With the surfacing of inspiring stories of recovery from methods medicine previously disregarded, gone are the days that stroke survivors are set aside from society in the belief that all hope is lost. So what are you waiting for? Write your own inspiring story now. It's time to dance your way to your own recovery...one step at a time!
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