One of the challenges faced by stroke survivors is being unable to stand up and walk on their own. A study with 30 individuals less than 6 months after their stroke injury aimed to find out whether intensive sit-to-stand training together with usual care can help such patients.
In the study, training difficulty was gradually increased to challenge each participant’s ability. E.g. participants who were not able to do 25 repetitions in 15 minutes were given lesser repetitions but as they progressed, this will be increased until more than 100 repetitions could be accomplished. These sessions were intensive, they lasted 30 minutes and were done twice a day on weekdays. On weekends, the sessions lasted 1 hour.
Additionally, patients were asked to stand up with their arms crossed from a sitting position on a bed. Those who were able to do so would have the height of the bed incrementally decreased to make standing up harder. After two weeks, sit-to- stand ability in the 15 participants who went through the exercises improved more compared to the other 15 who only had usual care (two 1-hour physiotherapy sessions per weekday).
My Rehab Team physiotherapists are able to help stroke survivors to implement intensive training at home. Contact us for more information.
References
De Sousa, D.G. et al., ‘Two weeks of intensive sit-to-stand training in addition to usual care improves sit-to-stand ability in people who are unable to stand up independently after stroke: a randomised trial’, Journal of Physiotherapy, 2019; doi: 10.1016/j.jphys.2019.05.007
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