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Coastal CIMT

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18.01.2022 BREATHE Do you experience tightness, tension or pain in your neck and upper shoulders? Does it get worse when you are stressed or feeling anxious?... This is a very common issue, and it could have something to do with the way you breathe. Now, lift your arms straight up in front of you. Do you feel your shoulders lift from the top, do they get closer to your ears? If the answer is yes, it may be a sign your neck and shoulder tension stems from how you breathe. Let’s take note of how you breathe Does your stomach expand fully with each inhale? Are your exhales slow and steady? Or perhaps your breaths are shallower, you feel the air come in near your collarbones, before it is quickly exhaled again? Does your chest expand? If the latter sounds like you, you better keep reading When you breathe only into the upper part of your chest, you create a couple of problems for yourself; you activate chemical and electrical pathways that stimulate cortisol production and make you feel tense or on edge you use certain muscles that, while capable of lifting your rib cage, it’s really not what they were designed for. The role of breathing is too much responsibility and they become tight, shortened and may even forget how to relax Poor breathing technique can lead to chronic tightness in these muscles, and eventually can change the whole shape of your shoulder/chest complex. But don’t worry, no dog is too old to learn new tricks - change the way you breathe and you just may change the way you feel. Let’s put it to practice: Sit up straight. Relax your shoulders down away from your ears. Let go of your neck. Place your hands over your diaphragm (at the base of your ribs). Inhale for 4 seconds through your nose, drawing the breath down toward your belly, feeling it rise and expand. Your chest remains still. Exhale for twice as long (or whatever feels comfortable). Feel your abdominal muscles tighten and let your stomach fall down. Your chest remains still. Repeat until you feel calm. Practice for 10mins every day Happy Sunday

16.01.2022 HAPPY OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY WEEK! At Coastal CIMT we are proud to support people to #rebuild their brains and bodies, #recover their independence and #reengage in the things they love doing #proudofourprofession... #occupationaltherapy #thisisOT #upperlimbrehab #OTweek2020 See more

15.01.2022 The tip of this scapula (first pic) representing a metaphorical tip of the iceberg... Musculoskeletal conditions can be difficult to treat if we’re only looking at the surface. It’s sometimes not enough just to find and treat the obvious muscle imbalance. If we’re looking for a long term fix, we need to treat the person as a whole... mind and body... Look deeper and further from the site of injury/pain... What else might be at play? In this case... anterior postural dominance overactive respiratory muscles (inefficient breathing) associated weak diaphragm and middle back muscles anterior pelvic tilt weak contralateral glutes STRESS overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system sleep posture A combination of all of the above? Maybe even a vicious cycle of all of the above..? Stop the cycle, start the recovery A very smart man @stopchasingpain says; No system in the body ever works alone. Never gets injured alone. Never heals alone. Think bigger. Think better. Think systems. We couldn’t agree more See more

04.01.2022 OBJECT AFFORDANCE Part 2/3 **make sure you’ve read Part 1 of this series before reading on** ... Now give this a go, remove the cup from your sight and execute the following movements; Reach out your arm, extend your elbow, extend your wrist, extend all your fingers, abduct your thumb, and now oppose your thumb and fingers and grasp the cup. Did this feel much more difficult? Or at least less smooth? Did you have to think about it much more? Do you even understand what is meant by abduct or oppose? By removing the object, we have also removed the representation of a potential motor act that is afforded by the object. The cup being there provided our brain with information about how we should interact with it. Without the visual input and past experience to draw on, our brain must rely exclusively on our motor planning areas to decide how to execute the multitude of movements required to simply pick up a cup. In an uninjured brain, it is still possible for us to carry out these movements (that is, if we understand what is meant by abduct or oppose), we just have to think about it slightly more first. But what then happens if the area of the brain responsible for thinking about or planning movements is damaged?? If we are unable to intrinsically and voluntarily plan intricate movements of our hand on command, we rely MUCH more on object affordance to interact with a cup (or any object). The visual and perceptual information provided by the object and our past experiences interacting with a similar object, actually allow us to somewhat bypass the damaged motor planning area and shoot straight to the motor execution area! Have you noticed that when your therapist asks you to extend your thumb, that absolutely nothing happens, and the harder you try, the harder it gets. But then sometimes, when you’re practicing a reaching movement with your arm toward a target, you see your thumb or one of your fingers extend as your approach the target? Or perhaps you are a therapist yourself, and the above paragraph is really hitting home? My advice to you? Scroll on to Part See more

03.01.2022 RECOVERY PLATEAU If you’re a rehab clinician or stroke survivor, I’m sure at some point you’ve used or heard the term recovery plateau. But in case you haven’t, it refers to the period in stroke recovery where little or no gains are made, following an initial period of rapid improvement. But does it actually exist?... The #neuroscience behind it; Immediately following stroke, the brain enters a state of extreme neuroplasticity (spontaneous recovery) where it is very rapidly reorganising and rewiring in order to regain lost functions. Often resulting in significant functional gains in a short time. Unfortunately, this period can’t last forever and the brain eventually returns to its usual level of neuroplastic ability. When a stroke survivor reaches this point, it is often said they have reached their plateau. This can be misleading for stroke survivors though, because despite the end of the spontaneous recovery, the brain is still very capable of continued adaptation. Thus there does not have to be a flattening out of recovery, as the term plateau would suggest. Fact: our brains remain neuroplastic until the day we die. Given the right environment, coach and the just-right challenge, improvements are always possible. I am constantly surprised and inspired witnessing what is achievable in the months, years and even decades following stroke. So this post is for all you #strokesurvivors out there who think you’ve plateau’d Remember this; #progress is ALWAYS possible #imagine where you want to be #believe you can get there #challenge yourself whenever possible And, importantly, allow yourself to #justbreathe when everything else feels too difficult, plateaus aren’t forever... there’s a mountain on the horizon just waiting to be climbed And for all the clinicians out there like me, use #positive language instead of plateau language. Our patients consider us gurus in their recovery. When we tell them they‘ve plateau’d, they believe it. But when we tell them they’re capable of conquering mountains, they may just keep climbing. Be the #coach your client needs See more