When you’ve sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), exercise may be the farthest thing from your mind. But think again - physical activity plays an important role in improving functional ability and improving quality of life, so you’ll want to make the most out of your physical function. It has a huge impact on both your healing process and maintaining good health.
Benefits of Exercise for Individuals with TBI
There are many benefits to keeping your body moving on a regular basis when you’ve living with a TBI. For example, you can expect a regular exercise program to:
• Help nerve impulse travel faster to the brain, which improves how quickly you process or think
• Decrease health-risking behaviors such as smoking and depression
• Increase focus and ability to stay on task
• Improve mood and memory
• Increase blood flow to the brain
• Increase body awareness
• Positively effect balance
• Increase heart and lung efficiency.
Exercise Precautions for Individuals with TBI
With all those benefits, are there any precautions you should be aware of as well? Yep; specifically you’ll want to watch for:
• Fatigue—There can be a number of reasons for fatigue: chronic pain, sleep disturbances, and depression. Appropriately timed activities can help tremendously (e.g., certain times of the day, carefully timed bursts of aerobic activity)
• Slowed thinking—Since it can take longer to process the information, make sure to have a clear and concise breakdown and understanding of the exercise.
• Memory and initiation—Poor planning and poor goal-oriented behavior can occur. Have a properly structured workout and use repetitions and review.
• Medications—Understand the effects of the medication on your body. Talk with your physician before starting a fitness program to make sure that it is an appropriate plan of action for you at this time.
• Emotional Behaviors—Impulsivity, disinhibition, indecision, and irritability are all examples. Simply focus on the task or try redirecting the negative behavior.
Will Exercise Really Improve Life for Those Living with a TBI?
According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, regular physical activity not only helps individuals with chronic, disabling conditions improve stamina and muscle strength, a consistently-followed exercise program “can improve psychological well being and quality of life by increasing the ability to perform activities of daily living.”
Where to start? First, consult with your physician to get the green light to go forward with an exercise program. Second, check to see if he or she is able to give you a recommendation for a professional exercise specialist and maybe even some basic exercises to start with. If your doctor doesn’t have recommendations, there are many easy-to-follow books on MS and exercise, many of which you may be able to obtain through your local public library.
See Related Articles
For more exercise and fitness information for patients with brain injuries, see Aerobic Exercise Following a Brain Injury.
Read Head Injury Dizziness Associated with Perilymphatic Fistulas for more information on persistent dizziness.
