Here is one fun little exercise you can do sitting down, with your butt to the front half your chair/couch. Clench our abdominal muscles, in other words suck in your belly and sides of waist, sit up straight and tall…and you’re off for a run in your chair 
(Good for both knee pain and belly fat)
This second one is an old favourite I used to do in yoga classes. It’s great for strengthening both the abdominals and the hip and pelvic regions. A good one for anyone with lower back or hip issues, because half that pain could be from poor muscular strength thus throwing spine out of line. And excellent to do lying on either the bed or couch if you can’t get to the floor.
Also, that pelvic tilt motion he does at 0:50 where he pushes the lower back into the ground. Just that rocking motion of pushing and releasing is both an exercise in itself, and also acts as a massaging therapy for the hips/lower back…tailbone region.
@jacquiwalters
@Emma_GH I tagged you in as I thought this second video would be a good one for strengthening your pelvic region…if you haven’t already got this exercise 
If that is still too much for some people yet. Then another simple one to strengthen your core is:
Again, perched on the front of your seat, hands holding to sides of your seat. Sit up tall and straight, tuck your belly in, close your eyes or watching tv, or listen to music and feel, wait there for a few minutes at a time. That’s one that can be done on a daily basis and as many as you like/or remember to do. If you feel anything relax or slouch, waken it up again and pull yourself back into position. Concentrate on flexing and pulling in all the muscles of your front and back, up and down your spine, between your shoulder blades and pulling your shoulders back, Tense and relax them, tense them again and hold for as long as you can then rest and repeat for as many as you can. And I’m sitting here doing this exact thing as I compile this post 
It does because natural over time out of habit.
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Lovin all this talk of exercising and toning muscles up. Keep 
posting everyone.
Keep on keeping on. Thanks for sharing.
Regards Sue
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I have always liked to switch things up a bit in my rehab/exercise routines because they can become boring enough that you just can’t be bothered anymore. And that is not good in the times when you aren’t seeing much improvement in the progress of your stroke condition.
Online Instructor’s voices also play a big part in that for me too ; some can be grating, too monotone or just plane boring, even though the exercises themselves might be good for me. Being deaf, and even with the hearing aids in, the male voice is still better for my hearing than female; and the instructor needs to be lively enough to keep me motivated.
Having tiktok on my phone is really handy for that too. There are about half a dozen other favourite instructors on there along with ones above, that are frequently adding new clips, coming up with new things to try or for doing the same in a different way.
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@EmeraldEyes i have been using weights at home to strengthen m week arm, i started on 0.5 kg now up to 3 kg
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That is always a good one Chris. After my stroke I found I had so much muscle atrophy I couldn’t even push my hoover round, I just couldn’t
This may sound like a dumb question but do you do the same with both arms? Not having had much in the way of physio during lockdown, I just stuck to the rules of my yoga instructor and osteopath. Whatever you do to one side you do to the other in order to keep the musculature skeleton balanced. So you are running the risk of upper spinal issues as your shoulder muscles build up.
I started off with my son’s weights and then when the country started opening up again I went to the gym. The beauty about the gym is that all the weight resistance machines I used to build up strength down my right side were seated, so I didn’t have to worry so much about my balance issues. And because you are doing the same with both sides, your affected side is also learning from your unaffected, mirroring.
@EmeraldEyes yes i do both arms, it strengthens the muscles in the shoulder and neck. i would never have the confidence to use a gym or the money. i sit on my chair in bed, then when my balance was stronger i now stand. i do it 3 times a day
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That’s ok, gyms are not for everyone. The one I go to is fairly big and is just called The Gym, £19 a month and you can go whenever and as often as you like because it’s open 24/7. There are personal trainers you can hire but I can’t afford that much either.
I go for the structure and discipline of it because at home I’d find a million and one other things to do around the house. Ok they can be just as strenuous as a gym work out at times but sitting on butt at the computer all day isn’t…even though it is also good therapy for the cognitive/aphasia side of things
