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Rehabilitation - General Information for Strengthening Your Body

WARNING: Any exercise activities not approved by appropriate medical personnel can have harmful results. Prior to beginning any exercise program, have your doctor or therapist assess your medical and physical status. All exercise programs should be prescribed by a board-certified and registerd professional. If, at any time, sudden pain or lasting discomfort should result, consult your physician immediately.

Since I am a below the knee amputee, the only exercises I know are for that kind of amputation. If you are an upper body amputee, please let me know so I can pass on to the visitors of LadyAmp any exercises that might be useful.

Upon leaving the hopsital after an amputation, you will receive exercises you can do at home. They may be somewhat different than the ones you did during Physical Therapy, but they are no less as important. Maintaining body strength after amputation is important. Upper body strength is needed to use crutches or a walker and lower body strength is needed for the same reasons. Your arms need strength to maintain using your walker, otherwise you'll end up with extremely sore biceps. The same goes for your good leg. Lack of exercise can cause cramps and painful muscles, which will only add to your discomfort. Here are a few tips to follow:

1.  Try and perform each repetition for 10 seconds. This will ensure that you are moving your body in a controlled manner. But if you can't maintain 10 seconds, do what you can. With each day you do your exercises, you'll increase your repetition time.

2.  Between each repetition, rest for 5-10 seconds. This will help to ensure that your muscles have ample time to recover and perform the next repetition correctly.

3.  If possible, add 5 repetitions each week, reaching for a goal of up to 20-30 repetitions. If you can't reach that many, don't push yourself too hard. You have the time to reach that goal at your own pace.

4.  Physical Therapists recommend that you do your exercises twice a day. As it was, I could barely do them once a day! But as time passed, and I got stronger, I could reach the goal of twice a day. Use your own iniative to tell if you can do your exercises twice daily. If not, don't worry about it. You'll get there!

5.  Once you are able to perform 25 repetitions correctly, you may perform your exercises once a day for a while, or if you like, make them a part of your daily exercise program.

6.  Your exercise program should take you about 20 minutes to complete. As your strength and endurance increase, the amount of rest time in between repetitions will decrease so your program will take less time.