From Stroke to Strength - Week One
Rich Froning and Mat Fraser were locked into a heated battle for the top spot on the CrossFit Games leaderboard. Froning was the 4 time CrossFit Games champion and Mat Fraser finished a very close second in 2014. Fraser is arguably the only person in the world capable of dethroning the champ. And then I got a call from Greg Kuchan as I strolled over to the gym around noon, “The ambulance is here and we think Phil had a stroke.”
Bryan and I dropped everything, sprinted over to the gym to find the paramedics rushing him to Scripps Memorial for evaluation. You just do not ever see these things coming. One minute I am enjoying a beautiful San Diego day about to watch some competitive fitness and the next I am standing at the fire department trying to find out which hospital Phil was sent to.
I spent a couple hours at the hospital the next night trying to piece together how something like this could happen to a relatively healthy 27 year old. As with everything, it was a perfect storm of so many factors it would be a waste to try and draw a conclusion. Things happen, and through this circumstance, we were both in uncharted territory.
My thoughts on fitness, nutrition, and lifestyle choices had once again been altered drastically. The time spent bedside in the hospital made me think much less about Froning and Fraser and much more about, “How do I get his brain to teach him to walk correctly?” “How do we re-wire his hand eye coordination to text on his cell phone?”
Fitness is, and has always been, a means of enhancing one’s life but this situation brought a purpose to training beyond weight loss, athleticism, and aesthetics. Recovering from a stroke is on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as Froning and Fraser. Arrington vs. Daily Function was the new battle I found myself in.
So here is where the journey begins: 12 sessions, twice a week, over six weeks. His doctors did not know how to rehab a 27 year old that has a stroke since it's so rare. All they could say is to try to do the physical activities you used to do and hope the coordination and strength comes back.
Everyone following this journey please understand I am not a doctor. I am a strength coach that is fascinated by athleticism. I believe that we developed as humans to run, jump, sprint, pick things up, and do these things effortlessly. I am employing this theory to an athlete that suffered a stroke. I believe that if we begin with a very slow progression of athletic movements, coupled with sound strength training, we can rewire his brain to reestablish large scale movement patterns as well as fine motor skills.
I will be documenting the journey from my side and Phil will be adding commentary to his thoughts and feelings as well. I do not know where this story goes but we will be here to tell it both from a training side as well as the recovery side.
I wanted to set a starting point. We did a host of coordination and balance tests and filmed them so we can see what kind of difference we have made over the six weeks. I am well aware that this is a massive thing to overcome and six weeks is just the beginning of the journey. My hopes are that we will still be able to see significant progress even in a short amount of time.
Initial Goals
- Regain strength on the left side of the body
- Regain coordination
- Develop hand eye coordination
- Increase balance and awareness of large muscle recruitment as well as fine motor skills
Test 1 – Increase strength and balance
- Methodology: Split Squat 3 sets of 8/ side on a 12” box
- Purpose: establish a baseline to see how the body is handling isolation exercises that require coordination, balance, and strength
- Notes: Right side was very unstable. Left side was much stronger than I thought it would be. The side affected by the stroke was much more stable leading me to believe that the back leg used as the stabilizing and balancing side has much more of an effect than I originally thought. As we move forward we will look to develop balance on the left side.
Test 2 – Develop coordination
- Methodology: Agility Ladder
- Purpose: To see how the brain is able to process low level coordination over a short period of time. This is less about agility and more about processing coordination over a 10 second interval.
- Notes: The stroke side was very slow and uncoordinated. The first couple steps were accurate but as he moved down the ladder, accuracy broke down quickly
Test 3 – Hopping Drills
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Methodology – 12” hurdle jumps
- Purpose: To test how the body functions as a unit. Ideally we want the brain to say jump and both feet fire at the same time, with the same power, and at the same height.
- Notes: Left leg had little sense of spatial awareness. It responds to stimulus but has little coordination with the right side. Effects were jumping with two feet but the feet not staying together. Single leg test was much more unstable and lacked coordination on left side
Test 4 – Hand Eye Coordination
- Methodology: Catching lacrosse ball off a wall
- Purpose: By throwing the lacrosse ball off the wall, he will have to react to the location of the ball as well as have a quick reaction time.
- Notes: Very similar to ladder. You can literally see his eyes tracking the ball all the way in to his hand. It is interesting because there is such uncertainty. The simple act of catching becomes a full effort process. I assume this will become much smoother as we retrain this function in the brain.
So here we are - new challenges, new friends, and a ton of learning. If you know someone that may be interested or affected by this journey, please forward this article to them. We both want to learn everything we can, hopefully provide some hope to others, and maybe even change a life or two in the process.
