Stroke recovery exercises you can do at home, today.

Before you start: the rules

Talk to your therapist or physiatrist before adding any program. The exercises below are conventional and widely used but the order, dose, and intensity should be cleared by someone who can see you in person.

Three universal rules: stop if anything sharp hurts, build slowly (10% increase in any variable per week), and prioritize quality over speed. Sloppy reps install sloppy patterns.

Upper limb: arm, hand, fingers

Shoulder shrugs and rolls — 2 sets of 15. Wakes up the trap and shoulder girdle.

Bicep curls with no weight — 3 sets of 12. Build to a 1-2 lb hand weight or soup can.

Towel slide on a table — slide a folded towel across a slick table with the affected hand. 50 slides, 3 times.

Finger taps — touch each fingertip to thumb in sequence. 30 sequences per hand.

Coin pickups — 10 coins on a table, pick up one at a time and drop in a cup. 3 rounds.

Lower limb: leg, foot, gait

Sit-to-stand from a chair — 3 sets of 8-12. The single most useful exercise for early gait recovery.

Heel raises holding a counter — 3 sets of 15.

Marching in place — knees as high as comfortable, 60 seconds, 3 rounds.

Single-leg stand holding a counter — 30 seconds per leg, 3 rounds.

Stair work — go up and down 5 stairs, 5 times. Use a railing. This is intentionally hard.

Balance and core

Wall sit — 30 seconds, 3 rounds.

Standing weight shifts — 30 reps side-to-side, then 30 forward-back.

Tandem stance (heel-to-toe) — hold a counter, 30 seconds per side.

Bird-dog on hands and knees — 8 reps per side, 2 rounds.

Bridge — lying on back, lift hips. 12 reps, 3 rounds.

Speech and swallowing endurance

Read aloud — 5 minutes from a book or article, focus on clarity not speed.

Tongue extension — stick tongue out as far as possible, hold 5 seconds, 10 reps.

Effortful swallow — swallow with deliberate force as if swallowing a large pill, 10 reps, 3 times a day.

Counting on one breath — count out loud as far as you can on a single breath. Note the number daily.

Word retrieval drills — name 10 items in a category (animals, fruits, tools) as fast as you can.

How to put it together into a routine

Start with two blocks per day, 15-20 minutes each. Block one is upper or lower limb. Block two is balance plus speech. Rotate which limb gets focus across the week.

After two weeks, add a third short block. After four weeks, escalate intensity (more reps, light resistance). The Sasquatch Method daily routine on the platform handles all of this calibration automatically — but you can run it manually with the lists above.