05/18/2026
Today, I evaluated a patient who is more than a year post-stroke and still having minor struggles with gait deficits and persistent weakness.
He was discharged 2 weeks ago from a large corporate outpatient clinic and worked with a clinician I know, personally, to be intelligent and capable. My patient was told that his mild deficits were good enough and he would continue to make gains from bodyweight home exercises - he was only doing bodyweight and light bands in the clinic, too. He asked about resistance training and was told that this was unnecessary to make functional gains for him; the clams, chair stands, and single leg standing was enough. The issue was not a lack of caring or knowledge from my colleague. The issue is the corporate PT system.
When therapists are expected to juggle multiple patients at once, sometimes while handling evaluations simultaneously, quality inevitably suffers. Add in limited access to progressive strengthening equipment, and patients are often left doing basic home exercises long after they should have progressed into meaningful resistance training.
One thing I will say clearly: a 70-year-old stroke survivor, or just ANY CAPABLE PERSON, absolutely benefits from progressive strength training and regular walking. Those are not optional recommendations. Strength is one of the greatest protectors of independence, mobility, and long-term health as we age.
Too often, patients are told that weakness will simply improve with time or minimal exercise. But recovery after stroke requires progression, challenge, and individualized attention. The body adapts when it is trained appropriately - basic Wolff's law extrapolated to the entire body's systems.
This is one of the reasons I built and opened Prime Recovery and Rehabilitation, PLLC. Patients deserve focused care, one-on-one attention, and treatment plans designed around real functional outcomes — not productivity metrics set by corporate greed.
People are capable of far more recovery than they are often led to believe.
STAY. IN. YOUR. PRIME.
