Crossfit to regain strength after a stroke?

Don't have any advice, but kudos to her for getting out there.

Hmmm. If there's no use discouraging your sister, I would tell her doctor that she is definitely going to work out, and get the doctor's advice on how to proceed. If the doctor is not willing to give it, find a doctor who will. It's probably not a good idea to completely discount your current doctor's opinion without talking to them about it more, though.

I wouldn't be surprised if your sister gets lightheaded and nauseous a lot, or even passes out, while doing CrossFit on blood thinners. If you get more direction from a doctor, be sure to pass it along to your CrossFit coach (ETA: and be sure to communicate everything you already know about her condition to her coach). That's all I've got. I don't know anything about your sister's condition, but it sounds pretty severe. Good luck to you both in finding a way to manage it!

aliciamarieUF wrote: »

Hi everyone. I started crossfit on Saturday and am loving it so far. I am trying to lose 10 pounds and tone up. I started bringing my little sister along with me and she is also enjoying it. She had a stroke in September of 2014 and was hospitalized for 2 weeks. We found out she suffers from a rare blood condition called "Hughe's Syndrome" where her blood is too thick and sticky and clots up (she is on blood thinners for the rest of her life). The stroke left her shaky on her left side and while she has regained a lot of strength (therapists can't really help her anymore--she's not considered "severe"), she has not regained all of it. The rest of the work that needs to be done, she needs to do herself. She was doing some cardio and minimal weight lifting at our local gym but my crossfit instructor said he can scale the exercises for her to help the atrophied muscles so that she will regain her strength. So far he has done just that, and she has been taking it slowly and doing only what she is capable of doing, without pushing herself to the limit so that she does not hurt herself.

Does anyone here have experience with crossfit after a stroke or after some kind of severe injury?
My sister's doctor does not want her working out at all (this doesn't make any sense to us. She is only 22 and needs to work out to regain that strength and mobility).

Any input is appreciated.
And before anyone makes any comments on us being idiots for not following doctor's orders...my sister went from not being able to walk and speak to lifting about 30 pounds (yes, with a bit of trouble, but she's doing it).

Thank you.

The problem with just dismissing doctor's advice is that you don't know the big picture. That doesn't mean accepting the doctor's advice without question--but you should be telling him/her that "it doesn't make sense" so that it can either be explained, or so that you can determine that you need another doctor.

This is not really about "recovering from a stroke". This is about dealing with an auto-immune syndrome involving hypercoagulability caused by abnormal antibodies in the blood. That is a dynamic condition that needs to be taken into consideration.

Actually I kind of agree with you that the doctor's advice "doesn't make sense". Nothing I have read about antiphospholipid syndrome suggests that exercise is contraindicated. It would seem there is some increased risk of blood clots and the various complications associated with them, but that risk is present all the time, and exercise can actually improve the body's ability to prevent clot formation or dissolve clots that have formed. But, before jumping to that conclusion, one would have to know more about your sister's overall condition and history, and that's where the doctor comes in.

Here is my problem(s) with Crossfit in this situation: 1) The workouts are not designed to address specific medical or health needs. Your sister needs a program specifically designed for her, with the appropriate exercises, resistance workloads and progression plan. I doubt she is going to get that in a Crossfit box. That is not what they are designed to do. Yes, you can "scale down" an exercise, but if it's not the right exercise, then you are left with a half-assed version of a half-assed exercise. That's like "half assed squared", which is rarely a good thing. 2) If you have to scale down and modify a routine that much, then you are not doing "crossfit" anymore. You are just doing a "resistance program" with no special benefit. So why pay a premium for "crossfit" when you aren't doing "crossfit"? To me, that doesn't make sense.

Can she get better doing this truncated form of "crossfit"? Probably, although that doesn't mean it's the optimal choice. Is she at increased risk? Cannot say, but I doubt if the risk is severely high. Is it the best choice for her at this point? Absolutely not. But I also don't know what other options or training resources you have available.

Great advice already from @Azdak, @bkthandler, and @Cherimoose. I can only second what they say. Blood thinners and auto-immune conditions make your sisters case very specialized and should involve her doctor and a trained, licensed rehab specialist.