Stroke Exercises For Your Body4 Arm Exercises8 Balance Exercises14 Core Exercises20 Hand Exercises27 3 Evidence-Based Steps for Recovering Hand Function31 Leg Exercises32 Shoulder Exercises39 Reclaim Your Independence45 No Plateau In Sight46
STROKE EXERCISES FOR YOUR BODY8
ARM EXERCISES A stroke can often make it difficult to perform simple tasks like moving the arm forward or grasping and releasing objects. Physiotherapist Simbarashe Shawe recommends eight simple exercises to help restore strength and function in the arms of stroke survivors.
Strokes are a frightening, life-threatening medical condition, but once you begin recovering you will experience the impact on your quality of life caused by neurological damage. It’s possible to retrain the brain to make up for this damage, but you must keep the affected muscle groups active. These basic level exercises are a starting point to add flexibility and mobility to your affected arm after a stroke.
STROKE EXERCISES FOR YOUR BODY9Intermediate Arm Exercises
Once you have gained basic flexibility in the wrist, hand, and inner arm, you are ready to work on a full range of motion for these joints. These intermediate-level exercises, which work well in conjunction with SaeboMAS and SaeboReach, can be the key to recovering the use of your arms. They help retrain the brain to make up for the neurological damage you have suffered
1.
STROKE EXERCISES FOR YOUR BODY11
Advanced Arm Exercises Muscles damaged due to a stroke are often weakened, mainly due to inactivity. This is why at-home exercise is so important. Once you have regained range of motion in your arm and wrist, you are ready to begin strengthening the muscles with these advanced exercises.
STROKE EXERCISES FOR YOUR BODY14 BALANCE EXERCISES Struggling to walk or stumbling frequently is a common problem for stroke survivors, as the neurological components of balance have been damaged. Fortunately, balance is an ability that can be relearned after a stroke through therapy, rehabilitative products, and at-home exercises. Physiotherapists Beth Thornton and Kathryn Smyth suggest nine exercises to help regain stability and balance
STROKE EXERCISES FOR YOUR BODY15
Basic Balance Exercises Basic level exercises for balance may seem simple at first, but they require strong neural connections to successfully complete. Start with these simple exercises as you work to rewire your mental processes. The repeated actions will build mental connections that can help restore balance. Remember, always hold onto something during balance exercises to keep yourself from falling.
Intermediate Balance Exercises
STROKE EXERCISES FOR YOUR BODY16 The intermediate level exercises use the same basic ideas as the basic exercises, but without something to hold onto. After practicing the basic level exercises for a while, you should be able to perform them without assistance. However, for safety, always have a counter or chair nearby to grab if you start to lose your balance.
Advanced Balance Exercises
STROKE EXERCISES FOR YOUR BODY18 Once you start noticing improved balance, do not stop exercising. You are still building those connections. Now it’s time to move on to advanced level exercises.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and the other newly elected members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi, meet the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the committee's first plenary session held on Sunday, according to the communique of the plenary session.
The session, presided over by Xi, was attended by 203 members of the 20th CPC Central Committee and 168 alternate members. Xi was also named chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission at the session.
The members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee elected at the session are Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi.
Zhao and Wang were members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee. Li Qiang, Cai and Li Xi have served as Party chiefs of municipal CPC committees in Shanghai, Beijing and the Provincial CPC committee of Guangdong Province since 2017. Ding has been director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee since 2017.
Analysts said the new central leadership of the Party with a strong core leadership, demonstrated solid unity, which is a key advantage and essential element for the Party to handle complex challenges and accomplish new great missions in the future, and to withstand "dangerous storms" in a turbulent world together.
Also elected at the first plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee were members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the session, which endorsed the members of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat nominated by the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
The session named the members of the Central Military Commission, with Zhang Youxia and He Weidong as vice chairmen. The session approved the secretary, deputy secretaries and members of the Standing Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) elected at the first plenary session of the 20th CCDI.
Remarks of confidence
After the plenary session concluded, Xi led the Party's new central leadership to meet Chinese and foreign journalists on Sunday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and delivered a speech at the meeting with the press.
Xi said China will open its door wider to the rest of the world. "We'll be steadfast in deepening reform and opening up across the board, and in pursuing high-quality development," Xi said when meeting the press, noting that a prosperous China will create many more opportunities for the world.
Just as China cannot develop in isolation from the world, the world needs China for its development, Xi said. Through over 40 years of relentless reform and opening-up, China has created the twin miracles of fast economic growth and long-term social stability, he said.
Chinese analysts said it shows that both the CPC's and Chinese people's determination on reform and opening-up is unchanged, and the Party will unwaveringly insist on the successful policy and strategy, which is a message of confidence and certainty not only to the Chinese economic development, but also to the world in turbulence and global recovery.
The Chinese economy has great resilience and potential, Xi said. "Its strong fundamentals will not change, and it will remain on the positive trajectory over the long run."
The week-long 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concludes on October 22, 2022, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT
Humanity's shared values
Xi on Sunday also expressed China's commitment to promoting the building of a human community with a shared future.
"We will work with peoples of all other countries to champion humanity's shared values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom to safeguard global peace and promote global development, and keep promoting the building of a human community with a shared future," Xi said when meeting the press at the Great Hall of the People.
Xi's remarks further highlight the core ideas of China's diplomacy since the 18th CPC National Congress, emphasizing the stability and continuity of major diplomatic policies, which drew a sharp contrast with certain countries that emphasize their own absolute security and maximize their own interests, building up small blocs, Su Xiaohui, deputy director of Department of International and Strategic Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Sunday.
"It shows that our diplomacy is not based on selfish and zero-sum mentalities, and the idea of promoting a human community with a shared future is winning and will win more support from the international community, especially from developing countries," Su said.
The concept of "humanity's shared values" presented by the CPC is very different from the "universal values" promoted by the West, experts said. Based on the facts about the destruction and chaos in the non-Western world that has been caused by major Western powers, these so-called "universal values" actually serve as a pretext for hegemony to bully, interfere in and invade other nations, and the "values" are actually dividing the world rather than uniting it, as the West, especially the US, uses these concepts to create "enemies and competitors" to unite its own allies and followers, despite being guilty of hypocrisy and double-standards in many cases.
But the CPC's concept of "humanity's shared values" is inclusive and aims to unite all members of the international community and all civilizations, which also include civilizations in the Western world, and China under the CPC's leadership will always oppose and fight hegemony that threatens world peace, and will never follow the suit of hegemony or imperialism in the past to repeat the bloody and brutal path of rising in the new journey toward its Second Centenary Goal, experts said.
At this critical moment for the world to learn what China's core leadership will do, experts noted that China's core diplomatic ideas were incorporated in Xi's first address since he was elected general secretary of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, indicating that China will uphold those common values of humanity by highlighting fairness and justice.Keep Party invincible
"A political party can only become invincible if it remains committed to self-reform, even though it has had a glorious past," Xi made the remarks when meeting the press at the Great Hall of the People.
The revolutionary travails and tempering of the past century, and especially of the first decade of the new era, have made the CPC stronger and more dynamic, Xi said.
Xi urged the CPC members to remain on high alert and stay sober-minded and prudent in the face of new challenges and tests on the journey ahead.
Zhang Shuhua, director of the Institute of Political Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that "Facing an increasingly complex international environment, especially when Western political systems are deteriorating and many Western countries have no longer been able to elect leaders with professional performance, the CPC underscores a strong leadership, showing its capability to organize, unite and execute."
Political authority, consistency and certainty of the leadership are important for a major power to prevent the risk and handle the crisis in a turbulent world, and the CPC provides crucial advantages for China to overcome challenges in the future and to win the tough competition and confrontation launched by a few countries, experts said.
"We must make sure that our century-old Party, the biggest in the world, will become ever more vigorous through self-reform and continue to be the strong backbone that the Chinese people can lean on at all times," Xi said. He stressed that the Party should always act for the people and rely on the people on the journey ahead.
The week-long 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concludes on October 22, 2022, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT
It is hoped that the US can fully and accurately receive the signals the 20th CPC National Congress has sent out, correct its strategic perception of China, meet China halfway, and push China-US relations
On Sunday noon, members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee appeared before the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This event marks that a series of important political agendas surrounding the 20th CPC National Congress came to a successful conclusion. Like a huge ship, China will move forward under the leadership of the new CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. The course the Party has charted has a global significance: It not only reflects the maturity and stability of the CPC as a major party, but also injects certainty into a world beset by changes and turmoil.
The just-concluded 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) elaborated on Chinese modernization, which offers a path for other countries to seek inspiration, senior Party officials at a Monday press conference reiterated that China will not export its model to other countries, nor will it import models from other countries; every country should explore its own way to modernization that suits its own situation, in response to questions and concerns from the West about whether "China might export its ideology or development model."
Existing loopholes in US electoral or democratic system require political and legal reforms, but there seems to be little momentum to
achieving so. The prospect of US-style democracy is dim.
After reading a report delivered by Xi Jinping to the #20thCPCNationalCongress, Rick O'Shea said he has some photos to share.
Check to find out the stories behind those who witnessed the significant development in the new era of China
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and the other newly elected members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee: Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi, meet the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
British Prime Minister Liz Truss enjoyed only seven days of full power before global economic forces effectively
destroyed her government.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Whatever you may think of them, the British used to enjoy the reputation of a solid, well-run and responsible nation.
A centuries-old history of peaceful political change, with none of the coups, revolutions or civil wars that seem to have afflicted most other countries worldwide. A robust parliamentary system of government in which just two political parties take their turns in holding power based on electoral procedures that produce clear-cut results and solid governments with none of the unpredictable and often unstable coalition-making that afflicts most of the rest of Europe.
To be sure, the country’s politicians have always been of variable quality. But the United Kingdom’s civil service was highly rated for its professionalism and integrity, and so was its legal system, still considered an advantage and often touted as a national asset by many countries around the world.
That’s why Britain’s sudden descent into crisis looks so surprising. In just a few weeks, the credibility of some of the most critical institutions in British national life, including the prime minister, the Treasury, the Bank of England, the ruling Conservative Party, and the nation’s asset management industry, were all torn to shreds.
The country’s currency has sunk to its lowest levels in half a century, and the risk premium international investors demand to lend money to Britain is among the highest in the industrialised world.
For the first time in modern history, the British government was forced to bow to the pressure of global financial markets and withdraw a budget it had introduced only two weeks beforehand. And in another highly unusual move, the International Monetary Fund issued a rebuke to Britain using language otherwise reserved for those who manage the economies of poor and vulnerable developing nations.
Truss versus lettuce
Consequently, British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who assumed office only last month, had to ditch her policies before these were even tried, and the speculation in London is that her days are numbered.
The influential Economist newspaper had pointed out that, if one ignores the extended period of official mourning for Queen Elizabeth II – a period during which all politics were suspended – Ms Truss enjoyed only seven days of full power before the forces of the global economy effectively destroyed her government. That, The Economist suggested, is more or less the supermarket “shelf-life of the lettuce”.
Liz Truss may never recover from this cruel jibe: a British tabloid newspaper is currently offering its readers a live video stream of a lettuce head and a photograph of the Prime Minister, accompanied by the question, “which wet lettuce will last longer?”
Britain as a whole is now the butt of international jokes. Politicians in Italy – a country that will soon get its 70th government in almost as many years – have suggested that one of their retired prime ministers may be sent to London to try his hand at managing the British because he can’t do any worse than Britain’s politicians.
Mr Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Prime Minister of Greece, a country that a decade ago had to be bailed out from national bankruptcy by global financial institutions, told Ms Truss’ government tongue-in-cheek that if they “need experience in dealing with the International Monetary Fund, we’re here to help”.
While the attention is on the UK experience, other economies and major currencies are also currently experiencing global pressure. The British pound may be down around 18 per cent to 20 per cent, but the euro is about 15 per cent weaker, and the Chinese renminbi dropped by an average of 11 per cent against the US dollar. The Bank of Japan recently spent an estimated US$21 billion (S$30 billion) trying to prop up the yen, to no avail.
However, credibility is everything in politics, finance and economics, and the UK government finally managed to lose all of these. Britain’s previously admired institutional framework and its hard-won reputation of certainty in financial policy went down the pan over the past two weeks.
And financial volatility is accompanied by political volatility. Between 1990 and 2010 – two decades – Britain was ruled by only three prime ministers. But from 2010 to now - just over one decade - the country has already known four additional prime ministers and may yet be ready for a fifth. Furthermore, no less than four politicians have served as finance ministers since January this year. These are chaotic politics Italian-style, minus the sun-drenched beaches or the delicious pasta.
‘Cakeism’ and Brexit
How did Britain get to this sorry state? A mixture of immediate failures by the Truss administration, magnified by a much more entrenched malaise.
Ms Truss won power by resorting to the oldest trick in politics: a promise that voters can have their cake and eat it. She vowed to cut taxes and increase spending, all based on borrowing from financial markets. And she dismissed the arguments of armies of economists who pointed out that hers was not an economic policy but a fantasy.
The more she faced criticism, the more she doubled down on her promises; her pledge to cut taxes became a test of wills, which she was determined to win. So, her ill-fated budget slashed taxes much further than anyone expected and sidelined Britain’s financial regulator and the country’s civil servants.
Ms Truss quickly discovered that one should not attempt to offer a spending bonanza against the backdrop of sharply rising inflation and interest rates, a punishing global energy crisis, as well as a British current account deficit which ballooned to an unprecedented 8 per cent of gross domestic product, and all without providing any indication of how Britain intends to deal with its public finances. The Prime Minister not only ran into a flat rejection by the financial markets, she unleashed a financial rout that could only be addressed by withdrawing her entire budget.
The problem of Ms Truss was not necessarily just the financial figures she peddled but the fact that her ill-conceived budget became totemic for a more comprehensive loss of British political and economic credibility, which has been cumulative over several years.
The chief culprit is Brexit, as the British withdrawal from the European Union is popularly known. The damage that Brexit inflicted on the British economy - in terms of lower growth rates, lower exports and slashed inward investment – is by now well-documented.
But a much more severe impact on British credibility has been the conduct of the country’s political elite during this divorce process from the rest of Europe. The campaign to withdraw from the EU was conducted with lies; those who supported Brexit produced made-up figures about how Britain’s trade with the rest of the world would, supposedly, more than compensate for the loss of duty-free access to European markets.
And anyone who dared contradict the Brexiters by providing actual economic facts and figures was dismissed as part of so-called “project fear”, an alleged plot by the “establishment” to keep Britain shackled to Europe.
The tactic worked not only in pulling Britain out of the EU; it also spawned an entirely new class of British politicians who believe that all they need to do is to ram their policies through regardless of what the economic realities may be and if the facts don’t accord with their views, present “alternative facts”.
During the campaign that propelled her to power, Ms Truss refused to engage in any serious discussion with the critics of her economic policy, just as Mr Boris Johnson, her predecessor as prime minister, declined to explain how Britain would thrive outside the EU. Both politicians operated on the assumption that make-believe economics can become real economics.
And the reason people like them can come to power is to be found in another negative development of British politics.
More On This Topic
Who chooses the party leader?
For many decades, the Conservatives and Labour – the country’s two major historic parties – were mass movements, counting millions of members. But the election of the party leaders who could then become prime ministers was left in the hands of the few, usually just the MPs in either party.
Over the past 15 years, however, mass party membership disappeared: Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, for instance, has far more paid-up members than all the political parties combined.
Yet, curiously, the choice of who gets elected as party leader was taken from MPs and given to the parties’ entire membership. The result is that an unrepresentative group of party members – in the case of the ruling Conservatives, only around 160,000 people out of a total population of 68 million – decides who would rule Britain.
If it were left to the MPs alone, Ms Truss would have got nowhere near the Downing Street residence of British prime ministers. But she won on a platform of economic fantasies sold to people who wanted to believe in the enduring myth of having something for nothing.
Ultimately, it was left to the global financial markets to confront Britain with the rude awakening it deserves by presenting the country and its daydreaming politicians with the invoice for their mismanagement.
It’s improbable that Ms Truss will ever recover from its current debacle; the only question is whether the humiliation the UK has just experienced at the hands of global financial markets will bring to an end the age of untruthful politics that has so devalued the country’s administration.
But it won’t be easy to get out of this rut. King Charles III best summed up the national mood when he recently welcomed Prime Minister Truss to an audience with “dear, oh dear!
CGTN Exclusive: UK's secret betrayal, repatriation of Chinese sailors after WWII
CGTN digs into a dark chapter of the #UK's
wartime history, where racial prejudice in some of the highest echelons
of government resulted in broken families, lost heritage and a fight to
make British authorities apologize for a shameful past. The Chinese
sailors, who once braved the stormy seas and battlefronts of the North
Atlantic to keep Allied forces supplied during the Second World War,
were forcibly repatriated when the war ended. Hundreds of men vanished
overnight, leaving behind wives, partners and children without any
explanation of where they had gone and why. CGTN speaks to sons,
daughters and grandchildren of the sailors about the tragedy in the
documentary "The Secret Betrayal.
Advanced Balance Exercises
The week-long 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concludes on October 22, 2022, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT
The week-long 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concludes on October 22, 2022, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT
