News | Solo-Step | Revolutionizing Rehabilitation

Resolve to Work Harder

Here’s to a New Year’s Resolution we can all get behind. Lets all resolve to work harder. You probably think we’re crazy to suggest that. You already work hard every day. And your day isn’t exactly defined by punching a clock from 9 to 5. You don’t even know what its like to work a 40 hour week. Try 60 or more. We get that. But this year, when that patient starts getting on your nerves and you want to give up on them, don’t. Give that extra little effort for them. When you’re pushed to a state of frustration because budgets are tight, or co-workers aren’t pushing their weight, give more of yourself. Just that little extra. It can lead to amazing things. Need proof? We have it. Here’s some stories of people who didn’t give up. And they’re therapists didn’t give up either. Everyone involved gave more of themselves. And did something extraordinary.

Soldier Becomes First Soldier Amputee To Sky-Dive

10-Year-Old Survives Earthquake, Amputation, Then Learns How To Ski

Soldier Chooses Amputation Over Surgery – And Competes At Championship Level

They’re working harder. Now lets all do the same.

Posted in Technology | Leave a comment

Inspirational Innovations

Solo-Step got its start years ago because it saw a need to help folks learning how to walk with a prosthetic leg. Since then, with the help of therapists, doctors and researchers, we’ve learned that Solo-Step can help people fighting a myriad of ailments and diseases. But we never forget our roots.

We wanted to take a little time to marvel at the rapidly improving prosthetic technology. It truly is amazing how far that research has come. Here’s a great post from the Defense Media Network talking about all the advancements in just the last two years. It’s a bit of a long read, but it is fascinating. If nothing else, just check out some of the pictures. It is so encouraging to realize how many people are making prosthetic a priority. This next post gets us really excited. Some of the images are from actual, working prosthetic while others are still in the conceptual stages, but this is a must see. Notice the legs designed specifically for women, and the Rex, designed to get people normally relegated to a wheel chair the ability to get up and move around. Then there’s this. The robot named athlete. Researchers at MIT are working on a robot that can sprint. Sort of an AI Jock. We’re hope this progress inspires you as much as it does us. Anything truly is possible if we just open our minds and challenge ourselves to do something extraordinary.

Posted in Research, Technology | Tagged innovation, physical therapy, prosthetic, pt, solostep | Leave a comment

Walking = Freedom

In our field, it is pretty easy to get caught up in the expensive gadgets we can buy to help heal our patients. Turns out one of the best investments we can recommend is a good pair of walking shoes. The University of Georgia just came out with a new study that proves walking is still a pretty great way to live longer. People who walk regularly have a 41% greater chance of living independently than people who’d rather sit on a couch all day. Walking isn’t just good for physical well-being, it can also curb mental diseases. The list of benefits is pretty long. It is critical to stress the importance of basic exercise to your patients. Walking just 30 minutes each day can dramatically improve their health – and greatly decrease the risk of dementia. In fact, regular walkers are half as likely to develop dementia than their couch-potato counterparts. So today, we challenge you to challenge your patients. Inspire them to start small by taking a walk around the block. Convince them to get their friends involved. And then get them to increase their walking over time. Their lives and their freedom depend on it.

Posted in Fitness, Nursing Homes | Leave a comment

Finding Balance

As we get older, we have a higher likelihood of falling because of a decrease in our ability to balance. There are things that can be done to minimize this risk. Patient education is key. So is exercise and balance training. How important is this? The CDC says about 1,800 people living in nursing homes die every year because of a fall. Here’s some tips to avoid nursing home falls:

keep floors free of debris
do strength training through physical therapy
provide gait training
evaluate whether medication causes disorientation or dizziness
provide medications that help increase bone density

Posted in Nursing Homes | Tagged elderly, falls, nursing homes, seniors, solostep | Leave a comment

100 Years Later – Exercise to Avoid a Walker

We came across this amazing story about a 100 year-old woman who had just taken a fall in her bathtub and went to the doctor expecting to get prescribed a walker. In fact, the doctor did not prescribe a walker, he sent her to do physical therapy. And after more than two months of hard work of building strength and improving gait, the centenarian patient is fine and expects to go on the first of several Caribbean cruises. What a great story! Thanks to belief from her doctor and physical therapist, and a lot of belief in herself, this patient is able to continue to live an active, independent life. She could have easily given up. In fact, she expected to be using a walker. But would she have still been able to go on that cruise? Would she enjoy life the way she is able to now? Probably not. Giving elders the ability to continue to exercise and live a longer, happier life is our passion at Solo-Step. Too many nursing homes and physical therapy facilities are ill-equipped to give everyone an opportunity to exercise. Solo-Step gives patients the means to build muscle and increase gait without the fear of falling – and we can install a system almost anywhere. For help finding a solution at your facility, give us a call anytime at 866.631.1117 or email info@solo-step.com.

Posted in Fitness | Tagged gait, physical therapy, pt, PT Geriatrics, senior, solostep, strength building, walker | Leave a comment

Never Too Old

Edward Stanley famously said, “Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” Boy, was he on to something! That quote is almost 200 years old, but it will always be true. You could put it this way too – a person who fails to exercise will have a failed body. This is especially important as we get older. As people exercise less, legs become weak, it gets harder to walk, pretty soon they’re bed ridden or relegated to using a scooter, and they’re rewarded for the inactivity with diseases that affect the heart and brain. Ultimately, people who fail to exercise, especially late in life, die sooner than people who maintain a healthy lifestyle. A lot of times, it comes down to motivation. Lets face it, it is easy to get lazy and to think that exercise doesn’t matter anymore. Here’s another quote – this time from Mark Twain. “I am pushing sixty. That is enough exercise for me.” Here’s some amazing people older than that who know better.

70 year-old Serge Nubret

72 year-old Jim Morris

86 year-old Morjorie Newlin

Posted in Fitness | Tagged fitness, senior, solostep, strength, strong | Leave a comment

The Best Medicine For Walking

It’s amazing to think about how we take our ability to walk for granted. Take that blessing away, and its easy to understand why. Right away, you might think about being able to walk to your car, to run outside. You can think of an infinite amount of freedoms you would lose. Here’s one you may not think of right away. Once you start losing the ability to walk and as you become less mobile – your life expectancy drops dramatically. And what’s worse, this is something that will happen to all of us. Researchers are trying to find out why it happens and how to solve the problem. As you get older you lose muscle mass and physical therapy becomes more important than ever. As your legs get weaker, it becomes harder to live independently. Continue reading →

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PT Research at Solo Step Facilities

Some fantastic schools that use Solo Step systems are doing interesting research on physical therapy methods. We know that a loss of balance is a big reason people start to fall more frequently as they get older. And while exercise is key to correcting that problem, it’s hard for people to make sure they’re doing their exercises the right way. Continue reading →

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Scooters = Immobility

As we travel the country talking about our rehabilitation solutions, we notice a disturbing trend. More and more people living in nursing homes use mobility scooters. There are many reasons for this. And on the surface, it seems like a good idea. They’re pretty affordable, they make it easy to get around and they’re portable. But there are huge problems associated with mobility scooters that nobody talks about. Continue reading →