Forced use movement therapy

The forced use therapy was developed for stroke patients who lost the ability to move an arm although the arm is able to perform simple movements.

DVD -Forced-Use-Training: Informationen [PDF] (in German only)

Evidence of sustained functional improvement

Several scientific studies confirmed that repeated exercise with systematic variations and high relevance for every-day life effectively enhances re-acquisition and optimisation of function performance. Thus, repetitive exercise with logical and systematic variations is one of the basic principles of motor skills training that are applied in forced use therapy (also called Constraint Induced Movement Therapy).

In this approach, use of the unimpaired arm is prevented which means use of the impaired arm is forced.

This type of exercise leads to sustained functional improvement.