Brain Injury and exercise

Why exercise at all?

It has been said that if exercise was a pill it would sell in the billions. The NHS would like everyone to move more, as exercise can:

• "reduce your risk of major illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer by up to 50%
• and lower your risk of early death by up to 30%."

Brain injury, fatigue, and exercise

Exercise can be helpful and encouraging for those recovering from a brain injury. Headway UK reports that daily exercise can have an “energising effect, and...have a positive effect on mood. Exercise can also help you to sleep more deeply.”

When every day is a struggle through the fog of fatigue, the thought of fitting in exercise can be overwhelming. But it turns out that exercise has a positive effect on fatigue levels. It increases your stamina and helps you to do more overtime.

Resuming exercise after a brain injury

I have always been an active person, the bleed in my brain happened during a football match. At the time, I was playing several weekly football matches, and cycling 40 miles a week on my commute. It was a shock to become nearly immobile overnight.

My symptoms of balance problems, vertigo, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue meant there were months when I couldn’t move far from the sofa. On the few occasions I did make it outside, audio and visual hallucinations added to the above, making the world a dangerous place.

The road to a proper diagnosis and the correct treatment took over a year. In that time, my fitness collapsed, my weight ballooned, and my mental health was in tatters. Even before I could get into a brain injury clinic, the GP was urging me to get back to a bit of exercise. It seemed a distant prospect as the fear was all encompassing. I was terrified of another blow to the head.

Where to start?

I needed to overcome my fear of another injury as well as the dizziness, vertigo, imbalance and hallucinations. This meant finding exercises which would:

• minimise the risk of another head injury,
• would push my much reduced fitness levels without being over taxing,
• and was entertaining enough to distract from the anxiety of simply moving at all.

My starting point was Tai Chi, a series of slow, repeated movements of the arms and legs which had no physical contact with anyone else. My GP had recommended it to help with the dizziness, but the biggest initial effect was on my spatial awareness.

I stopped walking into things and no longer banged into door frames or cupboards. It seemed that the repetitive exercises ‘taught’ my brain where the arms and legs were so I could unconsciously account for them while walking around. This is supported by evidence that practising Tai Chi reduces the number of falls.

Small steps add up

After six months of daily practice, I was ready for a bigger challenge. The local community centre has held yoga classes for years. And for years I would walk past thinking, ‘must get there one day’. So one day, I did. The relevant principles are similar to Tai Chi. The body is guided through a series of repetitive movements, only at a more challenging level.

In the first class, I could barely keep up. Everything was new, the instructions, the poses, the protests from muscles which hadn’t been used in months. But I left exhausted and exhilarated. It was fun! I signed up for a beginners class that week and slowly but surely worked to become stronger and more flexible. I still remember the joy of my first side-arm plank.

Exercise and brain injury rehabilitation

It is more than a decade since my brain injury, and I still avoid football & other contact sports. My exercise is much more varied. I still cycle and do yoga regularly, along with lots of walking. To mis things up and keep it fun, I’ve also joined gyms and tried aerobics, archery, aqua aerobics, Pilates, trapeze, and climbing. I still have difficult days, but even they are much improved with a gentle walk around the neighbourhood.

It is noticeable that if I go a few days without exercise of some type, I will experience disrupted sleep and a reversion to the dizziness & migraines. For this reason, daily exercise is a priority. In fact, I am fitter now than I was before the brain injury.

Ideas for exercising with a brain injury.

Every injury is different, and the above suggestions will not work for everyone. Headway UK can help, with more suggestions on their website to help inspire you to become a little more active. It doesn’t have to be much, and we can’t expect to do everything at once. Take it easy and remember that just a few minutes strolling around the block can lead to bigger and better things.

Good luck!

(updated December 2025)