Physical activity is beneficial for stroke recovery by recruiting previously uninvolved brain circuits and potentially increasing activity on the contralateral side of the brain.

“yes there's a lot of evidence that um activity Physical Therapy even forced activity um is very beneficial and it's not just um stimulating endogenous stem cells in the brain but it's multiple mechanisms uh it's recruiting uh circuits that were not involved before for instance Studies have been done on stroke patients who make a recovery show that um not only is the side of the stroke improving in some cases but the other side of the brain is showing increased activity so circuits on the other side of the brain may be contributing to the recovery on the the side of the stroke brain so it's much more complex than we thought it was years ago”