How the AllCore360° Can Be Used as a Cerebral Palsy Exercise Therapy
When Donna’s son William first tried the AllCore360°, he was already a therapy veteran. Having been born with cerebral palsy just like his twin brother, William had essentially been in therapeutic training since the day he came home from the hospital, and Donna had been there right along with him.
Over the many years of training, Donna had learned to set the bar high for both of her boys when it came to therapy, embracing and taking on the challenges that came with trying to improve everything from muscular function and coordination to the overall quality of life. So when Donna was introduced to the AllCore360° System by their regular therapist as a possible new way to help William with his core strength and balance, she had certain expectations. In fact, the first time around, she was skeptical about whether the AllCore360° could really help her son. But after a few rotations of the machine, she could see that William was really working his core. The effort he was putting into holding his posture and spine upright was obvious, and while he was working hard, William was enjoying the challenge.
“I’ve heard a lot of bad news with my boys,” says Donna, ”After they were born, our doctors started the conversations with a laundry list of things that they’d never be able to do. I wasn’t having that. I just wasn’t having doctor’s tell me my children were never going to be able to walk, let alone the other things they said they’d never be capable of. And you know what? With every step William has been able to take, he’s proven those doctors wrong, and the AllCore360° has been a big part of that.”
People who are familiar with cerebral palsy know that what may seem like small steps are actually huge steps, which is why after just a couple of weeks on the AllCore360°, something incredible happened — William starting breathing better. And that was the beginning of a total transformation that culminated a few weeks later when he started to sit up in bed on his own first thing in the morning, waiting for his mom to get him ready.
“You never stop to think about the muscles in the body that go into just breathing, but that’s the first place that William started to show signs of improvement,” adds Donna. “The AllCore360° has been helping him move better, grow stronger, and sit up on his own, but the first place he started to show improvement was in his breathing. It became less labored, and for those of us who think of it as just one step in front of the other, it was a huge deal for William, and was the beginning of something truly different for him.”
When William first started on the AllCore360°, his angle was 85º, and he needed a significant amount of help getting from his wheelchair into the AllCore360°. But with the targeted, comprehensive training from the AllCore360º, plus lots of hard work on William’s part, that angle is now completely different, and so is his core strength. He’s getting around better, he’s sitting up straighter, and he’s doing more of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting out of his wheelchair (which is a big win for him, and a huge help for his mom as well). His new angle? Sixty-six degrees and he’s working on it three times a week to meet his new goal: To one day be eligible for a marathon. For Donna, her goal for her son is a little simpler, but no less grand: to keep seeing a happy William.
“The AllCore360°’s effect on William’s strength and the overall mobility is considerable, but that’s not the only improvement,” says Donna, who also hops on the AllCore360° a few times a week to help her stay strong as she cares for her boys. “The other change was William’s mentality. All of a sudden, we started hearing more yes. And that’s because, for the first time, he was starting to hear yes — when he wanted to do something and when he wanted to try something. We have the AllCore360° to thank for that.”
If you’re interested in learning more about how the AllCore360° can be a gamechanger for people with limited mobility, check out our case studies here or reach out to us at [email protected] — we’re excited to show you just how transformative the AllCore360° training can be.
