I am saddened to think that stroke recovery is sometimes trapped in an outdated and dogmatic approach to help people with their stroke recovery. There are many cell phone apps and online websites that offer brain training, but these online exercises may not necessarily carry over into improvement in everyday functioning, so it is best to also include real life cognitive practice rather than only doing computer activities.
A person who suffers a brain stroke is more prone to a loss or reduction in mobility, which can have a negative impact on various vascular brain exercises for stroke recovery factors and increase the risk of serious health conditions such as diabetes, heart problems as well as a recurrent brain stroke.

Pitt researchers say that while doctors and patients had long believed that the window of opportunity for regaining most cognitive abilities closes three months after a stroke, following what's known as the acute phase, their study, published in the journal Stroke, suggests otherwise.
In addition to examining the effects of aerobic exercise training on BDNF, studies in neurologically intact subjects have examined the effect of a short bout of aerobic exercise coupled with functional task practice ( 45 , 46 ). These studies suggest that aerobic exercise may in fact prime” the brain to learn subsequent motor tasks ( 45 , 46 ). Although the mechanisms underlying this priming” phenomenon are not completely clear, the upregulation of BDNF within the CNS following aerobic exercise could be a contributing factor that facilitates motor learning ( 10 ). Among all studies included in the current review, however, only one evaluated the effect of aerobic training (running) performed immediately before a reaching task on functional recovery and BDNF levels post-stroke (experimental model).
The bad news about stroke: More people are surviving the initial stroke with disabilities which might have been minimized if they had received the kind of early, intensive physical rehabilitation that researchers find can improve function and reduce long-term disability.

The results of the current systematic review highlight that aerobic exercise can promote changes in central BDNF concentrations in animal models of stroke, while BDNF responses following non-aerobic exercises, such as reaching training and CIMT, are still controversial.
On the other hand, a few studies were performed to investigate the effect of non-aerobic training on BDNF concentration, such as reaching training ( 32 , 34 ) and constraint induced movement therapy (CIMT) ( 17 , 18 ), and the results among these studies are in discordance.
This study potentially opens up a whole new paradigm to managing patients after stroke,” Dr. Karen Furie, chair of the Stroke Council for the American Heart Association and professor of neurology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, told Healthline.
Neurodevelopmental reflexes that are normally integrated into movement patterns very early in infancy may be released after a period of brain injury, and the resulting muscle contractions may interfere with normal movement patterns, but also can be used to stimulate tone and contractions.12 The neurodevelopmental reflexes that can be easily used in muscle re-education are the tonic neck reflexes, positive supporting reflex and withdrawal reflex.