Recovery Options

In House Programe

Our In-House programme is the ideal programme for those that are able to make the required commitment. As stated before this is not a six month, one or two year programme. It is a programme dedicated to pushing you as hard as possible to recover as much as possible, how ever long that takes. This is the programme that all of our clients who have made the most recovery have gone through. Below you will find a full description of what this programme entails and why it is becoming the standard by which all other programmes are measured.

Phases of Recovery (The Dardzinski Method™)

Standing Start uses the Project Walk® developed practice of Phases of Recovery: (The Dardzinski Method), an intensive post acute exercise-based improvement programme designed to stimulate the nervous system. The method was created and continues to grow and adapt from years of experience working solely with spinal cord injuries. To learn more, please click on The Dardzinski Method link. This area of the website will provide detailed information on how a person with a spinal injury can recover using our method. Also, under each phase, you will find video storylines of our clients.

Our Staff

If you want to improve, you must work with someone with practical experience and the education to back it up. All of our staff come to us with a background in Physiotherapy or Sports/Exercise Science.  They undergo intense training at the Project Walk head office in San Diego working with a variety of clients of all injury levels and capabilities. It is our intention to instigate a trainer exchange programme with various other centres both in the USA and around the world.  These visiting trainers will all bring with them tried and tested methods gained from hands on treatment of their own SCI patients, all aimed at awakening your dormant nervous system!  The bottom line: these are the best people in the world to help you.

Duration of the Program

Everyone wants to place a time frame on recovery, and everyone wants to know if they will succeed. It is in our nature and our culture to want a guarantee. Our programme isn’t a one year, two year, or three year programme. We don’t know how long it will take someone to recover, if ever, because every person is an individual and SCI is different for each person. No two injuries are alike. Recovery duration and workout programmes will be completely different. What Standing Start, Project Walk and The Dardzinski Method offer is a long-term plan for improvement; one that is based solely on the individual and their goals and needs. We have learned that a developing human nervous system doesn’t follow time frames but rather responds to external stimulation and thousands of repetitions.

Duration of the Workouts

A detrimental misconception is that you need to workout five or more hours a day, every day. The human body does not get stronger while working out; it breaks down. Your body gets stronger through rest and recovery. Finding the formula between workouts and rest is the key. Each client that enters Standing Start goes through a week long evaluation of their function and strength. This allows us to determine the proper formula for maximal results. Each client is re-evaluated on a monthly basis, and every six months, sits down with their supervising specialist to review their progress and chart a plan for the future. On average, our low C and high T clients work out three hours every other day. Our high C and very low T and L clients workout one to two hours every other day. Workout schedules and durations are determined by the client’s function. As it changes, so do the workouts.

Recovery Coach

Standing Start is the only centre in the UK with the back up of Project Walk’s long-term track record of taking a SCI client from having no controlled movement to creating movement on his own. Our whole programme is founded on practical experience; we’ve done it all—right and “wrong”. Our learning sources have been tremendous. Over the last six years, Project Walk has had clients visit from around the world that have been to the very best rehab and surgical centres and worked with the very best doctors. They have had scientists from all over the U.S. and abroad visit their centre. They are always evaluating information provided by each person that they meet. By watching and learning, they know that it is difficult to speed up recovery, but on the other hand, it is very easy to slow it down or stop it in its tracks. As your recovery coach, we can guide you through the process so you don’t slow it down.

Our guarantee to you

We guarantee that we will match your work ethic and strive to continue to learn and work with the scientific community to better our programme. We will continue to provide information on other successful adjuncts to help with recovery and to filter out those that don’t offer positive results. Our client’s success is the only thing that matters to us. We know that our programme isn’t a cure, but we do know that it certainly helps and we are always looking for ways to better the long process. Standing Start isn’t a stand-alone programme, we are just one key to the solution. Our clients hire us to be their recovery coaches; those that follow our programme and advice tend to do a lot better than those that don’t.

Benefits of our Program

Our knowledge of how an SCI can recover with properly sequenced stimulation

In the first six to 24 months:

• Increased hope and improved mental state
• Increased central nervous system activity
• Increased muscle mass
• Increased or maintained bone density
• Increased controlled movement
• Increased functional gait
• Decreased pain
• Deceased health problems associated with SCI
• Reduced pressure sores
• Reduced blood pressure issues
• Reduced depression

Some clients have seen these benefits:

• Increased sensations (touch, hot and cold, bowel and bladder)
• Ability to sweat and control body temperature
• Increased sexual function

Occupational Benefits of our Program

Majority of clients receive these benefits:

• Ability to roll over in bed
• Ability to sit up
• Ability to dress and feed themselves
• Ability to drive
• Greater independence
• Reduced dependence on medication
• Over 90 percent of our clients return to school or work

We are very proud that our clients are regaining use of their bodies and can start taking care of themselves. However, we don’t teach occupational skills. As function returns, so do functional and occupational skills.

Not everyone regains all of the above functions. One client may be able to walk but not feel pain; another may have bladder and bowel, but not hot and cold. Each person’s recovery comes with different functions. We can’t predict what, when, or if you will get everything back. However, the majority of our clients are regaining all types of function; the only difference between is the time frame.

When to Start at Standing Start

You should already have started trying to improve while in the hospital. This injury is like concrete; newly poured concrete is easy to work with and is mouldable, but once it hardens, things become much more difficult. The success of our programme increases for those that enter as soon as they are healthy enough and cleared for exercise by their treating physician. Each day, each month, the body adapts to its new environment making it harder to work with. For those clients who started right out of the hospital, the results have been amazing.

Our Centre

The Standing Start Centre isn’t a hospital or a rehab centre; it is a training facility that works only with SCI clients trying to improve. Standing Start has specialized equipment and the only specialized staff trained in the art of SCI improvment. Our programme is the standard for those wishing to regain function. Don’t wait to recover. The human body won’t regain function without proper external stimulation.
To schedule a trial visit, please fill out the application package and email it to info@standingstart
For more information, call 01223 709953.