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Combi Bike Plus helps Knud Erik Lang become more mobile

Combi Bike Plus helps Knud Erik Lang become more mobile

After a stroke, Knud Erik Lang rode a Combi Bike Plus for 722 kilometers to regain his mobility. The motivation comes from the need to be mobile and independent.

The third of March 2021 will go down in history for Knud Erik Lang, 65, of Give, Denmark.

He had a stroke and underwent thrombolysis therapy, which is meant to dissolve the blood clot itself. However, it didn’t work, causing Knud Erik Lang to lose the use of his right arm, his right leg, and his ability to speak.

The former Senior Service & Application Engineer at Arburg, a manufacturer of plastic injection molding equipment, is skilled in maintaining a well-tuned machine. And now he must somehow force his own body to function. Knud Erik Lang is on tube feeding for the first month at Kolding Hospital, and at the start of the stay, the language has completely vanished.

Getting started

– However, I’m making progress slowly. After a month, I’m moved to the hospital in Grindsted, where I attend rehab every day. I continue to need a wheelchair. Even though I’m not meant to, I finally start to get out of the wheelchair, says Knud Erik Lang.

He spent a month in Grindsted before being transferred to Sandbjerg Nursing Center in Thyregod, where he now uses a four-point crutch to walk. He frequently uses the walking bar and experiments with a conventional exercise bike.

– I walk more and more, and after a month I tell them that I want to go home and continue the rehabilitation, says Knud Erik Lang.

Exercising when it suits me

Knud Erik Lang also learns about a Combi Bike Plus, a mobility exerciser that you can use from your own chair or wheelchair and train both arms and legs, which influences his desire to go home and continue his recovery. He realizes right away that he must own one of these.

– You’ve got to be joking, right? He recalled thinking. – I need a Combi Bike Plus for myself so I can exercise when it suits me and use it for extended periods of time.

He is prepared to resume his training when he returns home to Give, where he and his spouse have relocated to a smaller rental property after selling their home. Additionally, training is conducted at the nearby Kastaniehaven care facility, where many Combi Bikes are utilized for rehabilitation. He continues to visit there three times per week for occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

When his Combi Bike Plus is delivered to his new home, Knud Erik Lang is given a glove for his right hand so that he can exercise with his paretic arm.

– And for the past three to four months, I have worked out for 20 minutes each day. I rode the Combi Bike with a maximum resistance of nine after starting with a resistance of four. And throughout that time, I rode 722 kilometres, he says.

It's fantastic

– The Combi Bike Plus is an excellent exerciser. It’s fantastic if you, for example, have a disability and cannot utilize a regular exercise bike. You can move your arms and legs simultaneously. I started out largely using my legs, but as time went on, I began to use my arms more and more. I’ve seen someone in the center use it, and he doesn’t get the most out of it since he can’t move his damaged arm about. It is permitted to lie limp. He may not want to carry it because it hurts, but I exercised both my arms, and I’m happy, I did that, he says.

Knud Erik Lang has “gotten so skilled,” in his own words, that he no longer feels the need to train with his own Combi Bike Plus. But in the center, he still warms up on a Combi Bike.

– Now I can walk around the house, and I can do my own shopping in the store if I lean a bit against the shopping cart, he explains.

Towards new goals

Knud Erik Lang has not finished setting goals for his rehabilitation.

– The goal is for me to walk without it being obvious that a stroke has harmed me. I can walk like everyone else when I put my right hand in my pocket, he adds.

After playing football, Knud Erik Lang turned to golf. He also made the decision to pick up golf once more.

– I have to learn to hit the ball and get my arms to work, and it will be a fight. But it’ll work, he says. And he also wants to start riding the electric bike he bought prior to the stroke in ’21. It’s waiting for him in the garage.

– I’ll start my training on a regular exercise bike now. I couldn’t use it at first since my right leg wouldn’t lift. However, the muscles in the leg are growing stronger and my thread is becoming better and more even, he says.

– I want to have the freedom to go wherever I like on my electric bike. I want to be able to do that again, and I probably will, emphasizes Knud Erik Lang.

Knud Erik Lang at home With his Combi Bike Plus

On his Combi Bike Plus, Knud Erik Lang has pedaled 722 kilometers.