I know I’ve been missing in action recently and I have no excuse other than life and work got a little hectic. I’m hoping it settles down a bit because of course when I have no time to write I have lots of ideas floating around in my head! All of us PT’s recently went to San Diego where we saw some great products that we are excited to try as well as sat in on some stupendous talks that got our creative treatment juices flowing!
One of the talks we went to was on gait deviations and I hope to do a longer post on that topic later but one of the greatest reminders I got from that talk was to work on impairments during treatment (i.e. range of motion, strength, etc) and then at the end of that treatment to work on the impairment in the way you want to use it functionally. For example, for strengthening the hip extensors (gluts) to help with stance during walking, there are lots of ways you can target the muscles but then as you are finishing up with those exercises use one that has them standing on the leg with their hip moving towards extension and the opposite leg moving forward (as if you were taking a step). They had kids doing sit to stand over a bolster and then twisting to hand a ball to someone else. When they twist, the opposite leg moves into extension while the other leg is forward, just like with walking.
I loved this reminder because I have been looking at my treatments and then looking at how I can put a ‘functional twist’ on at the end.
I’d love to hear ways you have incorporated this idea.