Better cues & mental practice to improve skillful movements: Are external focus cues better than internal focus cues? It depends

Coaches, athletes, healthcare professionals, verbal cues, use mantras, self-talk, visual imagery, and skill training to improve movement. There are many cognitive strategies commonly used to improve human movement to move faster, farther, injury-free, and/or just look better moving. Types of cues: A substantial amount of research in the area of motor learning examines different types…

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Gait Deviations Musculoskeletal Pain Syndromes: Is there a gait deviation or cluster of gait deviations which is common across musculoskeletal pain syndromes?

Gait deviations are considered risk factors and/or causative drivers for musculoskeletal pain syndromes. There is a growing body of research showing a relationship between gait deviations and musculoskeletal pain syndromes injuries: shin pain (here, & here,) ; patella-femoral arthralgia (here); IT band syndrome; Achilles pain; plantar heel pain (here, & here). There is growing consensus…

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Physical Therapy Telehealth: It works well for some, not for others

The COVID 19 pandemic crisis has many challenges for the standard everyday health care and medicine. The pandemic resulted in a sudden increase of telehealth services. There are reports there has been an 18% increase in the number of healthcare providers providing telehealth services in response because of the pandemic. Healthcare providers and patients are…

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Low-Tech Slow-Motion Analysis – “Dance Step to Nowhere

NDeviant movement during walking contributes to the development of or compensation for musculoskeletal pain syndromes. Diagnosis and treatment occur with visual observation and analysis of gait. The use of a smartphone video facilitates the analysis of motion walking. However, there are times when less technological motion analysis is necessary. When dealing with painful musculoskeletal syndromes…

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Symptom modification of painful gait

Symptom modification procedure is common practice in the Physical Therapy profession. This procedure involves identifying the specific movement, posture, and/or activity that reproduces the patient’s symptoms. Historically diagnosis of musculoskeletal problems was based on examination which selectively provoked musculoskeletal tissues by compressing or stretching the various tissues to provoke the symptoms. This provided direction for…

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Pain walking/running deviant gait – self treat &/or seek expert assistance

Experiencing pain when walking or running can be a complex problem. Asserting a hypothesis is a systematic way to solve complex problems. A hypothesis is an “if-then statement” or conditional statement which can be tested, accepted, or refuted. Hypothesis: If you have pain walking and/or running, then gait analysis to determine if there is a…

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“Deme Bones” – Regional interdependence

The common reframe from the old spiritual song “dem bones” is the “toe bone is connected to foot bone”. In the medical community this concept of mechanical connectiveness is referred to as “regional interdependence”. Regional interdependence is seemingly unrelated impairments in remote anatomical regions of the body may contribute to and be associated with a…

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Analysis of Movement with Smartphone Video

Physical therapists are movement specialist according to the American Physical Therapy Association. Addressing issues related to the human movement system is what Physical Therapist do. The movement system is collection of systems (cardiovascular, pulmonary, endocrine, integumentary, nervous, and musculoskeletal) that interact to move the body or its component parts. Visual observation and analysis of movement…

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