I have had a few people ask me lately about using the Edge Mobility Band for tibial internal rotation. I kept trying to refer them to a previous video that I had made about this very topic. However, they couldn't seem to find the video on my blog or on my YouTube channel. Turns out I never edited the video or posted about it on my blog. Oops.
Therefore, this is a quick post and video to show you how I use the Edge mobility band to work on mobility deficits when it comes to tibial IR. A few things before I share the video...
-The band is not a necessity for this technique but I find that it helps enhance its efficacy and the ability to grip the skin.
-The band doesn't need to be wrapped on so tightly that it cuts off blood flow.
-This technique should be pain free.
-You are looking to get at least 20 degrees of tibial internal rotation via the SFMA to be functional...Don't confuse a mobility issue with a motor control issue here. (Active vs. Passive differentiation)
-Do more than the two sets of ten that I did for this video. I filmed this quickly on my phone while at work tonight using one of my coworkers. In the first segment of the video he is actually trying to internally rotate his tibia. He definitely isn't functional afterwards but there is a marked improvement afterwards. Rinse and Repeat this continuously for a few days to weeks to restore full motion.
I am curious what others do for mobility issues regarding tibial IR and subtalar inversion/eversion issues...Please share if you have some input!
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to all of my readers! I'm not sure if I actually have any dedicated readers yet but happy holidays to any happenstance readers as well! This post is a highlight of my top 5 viewed posts of 2013. I know it isn't technically 2014 yet so maybe I will be proved wrong. However, if you are new to my blog or haven't read all of my posts then maybe this recap will enlighten you to a popular post that you missed.
Hey guys! Here is a quick video that I shot the other day while working with a patient of mine. I just wanted to share a technique for ankle mobility that utilizes the Edge Mobility Band (or a theraband).
Case: 21 year old male, collegiate basketball player, 4-weeks post ankle sprain. Imaging revealed avulsion fractures of the medial deltoid and lateral calcaneal-fibular ligaments. Patient was ordered by the team physician to be immobilized in a boot and on crutches for the first three weeks following injury. Initially coming out of the boot, dorsiflexion and plantar flexion were almost a zero for both active and passive ROM.
In the video, this obviously didn't return ankle ROM to normal ranges but definitely increases it with just one set. I often repeat this 2-4 times depending on the patient's tolerance to the compression. I often have the patient walk a longer distance if tolerated as well. It also substantially lowers the patient's perceived discomfort associated with ankle "stiffness" and "soreness". I use this in conjunction with several different mobility techniques but is nice because certain techniques like a traditional posterior glide are much too uncomfortable for me to use with this patient at this stage. This is a pain free alternative for him!
This is a quick video that I shot in the Athletic Training clinic the other day when working with a basketball player. This is a self-hip internal rotation mobilization that I have my patients perform on their own.
This helps to maintain the benefits gained from treatment and manual therapy when working with me in the clinic. Ideally, this would be done about once an hour for a single set of 10-20 reps but it can be hard to have a student-athlete comply with this and fit it into their busy schedules. I also have some of them do this before practice and lifting weights for temporary mobility gains.
This is done by the athlete applying an active-assisted hip internal movement while simultaneously providing slight distraction/traction. Check it out!
I have this athlete using an Edge Mobility Band in this video but they could also do this without the band. However, I feel that using the band is more efficacious due to the better hand-hold and compression provided by it.
Today's post is centered around a patient that I have been working with lately. This athlete is a sophomore collegiate runner that competes in middle distance running events.
History:
This patient is now a 19 year old male that began running in 4th grade. He was in a running club affiliated with his grade school and was soon running around 160miles a year. He began to suffer minor injuries during middle school and somebody had prescribed him orthotics. He struggled with stress fractures, hip pain, and plantar fascia pain all through middle school. Despite these issues, he still managed to run a 4:43 Mile as an 8th grader.
Throughout high school he continued to struggle with injuries such as hamstring strains/tendonosis, spinal stenosis and low back pain, chronic ankle instability and piriformis issues. He also struggled with plantar fasciitis/osis during this time as well.
Once this athlete got to college he tried to transition to minimalist footwear in attempt to "correct" his heel strike. He did not suffer at all until halfway through his first cross-country season when he had a week long flare up of pain that was similar to his previous plantar fasciitis/osis. He was fine again until the beginning of his first indoor track season. The pain became unrelenting despite being prescribed new orthotics and undergoing an expensive shockwave therapy procedure. The patient decided to just cross train and rest for the remainder of his freshman year as a collegiate runner.
This is where I entered the picture and had a few small conversations with this athlete regarding his plantar pain and I gave him a few exercises to perform on his own such as a self-mulligan mobilization with movement technique for ankle dorsiflexion and repeated end-range plantar flexion prior to runs. The patient used these few exercises all summer long until he returned for his sophomore year with good results but was not completely pain free.
I heard that he was still struggling with his plantar pain and offered to help him with a proper evaluation and treatment plan.
(Disclosure: This was not a free item given to me for review. I paid for this on my own but I have learned a lot from the creator of this product and that information has helped me and my patients a ton so maybe that makes me biased. If that is a bias I hope I continue this bias for a long time.)
Today I will be reviewing the Edge Mobility Band which is part of the Edge Mobility System by Dr. Erson Religioso, DPT of The Manual Therapist. I have been following his blog for quite awhile now and from the start I was very intrigued by the magical blue bands that he kept using on his patients and in his videos.
I would watch his videos and read his blog posts about the increased function, mobility and decreased pain associated with using these bands as part of his treatment protocol. At the time I was unaware of the Voodoo floss bands so this was my first exposure to compression wrapping for anything other than edema prevention/reduction. I even tweeted at him back in April of this year to inquire whether a poor graduate student like myself could substitute a resistance band for his bands and get the same effect. He answered my tweet with complete honesty and told me that there was nothing magical about the Edge Mobility Bands. He stated that a simple resistance band should suffice.
While there may be nothing magical about these bands there is definitely something special about their construction and design considering that I wasted many hours trying to experiment with resistance bands instead of coughing up $24 bucks for two Edge Mobility Bands of my own. Most of those experiments led to cutting off the circulation of extremities, excessive body hair pulling, and the constant rolling and tearing of many thera-bands. It simply wasn't a feasible substitute for me but maybe it works or would work for somebody that is more coordinated, stubborn or cheap than me.
Sorry for the delay in posts everybody! I have been busy with a combination of work, working on my thesis, and pre-season football practices. Enough complaining...lets get to the post!
I recently got myself a few new toys to use in the clinic when I bought myself a pair of Edge Mobility Bands from The Edge Mobility System. I am in the process of experimenting more with these bands so I can write an extensive and fair review of them to publish here. Nevertheless, I have already started to find them handy and beneficial when treating my athletes.
I have been using them with great success to increase mobility and decrease pain of a few football players that have been complaining of persistent and chronic knee pain. In particular, I have been using them to increase hip internal rotation mobility and I made a video to showcase this technique with the help of some of the athletic training students that are assigned to me. The student I use in this video also used to be a football player (kicker) in college and is normally restricted with Right (kicking leg) Hip IR especially compared to his Left leg.
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Caution
All content on this blog is meant as instructional and educational. The author and guest authors of this blog are not responsible for any harm or injury that may result. Always consult a physician or another proper medical professional for medical advice.
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