Welcome to the June edition of the STT newsletter. Hope all are well in STT land!
Research:
Stretching is a major component of our home based exercise prescription. Having an understanding of what we are trying to achieve with stretching and if this actually occurs is vital to objective client care. This article shows that a home based calf stretching program for none active females will create an increase in dorsiflexion range of motion as well as passive resistive properties. If this is what you believe you need to achieve within your treatment protocol then this protocol certainly has evidence to suggest you will achieve your outcome.
http://www.softtissuetherapy.com.au/article.aspx?article_id=472
There have many suggestions that stretching prior to an event may decrease strength and other important physiologies in the athlete. This study shows that 3 x 15 seconds of static calf stretching has no positive or negative effect on reaction time or explosive force. Hence, this simple protocol can be administered without apprehension with regard to performance deficits. Note also the above paper that suggests dorsiflexion ranges will increase with that stretching protocol. Hence, one could assume that this program of simple static stretching may increase dorsiflexion range without performance deficits. Note that the above study was performed on none active females and this particular study was not designed as a repetitive program, hence results may alter when changing these parameters.
http://www.softtissuetherapy.com.au/article.aspx?article_id=470
This study on static and ballistic stretching emphasizes that absolute importance of indication for stretching. Showing that static and ballistic stretching alter different segments of the series elastic component of particular tissues suggests that your treatment protocol needs to be as objective as possible before randomly administering one type of stretching over the other. Your knowledge on muscular (myofascial) versus tendon stiffness and the necessity of each in gait and rehabilitation should also be up to date.
http://www.softtissuetherapy.com.au/article.aspx?article_id=471
News:
Beijing Olympics – Their has been an announcement within the Australian Team headquarters that there will be three to four STT’s needed to service the ‘recovery centre’ that is specifically designated for Australian Athletes. Those that are currently working with Australian national teams that have not been nominated for a head quarters position should consider dusting off their resumes and getting your sports administrative officer to send them to the AOC.
A reminder that Sports Medicine Australia has announced to STT it will be allowing old editions of its ‘Sports Health’ magazine to be downloaded online. Follow these links to get your free copies. http://www.sma.org.au/publications/sporthealth/default.asp
STT will continue to provide as much information on the Sports Medicine world as we can find. Hope this meets you well.
STT eMag has done a deal with Sports Medicine
Poll:
The poll on Bowen Therapy showed a very surprising result with the bulk of people believing it should be a stand alone industry. Considering Bowen can be learnt in a few days with no prior learning, surely this would leave participants with little to no knowledge on all basic sciences, pathological processes, assessment, differential diagnosis and contraindications? And if people believe they should be stand alone, then should they have their own association? Their own ethics policy? Their own health insurance policy?
The current poll is suggesting that people believe we remain a cottage industry with little to no research. I don’t think this is any major breaking news. What we do to remedy this situation should be the news.
Workshops/Conferences:
The fascia research conference is on in October in
http://www.softtissuetherapy.com.au/events.aspx?e=3