We often ask why students have chosen to attend a seminar and a very common response is "To add new techniques to my toolbelt." Absolutely a wonderful answer. In-person seminars are great to be able to learn and practice those new techniques that you can take home to your clients. It is a big reason we offer so many options in techniques for you to try with clients in pain. But you want options for more than just techniques, you want assessment options also!
There are lots of times an assessment or special test may not work with a client. Whether it's due to client capacity or comfort, or whether it's due to your goals for the assessment, there are many reasons you want to have multiple options to assess for a client's complaint. You want to widen your knowledge of special tests, ROM assessments, but you also want to practice your skills in assessing with our hands. After all one of the best things about massage is that you can use the tools for treatment, your hands, as the tools for assessment.
Furthermore you want to have multiple tests for a specific dysfunction or pathology. You want to know how to test for hip ROM in supine and in prone, as it gives you clues into different potentially pathological structures. You want to be able to test for over-pronation statically and dynamically to see if gait is part of the problem. You want to have an arsenal of SI joint tests to decrease your chances of being tricked by a false positive.
Recently a client came in with foot pain during running. I performed a lot of ROM assessments (dorsiflexion knee bent and straight) and special tests (windlass). I looked at their pronation and supination statically (just normal standing and sitting) and dynamically (during gait, rotation and single leg standing). I measured for calcaneal eversion with a straight edge, I palpated for stiffness in the midfoot. Eventually they stopped me and told me they'd never had someone test their foot so much! I took it as compliment and told them that all the tests will hopefully make my techniques way more effective.
So next time you're in a seminar, make sure you widen your toolbox not only for techniques, but for assessments as well! The bigger the toolbox, the more clients we can help.
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