Ok, hopefully by now we have learned that balance is the most important aspect of everything that matters in life, yes? You guessed it, that includes your body. Ding Ding Ding, well done! What are we not doing when “working out” on a simple machine at the gym? You guys are good, that’s right, we don’t need to balance ourselves when we are pinned into a machine isolating muscle groups for superficial development. This my friends is the beginning of the end for athleticism and muscular integration. Every time you step into that machine to do something you should do free standing, you are poorly investing your time at the gym.
But Aaron, I can do more weight when I’m in the machine so it must be better, right? Way wrong, you can do more weight because you do not need to expend energy on maintaining balance and integrating through the whole body. Thus, you end up piling “dumb” muscle onto a frame that is not built to support it. Ever notice certain body builders moving like there is a stick in their butt or the fact that you will never see a traditional body builder frame in the UFC, ballet, martial arts, or even strong man competitions. So what the heck is point of piling on “dumb” muscle not built to communicate with the rest of the body? I’m still waiting for a logical answer on that one.
Let’s play with adding balance to all of our workouts and general daily lives and I promise you will reap the benefits of physical/mental intellect (that’s right, working the body complexly will work the brain the same way), more fluidity in every thing you do and more sustainable strength and muscular tonicity. Life is a dance, not a bicep curl…
to “support” the use of KT. However, whether these phigyolosical findings turn into relevant, CLINICAL level findings is another story. Without being able to demonstrate benefit in measures of function, pain or performance, even these small, transient phigyolosical changes are irrelevant. I could go on about the number of studies which outright discredit the effects of KT, but it goes beyond the point of my post. An easy googlescholar.com search will reveal a number of studies that demonstrate lack of clinical significance with use of KT. My main point of this post is that even in the face of “evidence” that such evidence needs to be carefully critiqued…to a point that often extends beyond the scope of a consumers knowledge. As a physical therapist, it is always a challenge to keep up with current relevant research, let alone be able to decipher between a high quality study and one that leaves the impression of a “good study” but really isn’t. At this time, my feeling is that KT has no real CLINICAL value other than to make a patient more aware of a body part (ie, I’ll use it to give patients feedback on their posture). I have yet to find a study that demonstrates any LASTING and clinically MEANINGFUL impact on range of motion, pain, function or disability. It’s an even greater challenge to de-program patients coming into the clinic who are searching for the “quick fix” or the “miracle” that will help them recover. Heavy marketing from continuing education courses for therapists to learn the “hottest” techniques further digs us into a hole of poor practice patterns. In the end, Brian, it takes a very critical and skeptical eye to weed through the “fads” which come and go in the clinic and which ones have any real value. Unfortunately, it often dilutes the profession and leads to a wide variation in practice patterns. Hopefully, patients have the sense to question their therapist with the techniques they present as part of a treatment plan. Patients should always remain skeptical. Thanks for a wonderful blog post! I am a fan!Christie Downing, PT, DPT, OCS, Dip.MDT
Thank you for tuning in!