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ninevirtuesWe started in on mobilizations of the thoracic spine today. I'm loving the manual therapy techniques that we're learning: You put your hands on someone, you move them around in the prescribed way, and their joints work better when they get off the table. Magic!
Description of the joint mobilizations follows... probably boring unless you are a curious massage therapist:
So... a grade 1 mobilization is very slight... put your thumbs on the spinous process of a vertebrae and oscillate it slightly. Use this for an acutely injured person, for pain relief.
A grade 2 mobilization has the same hand position (both thumbs on the spinous process of the vertebrae you want to affect, fingers splayed out for support) and oscillate slightly more deeply.... as if you are going from the surface of the skin and partway into the joint's range of motion. Use this for a subacute person, for pain relief.
A grade 3 mobilization involves using the hypothenar eminence of your hand (that would be the knife edge of your hand on the pinky side), wrapping your other hand around the web space (thumb web) of the first hand, and using your bodyweight to to from the joint's end range of motion on up into the middle range. Use this to increase joint range of motion.
A grade 4 mobilization involves the same hand position as a 3, staying at the joint's end range, and oscillating slightly. Again.... use for joint ROM.
A grade 5 mobilization is a chiropractic adjustment. In NC, you must have a doctor's prescription to do it. Yes, we learned to do them.
Description of the joint mobilizations follows... probably boring unless you are a curious massage therapist:
So... a grade 1 mobilization is very slight... put your thumbs on the spinous process of a vertebrae and oscillate it slightly. Use this for an acutely injured person, for pain relief.
A grade 2 mobilization has the same hand position (both thumbs on the spinous process of the vertebrae you want to affect, fingers splayed out for support) and oscillate slightly more deeply.... as if you are going from the surface of the skin and partway into the joint's range of motion. Use this for a subacute person, for pain relief.
A grade 3 mobilization involves using the hypothenar eminence of your hand (that would be the knife edge of your hand on the pinky side), wrapping your other hand around the web space (thumb web) of the first hand, and using your bodyweight to to from the joint's end range of motion on up into the middle range. Use this to increase joint range of motion.
A grade 4 mobilization involves the same hand position as a 3, staying at the joint's end range, and oscillating slightly. Again.... use for joint ROM.
A grade 5 mobilization is a chiropractic adjustment. In NC, you must have a doctor's prescription to do it. Yes, we learned to do them.
