Good flexibility is vital for good muscle function. The benefits of regular stretching contribute to health, fitness and well-being.
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Stretching can be divided into two categories: self stretching and therapeutic muscle stretching (TMS). TMS can be defined as specific muscle stretching performed, instructed, or supervised by a therapist for clients with dysfunction of the musculoskeletal system.
Benefits of stretching:
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Reduction of stress and
tension
· Muscular relaxation
· Enhances function
· Prevents development of contractures
· Body fitness, posture, and symmetry
· Relief of pain
· Relief of muscular cramps
· Relief of muscular soreness
· Injury Prevention
· Enhances self discipline
· Unification of the body, mind and spirit.
Elements of a good stretching
method
There are three factors to consider when determining the effectiveness of a particular stretching exercise:
1. Isolation
2. Leverage
3. Risk
Isolation: ideally, a particular stretch should work only the muscles that you are trying to stretch, in this way there is no need to be concerned about the resistance offered by more than one muscle group, which ultimately gives you greater control over the stretch and allows you to adapt to the varying intensity.
Leverage: Allows you to have sufficient control over the intensity of the stretch
Risk: The potential risk of injury from performing a stretch must be taken into consideration. Guarding against exercises placing too much strain on the joints, exercises involving rotations that strain tendons or ligaments, place undue strain on the intervertabral discs and undue flexion and extension of a particular joint.
Inversion therapy to reverse the effects of Wheelchair posture
Inversion therapy to improve upper extremity, abdominal and hip flexibility for individuals affected by paralysis who have adopted ‘wheel chair postures’ through long-term seated positions.
Many individuals who use wheel chairs for the daily living activities often develop ‘wheelchair postures’ where chest, abdominal and hip musculature all tighten due to the design of the chair. Wheel Chairs are designed to keep individuals in the chair, not improve posture.
Clients at Physability have been testing the Invertachair designed by Roger Teeter on a regular basis during their visit for exercise therapy. Whilst general stretching programmes are provided, the invertachair has enabled clients to stretch out in ways that are not possible without therapist help. For safety reasons we started inverting clients at 20 – 25 degrees as clients continue to use the Invertachair we have been able to increase the inversion angles to 40 – 50 degrees without any risk of injury to the client. The duration of the inversion has 5 minutes repeating the process 3 times.
In the short term, we have seen improvements in the following
- A reduction and frequency of spasticity in abdominal and hip flexor musculature.
- Increases in active and passive trunk range of motion
- Improvements in hip and knee musculature flexibility
- Stress free and relaxed states during the inversion.
- Improvement in standing posture post inversion using standing frames
Blood pressure has been monitored on a regular basis and we have seen no increase in blood pressure during the inversion apart from the very first inversion. A slight increase occurs probably due to some anxiety/apprehension during the first trial.
Whilst there are no significant changes in blood pressure, heart rate reduces 5 – 10 beats per-minute.
Inversion is probably a controversial subject with spinal cord injury (SCI) however we believe the benefit of Inversion for individuals with SCI should be examined further. Currently two clients at Physability are testing the chair at home, inverting on a daily basis.
Click here to learn more about Inversion Therapy
Click here to read the latest UK trials