The importance of a subjective examination to drive patient-centred care

Our regular research reviewer, physical therapist Joseph Brence, reviews research looking into how good communication skills and a careful subjective examination of the patient are at the base of creating the therapeutic alliance and caring for the patient.

Massage Therapy Journal Watch - July 2016

Catch up on this quarter's essential massage therapy research. Our Massage Therapy Journal Watch brings you all the most important journal discoveries with our own unique Co-Kinetic take-home messages. This is one of our most popular sections of content aimed at saving you time and money not having to trawl the research journals!

Physical Therapy Journal Watch - July 2016

Catch up on this quarter's essential physical therapy research. Our Physical Therapy Journal Watch brings you all the most important journal discoveries with our own unique Co-Kinetic take-home messages. This is one of our most popular sections of content aimed at saving you time and money not having to trawl the research journals!

Social Media Watch - July 2016

In line with our goal of saving you both time and money, here’s our pick of some of the best resources on social media published over the last couple of months.

Biotensegrity's Tipping Point - Has it Finally Arrived? New Concepts in Movement Science and Manual Therapies [Article]

If biotensegrity or the 'biology of tensegrity' is everything that some of our thought-leaders in anatomy believe, it has the potential to change the way we deliver many physical and massage therapies. Biotensegrity has been defined as the new "science of body architecture" and includes the latest research into the fascia. Biotensegrity, or tensegrity in biology, is described as the tensional network of the human form. Biotensegrity is an emerging field that raises new questions and insights into how this fascial connective tissue matrix is tensioned and how crucial that is to human structure.

The objective of this article along with our Co-Kinetic module on biotensegrity is to help you as a therapist understand how to integrate biotensegrity principles into physical activity programmes and massage therapies. If we can achieve this, all signs point towards a recipe for fewer injuries, better rehabilitation, improved natural function in motion, greater happiness and by virtue of all the above, greater success as a therapist. I am sure that most of us will agree that when we, or our clients, move injury-free everyone is at their happiest. Pain and injury bring misery.

Tensegrity and biotensegrity - is this the next big thing in understanding body structure?

Can tensegrity, or more specifically biotensegrity (defined as ‘tensegrity in living structures’), explain the interconnectedness of body structure? More importantly, will an understanding of biotensegrity change the way in which you work as a massage therapist? At this moment in our evolutionary history, it seems very likely it can and will, which is why the concept of tensegrity and biotensegrity has become an international hot topic and has provoked much discussion among a wide range of scientists and therapists. Simply defined biotensegrity provides a scientific (and plausible) explanation for something that we as therapists instinctively already know, that every structure in the body is in some way interconnected in a way in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This article (along with its associated links to a series of animations) documents a fascinating insight into the ongoing debate between two leaders in their fields of research into the organisation of body structure and gives the reader the opportunity to understand the relevant concepts and compare the different points of view. It looks very much like this is the next step in our journey of discovery of functional anatomy.

Tensegrity and Biotensegrity: Will it Change Our Understanding of Human Anatomy? [Article]

This article discusses whether tensegrity or more specifically biotensegrity, which is explained as "tensegrity in biology" is changing our understanding of anatomy. The article is part of a special series published to coincide with the Biotensegrity Pre-Conference day which preceded the British Fascia Symposium 2016. It is part of a module of articles which can be found at the following link: Biotensegrity: concepts and practical applications for the manual therapist. Other articles in this series include: ‘Biotensegrity Part 1: Introduction to biotensegrity’; ‘Biotensegrity Part 2: Considering the role of fascia in the science of body architecture’; ‘Biotensegrity Part 3: Levers and pendulums’; ‘Dissecting the anatomy experience: a valuable learning tool’; ‘Function, form and fascia: What lies beneath?’; and ‘A new anatomy for the 21st century’.

Business Development for Physical Therapists: An introduction to the LEAN Therapist

The goal of our new Business Development for Physical Therapists category, which we’ve called the LEAN Therapist, is to give you advice and resources to help you start or build your own business or self employed career. Through this business development section which is written specifically for physical therapists and massage therapists, we’ll give you practical tools to help you build and run an efficient and effective business, guided by the principle of "less is more", informed by structured analysis of data, and wherever possible automated.

Manual Therapy Student Handbook: Assessment and Treatment of the Hip - Part 5 [Article]

This article is the fifth in a series from our Manual Therapy Student Handbook (see the class 'Contents panel’ for further details) and it describes how to assess and treat common hip complaints. As well as listing a comprehensive assessment procedure, the treatments are described in full and have accompanying videos, which provides a great practical resource for the clinician.