Laurie's Blogs.

This blog is a two-part inspiration! 

Firstly, I had a canine patient recently.  He’s a Canadian Champion in Field Trialing.  He’s amazingly fit.  I call him Mr. Hard Body.  His muscling is enviable!  However, he has some carpal arthritis, and at 9 years of age, his owners are noticing that now and then he’ll favour a front leg.

So, on one of his previous visits, I prescribed carpal traction as a home therapy.  Traction in extension and flexion in two different direction.  Check out this little FB video to see what I mean:

https://www.facebook.com/caninefitnesscentre/videos/2718022424958018/

On his most recent visit, I was delighted to find his carpal flexion had improved and he was less uncomfortable at end range.  Hooray!

Well, that ties in to a video blog I watched recently as well.  How to get end range knee extension after surgery.  It’s a great discussion and really valuable to watch for the thought-processing alone (even if you don’t treat humans.)

https://mikereinold.com/tips-for-regaining-full-knee-extension-after-surgery/

This group of practitioners was talking about what they would do in order to treat or prevent loss of end range extension following an ACL repair or knee surgery.  I love the thought processing, in regards to mobilizing after an acute ACL (answer: neurophysiologic targeting only), to prevent loss of extension (answer: prolonged extension slow holds i.e. with a weight above the knee to create extension), and to regain lost extension (answer: multiple bouts of slow holds into extension plus mobilizations with the goal being the stretching of the collagen fibres in the capsule).

So, to tie these two thoughts together.  I think that the reason for my patient’s improvement was that the owner was consistent with doing the carpal tractions, and in doing so, he was gradually stretching the joint capsule.  I can only make so much improvement one treatment at a time, but if I have the owner on board as the ‘home therapist’ then the results are that much better!

I also think that these two stories should serve as guidelines for treating any capsule restriction. Stretch the collagen.  In order to stretch collagen, you need long slow force, or repetitive recurrent deformation stimulus.  So, when confronted with an arthritic joint or a tight joint, think about what you can do in each session and also what can be done at home.  

(PS If you’re a FourLeg members, check out Video Training 175: How to Gain Terminal Extension)