I had the pleasure of learning from Yoav Suprun this past weekend in MDT part B.
Yoav is a master MDT practitioner and an incredible speaker.
MDT/McKenzie Technique is a methodology that uses simple mechanic test to determine which movements will relieve people's pain.
I've already helped a ton of people since Part A and I am looking forward to helping more after this course.
8 Things I Learned from MDT/McKenzie Part B
1) Cervical rotation can be a gateway to lateral flexion to reduce a relevant lateral componenet. It's less force and less invasive.
2) Recent studies have shown that stiffness can be predictive of tendon injuries. Yoav also predicts that spine injuries will be more likely to occur if there is stiffness in the spine.
3) If the pain starts on one side and moves to the other side as it gets better, then this is a good thing. Just like soreness moving from the arm to the neck is centralization (a good thing).
4) The neck can be the driver for a lot of different symptoms in the upper body. 50% of the time your shoulder pain is coming from your neck.
5) Because of our daily postures of bedning our necks down, extension likely needs to be ruled out before exploring other possible directions.
6) Not getting to end range can make someone worse. It’s 1 of the 4 curses of MDT according to Yoav (not enough reps, not getting to end-range, going lateral too soon, forgetting about sustained postures).
7) A change in force can make a huge impact in whether or not a treatment will work.
8) We bend our necks (look down) too much in our day to day. If we really want people to get pain free, they need to adapt these posturak principals to their daily life (phone, reading, tv posture). These strategies are just as important as the home exercises.
Summary
MDT provides the proof in the pudding.
It simply just works.
It's using mechanics to fix mechanical problems.
If you're a PT, take a MDT course with Yoav. He's a wonderful teacher of the system and does magic during the live patient demonstrations.
If you're not a medical provider and you're having spine pain and not getting better, give us a call.
