Moderator: Ryan A. Tauzell, PT, MA, MDT
“You have tight hamstrings…You have tight hip flexors…Your core is weak…,” are phrases so commonly heard by low back pain patients along with many other similar phrases (insert your favorite muscle). Muscle imbalances are assessed for, diagnosed and treated as the culprit of low back pain by spine care providers on a global scale. Additionally, muscle imbalance is taught as a common generator of pain in all of healthcare and is entrenched in conventional “wisdom.” Yet, is there enough evidence to determine if the muscle imbalance caused the pain or the pain caused the muscle imbalance? Is the imbalance a normal state for that patient or even a symptom that is distracting us from the root generator of the problem? Is the suspected muscle imbalance a muscle at all? Could muscle imbalance have nothing to do with a patient’s low back pain? This session will discuss this topic through the ADTO model of subgroup validation to help answer these important questions.
Upon completion of this session, participants should gain strategies to:
- Distinguish the exercise approach that is the most appropriate for this patient population;
- Appreciate the ADTO model of subgroup validation as it relates to muscle imbalance;
- Recognize the reliability and diagnostic accuracy of common assessment methods;
- Identify comparative effectiveness of common treatments for this problem.
Agenda
Introduction
Ryan A. Tauzell, PT, MA, Cert. MDT
What is Muscle Imbalance? The Biomechanics of Muscle Imbalance
Ram Haddas, PhD, MSc, MEng
Introduction to ADTO
Ronald G. Donelson, MD, MS
Reliability of Assessing and Diagnosing Muscle Imbalance (A-D)
Donald R. Murphy, DC, FRCC
Common Treatments for Muscle Imbalance (D-T)
Ryan A. Tauzell, PT, MA, Cert. MDT
Outcomes of Comparative Effectiveness (T-O)
John M. Mayer, PhD, DC, FACSM
Discussion, Questions and Answers
Faculty Panel