Reflections on The Eclectic Approach to UQ and LQ, Philippines

I am truly blessed to have as many blog readers and support as I do. Thank you so much! Thanks to social media, I was invited for an Eclectic Approach to UQ/LQ two day course in my homeland, the Philippines!

I have not been back for 27 years! This was an amazing chance not only to teach, but to spend some time with family on both my mother and father's side of the family.

#grateful to Sir Leomil P. Adriano, PTRP,MSPT, DO-MTP,CAc, Grad Dip Man Ther (Hons)

This was the first time I have taught a LQ and UQ together and it went very well! All of the participants were amazing, inquisitive, and per the norm, plenty of within class mini cases, as PTs make for great patients (poor histories, great patients).

Course points

movement assessment

SFMA prior to repeated motion testing
check for the asymmetries first, which actually may be reset if they are rapid responders if you do MDT first
this is not what I always do in the clinic, but I rely on intuition, so this is how I have been instructing it as the movement screen order

no surprises that asian females can bust out an easy overhead deep squat
remember to use PNF (especially agonist reversals) to get the sticking points of movement patterns

upcoming video of this for OMPT Channel subscribers!

palpation - not needed, nor is specificity
treatment along broad tissue patterns or areas is more comfortable, less threatening, and may stimulate the cortex in broader areas than joint mobilization

possibly why the effects seem to work well

for repeated motion testing

cervical retraction and SB

load up in posture stacked position, hold the retraction with passive SB, slight cervical protraction will cause unloading and any asymmetries may be lost to observation

SGIS

again make sure scapula are over the pelvis with a lordosis slight COG moving posteriorly or trunk flexion, you will lose even obvious asymmetries

when you're checking for ipsilateral loading asymmetry, make sure they're starting in neutral, not an unloaded position

Physical Therapy in the Philippines

when I saw the above t-shirt, I thought, hmmm, he must have gotten that in the US
nope! Turns out there is another country where it's not physiotherapy, it's physical therapy in the Philippines as well!
many of the PTs here share the same concerns that we do, plus that I also found in South America

too many PTs perform passive treatments
not enough manual therapy (or none)
very little patient education
generic exercise prescription with reliance on physical agents

like South America, they thought it was just the sad majority of their country's clinicians that were like that
based on my experience with better clinicians who come to courses, I had to tell them, it is also like that in the US...

sadly seems to be the pattern that the average rehab clinician (or medical practitioner in any discipline) follows the bell curve, and the top of that curve is more of the same regardless of the profession

PTs in the Philippines were told not do to MET as it's an osteopathic treatment - and those of us who cannot manipulate or TDN thought we had it bad!

my argument always against "MET" is that it's just fancy PNF, and more based upon outdated pathoanatomical models
osteopaths did not invent PNF

This guy was a great interpreter, even tho everyone here speaks English

my loyal blog followers! Thank you for making this happen!

A great group of clinicians! My wife asked my three year old to find me
"I can't find Dada!"

Overall, it was an honor and an amazing experience! Next up for the Eclectic Approach is Vancouver, then Italy, then back to Chile, with a few US dates getting scheduled as well!

Keeping it Eclectic....