Redux: Is Physical Therapy Fraud?

[Mark Rippetoe]

http://startingstrength.com/articles...rapy_fraud.pdf

[Shaun]

I expect even more controversy from this than from your squat articles.

[Mark Rippetoe]

It was controversial when it first ran.

[RettReber]

I am a Physical Therapist and I promote strength training (Starting Strength) to practically every patient. Correct basic movements with a barbell provides functional improvements.

One issue with PT profession is that we are not a homogenous group (as with nearly all professions). There are PT specialists that don't see much need for barbell training in theirs setting. For example, Acute Care PTs in hospitals focus on getting patients mobile enough to be discharged. Pediatric PTs may have some use for barbell training, but may be limited to training higher functioning kids with barbell type activities.

I enjoy my setting in outpatient Orthopedic PT where my patients are the perfect population for barbell training...Active Duty Military. I am a novice lifter but have already seen personal gains, and after applying lifting techniques with my patients, have seen improvements in pain and function.

Trying to learn more.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Excellent. We need more PTs like you.

[Sean Herbison]

I enjoy my setting in outpatient Orthopedic PT where my patients are the perfect population for barbell training...Active Duty Military.

Sweet, maybe you're the guy they're sending me to.

More likely though, they'll send me to someone who will say I should be doing side-lying leg raises, eventually working up to adding a band for resistance.

[Bill Been]

My amigo's son just got done with 4 months in a back brace for bilateral PARs fractures. He asked me what to expect during the prescribed PT, and using this article as a guide, I told him to expect the PT to treat him like he was just injured 15 minutes ago instead of fully-healed, to state the goal was to "get the area strong", and to go about it using "loads" that have no hope of ever making the area strong, followed by much disillusionment and agonized discussions of quitting the therapy, followed at that point by the realization that you're exactly where you started when the brace came off.

He scanned and sent me some rather good background information for spondylolysis causes, symptoms, treatment, epidemiology and such which went to great lengths to theorize that repetitive flexion and extension movement of the area were the suspected culprit beyond sex, race, age, and physical activity. The jarring thing for me was the drive-by inclusion of the statement that investigators "found compressive or axial loading to have little effect in generating these stresses likely responsible for spondylolysis".

If only there were exercises using some sort of incrementally and progressively loadable device that facilitated "getting the area strong", is dominated by perfectly-safe "compressive or axial loading", and the proper execution of which also prevents "flexion and extension movement". Alas.

[Barry Charles]

Asking if PT ( or any pseudoscience) is fraud is an important question. Ignorance seems a lessor offense.

Maybe as scientists it is important to NOT make that distinction. I'm not sure. You?

I once asked James Randi if he knew how many paranormal practitioners were frauds vs. fools. He said that such a study had not been done and didn't know. He didn't seem to think it was overly relevant.

[Tzal]

I am a Physical Therapist and I promote strength training (Starting Strength) to practically every patient. Correct basic movements with a barbell provides functional improvements.

My wife had a SLAP tear repaired and her PT had her doing deadlifts as part of her rehab.

[David Lee]

I am a Physical Therapist and I promote strength training (Starting Strength) to practically every patient. Correct basic movements with a barbell provides functional improvements.

Trying to learn more.

One is a start.