One of my patients today need to build up her glute med and if I’m honest I was limited in the exercises to build up this muscle. I knew that it was an important stabiliser of the femur and pelvis and performs hip abduction medial rotation. So, I wanted to look at some exercises to make myself more confident in this area. The manual muscle test showed a weakness in this muscle.
A weak glute med can cause Knee valgus. Reiman et al,. (2012) reviewed past research of glue med activation and looked at the best ones:
This included:
Side lying abduction whilst keep the heel at the highest point
Pelvic drop on an elevated side (keep the knee extended on the stable leg)
Single leg deadlift
Single leg squat on an elevated surface
Side bridge
Side bridge ad the highest muscle activation and therefore is seen as the best exercise for glute Medius
I believe that this information will be important when prescribing rehab excises for my client however it is important to rehab my client on more than just emg results and other structures need to be looked at.
My other clients today were follow ups with one wanting a sports massage for their quadriceps and calf’s, this gave me the opportunity to practice my massage techniques and the patient felt a relief afterwards, however I don’t particularly believe with resulting to massage as it a modality and normally will not resolve the issue. It is a major part of the job and there I need to maintain my skills.
I was happy with how the day went today I believe that I learnt a lot and most importantly i feel more confident than the day before. I think that i need to work on talking less to the patient because I know that I am very talkative and some patients might not like it or just want to switch off and therefore i will be aware of this and limit my communication with the client. i speak fast and therefore i need to relax and this is probably due to being nervous but this should improve in time when i get more experience and I’m more confident
Reiman, M. P., Bolgla, L. A., & Loudon, J. K. (2012). A literature review of studies evaluating gluteus maximus and gluteus medius activation during rehabilitation exercises. Physiotherapy theory and practice, 28(4), 257-268.