My friend at 'In Touch PT' just posted about how we all are going to catch on fire because we sit too much. While this is important to educate our patients on in regards to taking micro breaks at work (30 second breaks every 30 minutes), we still have to think about their drive to and from work (and to and from your clinic). I know this is something I took for granted. But with a recent patient complaining of bilat lat thigh pain with driving we decided to take a look at her posture in the car. Although her set up wasnt the worse we've ever seen we decided to give an early compliance foam roll for her back, especially for longer drives that she does for work. This turned out to be the perfect reinforcement and allowed for our PT sessions to "stick". Pain was completely resolved even after a 4 hour road trip.
An Important part of reinforcing correct posture and ergonomics is taking the time to assess how they sit in their car or truck. However, we often over look this. Have you ever had a patient say they feel so much better leaving your clinic but by the time they get home there are back to baseline. We might cue them but never really examine their positioning. This extra time which may seem to burn through a whole treatment session at times could end up making the whole difference for your patient. Sometimes it may be a whole ergonomic set up change while other times it may be as simple as providing a lumbar roll especially for all these bucket seats. So take the time and I bet you'll see a big difference in your patient's overall outcomes. In fact, in could be the missing link like our patient. Let me know your experiences with this; have anyone else forget to skip this vital step?
