Clinical Core for Lower Body - April, 2019

This course covers the essential clinical topics, assessments and treatment issues for addressing the most common lower body complaints seen in clinical practice. You should have completed Level 1, Functional Anatomy and CTB Fundamentals prior to taking this course, but we do accept students with less coursework on a case by case basis.

You will learn to address the most common types of hip, sciatic, knee and foot/ankle pain by understanding the role of posture, foot and ankle issues that cause gait disturbance, the various muscular sources that can feed the hips and lower extremities with satellite referral, perpetuating factors for lower body pain, and key treatment modules for the most important muscles in this area. There is a relatively small set of muscles and relationships that set up a high percentage of complaints. This course prepares you to design and execute effective treatments for most of the lower body cases that you will see.

Protocols are an extremely valuable resource that we have developed over the years. The practitioner is guided through the key muscles for prominent complaints, and decisions are made at each point about which muscles to treat. We cover “treatment loops”, in which the practitioner visits a set of muscles related by function in an iterative manner until significant ROM improvements are achieved. Treatment loops are extremely important, because they incorporate knowledge of the neurological relationships that can keep muscles in distress and frustrate treatment.

We describe the common protocols, modules and treatment loops that will guide the core of your lower body approach for many years to come. This course has an online component, and we encourage you to review that material prior to attending class. It will also provide an excellent framework for integration after you attend.