Welcome to Musculoskeletal Monday (a.k.a. MSK Monday). This is the first of many weekly posts intended to motivate and inspire fellow PTs. I am as excited about therapy now as I was when I first graduated in 1997 and would like to share that excitement on Mondays to start the week out right.

In this is first post I will overview the structure of MSK Monday. Concepts will be presented and used as a framework for the topic presented. Each one is necessary for creating a therapeutic alliance with patients. In the clinic, it is my hope to build my patients’ confidence and decrease their pain with movement.

The concepts below will be linked to a therapy topic (LBP, Achilles Tendonopathy, Lateral Epicondylitis) this way the approach to treatment can be fully explored.

1. Anatomy Doesn’t Lie:(from my mentor Erl Pettman) This section will review a particular aspect of anatomy, and reference its structural importance to the topic at hand.
2. The body heals in a predictable manner: Patients are categorized into different groups 1) acute 2) subacute and chronic. But, it is more than that. Inflammation is the first stage of healing and explaining to patients simple concepts of tissue healing, and will assist them in gaining confidence in expanding their movements.
3. Pain is in the brain: David Butler and Lorimer Mosely have helped bring Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE) to the forefront of our interventions. Pain IS in the brain. Having the perception that pain is always proportional to tissue damage input is myopic.  Nociceptive pain is a small part of the spectrum of pain.  A therapist has to consider what pain is referred, somatic, nociceptive, neurogenic, psychosomatic (and several other types, which will be expanded on a later date). Don’t “Chase Pain” but “Frame Pain.” Spend a good portion of your treatment educating patients about their pain beliefs and this will alter their perception of their condition.
4. We are prone to clinical reasoning errors during a busy clinic day: Let’s make sure that clinical reflection is a part of everyday clinical practice. It is important to “let go” and not always focus on work. Reflection is the only way we can progress our patients. Making assumptions, errors in detecting co-variance, and premise conversion are common, but it’s important to recognize them. Clinical errors limit the growth of a PT.
5. Treat the person and you’ll win every time:  This section is inspired by Patch Adams.  He famously said “you treat a disease, you win, you lose.  You treat a person, I’ll guarantee you’ll win.”  This is what sets us apart as PTs.  This section will have an inspirational quote about being human.  Our “business” is relationships and our greatest successes lies in connecting with our patients.

Quote of the Week

Tweet of The Week

“Every therapist the patient has seen before you is a potential yellow flag” pic.twitter.com/fY04f51zSf

— Mark Kargela (@MKargelaDPT) June 24, 2017

Video of the Week: This will be related to the topic at hand and will contain a short review of research or a clinical technique.

#PTbeyond140

This will be a link that’s beyond 140 characters and is related to the topic at hand. This week’s is:

A clinical perspective on a pain neuroscience education approach to manual therapy. Adriaan Louw, Jo Nijs & Emilio J. Puentedura JMMT (2017)

If you’d like to receive MSK Monday posts, you can subscribe to the left. And if interested in a webinar on the topic of manual therapy and PNE next week, comment below or reach out to me on Twitter and I can provide you with the details!

-Terry Pratt, MS, PT, COMT, FAAOMPT