Tag: exercise
The Other McKenzie
Within the physiotherapy profession the name McKenzie resonates with greatness. New Zealand musculoskeletal physiotherapist Robin McKenzie revolutionised the worldwide treatment of low back pain in the 1980s and his work continues today through the McKenzie Institute International. However there is another, less well known McKenzie, whose contribution to the profession of …
America’s first Physical Therapist
Whilst Mary McMillan is lauded as the mother of the American Physical Therapy Association, the nation’s first ‘practitioner’ was more likely Charles Fayette Taylor, who brought the therapeutic exercises and massage of the Swedish Movement Cure to New York half a century earlier. Judge for your self by reading excerpts …
Physical Therapy’s Oscar Winning Film
On the 75th anniversary of its production we look back at the profession’s 1949 Oscar winning film. ‘Toward Independence’ is a 1948 American short documentary film about the rehabilitation of military veterans with spinal cord injuries. In 1949, it won an Oscar for Documentary Short Subject at the 21st Academy …
The Sunlight League
Physiotherapist Cora Wilding founded the Sunlight League in New Zealand, was instrumental in establishing the Youth Hostel Association and was one of the most passionate advocates for the physical culture movement. The Physical Culture Movement was a health and fitness movement that began in Europe during the 19th century, spreading …
Sister Kenny
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of her passing we will explore the life of this Australian ‘nurse’ whose work with polio victims opened the modern-day era of rehabilitation and physiotherapy. Whilst working in outback Queensland in 1909, Kenny found that several children suffered from a disease that she …
De Arte Gymanstica – The Art of Exercise Prescription
Although books dating back to ancient Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Greek and Roman civilisations contained numerous accounts of physical therapies (Galen reports that Roman emperor Julius Caesar used electric fish to treat neuralgia, for instance), De Arte Gymnastica may be the first book dedicated to the specific prescription of those physical …
Brasil: Os Primeiros Anos da Profissão: Parte 2 – O Caso de Pernambuco
Meio-termo no sentido aristotélico¹, não se aplica quando situamos o Estado de Pernambuco como Celeiro de Fisioterapeutas para o país; preferimos o excesso. E assim estamos em boa companhia, quando o Prof. Miguel Doherty no prefácio do livro O Trabalho Médico Científico², de Ruy Neves Baptista (Recife: Bagaço, 2003) referindo-se …
Exercise in the 16th Century
In De Arte Gymnastica, written in 1569, Hieronymus Mercurialis describes six exercise principles: Each exercise should preserve the existing health state Exercises should be suited to each part of the body All healthy people should exercise regularly Sick people should not be given exercises that might exacerbate existing conditions Special …