In this week's post I'll be covering the MPI Gait Seminar that
took place this past weekend just down the street from National's
Campus.
MPI
Motion Palpation is my favorite club on campus and almost every
chiropractic college has some form of this club because it's a
tremendous way to practice adjustments, motion palpate joints, and
get extra material you don't always get from your standard classes.
The Motion Palpation Institute is a fantastic organization geared
towards rounding up the best doctors, protocols, and research in
the chiropractic field and delivering unbelievable seminars to
students and doctors alike.
The Gait Seminar
This past weekend featured MPI's Gait Seminar. The seminar
attracted about 200 students, four MPI docs (Dr. King, Dr.
Winchester, Dr. Lotus, Dr. Campbell) and two special guests, Peter
Breeze and Shawn Eno. Peter Breeze is the head shoe developer at
New Balance (just moved from Nike) and Shawn Eno is the top
pedorthist and orthotic specialist in North America. Needless to
say this event had a ton of top doctors and specialists. Dr. Elder
and Dr. Sarah Macchi even made appearances to pitch in even more
doctor firepower! The other cool feature of the seminar was that it
has been two and a half years since MPI hosted a gait seminar so
the whole event had a ton of anticipation and excitement.
What is Gait? It's the study of human locomotion and more
specifically the walking cycle of humans. It takes into account the
biomechanics of the foot and how that relates up the kinematic
chain to the rest of the body. In short, watching someone walk can
tell you A LOT about their injury proneness, the roots of their
pain, and what segments that you should screen, palpate, adjust,
rehab, and/or stretch. Gait is a unique tool a variety of health
care professionals use including chiropractors, podiatrists,
physical therapists, and pedorthists. According to Dr. Winchester,
one of the best doctors I've witnessed teach gait, it can sound
like a foreign language and become overly detailed but the
best gait docs will use it as a tool to see the 'elephants,'
confirm those with functional screen tests, and then treat the
patient accordingly.
We spent the whole weekend at the gorgeous Sara Lee headquarters
pretty much staring at people's feet and walking patterns. If you
are fond of people watching, you would love this seminar! Ha ha.
The best part was I had been going to gait club at school all
trimester and taking time outside of class to learn about the foot
biomechanics, so when the docs were crushing through unbelievable
material (300+ slides) I was able to actually follow along when
they spoke about "Forefoot Valgus posts, heel whips, 1st MPJ
dorsiflexion, Modified Thomas, Trendelenberg, Calcaneal Eversion,
etc".
Hope everyone has a great week with finals peering its ugly head
around the corner!
Adios,
Christian