When it comes to providing sports massage for soft tissue injuries, it is essential to gather as much information about the ailment as possible.
Hence, this is why the initial consultation form is crucial in this process.
Another way of collating feedback from the injured site, is to perform special tests specifically designed to ascertain/rule out musculoskeletal problems.
This blog seeks to define special tests, examine their history and describe how they can be integrated into a bespoke injury management treatment, capable of promoting recovery of the presenting symptoms.
What are special tests?
Special tests used in sports massage assesment, are an important way of examining soft tissue injury sites and identifying objectively any dysfunctions and imbalances within these specific areas.
In addition to this, they can help evaluate the stability and range of motion of joints that may contribute to the client’s discomfort and pain.
Typically, these tests will involve a combination of client led motion, therapist palpation and stress application to ascertain all of the above.
It also helps rule out any incorrect diagnosis hypothesis based on presenting symptoms.
From garnering this information, it is then possible for sports massage therapist to create an individualised accurate treatment plan that is solution focused on treating presenting symptoms.
By conducting these tests throughout sports massage assesment, this can also help build trust from clients, by creating a sense of professionalism as the therapist uses their clinical reasoning based on evidence based practice to effectively treat the presenting problem.
Whilst these tests are a helpful aid in examining a client’s problem, they must however be intergrated with other assessments (such as a through examination of the client’s history, mechanism of injury, clinical observation, bony and soft tissue palpation and assessment of active and passive physiological movements) to create a comprehensive and systematic assessment to fully understand their symptoms and problems.
History of special tests
Special tests in sports massage have the origins in the late 19th century, when the earliest systematic assessment of posture alignment are said to have been integrated into healthcare.
With the advent of evidence based practice and patient centred care, special tests have evolved from simple manipulation to assess joint stability to advanced tests that reflect the latest research in vogue.
There is also some evidence to suggest that these tests do not provide 100% accuracy and should only be used to reinforce clinical reasoning and judgement.
Types of special tests in Sports massage
There are many different types of special tests within the sports massage field that a therapist can use, some of the most common include:
Muscle tests: these seek to examine muscles and ascertain strength, weakness, function and or any abnormalities. These types of tests involve manual muscle testing, where resistance is applied and assessed within accordance to a standardised test. Examples include hip abduction (moving it away from the body) and hip flexion.
Stress Tests:As the name suggests, these tests involve applying stress to areas of damaged soft tissue to measure response.For example, a sports massage therapist may hold a patient’s forearm still with one hand and move their wrist. This in turn will help indicate the nature of the client’s musculoskeletal condition.
Flexibilty tests this type of test, helps gauge the range of motion in a joint to see if the client has muscle imbalances and conditions such as athritus or other types of musculoskeletal disorders.
Common flexibility tests include: sir and reach test, applet scratch test which examines shoulder mobility and Beighton score which asses for hyper mobilty.
Conclusion: Special tests in sports massage are an effective tool that sports massage therapists can use to help build a bigger picture of the client’s presenting issues.
Whilst they can help with this process,they should not be used as the sole way to determine diagnosis and hypothesis. In sense they should be used along side sound clinical reasoning and appropriate feed back from clients to create a bespoke treatment plan capable of providing effective recovery.