JOURNAL WATCH

THE ROLE OF MASSAGE THERAPY IN TENNIS MEDICINE. Jurch S. Journal of Medicine and Science in Tennis 2010;15(1):18-22

This paper gives an outline of the type of treatments given

by massage therapists on a professional tennis circuit. These include, manual lymph drainage, connective tissue massage, trigger point release, and active movement re-education. Muscle groups predominately treated in the upper limb were pectoralis major and the rotator cuff and in the lower body the hip complex in general, especially illiopoas and the gluteals.

sportEX comment The work described here is standard stuff for elite sport and this paper naturally relates specifically to tennis. It makes one really important point which is that all of the massage therapists working on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, whether they are a tour massage therapist or a qualified local massage therapist, have additional education and experience working with athletes, good clinical reasoning skills, and understand the demands of the sport. So, just doing your basic massage course is not enough to work at the top. Get adding to your CV.

STUDY ON EFFECT OF MASSAGE THERAPY ON PAIN SEVERITY IN ORTHOPEDIC PATIENTS. Eghbali M, Lellahgani H, et al Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research 2010;15(1):

This was a clinical trial study on 60

arthroscopic knee surgery patients who were hospitalised in a men’s orthopaedic ward. A two part questionnaire was used for collecting data. They were divided into two groups. One received routine treatments, the other group, in addition to the treatment were massaged by the researcher for 20 minutes each day and pain severity was evaluated before and after the massage. The results showed that there was a meaningful difference between mean score of pain severity before and after the massage in the intervention group but this difference wasn’t meaningful in the control group .

sportEX comment The conclusion reached by this paper was that massage is a safe and effective intervention; it could be used as an easy, cheap and executable method for treating pain in all medical health care centres and even at a patient’s home. Add to that sports environments and it covers every eventuality.

EFFECT OF THE ABDOMINAL DRAW-IN MANOEUVRE IN COMBINATION WITH ANKLE DORSIFLEXION IN STRENGTHENING THE TRANSVERSE ABDOMINAL MUSCLE IN HEALTHY YOUNG ADULTS: A PRELIMINARY, RANDOMISED, CONTROLLED STUDY. Seung- Chul Chona et al Physiotherapy 2010;96(2)

(Jun):130-136

Forty healthy adults (18 males, 22 females) were allocated at random to the experimental group or the control group. The experimental group performed an abdominal draw-in manoeuvre in combination with ankle dorsiflexion, and the control group performed an abdominal draw-in manoeuvre alone, five times a day. Ultrasonography and electromyography were used to determine the intervention-related changes in muscle activity and the thickness of abdominal muscles.

A significant difference was found in the thickness of

the transverse abdominal muscle between the groups. On electromyography, a significant difference was demonstrated in the amplitude of the transverse abdominal muscle contraction between the two techniques in the experimental group and for the internal oblique muscle and for the external oblique muscle.

sportEX comment If you doubt the added effect of the dorsiflexion (and we at sportEX did), try it. Put your hand on your abs and draw in

your transverse abdominal muscles then dorsiflex. You can feel the effect.

6 sportEX dynamics 2010;25(Jul):4-6