It’s All About the Pelvic Stabilizers for Lower Extremity Limb Loss

Course Description

Individuals with limb loss or differences in the lower extremities who wear a prosthesis for function rely on intact proximal hip joints, pelvic stability and musculature to control their prosthesis and optimize mobility. The proximal muscle groups, particularly the pelvic stabilizers are quite often impaired. These impairments and deficits place more demand on other muscle groups, leading to pain, dysfunction, compensation, and development of other pathologies.

This session will discuss the pelvic stabilizers, how these muscles contribute to function, and how PTs can recognize this and intervene to improve daily function in individuals who wear lower extremity prosthetics. Through discussion and videos, we aim to provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to understand the contributions of the pelvic stabilizers to daily function and successfully train individuals with easy-to-use exercises in a clinic or gym setting that you can implement tomorrow!

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:

• Describe and evaluate how the pelvic stabilizers contribute to normal and abnormal prosthetic gait, including the proper muscle firing pattern for muscle stabilization during functional activities.
• Describe tactile and activation techniques to fire the pelvic stabilization musculature for individuals with lower extremity amputation (LEA).
• Identify training techniques for prosthetic mobility with an emphasis on pelvic stabilization activation and contribution of muscle strength during gait.

• Prerequisites

  None

• Educational Level

  Intermediate

• Other

  Satisfactory completion of this course will require the participant to complete a 10 question post-test with a minimum passing score of 70%.