Hey Arnold!

25 June 2013

            Today we were with Arnold Volk, who is a biokineticist. We were not always with Arnold, so we bounced around to see whole spectrum of what the facilities had to offer. For example, we started out at 8AM in an intermediate Pilates class. We participated in the class and had a lot of fun with it, but that was no joke. I was the only male in the class so I felt a little out of place, especially when the instructor kept saying, “now curl over your bra strap.” I was getting a good laugh out of it, so I just played along. Next we went to the pool where there was a hydrotherapy class taking place. I had every intention of joining the class, which was again all female, until I realized I would have brought the average age of the class down to about 65. So I took my place on the side wall to observe and hand out flotation noodles when needed.  

            After hydrotherapy finished, we went over to the gym where we observed Arnold working with a patient. The patient was a cyclist who suffered a brain injury in an accident. The patient had progressed to the point in therapy where he was now focusing on strength training. The exercises Arnold was having the patient do were designed to integrate several muscle groups at once. For example, the patient would stand on an instability pad and balance on one foot while throwing or bouncing a medicine ball. This would work the muscles of the leg and core for balance while working the arms to throw the medicine ball.

            Arnold took us to the “lab” later that afternoon to show us how each patient is first analyzed and a customized rehabilitation program is prepared based on their results. The lab had all kinds of fancy machines, such as treadmills with pressure sensing tracks to analyze stance and gate. There are also electrodes that are attached to the patient to test neuromuscular function. After crunching the numbers from the evaluation, each patient is given a specific rehabilitation plan that has four categories of focus: mobility, flexibility, sensitivity, and strength.