NDT

NDT (Neuro Developmental Treatment) has been a staple in physical therapy for years. We use these techniques most commonly in patients who have suffered some sort of spinal cord injury or brain injury. The general gist without getting into too much is that you use the same pattern or strengthening and coordination that a newborn would use.

Think about it for a second: A newborn starts on its back. All it can do in this position is move its arms and legs for the most part. Over the course of a few months the baby develops a little bit of core strength as well as some arm strength, and then learns to roll over one day. Now the baby is on its stomach, but can't do much. So the process starts all over, and the baby gets strong enough in this position to get up on all fours. All fours is ok to maintain, but now the baby has to become even less stable to start moving limbs and crawling. This is the basis for NDT.

Now think about general core strengthening programs. You start with dying bug exercises on your back, then move into prone alternating arms and legs, followed by quadruped (all fours) alternating arms and legs. If you want to go further with it, you get into half kneeling and kneeling exercises.

What the baby is doing with all of this is developing great core strength so that he/she may eventually be able to perform a complex task like walking. Once the baby can walk it learns how to run/climb/jump etc.

The point of all of this is that we learn how to run and climb, but over the years we forget about the basic movements. This is important because we stay strong in the general running/jumping muscle groups, but weaken at the core.

My plan with all of this is to start from the ground up. I know that i can perform core exercises without making myself anymore sore. So...if i start from the ground up, hopefully i can reverse some of these muscle imbalances before I run again. Just a thought, and something to occupy my time while in purgatory.

On a side note, i really am curious what is going on with my knee at this point. It almost seems as though the OCD/fracture pain is greatly improved, and my hamstring/ITB are more aggrevated. The problem is that i won't know until i talk to the ortho on Monday. So in the meantime i'm going to do some core and upper body lifting and try not to think about the running thing too much. We shall see...