Members do not see these Ads. Sign Up.

Australian physiotherapy is in the news for excellence .

It would appear that in sports such a Aussie rules football and artistic occupations such as ballet , a greater appreciation of the musculature of the calf and foot ( intrinsic foot muscles ) has given Australian physiotherapists a not inconsiderable advantage of those educated elsewhere .
It's not surprising since much of the best foot focused research in the last few years has come from Aussie researchers .
Kelly Menz Mickle etc .
I'm am going to enjoy this thread so look away now if you are fed up hearing about the intrinsics and or proprioception .

Gerry

 

Luke Kelly and Hylton Menz are podiatrists
Karen Mickle is a biomechanist

 

All 3 are Aussie researchers Craig, which is how I characterised them.
Researchers influence pratice and this seems to be what is happening with some excellent results .

 

Susan Mayes is a physiotherapist who heads up a medical team which has drastically cut the number of injuries among the members of the Australia Ballet group . Their methods have been have been noted by the global ballet community and in one instance ,a prominent dancer from the US was given his career back by their treatment .

Among a number of other measures , Mayes focuses on the strength of the calf musculature and the strength of the intrinsic foot muscles , and dancers do supplementary exercises in these areas . That's worth noting ; athletes who are dancing for many hours a day , often explosively and in minimal shoes ,benefit from targeted intrinsic muscles training which seems to help prevent injury .

This is one factor that puts Mayes years ahead of researchers who believe that training in minimal shoes will strengthen the intrinsics and lead to injury reduction . She found that even among dancers trained from an early age ,insufficiently strong intrinsics and minimal shoes can lead to injury . Specific strengthening seems to be required through exercises such as doming .
.
It's all in the feet: Intrinsic foot strength in dancers | Dance ...

www.dancewriter.com.au › health › its-all-in-the-feet-in...
4 Sep 2019 - Grouped together, they are called the 'Intrinsic muscles', named because their origin and insertion is within the foot. They work specifically across ...

 

From a recent article in The Australian from an article titled "Is this Elite sports top physio " by Emma Sandall , around Dr Sue Mayers and her work with the Australian Ballet .

Quote

"Mayes also emphasises the importance of strengthening the calf and intrinsic muscles in the foot for all athletes. One study has shown that the foot can generate 17 per cent of power through the body.
“If you don’t pay attention to strengthening it, you can waste all that potential power,” says Mayes. “Not to mention its potential for injury prevention and management.”

End quote

Put simply Mayes seems to be better at prehab and rehab than anyone else when it comes to the foot and ankle .The results looked at over about 20 years ,with 180 professional athletes/dancers , bear that out .

Here , lasting 45 seconds , is one of the intrinsic muscle exercises used by Australian Ballet .

 

Mayes and her team have discovered that vigorously athletic dancing over many years, and in minimal shoes ,is not enough to build the necessary muscle strength in the foot and calf muscles to optimally prevent against injury .

Instead they have put together a world leading program which includes calf raises for the calf muscles and separate doming exercises for the foot intrinsics .

Interesting that they do not rely on calf raises to strengthen the intrinsics but use separate dedicated exercises . You can't easily argue with 20 years of top end success .

Perhaps cricket fast bowlers could also benefit from Mayes program ,
particularly with regard to foot and ankle injuries .