Multifidus Assessment

Now we're going to take a look at both evaluating the person's multifidus and then also starting to show them how to contract it. We ultimately want to get a volitional contraction of the multifidus. So we're going to palpate the iliac crest. And then we're going to go inward and find the spinous process. When we find that you know L4 spinous process we're just going to go slightly off of that spinous process into the gutter there. And what we want to get is a contraction. So what we want to do to first evaluate that. Go and take your right arm and go ahead and lift it up just slightly off the table. Good. And then do that again. Good. And what we want to see is that contralateral multifidus, so in this case  her left multifidus coming into my thumb. And that's exactly what I feel. I don't want to feel the opposite multifidus. So her right multifidus at all contracting when she does that. Now let's go ahead and do the same thing with your left arm. Good. Again. Again. And in her case we actually aren't getting a contraction of that multifidus on the right. We get a good one on the left, but not one on the right. Go ahead and put your hand on your forehead there for me again. What I want you to do is, you know how we did that draw in, I want you to draw your belly button in toward your spine and try to contract the muscles that are underneath my thumbs there. Okay, so she can't get a contraction of that volition only. So what we're going to do is we're going to teach her how to do this, reflexively first, and then we'll come back to this to have her do it volitionally.