Students’ experiences of reflective writing in physiotherapy education

Abstract

band through the big fingers and the first toes and instructed them to extend the band as much as possible (band exercise). Each exercise was to be performed on alternate days. Before exrcise, we obtained MR imaging using Achieva 3.0T MRI (Philips Medical Systems, Best, Netherland). The imaging technique was T2 star (repetition time, 500ms; echo time, 0.703ms; field-of-view, 480mm). After scanning, participants performed each exercise in the MRI machine. For a duration of 5min, each exercise was performed at an interval of 10 s; MRI was conducted immediately after exercise. The OsiriX imaging software was used for analysis, and we circled region of interest (ROI) multifidus muscles and the erector spine muscles at four points for each exercise; the mean values in ROI were regarded as MR signal intensities. Further, signal intensity data were analyzed using a two-way (exercise× intervention) analysis of variance with repeated measures. The analyseswere carried using IBMSPSSver. 19, andpvalues of<0.05were considered statistically significant. Results: In Draw-in exercise, the mean MR signal intensities for multifidus before training was 435.08 (SD 79.50) and the corresponding value after training was 437.90 (SD 79.98), and for erectus spine before training was 517.13 (SD 84.70) and the corresponding value after training was 512.07 (SD 90.01). In Band exercise, the mean MR signal intensities for multifidus before training was 414.13 (SD 119.80) and the corresponding value after training was 469.53 (SD 118.60), and for erectus spine before trainingwas 521.69 (SD 113.15) and the correspondingvalue after trainingwas 511.19 (SD 88.04). There were significant differences between exercise and intervention in multifidus, and there was interaction. The activation of multifidus muscles significantly increased in Band exercise. Conclusion(s): In band exercise, the only multifidus muscles were activated to stabilize pelvis. This exercise quantity was proper to act deep-seated muscles in lumbar. Implications: Our results demonstrated the effectiveness of this training method in conditioning multifidus muscles. The training was easy and safe; therefore, it may be useful for the elderly.