How to use the Biodex System 4 for Shoulder PreHabilitation

Matt Long, Assistant Athletic Trainer and Head Baseball Trainer for the Tigers, focuses on the shoulder and uses the Biodex System 4 more for “prehab.” It’s a key part of the shoulder maintenance program that his pitchers follow in the Athletic Training Room.. >>

Setting Up Ankle Plantar/Dorsiflexion

The standard position is seated with the knee slightly flexed which accentuates soleus activity. Consider a straight leg position which accentuates more gastrocnemius activity. To comfortably accomplish this, position the seat back flat, have the subject lay prone with the head away from the dynamometer and their ankle hanging off of the seat. The knee will be straight in this position, and you will accentuate more gastrocnemius activity. >>

Optimizing knee joint mobilization – back to normal ROM

John Cavanaugh, PT/ATC, Senior Clinician at the Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, has been using dynamometers for about 30 years. After all this time, he still finds new ways to apply the device to solve clinical problems for his patients.

Using a Biodex System 4, Cavanaugh has found a way to combine the System’s Passive Mode with joint mobilizations to steer a complicated, stiff knee back to normal ranges of motion. He used this technique as part of his quest to get his patient back out on the basketball court.

Cavanaugh, who has always been a fan of the Passive Mode, is now also a fan of the System’s “Hold” button. For this particular athlete, knee flexion was becoming increasingly difficult to attain as they progressed toward the end ranges of knee flexion; one of the standard techniques is to use anterior/posterior knee mobilizations. In Cavanaugh’s hands, it seemed necessary to perform these activities in combination with passive range of motion.  >>