Alpine’s own Leah Versteegen, MS, DPT, assisted in the authorship of a research project that will be presented this upcoming week at the American Physical Therapy Association’s National Conference in Baltimore, MD. Beth Ikeda physical therapy professor at the University of Montana will be presenting the findings, as she is the primary author.
Here’s a brief summary of their work entitled “The Influence of Hip Position on Lumbar Spine Position on Lumbar Spine Posture in Sitting.” Ikeda ER, Versteegen LP, Fehrer SC, Mize KJ. School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812.
Purpose: Leah and her fellow researchers set out to explore a new test, one that measures the length of the band along the side of the thigh (the iliotibial band), along with the main muscle that attaches to it, the gluteus maximus. By doing so, they wanted to see whether the length of these important structures might impact posture in the low back.
Conclusion: Remarkably, they found that their hypothesis was true. Hip position in sitting has a direct influence on low back posture. Interestingly, hip length had an even greater impact on the low back in men. Using the test is helpful because it measures what they hypothesized it would — the length of the iliotibial band and the gluteus maximus. Thus, they recommend that physical therapists address hip position in sitting when taking care of people with certain types of low back pain, particularly pain that is associated with flexion.
Click here to read Leah’s bio!
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