Looks like the votes are in and I would say that I am a little surprised with the results of my poll on what manual therapy techniques are most commonly used. If you didn’t see my past post and poll on popular manual therapy techniques, you may want to go back as there was many great reader comments.
The two most commonly used techniques were muscle energy (MET) and myofascial release (MFR). Out of curiosity, were you referring to actual MFR techniques as instructed by John Barnes or more that you just picked up the concept along the way and use it? I didn’t expect MFR to be so high on the list.
Considering that many of these techniques can be learned from Leon Chaitow’s excellent books (that come with technique DVDs to learn from) on muscle energy techniques and positional release, it looks like this might be a great starting place for those looking to enhance their manual therapy skills. I couldn’t agree more and recommend these books.
Also of note, 12% of people responded that they performed the Graston Technique. Interesting, but if you combine all the instrumented soft tissue mobilization techniques (Graston, ASTYM, and SASTM), over 20% of people use instruments in some manner. I’m not a big fan of these expensive courses and ultra expensive tools, as an educator myself I just think that this is unnecessary. My thoughts and suggestions would be to either go to the Graston or SASTM course and find some cheaper tools on the internet such as Gua Sha tools or the Starr Tool. Think about it, expensive tools are close to $3000. You can get some good quality tools for under $200 and many from under $10. I am sure I’ll get some heat for these comments, and I am sure that the official tools are much better quality but 600x better ($3000/$5)???
Same thing for Active Release Techniques (ART), which 18% of people said they utilized. Great concept and certainly not rocket science, I bet we are all using these techniques already and not calling them ART (would “fake” ART be called “FART?" Sorry I couldn’t resist…), but shame on you for charging so much for these seminars!
Bottom line for me is simply that if you don’t care about the self promotion of a full certification in these techniques, you can do your clinical practice wonders without going broke by reading Leon Chaitow’s books and taking a Graston or SASTM course to get the concepts and going the cheaper route on instruments, if that’s your thing. Then after some experimentation, you can figure out what technique(s) are working for you and seek out further education or certification.
I’m expecting negative comments here, but just my thoughts. I think that taking these full certification routes is an outstanding opportunity, but for many people it just isn’t an option for various reasons. There are other ways to get great manual therapy skills and like many of you commented on the previous post, the best skill set is likely a combination of many techniques.



Top clinicians are able to use significant applications of biomechanics. I am afraid that we may have drifted too far from having to gain a solid knowledge of how the body moves and more in use of protocols or traditional approaches. I am not talking about fulcrums or knowing what a class 2 lever is. I am talking about knowing how to position a patient and instruct them on an exercise that isolates a specific joint action, fires a particular group of muscles or releases a tight muscle; an exercise that can’t be found in a software program. 













