Rolling Through the Legs
- Patient is lying supine with the arms separated overhead and legs apart, at the 10 and 2 and 8 and 4 o’clock positions.
- Ask the patient to roll over to the prone position starting and moving by using the right leg only.
- The patient should lead with right hip flexion followed by adduction of the extended leg.
- The upper body should not contribute to the roll, but follow segmentally the movement of the right leg and pelvis. Watch for any breath holding or substitution by pushing off the left foot.
- If the patient has difficulty you can use verbal cues and manual contacts thru the pelvis to assist. Asking the patient to elongate along the axis of movement can be helpful. In the illustrated example above the patient would attempt to elongate thru the right arm and/or left leg as they roll to the left.
- You can also provide compression through the bottom of the left foot or through the right arm to encourage elongation through the axis of movement.
- Once prone you instruct the patient to roll back to supine initiating the movement through the right leg by extending the hip, adducting the hip and segmentally extending back through the spine without substituting by pushing off with either hand or the left foot. The same manual contacts can be applied to the left foot and/or right arm to assist the patient as needed.
- Ask the patient to repeat the movement 5 to 6 times as tolerated to both sides.
