In motor analysis in physical therapy, we lay emphasis on measurable objective information observed from the outside rather than on performers' subjective information because of the difficulties in measuring the subjective information. While human movements follow the laws of physical motion, they also reflect the subjectivity of a performer. Therefore, in coaching, subjective and unclear expressions such as “You should feel...” have importance. The acquirement of a motor skill doesn't mean that the learner understands it on paper, but means the learner practices until it becomes automatic.
The purpose of this study is to examine whether the subjective impressions of motor sense are effective as guidelines for motor learning. We examined the connection between the process of motor learning and subjective motor understanding.
Seven male students participated in this study. Taking monocycling as a motor task, the students continued their trials for a month. At the end of every trial, each student recorded their impressions of motor sense freely, such as what and how they felt, or what had changed. Gathered motor impressions were categorized and relations between the process of motor learning and the contents of the impressions were analyzed by protocol analysis.
As a result, the motor impressions recorded by the students reflected the characteristics of the task of monocycling. There were characteristic changes in motor sense impressions at each stage of the learning process.
We expect that there is a possibility of coaching utilising motor sense impressions in physical therapy.

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The hip flexion movement includes movement of the femurs, which is correspondent with the pelvis, and posterior tilt of the pelvis. The pelvifemoral rhythm (rhythm of movement of the femur, which is correspondent with the pelvis) and movement of the sacroiliac joint were analyzed during passive unilateral hip flexion movement with the knee flexed in supine position by high-performance noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 10 healthy adult women (mean age, 20.3 years). The rates of angles of posterior tilt of the pelvis in the angles of flexion of the right hip joint varied with the increase in angle of the flexion; approximately 1/28 (0.52°/14.8°), 1/20 (1.5°/29.9°), 1/19 (2.4°/45.0°), 1/16 (3.9°/60.7°), and 1/11 (11.4°/127.6°). The pelvis contralateral to that on the flexion side also showed posterior tilt of the same extent as that on the flexion side, when the flexion side was 45° or less. The extent of posterior tilt on the flexion side increased at 60°, and the difference in the extent between the flexion side and the contralateral side incleased at the maximum angle of flexion. At the end of flexion of the right hip joint was maximum, the sacral bone showed nutation in relation to the right ilium bone. From these observations, movement of the sacroiliac joint was confirmed to be involved in the flexion movement.

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The purpose of this study was to reveal the pelvic-femoral rhythm during active leg raising motion. Nine healthy male students participated in the experiment. We measured angle velocity of pelvis and femur, and converted them into angles using numerical integration, when the subjects elevated their right legs with the knees flexed in supine position. True hip joint motion was calculated from angles of pelvis and femur. In the beginning of hip flexion, pelvis started to tilt anterior. At 10 degrees of thigh elevation, the anterior tilt motion of pelvis changed to posterior tilt, which increased with thigh elevation. From 20 to 90 degrees of thigh elevation, the relation between posterior tilt of pelvis and thigh elevation was highly linear with the ratio of 1:6, thus indicating the existence of pelvic-femoral rhythm during hip flexion. These results suggest that this rhythm may enable hip flexor muscles to act in optimal condition. We should take this rhythm into consideration in assessment and treatment of patients in physical therapy.

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We investigated here the effect of both the intensity plantar and dorsi flexor muscle contractions on the contralateral soleus motoneuron excitability. Majour findings in the present study were, 1) the soleus motoneuron excitability was significantly increased with an increase in intensity of the remote muscle contractions, and 2) the effect of plantarflexion induced a significantly more increase in the motoneuron excitability than dorsiflexion. Taking the function of the ankle extensor into account as the typical antigravity muscle, it is suggested that the difference of the amount of muscle spindle in the contracted muscle may induce the difference in facilitatory effect on the motoneuron excitability.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the Unsupported Incremental Upper Limb Exercise Test (UIULX test), and the correlation between the UIULX test and the Activities of Daily Living using upper limbs (ADL-U), in fourteen healthy women. The UIULX test was performed according to the method of Takahashi et al., and the cessation stage was determined. The items of ADL-U were “lifting a weight to the shelf”, “hanging out the washing”, “feeding”, “washing the face”, “brushing hair”, and “dressing”. Cardiorespiratory responses, rate of perceived exertion of the upper limbs and that of the whole body were examined during the UIULX test and ADL-U. A significant positive correlation was observed between the UIULX stage and all parameters, which partly suggests the validity of the UIULX test. The differences in oxygen uptake, oxygen pulse, and rate of perceived exertion among the items of ADL-U were significant, but those among heart rate, respiratory rate and tidal volume were not. When parameters in each of the items of ADL-U were converted into the UIULX stage value, the difference in stage value in the parameters of “brushing hair” was not significant, but differences in stage values among the other activities were significant. The characters of the items of ADL-U were shown by the comparison of each parameter converted into the stage value of UIULX test. This suggests that the UIULX test may be used for clinical applications.

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To examine the prevalence of occupational musculoskeletal injuries in physical therapists (PTs) during a 2-year period, we sent questionnaires to 1,000 PTs, who had been randomly selected from the active membership list of the Japanese Physical Therapy Association in 1998. The effective response rate was 68%. Forty two percent of PTs reported to have sustained injuries, which were not related to their age and/or their clinical duration of experience. Female PTs had a significantly higher prevalence of occupational injuries than male PTs. The injury to the lower back was the highest (69%). Thirty four percent of the job factor(s), which contributed to this injury was lifting or transferring dependent patients. Only 35% of PTs reported these injuries to their supervisor. After sustaining their injury(s), many of PTs tried to accommodate their injury by modifying their practical methods rather than asking help for their colleagues. They showed a high relapse (41%). From these findings, we conclude that PTs have a high prevalence of occupational injuries, though they are assumed to be knowledgeable in the prevention, treatment and control of occupational musculoskeletal injuries, especially lower back injuries. It is necessary to investigate the measures in order to reduce such a high prevalence of occupational injuries in PTs.

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