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How To Use Dynamometry In Clinical Practice

Just because you have a ‘number’ it doesn’t mean that it’s accurate, reliable or reproducible.
Worse, it can guide you into poor decision-making with your patients and clients.

Understand how to use commercially-available and hand-held devices to obtain true and accurate measures of performance and avoid making the mistakes of others.

Enter your details to grab a FREE Dynamometer Comparison Tool

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If you’re interested in:

  • understanding how to use commercially-available and hand-held devices
  • how to create and conduct meaningful assessments
  • obtaining true and accurate measures of performance
  • avoiding the mistakes of others in acquiring and using data

Why this course is uniquely for Rehab Professionals

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It’s fantastic to see testing devices at price points that are accessible to small clinics BUT we need to understand the device and the test characteristics else we run the risk of misinterpreting the data and making poor treatment and rehab decisions.

Despite the drive to incorporate data in decision making, training on objective assessments, protocol design and data interpretation and isn’t routinely provided for rehab professionals … until now!

By the end of this course, you’ll not only understand how to assess the relative merits of different dynamometers (and which to buy), you’ll be able to design and deliver accurate assessments of muscle force that will acquire meaningful data that will help guide your practice, decision-making and monitor progress with your individual patients and clients.

What clinicians often don't know...

Assessing the individual demands a greater level of measurement precision

This is really important. In clinic or in a sporting setting, we’re often concerned with assessing AN INDIVIDUAL. We want to see if they’ve got better over time, or if there’s a difference between limbs. This is very different to assessing performance of a group, which you typically see reported in the literature. Measurement variability can have a greater impact on accuracy and we need to account for that.

Some tests of muscle performance may have more than 40% error

What? Yep, even in the most rigorous of testing environments with asymptomatic people, a single measure of muscle force production may be only accurate to +/- 40%*. This means two individual scores need to differ by 40% in order to be confident that they’re really different and not just artefacts of error. That’s not very useful when we’re trying to detect changes. There are essential strategies to manipulate the testing environment to improve your precision.

RFD is highly variable

This role of this parameter of muscle performance is becoming widely recognised as integral for successful rehabilitation whether that be for the elite athlete or in older populations. RFD is a funny beast. It is highly variable and different parts of the force-time curve give us different information. It is critical to understand what your dynamometer reports, how it reports it and how to improve the accuracy of your measures.

Designed and delivered by Dr Claire Minshull

Internationally-respected tutor, author and researcher, Claire has conducted 1000s of assessments of muscle function on athletes and patients in support of return to play decision-making, rehabilitation guidance and for scientific studies. She has also written many peer-reviewed articles on measurement science and how to optimise assessment methods.

*Minshull et al (2009). Single measurement reliability and reproducibility of volitional and magnetically-evoked indices of neuromuscular performance in adults. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 19 1013-23

We will cover all of this and more in a really simple to follow clinician-focussed course.

That means it’ll be pragmatic and:

  • You won’t get bogged down by stats, but you will have a better understanding of measurement science!
  • You can use the strategies taught in clinic, you don’t need a complex lab set-up
  • You can apply everything you learn to each and every patient / client
  • You’ll be able to develop your own measurement protocols and know exactly how accurate they are
  • There’s a lot of hype and marketing buzz in the dynamometer market, understandably because there are a lot of devices to chose from and companies need to get your attention. Jazzy-looking devices with apps are cool, but the really important features - the technical specifications are essential to understand what a device is capable of reliably measuring, and not!

A detailed breakdown of each module

Take read of exactly what we’ll cover 

Module 1

Introduction To Dynamometry

Lessons:

  • 1. What is dynamometry?
  • 2. Types of dynamometers
  • 3. How do dynamometers work?
  • 4. Isometric testing vs isokinetic
  • 5. Sampling frequency
  • 6. Hand-held dynamometers

Module 2

What Are We Measuring & Why?

Lessons:

  • 1. The force-time curve
  • 2. Peak force & rate of force development (RFD)
  • 3. Sampling frequency & RFD
  • 4. Intra-individual vs. group performance
  • 5. Using data to aid decision-making
  • 6. Which hand-held dynamometer?

Module 3

Measurement Error & Controlling It

Lessons:

  • 1. Sources of measurement error
  • 2. Influences of error on decision making
  • 3. Calculation of measurement error
  • 4. Calibration

Module 4

Developing Meaningful Assessments

Lessons:

  • 1. Equipment
  • 2. Protocol
  • 3. Participant
  • 4. Data

Module 5

Identifying Common Measurement Errors

  • A series of videos to test your knowledge

Video Library

Examples of Upper & Lower Limb Performance Assessment

ALL ONLINE - WORK AT YOUR OWN PACE

Here’s what you’re getting when you enrol:

5 Modules

20 individual lessons

Video library

Resources & readings

Lifetime Access!

Make sure you’re on the list to get priority access and a chance of winning one of 20 free places for additional in-person training with Dr Claire Minshull

Don't forget to download your
FREE Dynamometer Comparison Tool

Download Here

Don't miss this Pod with Claire on dynamometry:

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