Originally posted by mamamax
Which quote from Asher is that?
I'm answering this question on a new thread because the other one moved to character assassination and accusation instead of poking a bit of fun at an eccentric guy.
At any rate, we went to see the Schroth clinic because Weiss was by far the most prolific conservative management author. The in-patient clinic was also the most aggressive and progressive treatment option. We saw the obvious holes in his papers and knew that an in-patient clinic would likely not be possible in the states. But still, the idea of the numbers of patients he saw combined with the reported success made us very interested in seeing first hand what it was all about. Dr. Asher, being an alpha dog in the scoliosis research world, just needed to find a time to go over there and the IRSSD conference in Belgium put us on the right side of the ocean for it. So a phone call later and we're booked to go and observe.
We didn't really have any specific goals other than just to see the set-up. We had no hope or real desire to collaborate. One main reason was that our project and interest was finding an alternative to bracing and the Schroth method is still heavily backed with bracing. So, not really an alternative. Also, we didn't really have anything that Weiss was interested in. His basic statement of "30 minutes a day of exercise could not exert enough force to control a curve", was basically what he thought of our project. He's correct to an extent, but also misses a big principle in muscle physiology, i.e. hypertrophic strengthening.
Their head therapist, Axel Hennes, was and still is involved in the method and is helping to bring the training here to the US. I found him to be extrememly smart and a really great therapist. I spent most of my time with him. We discussed several things/concerns with Schroth as well as our rotational study, mainly a lack of demonstrated physiology for what any of this is actually doing from a muscle point of view. I explained to him that my future goals would be to look more at the basic physiology and activation of the muscles during rotation as well as something more specific like Schroth. We both agreed this was needed very badly.
My biggest concern with Schroth overall in the US was the modesty portion of it. In Europe, or at least Germany, they don't have the puritanical background/guilt associated with certain things. At Schroth, therapy sessions are ~45-60 minutes long in a room with 10-30 patients. Most are adolescents and most are female. All rooms were set up with mirrors and lots of various equipment and the first thing they do is remove their shirts, sit in front of the mirror and start doing their exercises. All females had some type of bra top on. But I saw this as being a potential deal breaker in the US. And I asked Axel about this. He said what I said above, that in Germany they aren't as caught up on these things as the US. And it was clear that the girls didn't care one bit. He said that some of the American girls that would come over to the clinic would be a bit shy at first, but then after 2-3 days it was no big deal. It just wasn't an issue. This was also very obvious while in clinic with Weiss. The patients, no matter the age or sex had any modesty issues. Parents were always present and if anyone appeared uncomfortable it would have been me. Asher didn't care, Weiss didn't care, the patients and families didn't care.
My one major critique of the whole practice was that bracing seemed to be over-prescribed. I think there were a couple of reasons for that.
So I'm not sure if that answers your questions or if you have others.
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