Physiotherapists

Some 200 women and men, strong of arm and body, who earn their living as physiotherapists, sat down in a Los Angeles auditorium last week for a dance performance which was part entertainment, part instruction. Four strapping girls in short trunks rambled onto the stage, swung legs and arms, rotated feet, hands, heads, clenched fists, raised knees, arched backs, twisted torsos, squatted.

"This," declared Catherine A. Worthingham, San Jose physiotherapist, "demonstrates that the girl who wishes to dance is self-motivated. She knows that she must have strong, sensitive feet; that her body balance must be so perfected that she can stand, move, change direction or position at any time with poise and ease; that her readiness for movement must mean control and decision rather than nervous anticipation. Sagging abdominal muscles, rigid or weak backs have no place in a dancer's body."

Miss Worthingham was vice president of the American Physiotherapy Association which was holding its annual convention in Los Angeles last week. Purpose of that body is to register men and women technicians who, under orders of a regular physician, treat "disease by non-medical means, comprising the use of physical, chemical and other properties of heat, light, water, electricity (except Roentgen Rays, Radium and Electrosurgery), massage and exercise."

Miss Worthingham pinch-hit for Margaret Jewell, instructor of physical education in San Jose (Calif.) State College, where the four strapping dancing demonstrators were students. Had Miss Jewell been present in Los Angeles last week, she would have advised playing on drums for cripples. Wrote she: "Excellent postural results can be derived from cross-legged sitting, trunk erect, arms lifted from the shoulder--elbows akimbo, while the pupil's interest is intrigued with rhythmic patterns to be played on her drum. Heart cases who often feel very 'out of things' because of numerous restrictions may become valuable members of a percussion group and be revitalized by finding something to do that is welcomed and needed by the dancers."

For "developing muscles weakened by lack of daily use," the sovereign system of Professor Edith Lindsay of Oakland's Mills College is swimming. "Swimming," she declared last week, "tops all activities as to values in physical, social, psychological and recreational development. . . . Besides direct effect on muscles, swimming is a superior activity in strengthening the vital functions and organic vigor of the body. The massaging action of the abdominal muscles needed to keep the internal organs in a state of tonus is provided by the leg thrash, which is controlled by muscles originating on the pelvis. Circulation is speeded. The heart, more nearly on a level with all parts of the body, adjusts easily to the extra energy demands. Muscular contractions demand an increased supply of oxygen. The depth and rate of respiration are accelerated. Continued exercise in the pool makes for depth and fine breathing adjustments. Assimilation and elimination are taking place faster than usual. Weakness of abdominal and trunk muscles of students is due to a great extent to habitually poor sitting positions."

Since President Roosevelt popularized swimming pools for victims of infantile paralysis, and hydrotherapy has become a major activity of physiotherapists, special occupational ailments have become prevalent among those technicians. They must accompany patients in warm pools. Warm water makes them lose a pound of sweat during a two-to-three hour treatment. It also lowers their blood pressure. Chlorine, essential to sterilize the pools in which the sick bathe, causes a skin irritation which is almost impossible to cure unless the physiotherapist keeps, out of the water entirely. If the patient exercises alone in a small raised pool, the attendant must stoop over to give treatments and this often develops backaches. To avoid backaches and skin troubles, smart hydrotherapists wear cotton athletic suits inside light-weight waterproof waders which cover them from soles to armpits.

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