Our group worked on a student last week and found:
Rt SI goes down; Left doesn’t move
Supine
ROM Lft/rt external rotation - 39/47
ROM Lft/rt internal rotation - 25/35
Prone
ROM Lft/rt external rotation - 34/42
ROM Lft/rt internal rotation - 30/32
These figures would tell me that the left external and internal rotators are potentially weak or the opposing muscle is tight and to muscle test the external and internal rotators. Correct?
Yes, the range of motion tells you only what is tight. For weakness you must do the muscle tests as a separate assessment. The sign that the left ranges are consistently less than the right suggests that they are also weak.
If the right SI is moving down shouldn’t the Rt external and internal rotators be less than normal ROM? Still not feeling comfortable with the ROM concept.
A) SI motion does not tell you anything other than to give the SI stabilizing exercise. It is not an assessment of the hip rotators.
Q) We did go onto muscle test her and found her gluteus maximus is weak on both sides and internal rotators weak on both sides. We also found that her QL on both sides were hard to engage. She had to really focus to engage them. If a person needs to focus on engaging a muscle does that mean the muscle is weak?
A) Yes.
Q) Also, she says it is her left side that has pain. With a Rt SI moving down wouldn’t the pain be localized on the RT?
A) No conclusion can be made from this.