Regional interdependence is a fancy term which basically means the joints of the body are all related and can have an effect on other areas. This is why we assess the structures surrounding the painful area. For example, if you have knee pain, we will assess the hip and ankle for possible contributing factors.
In the body, joints are designed to be stable or mobile. Thankfully, there is a pattern…they alternate. Let’s take the foot-ankle complex for example. We have always heard that flat feet (think too mobile) are bad so we want the foot to be stable. Then, the next closest joint, the ankle, needs to be mobile. This alternating stable-mobile-stable patterns continues throughout the body, so the mobile segment can work on a stable base. You might think of this like standing on a skateboard…the board can move (mobile) and if we are also mobile when we stand on it, things don’t go so well. We need to be stable when standing on the mobile skateboard to not fall.
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