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Willing Unwilling Muscles: The Use Of The Will In Muscle Training

Creator: John Ruhrah (author)
Date: February 1934
Publication: The Polio Chronicle
Source: Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation Archives

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"When the joint to be moved is rigid, the attempts on the part of the patient's will should begin only after the operator has repeatedly and for some time endeavored by passive movements, manipulations, and other means to ease the joint and undo the rigidity.

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"4. The greatest precision is desirable regarding the direction of the movement, its uniformity and duration.

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"5. The patient's will is to act simultaneously with the operator's will, or according to his command.

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"6. The repetition of the movement depends upon the patient's mental and physical powers.

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"7. The sympathetic influence of the will is made use of by inducing the patient to move also the healthy limb, while be tries to influence the corresponding paralyzed part.

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"8. The parts adjacent to the perfectly paralyzed part should be moved actively, i.e., by the patient alone, if this can be done, or while assisted by another person if the patient's power is not sufficient to overcome the resistance of the weight of the part to be moved; it happens frequently that the inactivity of a part continues only because the patient is unable to move it with ease, whilst a slight diminution of its weight enables him easily to overcome the difficulty.

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"9. The energy of the will is increased in parts under the patient's perfect control, by another person gently resisting the movement he intends to do, or by the patient's gentle resistance to a movement of his body or limbs, while done by another person.

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"The following are the successive stages regarding the functions of volition on the part of the patient:

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"1. The patient is encouraged by another person to make the first effort to will.

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"2. The patient tries, his power of moving is deficient; the movement is done for him.

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"3. The patient exerts his will, has but partial power, anoher person assists his movement either by diminishing the weight of the part or by actually doing a part of the movement.

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"4. The patient's will and power are sufficient to move the weak part, although not yet with case; his power increases by degrees and the weak part is moved with less difficulty.

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"5. The will of the patient is stimulated by another person gently resisting him, while doing an intended movement; or be gently resists the other person doing a movement with any part of his body.

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"Great caution is required not to fatigue the patient by the attempts to use his will; if a dull or acute pain in the head is caused by the patient's endeavors to will, these attempts must be stopped, and passive movements only should be used, til at a later period new trials can be made without causing headache." (Roth).

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