Balance Boards for Physical Therapy - Indo Board
Balance Training is mandatory for any athlete but also very important
for any movement associated with life.
Balance training has been shown to reduce the incidence of injuries to the ankle, knee, hips, back and upper body. The role of balance training in maintaining functional joints stability is also an excellent form of rehabilitation for injuries to the above structures. Indo Board Balance Trainer's provide a progression from the linear and lateral movements of other traditional stationary balance boards. The movement of the board on the the roller or the full circle range of the IndoFLO® Balance Cushion creates a greater challenge to the proprioreceptors of the activated muscles thus intensifying the theraputic effects.
Therapeutic Affects
Relief from pain: Pain relief can be dramatic and rapid. Increase in blood supply, reduce healing time: By stimulating muscles to work the healing time of injured soft tissue can be reduced by increasing blood supply. This process will bring more healing products to the injured area. Improved venous and lymphatic drainage: By promoting movement that increases the muscular pump action to rid an area of excess fluid buildup. Loosening of adhesions: By maintaining movement of tissues in the area of inflammatory reaction there will be a decrease in the amount of adhesions that would normally form as a result of immobility. In case of pre-existing adhesions balance boards can help loosen and stretch the contracted scar tissue, bringing about a more efficient and pain- free range of motion. Improvement of functional instability: It has been proposed that functional instability is usually due to motor incoordination following articular deafferentation and that the sequel could have been prevented by functional training. Increased proprioceptive awareness: By reeducating mechanoreceptors, normal neuromuscular communication is maintained. Without the reeducation, the brain will not be fully aware of its true position of a joint, nor will it be able to communicate with the muscular system efficiently. Significantly reduce recurrent sprains: By reestablishing proprioception, prevention is further insured. The avoidance of re-injury depends on the proprioceptive system's ability to relay information to the CNS.
Performance Affects
Coordinated Movement & Cocontraction Affect: One characteristic of optimal joint function is the quality of coordinated motion and the level of muscular cocontraction. Balance board training can enhance function by providing a level of challenge in training that exceeds the conditions of normal competition. Training at a higher, more challenging degree to enhance competitive performance is a very common principle of sports science. Neuromuscular Integration: For any given task or skill, a neural pathway is required for its execution. Required information travels from brain to muscles via neural pathways. The quantity and quality of these neural pathways determines the ability to execute poorly or perfectly. Balance board training can improve the neural pathways for trunk and lower extremity stabilization. It can also enhance reflexive response as well as the timing and amplitude of muscular contration (ie. speed and strength). Injury prevention: Balance board training can strengthen and stabilize joints, thereby, further preventing joint injury, and excessive wear and tear.
Rehabilitative and Injury Prevention Benefits of Balance Training
Instability resistance training with its high muscle activation and lower external stress on joints can also be beneficial for general musculoskeletal health and certain types of rehabilitation1. Clinical scientific studies have shown that balance training, which can be described as instability activities without an emphasis on increasing strength or endurance, decreases the incidence of athletic injuries. The role of balance training in maintaining functional joint stability is an excellent form of rehabilitation for injuries. When you injure a structure such as the ankle, knee back or shoulder, whether that injury is in a muscle, ligament or joint capsule, the proprioceptive signal is weakened. This weakened signal inhibits the normal motor response and diminishes the neuromuscular stabilization of the joint and thus potentially contributes to a pattern of repetitive injury.
Studies have shown that instability balance training is effective for gains in muscular strength and contrary to strength training; equalization of muscular imbalances may be achieved.5 Furthermore, there is a general consensus in the scientific community that balance training can improve postural stability and the ability to maintain an upright posture under dynamic conditions in subjects with lower extremity injuries such as knee injuries or ankle instability.
Recent studies also suggest that using a multi-station proprioceptive exercise (balance training) program it is possible to improve postural control, functional capacity and decrease perceived knee pain in patients with bilateral knee osteoarthrosis 6 and the prevention and rehabilitation of recurrent ankle inversion injuries.7 Furthermore injury prevention programs incorporating balance training and neuromuscular training have proven to significantly reduce the incidence of knee and ankle injuries in athletes.
Therefore proper use of Indo Board products as a rehabilitative tool, under the direct supervision of a trained professional, will pose a preventive basis against injury by strengthening the stabilization structures in the body while also conditioning the body to strengthen the proprioceptive signals.
Therapy Testimonials
Email from Alex Konopka
Hunter,
I talked to you last winter about the Indo Board. We talked on the phone for a bit and you gave me the tip of using the Indo Board as a good party trick, ha ha ha...
I broke my leg and tore the ligaments in my ankle sand surfing. I just wanted to say that the Indo board has made such a huge impact in my life. I am fully mobile, full flexibility, with way more strength. I have been using it everyday for about 20 minutes to an hour and a half. I have learned alot of the tricks and balance acts and my body is more lean and my leg is probably back to 100 percent. My accident happened in December.
I am sooo happy to have found your product. I use the Indo right before I go longboard skating to get my balance muscles fired up and thenI go out and skate and carve up for a few hours. I am going to Mexico in December to surf, I am very excited because my body feels better now than before I had surgery.
Thanks again Hunter, and I can't thank you enough for the impact the Indo has hand in my recovery and in my life.
Alex Konopka
Portland, Oregon
Letter from Dr. Terry Weyman. D.C. CCSP, Sports Chiropractor
Dear Mr. Joslin,
I have been using the Indo Board in my clinic now for over five year and I must say I am still very much impressed with the board. Balance training is mandatory for any athletic event but also very important for any movement associated with life. Balance training has been shown to reduce the incidence of injuries to the ankle, knee, hips, back and upper body. The role of balance training in maintaining functional joint stability is also an excellent form of rehabilitation for injuries to the above structures. When you injure a structure, ligaments or joint capsule the proprioceptive signal is weakened. This weakened signal inhibits the normal motor response and diminishes the neuromuscular stabilization of the joint. This condition contributes to a pattern of repetitive injury. We use the Indo Board Balance Trainer to break the cycle!
We treat many athletes at our clinic and they look forward to their "on land surfing" training the most. We find that when they love the exercises their compliance goes up as well as the results. Thank you very much for helping us help others.
Keep up the great work and keep on making the Indo Boards. They are the best I have seen in the world of balance training.
Sincerely,
Dr. Terry Weyman, D.C. CCSP, Sports Chiropractor
1994 Winter Olympics, Team Doctor for Norwegian Alpine Team
Medical Director - Professional Water Ski Tour
Letter from Joanne Danssaert, Physical Therapist
Dear Mr. Joslin,
I live in Solana Beach, California and saw your Indo Board at a surfing contest. I immediately purchased one for my private physical therapy office. I have many rocker boards, and balance boards designed for the medical field but thought that the Indo Board was unique. I was impressed that it was less expensive than others I own and frankly it looked a lot more fun.
I use the Indo Board for a wide range of patients. I see many young athletes in my practice. Solana Beach Physical Therapy is located a quarter mile from the beach so many of my patients surf and/ or skateboard. Clearly people with orthopedic injuries vary in their limitations. I use the Indo Board for strengthening the lower extremities (legs) and trunk.
Physical therapists often use dynamic balance responses to strengthen patients. Midrange knee control, weight shifting and endurance are also challenged on your device. I have occasionally simplified the Indo Board for beginners by having my clients hold onto a door frame initially. I have used the Indo Board with children as young as 5 years old and with clients as old as 60. I do not see a lot of geriatric patients but would caution others to use good guarding techniques and build up slowly with this population.
My favorite client has been my own ten year-old son. He is a competitive soccer player and had knee surgery to remove an over growth of synovial membrane in this knee. He loves his Indo Board and has phenomenal midrange knee control and balance. He has returned to soccer, karate and surfing and I attribute his success to your wonderful balance board.
Joanne Danssaert, PT
Letter from James Crosland, Indo Enthusiast
What's up Hunter,
I was just going to tell you how awesome your product is. My name is James Crosland and I go to the University of Colorado, last semester (Fall 05). I was wrestling with a roomate and broke my ankle in three places and dislocated it. After surgery (a 5 inch titainium plate, and 9 screws), I was told that my ski season was over by my doctor. Now having raced in high-school and averaging 30-40 days a year through college, this was rough information. I was told I may, and it was a very big MAY, be able to ski at the end of March. But, My roommate got a Pro model Indo Board over Christmas. This is about the same time I started walking without a boot or cast on. Having grown up surfing, wakeboarding, skating, skiing ... I hopped right onto the Indo. My ankle was stiff from close to three months in a cast or boot, and the biggest thing holding me back from skiing was my flexibility of my ankle to get into the boot, not to mention the lack of strength in my ankle as well. Over the next month I rode the Indo everyday, after 5 weeks my ankle had almost full range of motion, and was strong enough to ski again. So instead of the end of March I was back on the slope by Feb. 8th to catch the second half of the season. At that point I had not thought about throwing tricks in the park this year because I figured I would just hurt myself again. But by March I was hucking airs and sliding rails better than the year before.
Landing tricks is easier, because I find an extra sense of body control in the air than last year... thanks to your board. Now, I have my own Original model board, my roomate has the Pro model, our other buddy has the Mini Pro model, and my parents recently purchased the Golf model board. I am now done with ski season and got my first day wakeboarding last week, once again I could feel improvement even though I haven't been on the water for 8 months, I can't wait to see how the surfing goes this summer. Your product rocks! And if your ever looking for someone to market it out in Colorado, I would love to do it. Colorado is a great market with skiers and boarders alike, and just at CU we could sell 100 of them without a problem, other than the fact you can't buy them here! But seriously, I would jump at the bit to work for a company that could possibly help others the way it helped me.
James Crosland
Boulder, Colorado
Email from Jacqueline Mast PT, MSED
My work as a pediatric physical therapist involves a lot of core strengthening as well as hip, knee, ankle, mid foot strengthening. I also work with kids on equilibrium reactions while teaching them how to balance without startle reactions (arms flying up) or protective reactions (arms out to catch themselves when they fall).
I use the Indo Board to achieve all of these goals. As long as the child's legs are long enough to straddle the board, I get him/her on it. The kids I have regularly using the Indo Board are as young as 2 years. The kids I work with come to me with such problems as cerebral palsy, toe walking, flat feet, autism, low muscle tone, clumsiness. The changes I get in these kids is dramatic.
The Indo Board requires that they slow down and develop midrange muscle control or they will fall or step off. Startle reactions cause them to step off backward so they learn to get that under control quickly. Like riding a bike, once the skill of controlling the board becomes part of the developing child's body awareness, the body never forgets. I tell parents/kids that they could take up surfing, snowboarding or snowboarding and it would come easily.
The parents of one of my boys with autism took me up on the idea and took their 4 year old son skiing. There was no learning curve problem. It was as if he'd been skiing forever. Athletics will come easy to my patients because they learn how to learn through the physical challenges the Indo Board provides. And parents can see and recognize the great gains their kids make in a short time thanks to Indo Board. Best of all it is FUN!
Jacqueline Mast PT, MSED
Mast Clinic in Westbrook, Maine