If you’ve been wondering what all the fuss is about Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilisation (IASTM) but have never been able to find the time or funds to attend a course, this is the course for you! This online course from Mike Reinold and Erson Religioso is a great cost effective way to learn the techniques in your own time and immediately apply it to clinical practice.
I have known both Mike and Erson for several years now and more recently Erson has been a valued supporter of Physiopedia through our Partner program. So, when I heard about the course they had produced together I just couldn’t resist taking a look. Firstly, I am an e-learning developer so I wanted to be nosey and secondly as a physiotherapist who doesn’t work clinically but runs one of the largest physiotherapy websites in the world, I like (to try!) to stay up-to-date with all that goes on in our profession.
As an online course, this course is brilliant! It is easily accessible via one login where you can access all the learning materials on one page. This makes it very easy to bookmark on your computer and then review the techniques whenever you want to. Made up almost entirely of videos (there are 36 of them!) it often feels like you are there in the room with your tutors. The videos are generally quite informal which I like. No reading from scripts, no fuss with editing to create perfection. Just time in the clinic with your tutors.
Did I learn how to do IASTM, Yes! It’s an easy technique to learn which lends itself very well to video demonstrations. There are: five videos that introduce you to IASTM and the basic principles, 17 technique videos and 12 more on advanced techniques and case demonstrations. Now I don’t mind admitting that I’m a very rusty clinician, so if after completing this course I can be effective in treating others, then a practising clinician will be able to add an effective, affordable and simple new manual therapy technique to their skill set without delay.
I tried out the Edge Tool. This came from the European distributor Tool Assisted Massage, in the US you can get this tool direct from Erson. Again, I have to say I am impressed. Now, although I am unable to compare this IASTM tool to any others I found it to be easy to use, effective and most importantly for me (as I travel around a lot) portable for use at any time!
So if you are happy with informal online learning and would like to know more about IASTM I say, check out this course. And once you’ve done that let’s all build the IASTM page in Physiopedia, we could even get a topic in before Wikipedia if we get started now!
UPDATE 2nd Oct 2013 – within hours of this post going live with Rachael’s call to build the IASTM page on Physiopedia, thanks to the fantastic efforts of Mohamed Kassim Abdul Wahab we now have a great fully referenced page! Amazing!