Introduction to Osteopathy & Osteopathic Medicine - Demonstration of hvla back adjustment

Hi this is Dr. Simcha Shapiro, here with Expert Village. And we're going to show you the technique of HVLA, high velocity, low amplitude. Remember, it?s a thrust technique that is going to be quick but over a very small distance. Once again, don't try this at home. Now see that out patient here has got a little something over here that is stuck. One of his vertebrae is not able to move as freely as it could. So what we're going to do is, I'm going to set him up and I'm going to show you just how I'm going to do it. Remember we talked before; we are using a long lever. So instead of having him on his stomach and being directly over the area that's stuck, I'm going to actually have him on his back and I'm going to use his arms to focus the force all the way through. So that I can use as little force as possible and get a great effect. Now we start by laying the patient down. And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to cross his arms. And what I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be applying the force through his elbows. And it?s going to come right to the other side where my hand will be waiting to receive it. And to back it up. And then I'm going to ask him to take a big breath, let it out. I'm going to just drop my weight a little bit and everything is going to go beautifully. Here we go. I'm finding the place on the other side. Putting my hand right there. Getting the force right where it needs to be. Putting my elbow here. Going to move him up a little bit. Deep breath and out. And that's all there is to it.