Muscle energy techniques

For curiosity, has anyone used / know about / have experience with muscle energy techniques (MET)?

When I finally had a chance to get back to PT last week (from July pre-screen), he did a full evaluation and found some muscle imbalances and the already-known hamstring tightness. Leg length discrepancy turned out to be functional with pelvis. He is starting top down with various stretching / strengthening exercises - with the end goal to be able to run hills the way I want (as opposed to the 'stop running' from my GP).

I had been trying the usual tennis ball approach with the hams to loosen them with no luck. He did this MET and got my leg just about vertical from a lying down position (used to be about 45 deg angle). To be sure, he had to work to get it vertical since it was so tight, but there was no sense of over-stretching in the incremental adjustments, and the ham truly felt looser afterward. My response was an amazed 'How'd you do that?' since I'd made essentially no progress. Sometimes it pays to go to a professional. Then he showed me how to do some of the techniques myself.

Anyway, I hadn't seen muscle energy techniques mentioned here recently and checked with google. Most ng references seem to be with the massage type ng, and web info tends to be for practitioners and announcement of courses, although there is some info.

This is a brief description:

Just curious what others might know.

Thanks.

Dot,

This really interests me because I too suffer from tight hams and pelvic/SI problems. In fact, I'm still trying to recover fully from a hamstring injury from last summer. Do you have any more information aside from what you've already posted?

Thanks,

Keith,

A lot of what I've found ('muscle energy technique' on google) has been very superficial or technical (my vocab for this type thing isn't that great, yet, so am looking for something basic), but the following powerpoint file seems to hit a lot of the high points, including a little of how it works, although I haven't digested it yet.
www.ohwi.org/Presentations/ Introduction%20to%20Muscle%20Energy%20Technique1.ppt

I also found a book on amazon (also available elsewhere) Muscle Energy Techniques by Leon Chaitow that looks like it might be useful ($62.95, but cheaper some other places). It comes with a CD. Reviews suggest it might be useful for novices.

I agree with Brewerbry that it is probably difficult to do the 'self energy muscle techniques' at home that the PT showed me. That is, I can do them, but probably not with the same results that the PT did since he is more knowledgeable about the feel. I wished I hadn't been tied up in the field or at events the 2.5 days after my appointment so I could have started the exercises while the feel was fresh in my mind.

Chaitow's normally a good writer, so this looks to me like it could be a good place for beginners. I suspect MET is like Alexander; difficult to do unless somebody physically shows you HOW to do it and then makes sure you know HOW it should feel, which is the only useful indicator for a student working alone. I wish I knew more, it sounds like a fascinating process. Keep us in touch with progress please Dot!