Vladimír Janda

Vladimír Janda
Born (1928-04-19) April 19, 1928
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Died November 25, 2002(2002-11-25) (aged 74)[1]
Nationality Czech
Alma mater First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague
Occupation Neurologist
Known for Skeletal muscle
Muscle imbalance
Website jandaapproach.com

Vladimír Janda (April 19, 1928 in Prague – November 25, 2002) was a Czech physician and chiropractor who became known for his work in the field of skeletal muscle, as well as developing systems to assess and correct movement dysfunction in athletes.[2] Janda is known as the father of the Czech rehabilitation method, known as the "Method of Janda".[3] In youth, he suffered from the effects of polio.[4]

Early life and education

Janda studied at the gymnasium in Kolín, Czechoslovakia, where he graduated in 1947. At the age of 15, he contracted polio and was unable to walk for two years. Although he eventually recovered, he developed post-polio syndrome and was forced to use a walker until the end of his life in 2002. The experience had an impact on his professional life and led him to medical studies and a focus on physical medicine and rehabilitation. His early inspiration was Sister Kenny’s rehabilitation therapy for children with polio. As a freshman, he served as her interpreter and helped present her method in 1947 in Czechoslovakia. ince the beginning, Janda’s foci were muscular systems and pain syndromes of the locomotor system. In 1949, while still a student at the age of 21, he published his first book, Funkcní svalový test [Function Muscle Test] on muscle testing and functionality. It was the first of its kind in the Czech language and became a primary literature in rehabilitation. Since then, it has been re-printed in many editions worldwide.

Career

Janda earned a degree in Neurology from Charles University School of Medicine in Prague in 1952 and joined the Vinohrady Neurology Clinic, working under professor Macek. He also worked in a rehabilitation center for post-polio patients.

Janda’s interest in the sensory-motor system led him to begin researching muscle activity at the hip joint using EMG. He discovered that patients who did not engage their gluteus maximus during hip extension compensated with an exaggerated pelvic tilt to accomplish the extension. His observations led him to study movement mechanics, focusing on muscle function rather than strength. Further research inspired Janda to explore the relationship between patients with sacroiliac dysfunction and muscle weakness, finding weakness and inhibition of the gluteus maximus, even in the absence of pain.

Janda recognised that certain muscles in the human body were prone to weakness, and he began to define movement patterns to estimate quality of movement. His observations formed the underlying premise of his approach to treatment: that human muscle imbalance is systematic and predictable, and that imbalanced muscle tone affects the entire body, and is at the source of movement dysfunction.

The Janda Approach

In his approach, Janda looks at the entire organism and observes how dysfunctional movement patterns in one area of the body can lead to pain in another area. For example, instability in the ankles can lead to low back pain, and in such instance, treating low back will not resolve mechanical deficiencies. From Janda’s perspective, chronic pain can be thought of as a software issue, rather than a hardware issue. If you take a structural approach, you are treating the symptoms but not getting at the underlying problem.

Functionally, the body moves in a coordinated sequence of movement, mediated by the sensory motor system. When muscles are out of balance, postural and movement anomalies occur that are out of sync with optimal mechanics, manifesting as pain in one or more of the affected structures.

Janda identified two functional groups of muscles, tonic and phasic. Tonic muscles are flexors and are developed in utero, in the fetal position, when the body is flexed into itself. Phasic muscles are extensors that develop after birth. Flexors are dominant in repetitive rhythmic activity like walking and running, and extensors work eccentrically, lengthening against the force of gravity. Tonic muscles are prone to tightness and phasic muscles are prone to weakness.

In his work with patients, Janda observed that after structural lesions occurred in the central nervous system, the tonic muscles tended to be spastic, while the phasic muscles were flaccid. He concluded that muscle imbalances are influenced by the CNS, and not by structural changes in the muscles themselves.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Liebenson, Craig. "In Memory of Professor Vladimir Janda (1928-2002)". www.dynamicchiropractic.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  2. ↑ "How to correct movement dysfunction". Philly.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  3. ↑ NYDNRehab.com (2017-08-10). "The Janda Approach to Pain Management and Body Mechanics". NYDNRehab.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  4. ↑ Fitzgordon, Jonathan. "Vladimir Janda and Muscle Syndromes". corewalking.com. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  5. ↑ Assessment and Treatment of Muscle Imbalance: The Janda Approach. Human Kinetics. ISBN 9781450408288.
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