A randomised controlled trial of 'clockwise' ultrasound for low back pain.

Aims: To examine how the choice of words explaining ultrasound (US) may influence the outcome of physiotherapy treatment for low back pain (LBP).

Methods: Sixty-seven patients with LBP < 3 months were randomly allocated to one of three groups - traditional education about US (control group [CG]), inflated education about US (experimental group [EG]) or extra-inflated education about US (extra-experimental group [EEG]). Each patient received the exact same application of US that has shown clinical efficacy for LBP (1.

Effects of short-term training using powercranks on cardiovascular fitness and cycling efficiency.

Powercranks use a specially designed clutch to promote independent pedal work by each leg during cycling. We examined the effects of 6 wk of training on cyclists using Powercranks (n=6) or normal cranks (n=6) on maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) and anaerobic threshold (AT) during a graded exercise test (GXT), and heart rate (HR), oxygen consumption (VO2), respiratory exchange ration (RER), and gross efficiency (GE) during a 1-hour submaximal ride at a constant load. Subjects trained at 70% of VO2max for 1 h.