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History

Freddy Kaltenborn was a Norwegian physical therapist who dedicated, during the 40s, to treatment of patients with spine disorders. He was frustrated with the results obtained by using the massage combined with the mobilization and manipulation along with active and passive movements he had learned from conventional physical therapy training. This is why he turned to the work of Dr. James Mennel and Dr. James Cyriax both orthopedic medicine experts dedicated to the physical therapists training.

Kaltenborn went to London in the early 1950's to learn the joint mobilization techniques of Dr. Mennell and Dr. Cyriax. Upon his return to Norway he was approved and endorsed by the Oslo's Physical Therapy Association to teach the first course on Cyriax's method in Norway in the year 1954. This fact significantly changed the vision the Norwegian medicine had of the Manual Therapy, and they approved its inclusion in the traditional medical practice in 1958.

The first physical therapists completing their studies in the Dr. Cyriax method formed the Norwegian Manipulation Group.

But, in the beginning, the spine evaluation and treatment method Cyriax, Mennell and the Norwegian Manipulation Group used was regional, and therefore non-specific. The techniques were not directed towards a specific spinal segment or structure. That is why, between the late 50s and the early 60s, Kaltenborn studied at the British School and at the London Osteopathy College with professor Alan Stoddard. He was an osteopath who had developed more specific techniques for the spine treatment. Along with Stoddard, Kaltenborn selected the osteopathic techniques he would introduce into the Norwegian Manipulation Group.

This way, Kaltenborn worked long time with Cyriax and Stoddard to determine which physical therapy, osteopathy, sports and osteopathic medicine evaluation and treatment tools should be part of the Manual Therapy training program for physical therapists. Kaltenborn's idea was to develop a unique method that would unify the knowledge he had acquired during the previous years, along with his own theories and techniques.  That is the way in which "Manual Therapy ad modum Kaltenborn" or "The Kaltenborn method" was created, around the year 1958.

Besides Cyriax's, Mennel's and Stoddard's techniques, Kaltenborn also introduced other important concepts in his method such as the biomechanical principles for the evaluation and treatment, the translatoric joint play movements in relation to the treatment plane, the concave-convex rule, the treatment grades, the tridimensional prepositioning methods, the adjacent joint's protection and the ergonomic principles directed to protect the therapist.

From 1962 on, the Scandinavian medical doctors who had studied in the Manual Therapy training taught by Kaltenborn, created the Nordic Association of Manual Medicine Medical Doctors (NFMM), which would allow spreading the mothod to the rest of the Scandinavian countries. They named Kaltenborn as the training director.

By that time, Kaltenborn had already started working with Olaf Evjenth, a Norwegian physical therapist who had experience with the physical education and the athletic training. He introduced some innovations which completed the Kaltenborn method. Concretely, Evjenth created specialized techniques for muscle stretching and strengthening, also for the coordination training. He also designed more intensive training plans for the patients, and developed programs in which, besides taking care of the pain and the range of movement, the performance was also assessed. Moreover, he modified the exercises specifically for the patient's use at home, with self-mobilization, self-stabilizing and self-stretching. Later, in the year 1990, Evjenth would introduce the symptom alleviation tests, as an injury localizing method and would also improve the symptom provocation tests.

Kaltenborn and Evjenth, along with the Norwegian Manual Therapy Group, also developed additional techniques for self-treatment, and ergonomic equipment (mobilization wedges, fixating belts, etc.) in order to make the treatments more effective and less physically stressing for the physical therapist. In the same way, he combined various techniques so as to obtain better results, leading to the concept of multiple treatment techniques, one of the mainstays in which the concept is based.

This way, the Kaltenborn-Evjenth Concept was presented to the world in the year 1973, coinciding with the International Seminar of Orthopaedic Manual Therapy (ISOMT), founded by Brodin, Cyriax, Hinsen, Stoddard and the own Kaltenborn and Evjenth.

A year later, in 1974, Kaltenborn founded, along with Geoffrey Maitland, Stanley Paris, David Lamb, Gregory Grieve, Brian Edwards and other physical therapists trained in their methods, the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manual Therapy, which nowadays is a World Confederation of Physical Therapy's (WCPT) subgroup, it is also in charge of establishing the training standards of the OMT all around the world.