Technique · 5 min
Stroke names the exam actually tests
Spastic limb? You want easy gliding, not percussion. The stem is telling you the nervous system is already too loud.
School loves to teach strokes as a sequence you perform on everyone. The exam does not. It pairs a presentation with a stroke and waits to see if you match mechanism to method. Spastic paralysis wants effleurage. Fibrous ankylosis wants friction. Acute sprain from thirty minutes ago wants ice, not a deep elbow.
Stroke to presentation (exam defaults, not spa menus)
When NYS items usually want it
Long glide, light to moderate
Spasticity, intro/exit, superficial capillaries
Tapotement or vibration on a hypertonic limb
Chronic tightness once acute signs are gone
Using it on fresh inflammation
Small, specific, often cross-fiber
Tendon/ligament, fibrous restriction
Heat-then-ice stories for chronic tendinitis (keyed path is friction then ice)
Percussion: hacking, cupping, tapping
Stimulation, respiratory cupping in some keys
Sedation only in specific teaching; often excitatory at the spindle
Assuming vibration always calms tone
Compression is good at moving fluid and downregulating local nerve noise. It is a weak story for “boosting immunity.” If an item asks what compression is least effective at, do not invent an immune miracle.
Treatment planning reading
Cram sheets (full access)
Effleurage is the long glide. If the stem says hypertonic or spastic, start here.
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