[Medical exercise therapy--indications, tips on individualized prescription]

Medical training therapy (MTT) belongs to the active methods which can be used by physiotherapists under medical prescription. This dynamic method was originally developed by O. Holten in Norway but it has become extremely popular in patients and did also convince a large number of therapists; as a consequence of its success, its prescription increased progressively and actually replaced larger parts of the passive methods used before. The aims of MTT is to work in a pain free environment and increase both muscle resistance, strength and joint mobility as well. The technique does not have any absolute contraindication, but it has to be individually adapted to each single patient. A true advantage of MTT is certainly that the active training sessions can be done in small well controlled groups of patients. As it does also apply for other types of currently used physical therapies, there are only restricted evidence-based proofs of efficacy and therefore scientifically sound studies are still needed in this field.