NASM CES Chapter 18: Real-World Application of Corrective Exercise Strategies 4

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Chapter Goals:

  • Make a corrective exercise program that is individualized and based on the client’s own desires for outcomes and functional needs.
  • Make a program for corrective exercise that is individualized and also based on the results that came from the assessments. 
  • Be able to explain the integration of corrective exercises for the many scenarios or circumstances.
  • Make a program for corrective exercise that works with the current movement compensation of the client.

Introduction

It should be seen that the corrective exercise continuum to this point in the book is more than just a collection of assessments, techniques, and exercises.

Instead, it is a comprehensive assessment and programming system for enhancing and optimizing people’s movement, recovery, and durability.

The continuum puts together evidence based strategies and solutions that are rooted in concepts and principles throughout the science of human movement.

This allows the fitness professional to utilize and employ many techniques, tools, and practices in the program to accomplish the desired outcomes with their clients.

The ideal program will go beyond science and focus on the client. 

The program should not just include the needs and assessment results specific to the client but also meet their goals and expectations along with being correctly and consistently executed over time to elicit improvement. 

Corrective Exercise for Any Goal

The desired corrective exercise outcomes will be in the realm of hypertrophy, weight loss, health and wellness, and athletic performance.

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Make sure to study the table that details the information regarding the benefits of corrective exercise and the individual suggestion for adherence for all of the desired outcomes mentioned. 

Prioritizing Corrective Exercise Programming

A common concern coming from fitness professionals will be the challenge of knowing where to start programming when a client shows many compensations in the assessment process.

There are many ways to prioritize the strategy of corrective exercise, and it is simply going to be up to the specialist to decide where the client should start.

We do have some considerations that can go into making these decisions. 

Prioritize a Region

A region or a kinetic chain checkpoint may be an obvious place to focus the programming on.

Whichever compensation sticks out the most to you would be a good place to start.

This is especially good if the client is limited on time or can execute only a few corrective exercises. 

Functional and Lifestyle Needs of the Client

The professional may also choose to prioritize exercise selections based on the client’s needs.

Creating programs that match the assessment results with a client’s lifestyle or functional needs is a sweet spot for combining personal relevance with exercise science. 

Needs of the Workout

One of the simpler ways that we can program corrective exercise will be to make it easy for the client to understand corrective exercise as a customized movement preparation sequence for the workout.

Some examples of programming selections for the improvement of the shoulder region could be things like:

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  • Inhibit with the tool of choice the pec minor, upper traps, and the latissimus dorsi.
  • Lengthen with static stretch the pec major and minor, the upper traps, and the latissimus dorsi. 
  • Activate the prone cobra and the plank.
  • Integrate with the squat exercises to row, and warm up sets of the first exercise to be done. 

Programming When Compensations are Present

Reinforcing Proper Movement Patterns

Health and fitness professionals may abandon some movement patterns due to the lack of mobility of their clients or a lack of neuromuscular control for performing with good technique.

Sometimes you should avoid moves like squatting, overhead or hinging exercises until the professional is confident in the client’s ability.

Here are some strategies for fundamental movement patterns in clients that compensate:

  • Focus the inhibition and lengthening techniques on the areas that show impairments that are specific to the desired pattern.
  • Even if it is partial, use the client’s range of motion to perform the move instead of simply omitting it due to a lessened range of motion.
  • Perform movements that complement and reinforce the trained patterns during the activation and integration phases of the continuum.

Using All Phases of the Corrective Exercise Continuum

Using all of the phases we have covered is critical to creating beneficial programs of corrective exercise.

It is often seen that professionals will skip steps and phases of activation and integration at times.

Each phase accomplishes a certain objective in the human movement system. When they are put together with the other components, they will create the ideal environment for moving properly and integrating into the client or athlete’s everyday life.

The third and fourth steps are sometimes skipped. Still, without them, the client will achieve a naïve range of motion, and the human movement system will not have learned how to handle and incorporate the movement patterns properly.

These mobility gains will end up being short lived and not reinforced in any way.

Corrective Exercise Progressions

The corrective exercise programs should align themselves with the principle of overload.

This is like resistance training, where we see the need to do more and more for progression actually to happen. 

Incorporating Corrective Exercise Strategies in Different Scenarios

Corrective Exercise as the Warm-up

This is the most common application of corrective exercise and is used to set a precedent for what must be worked on and focused on for the workout.

The priority is placed on that region of the body, and the client knows how it should be focused on, a little more so due to the workout beginning with corrective exercise.

This also depends on the availability of time in the workout when considering how much you can do.  

When incorporated in this fashion, we see that having more than 5 – 15 minutes is usually unnecessary for this. 

Corrective Exercise as the Entire Workout

This is less common but still possible.

It will be applied to the client as the actual workout itself, and this will usually be 30 – 60 minutes altogether.

The long term view in restoring optimal function and efficiency of the kinetic chain is based on the person’s results and needs.

Some people may need this if perhaps they have more compensations and dysfunctions present.

Some of the more common reasons that we see corrective exercise used as a full workout would be for those clients that are perhaps part of a post rehab program, some deconditioned clients’ needs for it, and as use for separate recovery workouts perhaps between session days. 

Corrective Exercise in Group Settings

This can be challenging to implement, especially when the ratio of professional to client ratios is higher. But this is a growing part of the group fitness class setting.

When doing this, the professionals should focus on the common dysfunctions in the general population or the set of people present and teach individual homework assignments to the class attendees. 

Corrective Exercise Without Equipment

The effective combination of movements of the body weight variety can be more than enough to serve as a corrective exercise for clients and athletes. 

NASM CES Chapter 18: Real-World Application of Corrective Exercise Strategies 5
NASM CES Chapter 18: Real-World Application of Corrective Exercise Strategies 6

Tyler Read - Certified Personal Trainer with PTPioneer

Tyler Read


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