What is Corrective Exercise?
If you train with me at all or you see me post on social media, then you are guaranteed to hear me talk about Corrective Exercise. But what is it?
I like to think of it as Prehabilitation, improving joint stability to reduce risk of injury, and helping people move their best.
We all develop movement dysfunction in our daily lives, whether through poor posture or repetitive movements. Because of this, it can lead to even worse posture or altered movement patterns.
Corrective Exercise is a way of looking at those movement dysfunctions and developing a plan to correct them. This is done in several steps of observation and movement.
A series of assessments surrounding movement and mobility. The smallest movement impairments can mean big things in how you move (e.g., the foot turning out as you squat down indicating that your calves and hamstrings are tight, or the elbow moving during an isolated wrist movement).
After the culprits of poor movement patterns have been assessed, then we get to the movement portions:
Inhibit - foam roll, massage, percussion therapy tools, etc.
Lengthen - stretch the tight muscles.
Activate - strengthen the individual muscles that are underactive.
Integrate - strengthen the underactive muscles with their synergists.
Exercise Correctly.
Re-assess and repeat.
Who needs Corrective Exercise? In my opinion, everyone. Even I use it on a weekly basis. There are days that I do not have the energy for high-intensity workouts, so I dial it back and work on my Correctives, so that I am moving better for harder training.
Matthew Barrett, NASM-CPT
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