Corrective Exercise
Corrective exercise aims to reduce muscle imbalances. When one muscle is weak, lengthened, and underactive, another muscle makes up the difference and becomes tight and overactive. Neither muscle is functioning correctly. Identifying and improving these muscular imbalances means improved movement, feeling better, less chronic tightness, better alignment, and improved quality of life.
Daily aches and pains result from repetitive stress. What stresses are you putting on your body? Sitting for extended periods? Recreational activities like golf, running, tennis? Your nagging pains should not be a part of getting older. Most of the time, they are caused by chronic overuse in a poorly aligned body.
We use NeuroKinetic Therapy to assess how your muscles are functioning. Based on the manual muscle tests, we determine a relationship between one or more muscles. Corrective exercises include a release of the overactive muscle(s) either by self massage or stretching and a strengthening exercise for the underactive muscle(s).
Following the assessment, corrective exercises will be given to you to do at home to begin improving your imbalances. The exercises may include foam rolling, stretching, mobility and activation drills, and body weight resistance.
Example:
Notice the range of motion in her shoulder. This is her pain-free range of motion after releasing the hyperactive trigger point and activating the weak muscles.
Corrective exercise can help with
- Low back pain
- Neck pain
- Shoulder pain
- Hip pain
- Overpronation
- Knock-knees
- Plantar faciitis
- Excessively rounded spine
- Forward head position
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Increasing range of motion
- Improving strength
- Sport performance
- ..and more
Example: Before Picture
Notice her arms and hands. They are internally rotated at the shoulder joint. This indicates tight chest and shoulder muscles and weak back muscles.
Example: After Picture
Excellent progress after only four weeks of doing corrective exercises! Notice how her arms lay beside her body and you can no longer see the back of her hands. This posture is considered more normal.
She is reporting less upper back pain and more range of motion in her shoulder joint.
Example:
Notice how much more level his shoulders are. The after pic is the result of doing 2 weeks of his corrective exercises at home. His assessment revealed an overactive scar that was shutting down the function of his neck muscles, lifting his shoulder blade and causing pain.