The latest buzzword is corrective exercise. Is corrective
exercise the latest fad like “drawing in “ was a few years ago? What exactly is
corrective exercise? I think I know, but it is a misleading concept.
What exactly are you correcting? It sounds to me like another reductionist
approach to the human body based on pseudo scientific principles and marketing.
The exercises that I see labeled as corrective are remedial exercises that
should be part of a training progression, not separated into a category all
their own. I think we are forgetting the most important principle of training
and rehab which is progression. Exercises should be set-up in a hierarchical
progression from the most simple and remedial to the most difficult and
complex. Not every athlete starts at the same place in the progression but they
are all expected to end up the same destination – the competitive arena fully
fit and ready to compete free of any physical limitations. I do not think the
“corrective exercise’ approach does this. In many situations I have seen
athletes with perceived deficiencies who are taken out of normal training to do
“corrective exercise, “ yet they are still expected to participate in practice
and yes, play the game. The end result of all this madness is the plethora of
injuries we see today. The so called “corrective exercises’ need to be a
transparent part of training, not separate. Each athlete can and should expect
individualized programs based on their ability to perform certain movements.
For example today with volleyball it is squat emphasis day. I have 24 girls’ of
widely varying ability. Some are squatting with a mini band above their knee,
some not, some squat full others to parallel and some will not squat yet. All of this is based on a
Physical Competency Assessment. This PCA is not just a one off process, the
movements are part of warm-up and I evaluate daily to assess readiness to train
and progress to the next step in the progression. Once again I implore you to
keep the big picture in mind and do no harm.
3 Comments
Will Kirousis
Vern,
I think some of this is role confusion among professionals… Before going forward, I know many who are amazing on all fronts and keep the big picture in mind… but it’s clear that some role’s are mixed up.
I think the current theories pushing the proverbial snowball of thought down hill in the “conditioning” world right now are coming from therapy focused folks. That means those thoughts are often tinted by rehabilitation shaded lens’s.
The result is a lot of fix this to get that training Vs training to progress into a more skilled and prepared athlete. That can sound confusing or like semantics, but it’s not.
I think this is especially true in younger coaches (I’m only 36 so I am one as well) where we may look for new information, and information that helps create a need or reason for athletes to choose our services.
As I type, I’m realizing that some of this may also stem from the lack of a pedagogical focus to sports science scholastic programs as well. Meaning you don’t learn to teach you learn to tell and differentiate.
I’m really just thinking out loud here. The point overall is that it’s ok for a coach to not “be” a therapist, and for that same coach to know some about therapy. Meaning the coaches focus should be on developing the athlete, so they need to know about therapy, but not pretend to be one – and the reverse is true as well.
Again, that’s not saying all coaches are unable to have therapeutic knowledge or that therapists can not coach, but we need to know what role we are playing for a given athlete at a given time so we can provide the best progression for that athlete long term.
ask doctor online
Hip Flexor Stretch and Single-Leg Squat are just ome of the corrective exrcise that was commonly practice now.
James Marshall
Never heard the term until I read your blog, then 30mins later I was sent an instruction that when working with weightlifters I should concentrate on “corrective exercise and core stability only”.
Got a sore head from banging it against the wall now.