Why Use Corrective Exercises?

Some of you may be familiar with the term "corrective exercise" and some of you may not. Some trainers base their entire programming style around this concept, while some disregard it as a waste of time. I fall into neither one of these categories and would like to briefly explain why corrective exercise is important and should be moderately implemented into all fitness programs.

Why use corrective exercises? Simply put, to maintain proper muscular balance and biomechanical function. You must understand the art of corrective exercise techniques arose from a growing population plagued by muscular imbalances and postural deviations. Just like your car needs an alignment every so often, the body needs to be tweaked, stretched, strengthened and re-programmed to move properly. When your car is out of alignment, the car moves funny and the tire tread wears down in an irregular fashion. Not safe right? The same line of thinking applies to corrective exercise and functional anatomy! To understand the basics of functional anatomy and why corrective exercise is important, you must realize that our body is really a system of complex levers and pulleys. Muscles act upon the skeletal system to create a series of push, pull and rotational movements. When muscles are inactive, overactive, too long or too short the fluidity of this system is compromised and so is the integrity of the many major joints in the body (ankle, knee, hips, shoulders).

Will a program consisting of only corrective exercises help someone lose body fat or increase their athletic performance? The answer is clearly NO if those specific goals are neglected in one's training. The truth of the matter is corrective exercises have a place in EVERY single fitness program out there because they are employed to improve the FUNCTION of the body as a whole. Unless your fitness goal is to be a complete biomechanical disaster and a walking injury, then you could use some corrective exercises in your routine. The term "corrective exercise" will typically take one's mind to thoughts of low intensity, physical therapy-like, mundane movements. In some cases this is true, but the reality is any exercise that is used to counter or correct a muscular imbalance can be considered a corrective exercise. A lateral lunge can be considered a corrective exercise for someone with tight adductors while another people may need to a more static movement like a two point plank.

The type of muscular imbalances and their fixes are many, so I am not going to dive into them here. My point is to stress that all well designed programs should have some corrective exercises implemented to help keep a person's body functioning properly. It's like preventative maintenance rather than fixing something once it breaks. In a later blog, I will touch on some of the most common postural deviations, common muscle imbalances and also give you some ways to fix and prevent them in the future.