Corrective exercise is different than what a massage therapist or a physical therapist can offer—think of it as injury prevention. When you think about what a personal trainer is responsible for versus a physical therapist it makes it easy to understand. Personal trainers are there to help their clients lose fat, gain strength, and build muscle. A physical therapist is responsible for helping patients get back to healthy by overcoming a physical dysfunction, whether from an acute injury or a chronic problem.
If you look at society today, we are all more sedentary than ever before, with much of our time spent staring at a computer or smartphone. As daily habits, these things cause us to have poor posture. That includes our shoulders rounding forward, heads jutting forward, and spines rounding. Not to mention the tightening of the hip flexors from sitting for 6, 8, or even more hours daily.
This is where the corrective exercise comes in. A corrective exercise specialist, will use some quick assessments to see what’s going on with you and build a corrective exercise program to help you reverse these effects.
Who Can Benefit from Corrective Exercise?
The easy answer here is everyone. Essentially, there are three benefits corrective exercise can provide to almost any client:
Reduced risk of injury risk
Restored performance
Long-term improved performance
You will become better attuned to the muscular imbalances in yourself. And that means you move better and feel better and be able to stay on track with your goals.
Additional Benefits
Consider all the different pieces of mobility equipment there are these days to help “relieve” those normal day-to-day aches and pains—there are probably hundreds of them. What if you were educated on those different products? You will know how and when these tools are appropriate.
Before long you will start getting some relief from those everyday aches and pains and move better.