Holistic Corrective Exercise For Fitness Professionals

Upper body mobility problems can have devastating effects on your ability to get the results you want from your fitness program.

Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain strength or improve athletic performance there’s just no way you can optimize either without proper upper body flexibility.

Some of the most problematic areas of the upper body for most people involve limited range of motion at the neck, shoulders, throacic spine (rotation deficit) and lumbar spine.

Now, if you’ve tried all kinds of static stretches and various techniques like self-myofascial release without impressive results then here’s a simple but highly effective upper body mobility routine I’ve designed that will improve active flexibility of the upper body quickly.

I call it my Medball Mobility Circuit and it can be performed in less than 8 minutes.

All you need is a light weight medicine ball (2kg-3kg) and the circuit is ideal for anyone from the beginning trainee to more advanced. Read the rest of this entry »

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Just a quick post today to address hip mobility.

If you or your clients suffer from lower body injuries there’s typically ONE reason why this is happening…

…Most nagging injuries involving the lower body are caused by muscle imbalances at the hips.

But, it doesn’t stop there.

An important thing to keep in mind is that everything in our bodies are related which means if the hips are affected so is everything above and below to some degree.

That means a growing list of injuries to the knees, feet, ankles, low back, shoulders or neck if the imbalances at the hips are not properly addressed.

So, I shot this video to share 10 powerful hip mobility exercises you can use to get your clients moving & feeling better quickly. Read the rest of this entry »

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In this video I share the most common cause and a few simple tips to overcome pronated ankles. Read the rest of this entry »

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Got a pain in the neck?

Most rehabilitation exercises focus on passive stretches to relive neck pain but fail to account for the most important component.

Active flexibility.

If you think about it when was the last time you knew of anyone injuring themselves while kicking back watching television?

Injuries happen when we’re moving so it makes sense to included some active neck rehabilitation exercises to develop better active range of motion and stability while we are moving.

In the video below I share 3 static stretches and 3 active flexibility exercises to help reduce muscle imbalances that contribute to neck pain and stiffness: Read the rest of this entry »

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Having spent 3 years working with many physical therapists and over 10 years working along side many personal trainers it never ceased to amaze me that most ignore functional rehabilitation exercises for the shoulder in favor of less effective non-functional movements.

If you think about it there aren’t many daily movements we do like this (at least none I can think of) ==>

<== Or like the one on the left here…

Without training within functional movements that are a part of our everyday lives the carryover will be limited at best.

What’s worse is that the shoulder becomes susceptible to recurring injuries.

In a previous post I mentioned the 5 hidden dangers of  performing traditional rotator cuff rehabilitation exercises with resistance bands but today I’m going to talk about an effective shoulder rehabilitation exercise that most doctors, physical therapists and fitness professionals have permanently banned from their repertoire.

They’ll say you should NEVER do this exercise…

They’ll tell you it’ll injure your shoulders…

They’ll tell you it’s ‘taboo’…

HOGWASH!

As you’re about to see this exercise cannot be ‘bad’ for your shoulders as long as you follow the 3 simple tips I explain in the video. Read the rest of this entry »

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What is it about fitness assessments that’s got the fitness industry divided?

Some say fitness professionals should be taught to use specific assessments to help their clients overcome nagging injuries and achieve their goals.

Others say doing so is overstepping our boundaries and that we should leave these assessments to physical therapists and doctors.

Well, I won’t get too deep into why doctors and physical therapists should NOT be performing fitness testing but I will say that I get pretty ticked off whenever I hear or read this kind of nonsense.

Cardiovascular, trunk curl-ups, push-ups, sit and reach and body composition have become pretty standard in our industry for clients who fit the ‘apparently healthy’ label.

But, it’s rare to find clients that fit into this category.

The reality is that most clients may come to us with weight loss goals but are hampered by physical ailments resulting from muscle imbalances that keep them from doing a number of exercises and activities.

Sure, we can simply modify things but as you know modifications are less effective, don’t always work and disempowers trainers.

It’s important for us as fitness professionals to be more than symptom managers and tackle the causes of muscular imbalances.

Eliminate the causes and the symptoms will go away.

The first step is understanding how to identify those causes which is where most Personal Trainer certification programs fall short.

They either teach general fitness tests that aren’t specific for identifying muscle imbalances, are thrown together in the wrong sequences or based on simplistic assumptions of ‘tight’ and ‘weak’ muscles.

The truth is that a muscle may appear to be tight or weak without that actually being the case.

Stretching a muscle or muscle group that is assumed as ‘tight’ isn’t going to be harmful but it certainly isn’t going to be effective either.

And, if it ain’t effective it ain’t gonna produce results!

If we are using our expertise in human anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and biomechanics to create exercise programs to help our clients improve their lives then what’s the problem?

For example, here’s a simple kinetic chain assessment that’s commonly taught however I added in a few extra pieces of critical information you can use that will provide instant feedback about the entire kinetic chain. Read the rest of this entry »

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Every year as summertime approaches I get in my serious training mode which means it’s time to strip away the insulation thick layer of fat I’ve stored all winter long.

I admit I’m a bodybuilding fan but I also learned some painful lessons over the years from doing all the stereotypical isolated body-part workouts.

After injuring my right shoulder, lower back, left hip and right knee along with previous IT band issues from my 90-minute cardio workouts I used to do 6 days a week I finally learned my lesson. Read the rest of this entry »

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Just a quick video today on my top 3 tips to eliminate bench press shoulder pain.

If you need exercises or tips on how to overcome your injuries post them below and I’ll answer in a future video.

After you watch the video be sure to check out my top tips to eliminate shoulder injury pain with overhead presses.

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Today I want to share with you 5 common deadlift exercise mistakes that often lead to lower back and knee injuries.

These aren’t your typical lot and they often go unnoticed.

And, since I thought you’d probably want to know what to do about these deadlift training mistakes I’ve also included some simple, highly-effective quick-fix solutions: Read the rest of this entry »

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Alright, so in part 1 of this series we took the first steps toward putting an end to running with knee pain by first identifying the actual CAUSE behind it all instead of taking the same old ineffective approach of addressing SYMPTOMS.

Treating a symptom without eliminating the cause of that symptom is almost guaranteed to end up with that symptom returning often with a growing list of other symptoms that follow.

So, I showed you 2 assessments to help identify the cause of running knee pain and revealed what to look for as well as what it all means.

In most cases of runners knee injuries there is 1 of 2 possible scenarios: Read the rest of this entry »

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