Peak Bodywork specializes in performance based coaching for patients with chronic orthopedic conditions and athletes recovering from injury. There is no need to stop training after injury or surgery. This is a genuine opportunity to address your areas of weakness, to facilitate the healing process and to continue to progress your fitness while enhancing pain free function.
Corrective Exercise is a form of exercise that brings the body back into a neutral position so you can move freely and without pain. The body is designed to perform at its best when it is in a position of good posture. Elite athletic performance and sound orthopedic function are one and the same. Unfortunately due to injury, pain or the bad habits of slouching and leaning we create muscle imbalances and poor body mechanics.
Over time, the repetitive use of bad body mechanics resulting from poor posture and injury compensation, will tighten certain areas of the body while loosening others. Muscles that are chronically stretched will become weaker and some may not even work at all. Compromised movements in one part of the body will lead to symptoms developing in another part of the body.
Corrective Exercise is designed to unwind these imbalances and compensations while guiding the body to move in its ideal position. Simplified, the goal is to loosening the muscles that have become tight, and activate the muscles that have become lazy. You will be working towards reeducating your body to move as it was designed so that it can function at its’ peak.
These exercises improve your body’s bio-mechanics by re-educating the body on movement patterns. The body moves in patterns, each muscle is connected to another muscle and our nervous system communicates between each muscle and joint to create movement. Every movement the body makes is a coordinated interplay between muscles that have to contract and shorten, muscles that have to contract and stabilize, and other muscles that have to relax and lengthen on the opposite side of the joint. Corrective exercise re-educates the nervous system to utilize the muscles and joints a correct sequence. When your body stops compensating for imbalances you are able to move freely and your pain disappears.
How Corrective Exercise Works
There are three components to all corrective exercise programs. The first is to restore range of motion or your mobility. This is done by inhibiting the overactive muscles through massage and soft tissue mobilization. You will be taught self massage techniques using tools, like the foam roller, “Stick” or tennis ball. A variety of stretching techniques are also utilized to lengthen the shortened muscles and tissues that are restricting your range of motion. The mobility exercises will become your daily maintenance or homework.
Step two is to reinforce a correct movement pattern. These corrective exercises aim to target the muscles that prevent excessive movement by creating stability in the joints. The “software” program your central nervous systems uses to create joint stability is different than the “software” program the CNS uses to create movement, and needs to be trained differently then how we train for hypertrophy of the deltoids for example. Efficient joint stability is the foundation that dynamic movement is based on. Imagine shooting a canon ball out of a canoe; the force and accuracy of that shot won’t be very good when compared to shooting the same canon ball from a canon bolted to a concrete pad. Your body derives power the same way, from a stable platform. And we need to reinforce the body’s ability to create this stability.
The final step is to reload, the movement pattern. This is were the real fun begins. By integrating full body movement patterns the muscles and joints are required to work together in their proper sequence. Progressive loading is placed on dynamic movements. Loading is not just an increase in the amount of weight lifted. Loading is the addition of cardiac-respiratory demand, metabolic demand, speed, balance and/or stress on a body position.
Ultimately, the goal is to move better and to move with out pain. The exercises are meant to challenge the nervous system to learn new and more efficient ways to move the body. The exercises are not easy, you will be constantly challenged to improve motor control, core & joint stability, and explore your range of motion. You don’t need fancy equipment or an expensive gym membership and once you have worked through the program many of the key exercises can be used as part of your warm-up or cool-down during your favorite activities.
Corrective Exercise Therapy combines the scientific principles of bio-mechanics, physics, motor control and human physiology to correct the cumulative stresses on your body by restoring flexibility and eliminating pain.
