What is Corrective Exercise?

What is Corrective Exercise, and how does it work? 

 Corrective Exercise is personal exercise training that involves a more thorough assessment of posture and various movements to determine which muscles are over- active and under-active, and what postural and movement dysfunctions are present. A program is then built to correct this. We begin with an overhead squat assessment, and joint mobility tests.  For more advanced athletes various other tests can be performed, and for riders we assess on the horse as well.

 A customized program is assigned based on these findings, and progressions to more challenging exercises are given every few weeks until the goal has been reached. 

What sets corrective exercise apart:

          -  it emphasizes the whole body, not just the part with the symptoms

          - it assesses and programs for differences in the right and left sides of you body, so it corrects asymmetry

          - it helps you with muscles that are not responding to stretching and to access muscles you have difficulty engaging

         - it teaches you to be aware of your compensations and how they creep into everything you do, so you can correct the root cause of you issues

         - this education and awareness gives you tools to solve issues that come up, prevent injuries, and enhance your riding and exercise body- awareness and performance

In our programs, you will learn how to assess yourself, both on and off the horse, and learn to build your own corrective exercise program. This way you can re-assess as you go and your body changes- to ensure you are always on the right track! If you are interested in our or online where you can learn how to assess yourself, make your own custom exercise program, and transform your riding, movement and exercise, plus learn tons of interesting and helpful anatomy and movement stuff, go here.

A Corrective Exercise program has 4 phases in each work out: Inhibition, Lengthening, Activation, and Integration. If you do not have over-active muscles, you skip the first 2 phases.

In the Inhibition phase, self myofascial rolling (SMR, or foam rolling) is used to help reduce neural drive to the over-active muscles, so that the underactive muscles have a better chance of being recruited. The self myofascial rolling in the inhibition phase also helps increase stretch tolerance, so that the muscles are more amenable to stretching. If done correctly, the SMR can help release tight fascia and trigger points which are preventing the muscles from stretching properly. This is the missing piece in many programs, and one of the reasons why just stretching on its own often does not work (NASM, 2011). If the muscle is being signalled to from the nervous system to continually contract, or the muscle and the fascia which surrounds it has become chronically tight due to adhesions, adaptive shortening from repetitive and limited use, or injuries, the muscle will simply not be able to stretch, until it has been properly inhibited. The under-active muscle that you want to contract will also not be fully available to you until its over-active antagonist (opposing muscle) stops contracting and is allowed to lengthen. This is why you can't feel or engage certain muscles, and they feel like they are in a "black whole" of awareness. The good news is you can increase awareness, control, and strength of these muscles.  To learn more about how this works, see our blogs on Muscle Imbalances and Reciprocal Inhibition (coming soon)!

The Lengthening phase involves stretching. The key is the order the exercises are done in- the stretching must follow the Inhibition phase. Inhibiting allows muscles that are over active and short to be more easily stretched. Many people find that they have tried stretching to little or no avail, only to discover that stretching following foam rolling results in notable improvements in extensibility as well as in range of motion gains. This may be due to the inhibition reducing the neural cue for contraction to the tight muscles, allowing the muscles to cease contracting so that they are finally able to lengthen and stretch. It can also be due to mechanical influences on the tissues- such as releasing tight fascia, increasing circulation to the area, and increased stretch tolerance (NASM, 2011). 

In short- if you have tight muscles that don't seem to let you stretch them, if you inhibit them properly BEFORE stretching- they are much more likely to allow you to stretch them! This was a GAME CHANGER for me, and truly was the missing piece in my riding and exercise- and why I am so passionate about sharing this with others!

The Activation phase involves engaging and strengthening the under-active muscles in the equation. It is largely about teaching the person where the muscle they want to activate is located, helping them feel the target muscles engaging, and how to intentionally engage the target muscles in exercise, riding, and other daily activities. It also involves learning to feel for over-active synergists (inappropriate muscles that try to step in to perform the task)- that start to engage instead of the prime mover, and techniques for how to perform the activation to help keep inappropriate muscles out of it (so we do not further contribute to their over-activity) (NASM, 2011).

It is sometimes hard to feel the correct muscles or consciously contract/ engage them if they have been under-active for a long time. The over-active synergists will want to keep stepping in to do the job that your target muscle should be doing, but because your target muscle has been reciprocally inhibited for some time it is hard for you to feel it and intentionally contract it. With the help of our program, and focused work and practice, you will be able to learn to feel and consciously contract the correct muscle, and strengthen it until it is firing more efficiently. The muscle will continue to be more accessible to you as you keep using it (activation) and keep inhibiting and lengthening the over-active muscles that prevent your target muscle from doing its job).

You must keep the activation of the correct muscle up on a regular basis, as this will keep the previously over-active muscles from being able to become over-active again. Your activation of the correct muscle prevents its undesirable antagonists from getting neural drive to contract, and help keeps the antagonists long, so your desirable target muscle can shorten.

Integration exercises are given once the first 3 steps have been performed sufficiently. In this phase, multiple joint actions are performed simultaneously and the exerciser needs to ensure they are engaging the correct muscles while focusing on multiple areas of their body.  The exerciser learns how to notice when their commonly over-active muscles go to step in where they are not needed, and how to combat this. Co- ordination and proprioception (body awareness) challenges of varying degrees of difficulty are included in this phase (NASM, 2011). In our course we bring your awareness to aspects of your movement and positioning of your body that are most transferable to riding. I find when my riders practice engaging several muscle groups necessary for riding, simultaneously, during their off- horse workouts, they are much more successful in their riding.

There is a lot to think about at once when you are riding, so mastering your body during your off horse time- so it doesn't feel so foreign and overwhelming to you- enables you to focus on the quality and timing of your cues to the horse. Having your body under subconscious control from off- horse training also allows to focus purely on the specific things going on- such as responding to what your horse is doing in the moment and making decisions about that, responding to arena traffic, and executing courses/ tests/ patterns. If your body is taking up all your conscious focus and effort, you have little to no mental space for those other things, so why not take your body out of the equation and get that under control so you don't have to think about it?!?  After all, your body you have with you 24- 7- your horse you do not!

In order to maintain the correct muscle balance, you have to learn to engage your under-active muscles more throughout your riding, exercise, and daily life and reduce the amount you use your over-active muscles. We have lots of tips you can use throughout your day in the "Quick, Daily Hacks" section of our online program.

 Programs start with the lowest degree of difficulty, and are increased as the exerciser masters the level they are working at with correct technique and adaptations. It is about quality over quantity, and it's important to do smaller, gentle movements with correct form and the correct muscle recruitment, and avoid doing too much or too large of a movement with incorrect technique. There are tons of more challenging progressions and combinations that can be implemented, as one advances, to keep even an advanced exerciser progressing and feeling challenged. 

Sign up for our Custom Exercise for Riders Online Program now!

 Many athletes use corrective exercise for an ongoing basis as a warm up before their sport, to help prime the muscles that tend to be under-active, so that they will be more easily able to recruit these under active muscles when needed during the performance. In our platform, we have several pre- ride routines you can use, but doing one set of your own regular corrective exercise custom program is a perfect primer for what your body most specifically needs. By doing your custom exercises right before you get on your horse, it will help make your under active muscles more accessible to you, and making them easier to feel and easier for you to consciously engage. It also helps you quiet down the over active muscles so that the target muscles can more easily fire (reciprocal inhibition- blog coming soon).

Your riding will feel more effortless than you can imagine! Your horse will thank you!

NASM. (2011). NASM Essentials of Corrective Exercise Training. (pp. 197-246). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.