The Corrective Strawman

The Strawman

It’s easy for someone with little to no experience working with real people to say that “corrective” exercise doesn’t work.

It’s also easy to do this if you’ve never seen it in action, or if you’ve seen it executed by the wrong practitioner.

Naysayers will tell you that corrective exercise is nothing more than some foam rolling, activation work, and maybe some core training sprinkled on top.

This, my friends, is a straw man if I’ve ever heard one.

The fact-of-the-matter is, all training programs should have an element of corrective training in them.  Some people prefer to do a little bit throughout the year (myself included), while others tend to dedicate 1-2 training cycles per year focusing on the smaller stuff.

The most important thing to remember, though, is that you’re only as strong as your weakest link.  This is a consistent theme, whether you’re trying to rehabilitate an injury or set PR’s in a squat, bench press, or deadlift.

If your glutes aren’t strong enough to extend your hips, your deadlift weights (and possibly your lower back) will suffer.

If your scapular stabilizers can’t get you in the appropriate position to bench press effectively, the same thing will happen to your shoulders and bench press.

I’ll be honest – I, personally, hate the term corrective exercise.  It’s kind of like core training; I use it because there’s no better term (as of yet).

Don’t be misled – corrective exercise is a lot more than flopping around on the floor for an hour or two a week.  Done correctly, it can help you get healthy, get stronger, or get leaner.

If you’d like to learn more about my thoughts on corrective exercise, check out the link below:

Facts and Fallacies of Corrective Exercise

Stay strong

MR


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