Corrective Exercise and Mobility… The Snake Oil of Personal Training
“Snake oil is an expression that originally referred to fraudulent health products or unproven medicine but has come to refer to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit.”
If you’ve been following/reading my articles for a while, you already know that I’m not shy about attacking some controversial issues/topics head on. “Corrective Exercise and Mobility Training” is one of those topics… I’ve taken continuing education classes on corrective exercise, and on mobility training. I’ve read and researched all the literature supporting, and opposed to CE, and I’ve studied mobility training, and used the techniques myself, and on select clients.
I’m not 100% AGAINST Corrective Exercise, and I’m not opposed to Mobility Training, and drills… but it’s pervasive use forced on well-intentioned clients who ABSOLUTELY do not need it, do NOT want to pay for it, and who are sold a pile of BS that they NEED it… is what drives me crazy. For a VERY small percentage of clients, corrective exercise is potentially very helpful, but most of them would be better served with actual Physical Therapy, which would be covered by insurance, and provided by a licensed professional… not a Personal Trainer selling him/herself as a “Corrective Exercise Specialist”.
Corrective Exercise is a segment of the Personal Training business that has grown in popularity of late, and finally has started to crash down again… as it should. It is basically a form of “training”, where an under-educated Personal Trainer makes believe he/she is a Physical Therapist… and “diagnoses” issues with a potential client’s joint function, posture, and mobility/flexibility, which they address with “Corrective” exercises to “restore proper function”… BEFORE they address the actual goals that the potential client came to them for.
No Personal Trainer, regardless of degree, certification, or certificate… is qualified to diagnose any medical issue, dysfunction, or prescribe treatment for a medical condition.
85% of the people who seek out the services of a Personal Trainer are looking for VERY simple help: most of them simply want to feel better, LOOK BETTER, and get healthier through a decrease in body-fat, and modest increase in muscle mass (or restoration of lost muscle mass). This is what THEIR goals are. This is what they CAME to a potential trainer for. THIS IS WHAT THEIR TRAINER SHOULD BE DELIVERING!!! Trainers should actually address the goals of the paying client… what a concept!!!
Many of these “Corrective Exercise Specialists”, as they call themselves… spend the vast majority of their client’s training time addressing these “issues” that have very minimal negative impacts on the client’s life, while completely IGNORING what the client is paying for… and really wants. Most of these trainers have become QUITE talented at selling their snake oil, and get a few months of checks out of their gullible client before the client realizes that they are paying for near worthless services, provided by an unqualified vendor, under the auspices of HELPING them. They are told by their Trainer that exercising using traditional exercises… the ones that will help them to actually attain their goals… will just make their “defective functional patterns” worse… and that these movement patterns MUST be “corrected” before their actual goals of general fitness can be addressed.
The reality is… some of the most talented athletes in the world move with “incorrect” functional movement patterns. Some of the fittest people on the planet would FAIL every single “Functional Movement Screen” ever devised. A LARGE percentage of the population simply has UNIQUE bone structure and genetics that put them outside of the “textbook” norms of functionally “correct” movements. No amount of mobility drills or corrective training will EVER put them inside the artificially manufactured “correct” window of functional movement. Many people seeking a trainers help are SOLD a bill of goods that every joint pain they have, every ache they experience, and every weakness in their posture or golf swing is due entirely to these imbalances and restrictions. And ironically… it seems that 100% of these Trainers’ clients seem to have the SAME functional issues… and get the SAME “corrective exercise” routine. Because that’s really ALL these Trainers knows how to do. Then months later… their clients STILL haven’t seen any results!
In reality… the majority of their issues can be corrected simply by losing weight (fat-loss), increasing their general strength (strength training), and basic stretching (ROM) and proper FORM. When the body is exercised through a correct range of motion, using appropriate weights, using TRADITIONAL exercises which ALSO induce the physical and aesthetic goals the CLIENT has… (not the TRAINER’S goals) their function comes right back into acceptable ranges. Their fat weight decreases. Their joint pain decreases. Their health and fitness level improves. And I’ll be damned…. THEY REACH THEIR PERSONAL GOALS FASTER!
Lisa and I have had (and currently have) plenty of clients who have come to us with functional issues, flexibility issues, and postural issues. Joint pain, strength imbalances, and balance issues are ALWAYS present with a new client. And what do we do with these clients?
We address their functional issues with TRADITIONAL effective exercises, done with correct form, using correct loads, and incorporating correct range of motion. And we have them stretch between working sets! As a result… less pain, more strength, better function… along with the health and aesthetic (look great in a bathing suit) goals they came to us for! No magical “Corrective Exercise” is required.
My advice… If you come across a Trainer who advertises him/herself as a “Corrective Exercise Specialist”… walk quickly in the other direction! Don’t believe the snake oil pitch. Don’t waste MONTHS of valuable training time, when you COULD be seeing the results you WANT while also remedying the few functional issues you may, in fact, have… without the BS.
At BURN Fitness Training, we pride ourselves in delivering what our clients actually want. We provide the results our clients are paying us for! And in the process (as a bonus) we also help them fix a few things that may hinder their results down the road.
“Snake oil is an expression that originally referred to fraudulent health products or unproven medicine but has come to refer to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit.”
If you’ve been following/reading my articles for a while, you already know that I’m not shy about attacking some controversial issues/topics head on. “Corrective Exercise and Mobility Training” is one of those topics… I’ve taken continuing education classes on corrective exercise, and on mobility training. I’ve read and researched all the literature supporting, and opposed to CE, and I’ve studied mobility training, and used the techniques myself, and on select clients.
I’m not 100% AGAINST Corrective Exercise, and I’m not opposed to Mobility Training, and drills… but it’s pervasive use forced on well-intentioned clients who ABSOLUTELY do not need it, do NOT want to pay for it, and who are sold a pile of BS that they NEED it… is what drives me crazy. For a VERY small percentage of clients, corrective exercise is potentially very helpful, but most of them would be better served with actual Physical Therapy, which would be covered by insurance, and provided by a licensed professional… not a Personal Trainer selling him/herself as a “Corrective Exercise Specialist”.
Corrective Exercise is a segment of the Personal Training business that has grown in popularity of late, and finally has started to crash down again… as it should. It is basically a form of “training”, where an under-educated Personal Trainer makes believe he/she is a Physical Therapist… and “diagnoses” issues with a potential client’s joint function, posture, and mobility/flexibility, which they address with “Corrective” exercises to “restore proper function”… BEFORE they address the actual goals that the potential client came to them for.
No Personal Trainer, regardless of degree, certification, or certificate… is qualified to diagnose any medical issue, dysfunction, or prescribe treatment for a medical condition.
85% of the people who seek out the services of a Personal Trainer are looking for VERY simple help: most of them simply want to feel better, LOOK BETTER, and get healthier through a decrease in body-fat, and modest increase in muscle mass (or restoration of lost muscle mass). This is what THEIR goals are. This is what they CAME to a potential trainer for. THIS IS WHAT THEIR TRAINER SHOULD BE DELIVERING!!! Trainers should actually address the goals of the paying client… what a concept!!!
Many of these “Corrective Exercise Specialists”, as they call themselves… spend the vast majority of their client’s training time addressing these “issues” that have very minimal negative impacts on the client’s life, while completely IGNORING what the client is paying for… and really wants. Most of these trainers have become QUITE talented at selling their snake oil, and get a few months of checks out of their gullible client before the client realizes that they are paying for near worthless services, provided by an unqualified vendor, under the auspices of HELPING them. They are told by their Trainer that exercising using traditional exercises… the ones that will help them to actually attain their goals… will just make their “defective functional patterns” worse… and that these movement patterns MUST be “corrected” before their actual goals of general fitness can be addressed.
The reality is… some of the most talented athletes in the world move with “incorrect” functional movement patterns. Some of the fittest people on the planet would FAIL every single “Functional Movement Screen” ever devised. A LARGE percentage of the population simply has UNIQUE bone structure and genetics that put them outside of the “textbook” norms of functionally “correct” movements. No amount of mobility drills or corrective training will EVER put them inside the artificially manufactured “correct” window of functional movement. Many people seeking a trainers help are SOLD a bill of goods that every joint pain they have, every ache they experience, and every weakness in their posture or golf swing is due entirely to these imbalances and restrictions. And ironically… it seems that 100% of these Trainers’ clients seem to have the SAME functional issues… and get the SAME “corrective exercise” routine. Because that’s really ALL these Trainers knows how to do. Then months later… their clients STILL haven’t seen any results!
In reality… the majority of their issues can be corrected simply by losing weight (fat-loss), increasing their general strength (strength training), and basic stretching (ROM) and proper FORM. When the body is exercised through a correct range of motion, using appropriate weights, using TRADITIONAL exercises which ALSO induce the physical and aesthetic goals the CLIENT has… (not the TRAINER’S goals) their function comes right back into acceptable ranges. Their fat weight decreases. Their joint pain decreases. Their health and fitness level improves. And I’ll be damned…. THEY REACH THEIR PERSONAL GOALS FASTER!
Lisa and I have had (and currently have) plenty of clients who have come to us with functional issues, flexibility issues, and postural issues. Joint pain, strength imbalances, and balance issues are ALWAYS present with a new client. And what do we do with these clients?
We address their functional issues with TRADITIONAL effective exercises, done with correct form, using correct loads, and incorporating correct range of motion. And we have them stretch between working sets! As a result… less pain, more strength, better function… along with the health and aesthetic (look great in a bathing suit) goals they came to us for! No magical “Corrective Exercise” is required.
My advice… If you come across a Trainer who advertises him/herself as a “Corrective Exercise Specialist”… walk quickly in the other direction! Don’t believe the snake oil pitch. Don’t waste MONTHS of valuable training time, when you COULD be seeing the results you WANT while also remedying the few functional issues you may, in fact, have… without the BS.
At BURN Fitness Training, we pride ourselves in delivering what our clients actually want. We provide the results our clients are paying us for! And in the process (as a bonus) we also help them fix a few things that may hinder their results down the road.