We use the term “Corrective Exercise” pretty regularly and promote its importance and value. But like with a lot of commonly used terms this one shouldn’t become a catch-all phrase that no one really knows the meaning of. Because in fact it’s quite straightforward.

If I had to summarize corrective exercise in one sentence, I’d say it’s like doing physical therapy rehab for your whole body except you don’t need to injure yourself or have had surgery in order to start doing it.

The name can be slightly misleading since the word ‘exercise’ typically leaves the impression of doing something that’s active and requires a lot of effort and movement. While this can sometimes be the case in later stages of Corrective Exercise in order to reorient the worked on muscles to the rest of the muscular system, the usual structure of Corrective Exercise is generally slow, controlled, deliberate movements intended to affect a specific muscle or small group of muscles.

These days a lot of us have occupations that require us to sit for long periods, often in front of a computer, with our heads sticking out like a turtle toward the screen and our shoulders rounding forward and down toward the key board. Or maybe it’s the complete opposite, and you have to stand most of the day, either in front of a computer, a spreadsheet, or moving from one workstation to the next. Either way, repetitive movement can reek havoc on the body. People sitting for long periods end up with neck and shoulder pain, low back pain, and probably hip pain. People standing for long periods also end up with hip pain, and you can probably add in knee and foot pain as well. Technology may make our lives easier, but it certainly doesn’t help us maintain the physically functional levels that our bodies are intended for.

And this is where the problem can start. With the intention of staying healthy and active, we go to the gym, or take a fitness class, ride a bike or follow along to an exercise video at home. While these are great intentions, most of us are entering into these activities still carrying the effects of our job’s physical demands. Pain is not some arbitrary sensation that can be ignored because you don’t want it, or avoided if you just don’t do certain things. There is a reason why your hip, or knee, or back, or shoulder or whatever hurts. Sitting and standing for long periods affects our muscles and puts excessive demand on other muscles not meant for it. This is where Corrective Exercise becomes extremely beneficial.

If you know that sitting for long periods causes a shortening of hip flexor and hamstring muscles and deactivates your glutes, and that poor posture and weakened core muscles put strain on your lower back, then it should be logical that correcting those muscle imbalances is of paramount importance. If you don’t then your exercise routine is basically just grinding away at those same muscles that are under strain already, usually making the pain worse and eventually leading to injury. Corrective exercise uses a two part approach; the first is to understand your daily patterns to predict where you’re most likely to be tight, weakened, and under or over active, and the second is to actually observe your basic movements to confirm the predictions and figure out how limited or severe the situation may be.

From here the goal of Corrective Exercise is to help restore functional muscle movements by lengthening shortened muscles, strengthening weakened muscles, and educating on the circumstances that created this problem in order to stay healthy and prevent it from happening again. In a lot of ways it can be compared to the use of physical therapy after surgery or a serious injury. Muscles that have been injured or have ceased their intended function due to lack of use are worked on until proper strength levels are achieved and pain is eliminated and full functional movement has been restored.

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