IOL Strength and Conditioning

In an email, a personal trainer wrote to ask about a certification for corrective exercise. In particular, she wanted to know which is the most research-based. I’m not a personal trainer, nor am I certified in anything, corrective or otherwise (certifiable from time to time), so I put the question out via Facebook and Twitter. There was a terrific response, and I don’t want to waste the input to a lost Facebook thread; instead let’s archive it here, and continue the discussion if there are more comments later.

The bolded text represents live links to places where you can follow up on the short answers, including links to the sites of the contributors when I could find one.

John Izzo:
I always liked the NASM-CES. That is actually next for me. The Resistance Training Specialist (RTS) is also a good one.

Chris McClinch:
For corrective exercise, I’ve got to agree with John here.

Patrick Ward:
Why bother spending money on a certification? Just buy books and read. People don’t know what NASM-CES is anyway. Everything you want to know can be purchased on amazon.

[Edit: Great idea for next week’s blog post. I’ll put together my list of top reads, and if we’re lucky, maybe this great group will have a moment to add to the corrective exercise book selections.]

Keith Scott:
Great question. I honestly could not answer…

Chris McClinch:
The value of a certification isn’t so much in marketing to people; the average client doesn’t know the difference between ACE and a CSCS. The real value of a certification is in a systematic curriculum, even if a good trainer ultimately uses it as a jumping-off point.

Patrick Ward:
That is true. Good point.

Mark Roozen:
Nothing better than the NSCA; CSCS or CPT…they have great certs and also education material from the leaders in the industry - can get them al ot of info on corrective modlities and exercises.

Russell Jones:
Does that mean that all other exercise is in-corrective?

Mike Demeter:
Attend one of the Perform Better Summits . .spend time with Gray Cook, Mark Versteegen, Bill Hartman, Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Stu McGill and Mike Boyle . . accelerated learning ;)

[Edit: I highly recommend personal trainers sign up for the $1 trial membership of Mike’s strengthcoach.com site. The information there will transform a personal trainer from average to outstanding.]

Laree Draper(yours truly):
How about one of Gray Cook and Lee Burton’s Functional Movement workshops? Do they cover what exercises to do once the assessments are complete? I was thinking of something to do while studying the books.

Patrick Ward:
Yea. That is good stuff. Every time I have seen Gray speak I have enjoyed it. He and Lee Burton (separately) are doing some clinics at the NSCA National Convention this year in vegas. Will you be attending? I’ll be there for sure (just booked my trip).

[Edit: You don’t have to be an NSCA member to attend the conference.]

Mike Demeter:
Ironically Laree, the movement screen is the corrective exercise. By merit of recruitment, if you fail to perform it well . .barring flexibility issues, practicing the screen will activate the muscles that need activation ;) Good material.

Laree Draper:
Mike, I knew from Gray’s Athletic Body in Balance the self-screen has the corrections sort of built in. I assumed the workshops went into more detail and personalization/coaching options.

Get on Gary Gray’s free video newsletter list, and consider buying some of his dvds so you can listen again and again. He talks fast and I often have to go back and ponder. The price has come down significantly on some of them.

Patrick Ward:
Regarding the Functional Movement Screen, yes, there are corrections for all the movement patterns as well as a bunch of other “break out tests” that are not in the 7-specific tests, that you can use to confirm things, and then there are other corrections for those as well. Gray says not to do the test as the correction, but rather use the test to determine movement asymmetry and limitations, use the corrections to fix the pattern and then re-test to make sure you chose the proper corrections. Always start with the most basic dysfunctional pattern. For example, if the squat pattern is poor and the Straight leg raise pattern is poor, try and correct the straight leg patter first, as that may also correct the squat pattern.

Rachel Eisenman:
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I’ve got some reading to do. :-)

Laree Draper:
Patrick, my one long conference this year is IDEA, Anaheim in August. Because I’m not a practicing trainer or a coach of any type, IDEA had the best variety selection of material for my “fun learning vacation” this year.

At last year’s IDEA conference, I had eight hours with Fraser Quelch, six with Chuck Wolf, four with Justin Price and a couple with Anthony Carey, all incredible sources for corrective exercise learning. This year’s offerings look just as incredible, although in addition to my old favorites, I’ll make sure to see other presenters such as Evan Osar, Rodney Corn, Michol Dalcourt, Peter Twist, Don Bahneman, Todd Durkin, JC Santana and Greg Roskopf. While not a certification, it’s an incredible opportunity for introduction to a wide variety of corrective exercise thinking, and as with the Perform Better conference Mike mentioned earlier, new learning can be used with clients the day you get home.

Daniel Kirsner:
I’m curious as to what exactly this is…I mean, how does it differ from conventional rehabs or PT.

Patrick Ward:
You aren’t rehabbing an injury with this stuff. You are simply assessing your clients and fixing movement problems…rather than just training a client who is a biomechanical train wreck and doing more harm than good.

[Edit: Keep your eye on Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman’s Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training site, where you’ll occasionally find day- and weekend-long personal trainer seminars like the one recorded in this six-DVD set.]

Bill Hartman on ankle mobility, a sampling of how corrective exercise works

Rachel Eisenman:
Does any of this work have more than anecdotal support? Nothing comes up in my ACSM or PUBMED searches. I’ve read PT on the Net articles and NASM guides - they have great ideas, but the scientific rationale is always lacking real research.

Patrick Ward:
Rachel, great question! There is only one study I am familiar with that was conducted on the Functional Movement Screen: Core strength: a new model for injury prediction and prevention. Peate WF, Bates G, Lunda K, Francis S, Bellamy K. J Occup Med Toxicol. 2007 Apr 11;2:3

They used the screen in this study as a pre-test for firefighters.

One of the tough things may be that the screen and corrections are an attempt to try and correct or “fix” something that hasn’t happened yet - which is difficult to show since we don’t know if it (the potential injury) would have ever happened! You are more just banking on the fact that, “if said athlete can’t perform movement x,y, and z properly, there is probably a good chance they will sustain and injury. So we need to try and correct x,y, and z before it becomes a bigger problem.”

There is even research suggesting that just becomes an individual has a certain postural deviation (for example, an excessive anterior tilt of the pelvis, which people obsess about) that it may not even create a pathological problem. I am less concerned with the static assessments than I am with how the athlete looks when they try and put it all together and move. You can have someone that has an excessive anterior pelvic tilt and a positive Thomas test, yet they can still control that posture in dynamic situations and perform the tests on the movement screen and do an overhead squat, etc…

This is of course if the client is not someone with current pain or injury. Just the run of the mill person who comes in off the street and wants to train and we see in our test, “oh, they can’t perform a squat properly”, which leads us to say, “wow, we need to do something to better prepare them to squat.” Certainly nothing revolutionary there.Gray just has his corrections for navigating those problems (you can’t squat, or lunge, or do a “step over” a hurdle, etc), just like Mike Clark (NASM) has his own corrections for those who can’t do the overhead squat and others have their own.

These are all just fancy ways of packing up the fact that you client can’t perform a certain task, so you have to give them the tools to perform that task. Does that make sense?

This stuff wasn’t designed to rehab an injury or anything like that.

There is a lot of “gray” area (no pun intended) with all of this stuff and it isn’t as black and white as people like to make it out to be, which is why I started my podcast. Sometimes you just have to embrace that gray area and move forward.

Laree Draper:
Rachel, you’ll have a lot of fun reading the scientific conversations at SomaSimple, but note these are physical therapists, not personal trainers.

More in your field, if you haven’t done this already, why don’t you swing by Mike Boyle’s StrengthCoach.com site and sign up for the free trial. You could ask your same question about certifications there and will get a great response, too.

Patrick Ward:
SomaSimple is one of my favorite sites. Lots of forward thinkers and they will make you question what you do and how you think big time! If you are a person who is 100% married to an idea or methodology and you have a hard time trying to see the other side of the coin and letting go of your emotions when debating, don’t go there, because you will get extremely frustrated with the discussions, as they challenge you to really open up.

Laree Draper:
John, I took a look at the RTS site, and see it’s Tom Purvis’ group. I lost track of him a dozen years ago. Back in the early ’90s we bumped into him from time to time at Thom Plummer events or with the original Cybex engineers. Very sharp guy.

Heading off topic a touch to recommend a Thom Plummer seminar to anyone who owns or wants to own a gym or personal training facility. Unrelated to corrective exercise, but it’s important to learn how to work the business end, too. Most personal trainers miss the boat here, seems like.

Jen Waak:
For the most-researched corrective exercise program, you know I’m going to vote for Eric Cobb’s Z-Health.

Laura Pasik:
The NASM-CES certification is very good for assessing movement dysfunction and troubleshooting before there’s an injury. It’s proactive. The basic NASM-CES protocol is inhibit and lengthen overactive, tight muscles through self-myofascial release, stretching, then isolated strengthening for weak, underactive muscles, and finally, integrated “functional” exercise to re-educate the muscles. To the trainees reading, I’d add f you even suspect an overuse injury, you should go to a physical therapist or orthopedist, not a personal trainer.

Eric Beard:
If you are looking for a credential, the NASM CES is probably the most marketable; 7/10 of largest US health club chains require an NASM credential, the Department of Veterans Affairs has recognized NASM’s offerings as approved education programs, 93% of NBA ATCs have one of NASM’s credentials etc. As far as content goes, there is a host of fantastic information available through many individuals, organizations, texts and websites. I would encourage anyone to draw from an eclectic sampling of information.

The system that NASM teaches is easy to follow and evidence based. The system that one uses is what makes the techniques powerful. If not, the process is not reproducible. The live 2 day workshop that NASM offers is invaluable from a practical application standpoint. No matter or who some one goes to for their education, there should be some sort of live component to the experience. NASM’s methodologies and systems have helped me to organize much of the information that I have garnered through experience and formal education. A great place to start for corrective exercise!

[Edit: For an example of the type of learning taught at NASM’s Corrective Exercise Specialist workshops, here’s Eric with a corrective exercise case study on ankle impairment.]

Robert Taylor:
The NASM-CES certification is a good specialization cert that doesn’t require further CEU’s to maintain. Definitely would recommend athletic trainers, personal trainers and strength coaches looking into this organization and certification.

Mike T Nelson:
I think a better question is which system gets you the best result in the least time based on physiologic principles. Don’t get me wrong, I am a HUGE proponent of research, but corrective exercise is as much a science as an art.

Review: The first criterion is achievement of an advanced certification from either the American College of Sports Medicine or the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Sorry to the pretenders that I carefully excluded from this list. These two organizations represent the highest standards of the profession and offer numerous opportunities for increasing knowledge of exercise science.

Jessica:
I second the Mark Verstegen and ACSM recommendations. I also like Stott Pilates certification for postural analysis and corrective exercise. I’ve found that no one method/cert seems to be better than the rest, but a combo works best.

Laree Draper:
Tangentially related, high school or junior college trainees interested in a future in health and fitness should spend a weekend clicking around this review of college degrees in exercise science. An overview of the various types of personal training certifications is here. Another suggestion sent for your consideration: University of Michigan’s Division of Kinesiology.
States are beginning to rumble about personal training licensure. It’s sure to happen in the not-too-distant future. This article in Club Industry’s Fitness Business magazine discussed the current state of affairs.

If you’re on Facebook and you’d like to connect with some of the above contributors, here’s the original thread on my Facebook page.

I have two more quick thoughts for personal trainers who’d like to begin their education in the corrective exercise field.

• IDEA Corrective Exercise Design: Eliminating the Guesswork, Anthony Carey and Justin Price. 370 minutes, 2 dvds covering functional anatomy, motor learning principles, static assessments, advanced assessments, dynamic assessments and sample program design progressions from the 2009 IDEA Personal Trainer Institute conference.
• Grab Anthony Renna’s StrengthCoach podcast episode 30.5, in which Gray Cook discusses the progression a trainer would go through when following his Functional Movement Screen dvds and workshops.

That oughta be enough to keep a busy trainer clicking around all weekend. Still, if there are more contributions later, I’ll certainly weave and link them into this for a nice archive for future readers. Thanks again, everyone, for your great comments.