With the rise of “functional” training, an accompanying subset of specialization has also grown and has come to be called corrective exercise. Originating from physical therapy, corrective exercise has developed a certain cachet to it, especially in the personal training field.
While I think some of these corrective exercises have merit, I often find that they are incredibly shortsighted in their approach and methodology. The goal of training anyone is to get that person better at moving (or, in an athletes' case, to get them better, faster, and more efficient with regard to their respective sport), and this starts with strengthening the foundational movements and working from there.
My major issue with these lies in the concept itself—breaking these movements down into tiny subsections, working those independently, and then believing that this will somehow reintegrate into the full movement pattern runs entirely counter to how the brain and body actually learn how to move. The belief and practice that developing “stabilization strength endurance” through unbalanced, unilateral, and barely loaded exercises will lead to gross movement strength is something I have never seen happen. You cannot train something in isolation and then expect it to magically integrate into the proper foundational pattern. Neuromuscular coordination is built upon the development of gross/major motor patterns that can then be developed into specialized/acute motor patterns. You cannot effectively reverse-engineer this system. So far as I have seen, the majority of corrective work is poorly used and understood by most personal trainers and coaches. I will not say that corrective work is worthless or redundant; however, outside of physical therapy practice its usage is questionable without proper understanding of context and implementation.
So, now that I’ve pissed a ton of people off and opened myself up to a load of criticism, here are three more points of contention with “corrective exercise” along with two movements they’ve trashed constantly.
1. You don’t need correctives, you just need to get stronger.
I’ve worked in commercial gyms, and many trainers I have worked with have been certified in “corrective” exercise. Firstly, I find this title complete bullshit, as it makes me wonder what is considered regular “exercise”...and is there such a thing as “degenerative” exercise? Fallacies aside, these corrective exercises are no different from bodybuilding isolatory exercises, at least with regard to performance. They are controlled and are highly specific to the muscle/pattern they are working. However, their intention is different of course, as they are targeting various individual muscle groups for the express idea of “activating” that muscle in order to “correct” an “imbalance.”
Now, in certain instances I will say that this idea can have merit...with an emphasis on can. However, like many things, it gets taken too far. These corrective exercises are not training strategies, and they are not primary components of a program. They are tactics to address specific issues as they arise—and the effectiveness of these exercises is often quite questionable. They are not entirely worthless, but I’ve seen them not “work” at all with regard to actually improving anything other than themselves.
For example, band pull aparts are a commonly performed corrective exercise. They train the rhomboids to perform scapular adduction, and they are often used to help with posture or upper back weakness.
You know what else does that though? Barbell rows, chin ups, inverted row, seated rows, DB rows...and pretty much every other rowing movement that uses actual weight and builds actual muscle.
Banded external rotations is another movement that is super popular—the intention being to strengthen the muscle of the rotator cuff. Again, this can be trained with face pulls, rows, straight-arm pulldowns, properly done pushups, and a bunch of other movements that build actual muscle. Furthermore, can someone please explain to me the point of exhausting your rotator cuff muscle before you actually lift anything? These movements are designed for rehab, not as a warm-up before you go to bench press. So, that's something to consider before you do them.
In turn, lateral band walks are a popular gluteus medius movement. Again, these muscles can be developed with barbell glute and hip thrusts, step-ups, and lateral lunges. I’m not sure what happened to doing lunges, as they are an incredibly easy way to train multiplanar movement, stability, and movement efficiency. What's more, they are easy to recover from and easy to progress, and they have great carryover for high movement capacity athletes. Do I care about how good your band walks are if I ask you to lunge sideways or backwards and you fall over? Hell no I don’t, but I’ve certainly seen this happen (which is also why I rarely use them).
My point here is that corrective exercise are not substitutes for compound movements. They are tactics to be used on a case-by-case basis, and past a certain point, they cannot be progressed any further and their benefit is called into question. You can’t add weight to a pull apart...but you can, however, add it to a barbell row. Pick the movements that work and that you can progress.
2. Shrugs: They work, so do them.
Shrugs are another exercise that the functional movement bandwagon tried to kill a few years ago. Much like the inordinate hatred toward direct arm work, doing shrugs was ordained as a waste of time. In fact, articles were written detailing why shrugs were biomechanically ineffective relative to the understood functionality of the trapezius and its actions upon the scapula and respiratory muscles. Instead, people were told that they should just do pull aparts and a bunch of other corrective crap. And everyone got jacked and yokes sprung forth upon the backs of every card-carrying member of the corrective exercise train.
Oh wait, that didn't actually happen...and I’m still waiting to meet a corrective specialist who actually looks like he lifts. But I digress...
My point? Screw that functional/non-functional crap and do shrugs. Why? Because shrugs work. They worked for bodybuilders, strongman, and general gymgoers for over a century, and they will continue to keep working.
Similar to the point I made months earlier about training your arms directly if you want big arms, you should probably train your traps directly if you want big traps. I love deadlifts and power cleans, but I had never had any real significant growth in my traps until I added in shrugs. Combine that with the elitefts neck harness and you have a winning combination.
Jim Wendler detailed training the yoke a few years ago, and his recommendations are 1,000% right. Aside from the usual prescription of training heavy, deadlifts, cleans, high pulls, and the elitefts Neck harness, I’ve done an ungodly amount of shrugs.
What kinds of shrugs? Well, all kinds of shrugs! My favorite shrugging sequence is one I picked up from an interview I read with a pro wrestler about a year ago. He was a taller guy like myself and was embarrassed at having a skinny neck. So he set out to shrug all the dumbbells in his gym every time he trained his back for a year straight...and it worked.
Per his insight, here is the Iron Lion recommendation for not having a skinny ballet neck and looking like you actually lift:
- Grab the heaviest pair of dumbbells you can hold onto, and shrug for as many reps as possible.
- Grab the next heaviest pair of dumbbells, and shrug them for as many reps as possible.
- Repeat this process for all the dumbbells. When they get light, turn it into a DB high pull.
Do this once a week for for at least three months, and I promise that trap development shall cease to be an issue for you.
3. If you want ABS, then you might want to do some sit-ups because no one has gotten shredded by doing planks.
So, I’ll give the corrective movement some credit for actually creating a paradigm shift in regards to core training. I’ve written about the idea of the “core” comprising the glutes, lats, and lumbar, and researchers such Stuart McGill have written entire textbooks on this very concept. The corrective movement has made, if nothing else, an impact on influencing the idea that having a strong “core” is important for overall movement health. I had a great discussion with Brian Carroll about this when he came to teach at the Beyond Strength Seminar in Santa Barbara. We noted the incredible physical strength of strongman in particular, and how none of them readily have “ripped abs." However, all seem to have brutally strong cores/torsos/whateveryouwanttocallit. Why? Well, their core training is their constant handling of heavy and awkward loads in various positions.
That aside, I’m not talking about “core,” I’m talking about having defined abdominal muscles (aka: a sixpack). This is the sixpack rectus abdominis that everyone in the bodybuilding and popular fitness world covets so much. And again, prior to the functional movement bandwagon, the effective way to have defined abdominal muscles/sixpack was to do some of the following
- Sit-ups
- Leg rises
- Knee rises
- Crunches
- Side bends
Doing some kind of combination of these movements, along with eating to stay lean, generally yielded good results.
The first man to be recognized as a bodybuilder, Eugene Sandow, recommended straight legged sit-ups in the 1880s as a means to develop the abdominal muscles. His heavy lifting aside, he had a pretty defined sixpack. Every bodybuilder from Charles Atlas and Steve Reeves to Arnold, Coleman, and Heath has done some isolation “non-functional” work for abs. Gymnasts make bodybuilders jealous all the time with having incredibly ripped midsections, and every competitive gymnast I have met could do stupid amounts of leg raises and L-sits. It seemed to work for all of them. Elitefts™ has some very excellent bodybuilding competitors on its team, and I know for a fact that all of them do some form of direct “ab” work. But if you don’t believe me, ask them.
Broscience argument? Sure it is, but the body of evidence for direct abdominal/sixpack training is centuries old and comprises thousands upon thousands of people...and I’ve yet to see anyone with a ripped midsection advise doing planks and cable anti-rotation presses. That’s the stuff corrective guys recommend, and I’m still waiting for them to prove that they lift.
So, if having a sixpack is an honest to Crom goal of yours, then you might want to do some sit-ups...seriously. Do what works, train your upper and lower abs, and follow the example that has already been set forth. If you execute it right, then you might have abs to show for it. Just don’t be one of those guys that wears Underarmor as a t-shirt. That’s never okay.