This is a guest article from Rick Kaselj.
I know when you want muscle pain relief you're always told to
"stretch the tight muscles".
Well that is kind of right. There is a little more to it.
With our clients spending most of their day sitting, driving or doing the same movements all day, there is a good chance they will have some muscle pain due to numberous muscle imbalances. During their exercise program we need to address it but still help them get results.
As I mentioned above, the common thinking is just to stretch, let me go through three other techniques that are often overlooked when it comes to muscle imbalances.
1. Spending Some Time on Stability
Our clients want to jump right into the workout but spending some time to help them when it relates to stability of the knee, pelvis, lower back and shoulder may not help them directly with their fat loss goals but it will lead to muscle pain relief and will improve their ability to do more resistance and advance exercises.
Blending in some stability work in the exercises they are doing or adding it to their cool down routine is something that will help them in the long run, add variety and demonstrate that you have more skills then just counting reps will lead to a better retention and chance of referral. Remember that clients want to tell their friends about you. They just need a reason to do so.
2. Improve Tissue Quality
With our clients in static postures, performing repetitive movements, eating poorly or living with high stress; we need to look at improving tissue quality of their muscles.
This is done with strength and flexibility but what also it is important to include dynamic movements and self massage.
The dynamic movements can be used to take the joints through multi-planar movements in order to lubricate the joint and warm up the surrounding muscles, so the joint is ready for the workout and decrease the risk of injury.
Self massage can be used with a foam roller or medicine ball in order to help decrease tension in the muscle and help with recovery.
3. Looking at Breathing
As personal trainers, we don't focus in on this enough.
We focus on breathing when it comes to avoiding a breath holding or a valsalva maneuver.
We need to think of linking breathing with movement.
Including breathing when it relates to movement helps with activation of stabilizing muscles, posture, lung function and exercise results.
The last word on muscle pain relief from correcting muscle imbalances
Next time you hear muscle imbalances, think past stretching. There are other things we need to do in order to get rid of them. Three things that will help are addressing muscle stabilization, tissue quality and breathing.
Luckily, Rick has put together a fantastic product along with Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Eric Beard, Kevin Yates, and Dean Somerset.
Rick Kaselj is a personal trainer in Vancouver, Canada that specializes in designing exercise programs for clients recovering from injuries. he actively runs a blog at http://ExercisesForInjuries.com. Rick has trained thousands of clients and completed his Master's of Science degree focusing on injury recovery. Rick shares with other fitness professionals and exercise enthusiasts, the muscle imbalance strategies he uses to prevent injuries, overcome injuries and bust through fitness plateaus in the Muscle Imbalances Revealed program.
