It’s because the Brain controls EVERYTHING.
I’m sure that if you’re even remotely interested in Corrective Exercise you probably already have a set of go-to assessments,
So once you’ve put your client through their paces you’ll usually have an idea of any muscular imbalances, restrictions, and historical injuries.
Let’s say hypothetically that you discover that someone’s quads are over-facilitated. Or maybe you’re a total ninja and you’re able to pinpoint the specific muscle within the group, and so you go about your series of stretching protocols and foam rolling, and maybe you’re even able to apply a bit of manual therapy as well…
“If I can just pummel this stubborn, over-facilitated, problem-child of a quad it’ll calm down…”
But therein lies the rub (pun absolutely intended)
Muscles are DUMB. Like meathead, nightclub bouncer dumb.
If a muscle is over-facilitated or ‘chronically tight’
or on the flip-side, if a muscle just isn’t pulling its weight and won’t fire properly…
THERE’S ALWAYS A REASON!
Muscles simply follow orders, contracting and relaxing in response to electrical signals.
Signals that come from the Brain and Nervous System.
In fact, if you took a muscle out of the body and disconnected it from the nerves that are innervating the motor units that control the muscle,
You’ve essentially got yourself a nice slab of people steak...🤢
So once you’ve gone through the process of figuring out which muscles are being naughty and causing the imbalances, compensation patterns, and more than likely some form of pain or discomfort,
You now have two options
Option #1: Poke, prod, stretch and move the offending piece of people-meat in the hopes that something in your bag of tricks works
Option #2: You skip all that and instead focus your time and energy on the thing that’s controlling the problem…
To put it another way, you could
1: Treat the symptoms or
2: Treat the problem…
If you’re a Fitness Professional, with an interest in Corrective Exercise…
…you must study a Brain-Based Approach or you’re missing the most important part of the picture!