Written by Kento Kamiyama PT, DPT
2 weekends ago I had the honor to teach a physical therapy seminar through Medical Minds in Motion (more about it here and here). It was a one day course where I taught about how to assess and correct movement. During the lecture, I discuss about the importance of implementing correctives for each patient at the end of your sessions to make sure what you did either it be dry needling, IASTM, manipulation, etc sticks better. I tell my attendees that the corrective exercises should mimic the effects manual therapy gives you. Sometimes with good assessment, you can get a lot for just the correctives without manual therapy!
In between my lecture days, I saw a good friend of mine from PT school to catch up since the course was around the area (he was taking a McKenzie course that weekend so he couldn’t take my course 🙂 ). We use to train together and it was interesting to discuss about how each of us have changed or not change since graduating. Getting to the point, he is a strong and athletic individual but was reporting consistent hip and back discomfort/tightness. He also reported he has difficulty with kettle bell swings for the longest time because it hurts his back and hip.
As a Strong First Kettlebell Instructor, I could not let that go. After some movement and breathing assessment utilizing the path of least resistance concept from Shirley Sahrmann, we did some breathing drills along with kettle bell swing drills. Here is a before and after video after ~15 minutes of drills below with obviously his consent.
Notice the difference in hip extension and spinal alignment in the neck and lower back. Even his breathing technique became sharper and more efficient! Not only did his form clean up, his Hip IR/ER ROM improved after which I should have taken a video of (rookie mistake). He also noted the morning after his hips felt great even though it usually bothers him a day after a workout. With a little corrective and kettle bell drills, how he feels before, during and after dramatically changed.
A few correctives goes a long way :).
If you are having difficulty executing certain movements or experience pain, consult with a health care professional that have movements assessment background such as SFMA, NKT, Andreo Spina’s FRR/FRC, PRI, etc.
Have a good training day you all:)