Have you ever had a client who just cannot move in the way you are coaching them to move?

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">No matter what teaching points you give, visual demonstrations you do or stretching you get them to do, they simply lack the </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">ability</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to squat or lunge, or at least to do so in a way you feel they should be capable!?</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Surely the first question that we should be asking ourselves is WHY? Instead of assuming what we are looking at is simply poor technique.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">As PT’s we are taught to correct technique, form and the joint positions of our clients to improve the way they move, therefore improve their strength and thus reduce risk, right?</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">However it is professionals like US who continually ask ourselves the question WHY that are drawn to further educating ourselves by reading blogs and articles and by attending extra workshops. We can be found seeking out more information &amp; knowledge rather than simply continuing to try to change or force our client’s movement.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">WE want more answers to the ‘WHY’s’ because we recognise that weird lunging movement they are doing may not be simply because of bad technique.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">I KNOW you are one of these professionals because you are reading this ;)</span>

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<h3><b>Are You Ill Equipped?</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Without knowing WHY someone is moving the way they are, we are surely ill equipped to address their ‘poor’ movement or lack of capacity.  This is surely a job for the PT!?</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">For many years I myself worked on the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">assumptions</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that I was taught in my basic L2/3 training. If a muscle appeared short we stretch it, if it appears weak strengthen it, if someone cannot perform a movement; repeat coach repeat coach repeat - right!?</span>

<img class="wp-image-1494 size-full aligncenter" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/muscles-stretching-3.jpg" alt="muscles-stretching-3" width="600" height="337" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">In my experience, my </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">assumptions</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> were just not good enough because some people just didn’t improve, didn’t get stronger or didn’t move better. Some just looked downright uncomfortable! I just KNEW this wasn’t enough!</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Instinctively we recognise there has to be more to their inability to move than we may actually have the skills for. Discovering the ability to remember and retain our anatomy knowledge, combined with gaining a good understanding of how the intrinsic biomechanics of that individual are influencing their movement can give us more confidence, more results, therefore more referrals, more clients and so increase our income - or treble it in fact as I did!</span>

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<h3><b>Life Changing Knowledge Bombs</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Recognising that not all short muscles need stretching was quite profound for me coming from a dance background that was ALL about flexibility and stretching. To discover that stretching some muscle dysfunction can actually compound a problem was a knowledge bomb that blew my mind and was truly life changing. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Also learning that ‘weakness’ is a very broadly used term and can have several different meanings or causes that don’t automatically require strength work also completely changed the way I practiced.</span>

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<h3><b>What Is Weakness Anyway?</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">A common ‘weakness’ could be an inhibition of a muscle, coming from the antagonist being dysfunctional. Would you want to strengthen a muscle that is inhibited? Well probably not initially at least. First you would want to remove the inhibition to then give the muscle its ‘capacity’ for strength back, don’t you agree?</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">The inhibition could be come from several root causes; muscle spasm of the ‘weak’ muscle, muscle spasm of its antagonist as in the example above (remember the law of reciprocal inhibition?), tethered nerves and/or stiff joints to name a few. None of which require strength work initially even though they may be </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">seen</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as a ‘weakness’.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">All of the above could directly impact upon the way your client moves of course and yet we might be asking them to repeat a movement in an endeavour of improving their ‘technique’ which could actually be the wrong thing to do in an effort to improve it. However hopefully you can see how there can be more to that weird lunge than simply bad technique, posture or form.</span>

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<h3><b>Change The Way You Think - Start With WHY?</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">So maybe a good place to START would be to rule out &amp; correct dysfunction FIRST. To do this we need some way of measuring capacity and function. Once we have screened our client we can then apply our knowledge of corrective exercise techniques.  This then gives our client the CAPACITY to move. We then re-measure and upon observing improved movement we can apply our verbal and visual technique coaching.</span>

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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Do you want to increase your confidence in assessing capacity and function for your clients?....</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://biomechanicseducation.clickfunnels.com/4-sign-pelvic-release-video" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out the 4 Sign screen and exercise to get you started. Just CLICK HERE &gt;&gt;</span></a></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://biomechanicseducation.clickfunnels.com/4-sign-pelvic-release-video" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="alignnone wp-image-1479 size-large" src="https://www.biomechanicseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screen-Shot-2017-01-13-at-10.57.16-1024x576.png" alt="Screen Shot 2017-01-13 at 10.57.16" width="840" height="473" /></a></p>    	