IFAST Corrective Exercise

I thought you might like to see some true results of our corrective programming at IFAST.  I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, so I apologize for the delay.

This is Rich.  Rich was training for the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon that we have each year in May as part of the activities associated with the Indy 500.

Rich came to us in February and had been running since Christmas.  He’d recently recovered from his second knee surgery (one on each knee) and was having a lot of morning stiffness and some chronic calf tightness on the right.

Rich’s assessment showed some rather significant deficits in hip rotation and especially hip extension on the left as you can see.  He was literally stuck in hip flexion which resulted in some pretty poor glute function.

His malalignment was so significant that you can see the pronounced cervical extension that he was totally unaware of.

Basically, here’s what we did to produce the current correction:

Identified activities that negatively influence Rich’s alignment

Rich must drive a lot for his job and he tends to sit in a crooked alignment in the car.  We had him jam a pillow between the console and his hips to improve his alignment while sitting.  He also made an effort to stop and get out of the car more frequently.  Had Rich not been compliant with this part of the program, I’m certain that we wouldn’t have seen such a powerful change.

Identified range of motion limitations and the source such as short or stiff musculature or weakened musculature

For shortened tissues we utilized eccentric quasi-isometrics and appropriate exercises that emphasized a range of motion to that would promote restoring muscle length.  Stiffened muscles received more standard stretching protocols and mobility exercises followed by strengthening the antagonist to improve balance of stiffness around the affected joints.  You can learn more about this type of programming HERE.

In regards to his strength training, not only did it reinforce his mobility, but it also emphasized regaining stability, first proximally and then peripherally.

All of Rich’s gym time was done under supervision of one of our coaches to assure proper technique was emphasized at all times.

As you can see in the comparison, Rich made some outstanding progress in his realignment.  We’re currently working on a physical challenge for his upcoming 50th birthday and continuing with his corrective programming.