As someone who has the opportunity to assist up and coming trainers on a path that will ensure they excel at this role, I strongly promote three main aspects of exercise science that I believe is absolutely fundamental in performing this role at the standard that should be expected by all clients.
1. Anatomy – A strong understanding of muscle names and where they are situated on the body.
2. Kinesiology – What joint movements take place and what muscles cause those movements.
3. Exercise Prescription – What exercises are prescribed to train these muscles.
Kinesiology – An official definition is:
Kinesiology is the scientific study of human or non-human body movement. (Wikipedia)
I wanted to share with you why developing a strong kinesiological basis is so important in performing the role of developing exercise programs for clients.
1. If you are strong in Kinesiology you have a much better chance of being able to diagnose why a client is having some issues with a specific movement (pain, weakness, etc).
2. If a client is interested in increasing their strength/conditioning in a specific region you can use your kinesiological knowledge to determine what muscles need to be strengthened and the movement patterns that need to be trained to improve strength in this region.
3. A background in kinesiology will assist you in developing your Mind’s Eye for technique development (https://fatchfitness.com/minds-eye-for-the-pt/) and being skilled at both detecting technical errors as well as developing cues to adjust these movements to the correct patterns.
Examples of how a knowledge of Kinesiology can improve your PT skillset:
1. Client with lower back pain when performing situps.
CAUSE: This client is likely to have poorly developed core stability resulting in their hip flexors creating large lumbar spine shearing forces when they perform any situp type activity.
SOLUTION: Remove the situp exercise and add appropriate core exercises that load the core in a stabilisation way whilst minimising the activation of the hip flexors (eg crunches & variations).
2. Bodybuilding client wants to improve their lower trapezius muscles which are currently under developed.
SOLUTION: The lower trapezius muscles perform Scapula depression therefore finding a suitable exercise that requires scapula depression will be perfect for this muscle group (eg bar hangs with straight arm pulls, last 15-20o of the dip with a focus on pushing the shoulders down as far as they will go).
3. Client wants to improve their biceps but traditional dumbbell bicep curls don’t seem to be maximising the contraction within this muscle group.
CAUSE: The client is most likely allowing their forearms to pronate during part of the bicep curl activity. Kinesiologically this has the effect of turning the bicep muscle group off (due to the insertion on the radius bone).
SOLUTION: Ensure that the client maximises the supination of their forearms during the entire ROM of the bicep curl movement. Using a straight bar will assist with this forearm positioning maximising the tension on the bicep muscle groups throughout the full ROM.
4. Client is tight in their hip flexors/quadricep muscle groups.
SOLUTION: The Rectus Femoris is a two joint muscle and it generates hip flexion and Knee extension. If you are able to place the clients leg in a position where they are in hip extension and knee flexion this will maximise the stretch placed on all the hip flexor muscle groups.
On point 4 – if you understand Kinesiology it is relatively easy to come up with the most appropriate stretching exercises based on what joint movement the muscle group in question generates. All you have to do is to place the joint in the opposite position to what the muscle would move the joint into to create a stretch on that muscle.
A good example is the stretching of the hamstring muscle group.
The hamstrings have two main roles – Hip extension and Knee flexion.
So if you are able to place the leg in a hip flexion and knee extension position you will maximise the stretch on the hamstring muscle group.
This stretch can be improved through the understanding of the role the hamstrings have on Pelvic tilt – The hamstrings assist in Posterior Pelvic Tilt – so as part of the hip flexion role in the above stretch, if you can ensure that the pelvis is placed in an Anterior Pelvic Tilt – this further improves this hamstring flexibility exercise.
IN SUMMARY:
It is not possible to become a highly skilled trainer without a strong understanding of Kinesiology and how the main muscle groups of the body affect the movement of the joints.
Develop this skillset and you will have gained the knowledge to be able to challenge the current status quo with many exercise routines allowing you to develop better and more customised programs for your clients.
