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Corrective Exercise: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

instructor teaching client corrective exercise

What Is Corrective Exercise?

Corrective Exercise is a technique that leverages an understanding of anatomy, kinesiology, and biomechanics to address and fix movement compensations and imbalances to improve the overall quality of movement during workouts and in everyday life.

Corrective Exercise is used to help assess and determine the root cause of imbalances and faulty movement patterns that lead to issues with posture, balance, and total body coordination.

Once the issue or issues are identified, a Corrective Exercise Specialist can then develop an exercise routine that addresses the problem through foam rolling, stretching, and total body exercises.

By addressing a client’s functional movement and the issues impeding it, especially at their feet, knees, and hips, it helps reduce the stress put on their body. By properly aligning the body, corrective exercises help it to handle the load that everyday movement puts on it and helps reduce the risk of future injury.

Thanks to these strategies, clients will be able to move better, which will open up a variety of new exercises they will be able to do. It will also give them the ability to take part in a plethora of different activities and sports that they enjoy and may not have been able to do otherwise.

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Why Is Corrective Exercise Important?

Movement is a reality of everyday life regardless of if you work in an office building or are a professional athlete. Corrective Exercise is imperative in identifying and addressing imbalances that cause posture, stability, and mobility issues. Having a rich understanding of Corrective Exercise allows fitness professionals to identify problems and potential limitations in a client's movements.

One of the most important elements of Corrective Exercise is a proper assessment. Using NASM’s Corrective Exercise Continuum (CEx), professionals can effectively assess their clients and develop personalized solutions to improve the way their clients move, feel, and recover from a workout. Studies show proper Corrective Exercise intervention can improve neuromuscular control, which can reduce risk of future injuries.

Corrective exercise instructor doing lunges with client

Who Benefits From Corrective Exercise?

Clients Benefit

As a Corrective Exercise Specialist, you will bring a new way of assessing and programming that will help your clients move effectively, recover faster and get back in the gym or back in the game in no time. This level of attention and specialization will help you gain new clients looking for a complete training session and better serve your current clients by providing them unique and more in-depth programming.

Trainers Benefit

Becoming a Corrective Exercise Specialist demonstrates your continued passion and investment in education, helping you differentiate yourself from other personal trainers and better establish yourself as a leader in the fitness industry. With over 30 years of being world-renowned for the quality of our rigorous scientific programs, you, as an NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist, will be recognized as a trusted trainer and coach.

Benefits of Corrective Exercise

Increases flexibility
Increases muscle activation
Increases joint stability
Improves neuromuscular efficiency (coordination)
Reduces risk of injury
Improves movement patterns
Increases ability to recover
Prepares the body for higher intensity exercise
Prepares the body for optimal performance
Corrects muscle imbalances

What Does a Corrective Exercise Specialist Do?

A Corrective Exercise Specialist is an expert in human movement assessment. They accurately analyze a client's movement patterns, identify overactive and underactive muscle groups and compensations. Once the assessment process is over, they create programs that optimize clients' ability to move, perform exercises correctly, and reduce tissue tension caused by the load put on the body via training. Corrective Exercise is a terrific complement, if not a necessity, to anyone that works in the fitness or health field.

Become a Corrective Exercise Specialist

Who Should Become a Corrective Exercise Specialist (NASM-CES)?

Personal Trainers

The NASM-CES is ideal for current personal trainers as it helps sharpen their eye for assessments and gives them the tools to help their clients move better.

Physical Therapists

Health care professionals can utilize Corrective Exercise techniques as a bridge to progress a patient from the treatment room towards accomplishing their physical movement goals.

Massage Therapists

Mastering Corrective Exercise can help a Licensed Massage Therapist further their career by giving them a more targeted way to do soft tissue work as well as help them suggest self-care recovery programming.

Fitness Coaches

Fitness coaches can help their client’s movement quality, enhance their recovery, and even help make them more resistant to injury caused by physical activity.

Stretching & Flexibility Coaches

Stretching and Flexibility Coaches can train clients, assess them, and provide customized stretching plans geared towards their specific needs and outcomes.

Strength & Conditioning Coaches

Strength and Conditioning Coaches can provide clients more targeted flexibility and strength training that enhances movement and increases performance.

Tony Ambler-Wright NASM Master Instructor

"I owe my career and where I'm at today to the Corrective Exercise Specialization. By implementing the assessments, programming, and solutions that I learned through the CES program, it allowed me to work with a wide variety of clients that I might not have been able to work with and help achieve their goals otherwise."

- Tony Ambler-Wright, MS, NASM Master Instructor