Hi Sigi, I think you’ll be able to answer your own question by the end of this course but I’ll take a stab and addressing some of your great questions here:
1) Deconditioned clients and clients in Pain (Acute or Chronic) are two separate issues. Sometimes people are deconditioned and in pain. Sometimes not. It’s important to distinguish the two. Clients in Pain should work with a specialized coach (Physical Therapist, Corrective Exercise Specialist, Pain-Free Movement Specialist, etc). Pain is a complex issue that we can’t simply blame on poor posture or biomechanics.
2) Any exercise can cause an injury. Some exercises are more riskier than others and that is dependent on many factors including the capabilities of the client, their ability to tolerate force, their history training or being physically active etc. What’s important as a coach is you select exercises that you are confident coaching. I wouldn’t expect a new coach in the industry to be able to prescribe and coach a Power exercise or a Multiplanar exercise. A veteran coach, absolutely, if that coach has had the right education and development. The key is to understand how to regress any exercise and acute variables to meet the abilities of the client and that takes years to develop.
If you are not comfortable with the way your client moves, then simply create an environment so they can move well. That means:
- Add more stability to a given exercise
- Slow the tempo
- Lighten or even remove external load
- Decrease range of motion
- Simplify the movement patterns
From our 4Q perspective, you might consider more Unloaded Linear based exercise until you feel confident with coaching people in other quadrants! So to answer your Mobility and Strength questions, you’ll probably want to prescribe ULT type exercises initially before progressing them to other quadrants later in their program (I.e. ULT for 1-2 weeks before introducing other quadrants). The key is to follow the aforementioned guidelines when you begin to explore new strategies and quadrants with your deconditioned clients.
For now, let me suggest practicing any exercise you see on yourself first until you get comfortable with it before you introduce it to clients.
