It was a great weekend teaching Exercise Rehabilitation of the Lower Body.

Thank you to everyone that attended.

It was great to have so many personal trainers, group fitness instructors and Kinesiologists attend the courses.

Once again, I had great feedback from everyone that attended:

“A good hands on course with a lot of examples for exercises for the rehab client.  You can start using your knowledge right with your clients.”

Stefanie Rogge

“I have really enjoyed the courses I have taken over the weekend.  I found them very interesting and informative.  I feel the information will give me great tools to utilize in my training programs.”

Shea Sargent

“Rick is a very good speaker.  Very knowledgeable, easy to understand, describes the material in a manner that anyone can understand.  I find his courses to be excellent in quality.”

Deana Critchley

“Rick is friendly and easy to approach about course material.”

Pablo Chang

“I recommend the courses offered by Rick to all fitness professionals for optimal rehabilitation of clients.”

Fez Moussavi-zadeh

“If personal trainers want to be more informed, take these courses to get great practical info.”

O.M

Thank you for everyone that attended.  I had a great time teaching and sharing the information with you.

From reading the evaluations, I can see I did the key things that fitness professionals are looking for in a course:

• Great exercises
• Everything was touched on
• Informative
• Course was beneficial
• Learning the right exercises for each injury
• The course moved smoothly
• The course was very balanced
• Course was not intimidating
• Hands-on course
• Lots of great exercises
• Interactive

If you missed out on the Exercise Rehabilitation of the Lower Body courses, I will be teaching them again in May 2012. Details should be up on the blog very soon.

The next set of courses that I am teaching is coming up in October 2011 and it is the core stability weekend.

Hope to see you at the course.

Take care and have a great day!

Rick Kaselj, MS

In my last exercise rehabilitation prediction, I never mentioned what I was talking about.

I have been in the fitness industry since 1994 and have been specializing in exercise rehabilitation since 1996, so I have seen a few things come and go when it comes to exercise rehabilitation.

Since this is all I focus in on, I wanted to share with you what I see happening in 2011 when it relates to exercise rehabilitation.

Now onto the next prediction.

Prediction #2

Profession versus Exercise Rehabilitation Specialist

In the past we have seen professionals that have been the primary groups that have helped people prevent, rehabilitate, and overcome injuries.

Specialists versus Generalists

In 2011 we will see groups break up, and people will become specialists when it relates to exercise rehabilitation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Prediction #1:

Exercise Rehabilitation on the Rise

In 2011, we will see more and more people with injuries heading to fitness professionals for help.

Experts in Exercise Rehabilitation

Consumers will be looking for people that are experts in exercise rehabilitation.

They will look for, and demand that, the fitness professional knows their injury, understands what their injury is, knows what to do about it and can help them over come it.

If you do not know, they will move onto the next fitness professionals.

If you do know what to do with injuries, it will lead to a long term client.

You will be able to help them overcome their injury and things will progress to you helping them with other health and fitness goals – like weight loss, fat loss, increase energy, increase strength, training for a dream and increasing flexibility.

Exercises Rehabilitation is the Answer

Read the rest of this entry »

When I was down at the NFBA conference in Seattle, Washington.  I swung by Kirkland, Washington to visit my friend Belton Lubas and Rommel Acada.  They both attended a fitness education course that I had hosted a few years back in New Westminster, BC, Canada.

Since then I have ran into Belton in Orlando, Florida.  We did an interview there as well, you can check it out here: exercise rehabilitation interview .

I have know Belton for two years.  It seems like every time I see him, he interviews me.  While visiting his facility, we did another video interview.

Interview with Me by Belton Lubas of Element 5 Fitness

Read the rest of this entry »

I received a question from a personal trainer who has a number of clients with meniscal injuries; she was looking for some suggestions on program design and exercises.

There is a lot to consider when it comes to lower body injuries and exercises.  I go through all kinds of exercises for the lower body in the following courses:

Exercises Rehabilitation of the Knee

Balance Training for the Rehab Client

I will focus on a few key points to remember when strengthening the knee that has a meniscus injury.

What Does the Meniscus Do?

Taking a step back, the menisci act to spread the load of the body’s weight and reduce friction during knee movement.  When your client talks about “torn cartilage in the knee” they are often talking about meniscus.

5 Keys to Help Your Clients with a Meniscus Injury

Time Load on the Meniscus

Look at your client and see the amount of time they spend standing, walking, running and exercising during the day.  All of these activities puts load on the meniscus and if the meniscus is damaged, it will lead to inflammation.  It is important to load the meniscus, but the amount of time they load their meniscus needs to be monitored and your client needs to address any inflammation they have.

Plus a decrease in the load during the day on the meniscus will allow the meniscus to heal better and allow your client to do more during their exercise program when it comes to weight bearing and leg strengthening exercises.

Get on the Bike

Whatever your opinion is of the bike, the bike is great to strengthen the injured knee while putting low load on the internal structures of the knee, like the meniscus.

Get your client on the bike in order to strengthen the muscle around the knee.

Collapsing Feet

If your client has excessive pronation (flat feet) during gait, this will lead to increase medial load on the knee.  If their cartilage issue is the medial meniscus, this will put greater stress on their meniscus when doing day to day activities.  You need to assess you client to see if this is making the meniscus symptoms worse and slowing down their recovery.

Other Knee Strengthening Exercises

A lot of the common exercises given for the meniscus injury are hip flexion and hip extension exercises.  This is important, but does not address knee extension.  Few exercises that your client can do to strengthen the quadriceps:

Supine Tubing Leg Press

In a supine position straightening the legs out against resistive tubing.

Changing Stance Width

With the typical closed chain exercises like squats and lunges can be tough for a client with meniscus issues.  What you can do is play around with the hip width that your client performs the exercises.  Sometime varying the distance between their feet will decrease the load on the injured area of the meniscus and allow them to perform the exercise.

I have to thank Barb for the question about meniscus injuries and exercises.

Do let me know what you think of the post and if you have any tips for other fitness professionals on exercise and meniscus injuries.

Rick Kaselj, MS

Before I go, one last thing.

The picture above gives you an idea of how it looks in the knee.

1 = meniscus

2 = femur (thigh bone)

3 = tibia (shin bone)

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Yesterday, I sent you an e-mail about needing your help.

With the creation of the Exercises for Injuries blog, I have started getting enquires from around the world about educational opportunities.  Most people are not able to attend my course in the Vancouver area but really would like to learn the content in them.  Those that contacted me have suggested that I start doing webinars so anyone from around the world can join in.  I want to hear from you, if you are interested in attending a webinar and what topics you would like to see.

Please leave a comment below answering these two questions:

Question 1: Are you interested in attending webinars?

Leave a comment below and let me know if you are interested in exercise rehabilitation webinars.  A “Yes or No” answer is fine but why you are or why you are not would be even better.

Question 2:  What webinar topics would you like to see?

I don’t know what you are interested in.  Here are some ideas that I though you might be interested in:

- Exercises to End Frequent Ankle Sprain

- Corrective Exercises to Running Injury-free

- Using Press Release to Get More Exercise Rehabilitation Clients

- Corrective Exercise for a Pain-free Back

- Exercises to Correct Poorly Firing Gluteus

- Scapular Stabilization Exercises

- Using Craigslist to Get More Exercise Rehabilitation Clients

$199 Prize if You Leave a Comment

Everyone that gives me their opinion will be put into a draw for a copy of the $199 The Truth About Osteoporosis & Exercise Program.

For more details on what is in the The Truth About Osteoporosis & Exercise Program:

Thank you for your help.

- Rick Kaselj, MS

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