Muscle Compensations words By Frederic Impens – Dip. Remedial Massage, Cert 4 Personal Training; Member ATMS
“Compensation” is a term that people in the health and fitness industry use on a daily basis. It references to a unique and yet confounding “skill” that the human body deploys when it senses an injury or instability in a part of the body.
Compensating, in a general sense, is an innovative way that the body adapts to a misaligned muscular- skeletal movement pattern. This compensation is part of an effort by the body to help this misaligned movement become less of a short term movement risk to the body. It could be better stated that compensation isn’t really a “skill” but rather a symptom of an issue in the body. Compensating helps the body get by until the root of the real movement misalignment is addressed. Think of it similar to if your cars wheels are out of alignment. The mechanic observes this and tells you that there is an issue. You may choose to address the issue now or you can continue to drive your car for a while, while the wheels are out of alignment. The faster, longer, and harder you drive your car, eventually the misalignment will begin to increasingly wear down the tires and likely cause more and more additional problems until your car will no longer function correctly. The same thing happens to our bodies. Pain is like the sensor light (or the mechanics observation) for your car, telling you that there is a problem. As you continue to work out and stress your body, you may feel worse and worse until your body can no longer compensate for your these misalignments. Sound familiar? We have heard people comment on the fact that the feel like they have a small “Hitch” in their gait or it feels that when running, their stride is out of alignment in each scenario, it is a case of compensating movements.
When my brother was sixteen, he had surgery on his right ankle. A few years later, he is competing in the 1500m run. Although he was able to run at a very high competitive level, his ankle injury still affects him. Ironically, it is not his right ankle that hurts when he runs; he now has a chronic left hip pain due to his glut muscle.
For two years, he periodically saw a therapist for the strained glut muscle. Unfortunately, simply addressing the strained muscle was not preventing the glut injury from recurring. He needed to address the root cause – compensation for his right ankle, and thus the corresponding issue of his stride being out of alignment).
By improving his ankle, his glut no longer needs to compensate for his ankle’s weakness. Understanding the inter connectedness nature of the muscular system is crucial in addressing chronic injury and compensating movements.
If you really stop and think about it, tightness and some of those nagging pains are likely indications that the body is overcompensating, and we have all experienced that to some degree.
Biologically, compensation is a defence mechanism used by the body to help prevent further injury on a short term basis. Unfortunately, the body can get stuck in a rut and that compensation can be a lifelong issue, resulting in further injury if it isn’t corrected. Our GCPSH Team can help address the root issue that is causing the body to use compensations.
Check with our friendly GCPSH team how to best help you to achieve your best:- phone 07 5500 6470 or book online
