Sports Medicine
Dr. Ken Kinakin
D.C., CSCS
Dr. Ken Kinakin is a sport medicine doctor, chiropractor, certified strength and conditioning specialist and personal trainer! He’s also the author of the book “Optimal Muscle Training” and has competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting for over 20 years. Dr. Kinakin lectures around the world to doctors and personal trainers on the areas of weight-training, rehabilitation and nutrition. He is also the clinic director for the AIM Health & Wellness clinic (see www.aimhealthgroup.com), with a rehabilitation and training centre in Mississauga, Ontario. Dr. Kinakin founded the Society of Weight-Training Injury Specialists (SWIS), an organization that educates and certifies doctors, therapists and personal trainers in the area of exercise muscle testing, rehabilitation and treatment of weight training injuries (see www.swis.ca).
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MUSCLE INSIDER Owner Scott Welch blasts biceps with The Arm Blaster!
Treating Injuries With Exercise
Q. Looking around the gyms these days, I see more personal trainers wasting their time trying to fix injuries with exercises rather than sending them to a sports med doctor. What's your take on this?
A. A large shift in the training industry is occurring right now. Personal trainers have been taking seminars on stretching, Swiss balls, trigger point balls, TRX, Bosu, etc. with the belief that these types of training will fix many injuries. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t. I teach an exercise muscle testing certification course which helps personal trainers determine if a client is capable of doing specific weight training exercises. When a personal trainer starts asking questions like, “What do you do for frozen shoulder?” or “How do you fix Patellofemoral pain syndrome?” I know they have outgrown their personal training profession. You will only be able to fix so much with exercise. And sometimes the body needs treatment (chiropractic adjustments, ART, Graston, acupuncture, laser therapy, etc) for damaged muscle tissue or restoring normal joint motion that only a licensed health practitioner can do. Once the tissues and joints are healthy through treatment, then exercises work like magic. But you are asking for a lot of frustration and poor results if you only have exercises and stretching to try and fix complicated injuries. And if your goal is to fix injuries, then it’s time to go back to school to become a therapist or doctor and learn a whole new set of skills and techniques to really help your clients. Contact me if you want help to determine which would be the best profession for you.
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