compensation

Pro Athletes – What’s the biggest difference between them and you?

At Muscle Activation Schaumburg, we see a wide variety of clients for Muscle Activation Techniques® (MAT®).  We see clients who are younger and older, clients who are more physically fit and those who are not, and clients who are highly athletic as well as those whose athleticism may be lacking.  But, despite this variety, there is a consistency that we see regarding the differences between our clients who are professional athletes and those who are not.

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Compensation – How Your Feet Can Be Creating Back Issues

Compensation often gets a bad rap.  It is portrayed in a negative light as the demise of your orthopedic health and something that needs to be eviscerated by any means necessary.  However, compensation is actually a brilliant way for your body to remain highly functioning from one moment to the next.  Without compensation, we would likely have far more physical issues throughout our entire body.  The caveat, though, is that we may not want to compensate in the same manner for an extended period of time.  Not only can this put excess stress on certain muscles, it can also stress your joints.

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Is Compensation Actually Bad?

When you hear the word compensation, what do you usually think of?  Is it a word to describe something positive or negative?  Something normal or abnormal?  Something done out of abundance or inadequacy?  As a personal trainer in Schaumburg, this is often a topic of discussion.

A quick Google search brings up two prominent definitions for compensation:

  1. The money provided to an employee for their work, or to a party due to loss, injury or suffering.
  2. Something that counterbalances or makes up for an undesirable or unwelcome state of affairs.

As it relates to exercise and movement, the second definition above is typically how compensation is used.  Compensation usually labels a movement that is done in a manner outside of the parameters that we find to be “normal,” “correct,” or “appropriate.”  Essentially, we use this to describe a movement that is not “perfect.”

I want to challenge you to start thinking about compensation as a description of all movement.

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By Julie Cates, ago