A very common problem during a rehabilitation program for injury is when you get to that point that you do not have pain but you know your body is only one small step away from losing stability and control putting you at risk of going backwards. Trying to force your way through with strength methods is risky, but sticking with easy isolated mobility and floor based stability exercises achieves very little too. It is at this point I regularly use a training technique called REACTIVE NEUROMUSCULAR TRAINING (RNT for short). This is where a small amount of resistance is applied to a faulty movement that “feed the mistake” and therefor forces the body to make a correction. This can be a very frustrating phase to work through but extremely rewarding if you spend the time to work through it. In this article I will explain how I use several versions of this technique to rehabilitate injuries and even improve sporting performance!

One of the most frustrating things to do when it comes to health and fitness is trying to fully rehabilitate an injury, especially a chronic injury. There are endless mistakes made in the process of restoring movements and injured joints back to normal and it it is usually a very bumpy journey for most people. This bumpy journey is a normal process and if you are not making mistakes then it is safe to say you are not going to change much either. Often the movement that sets off your pain is the same one you have to figure out how to change but there can be many things that get in the way of doing this. It sounds quite simple however, it is anything but simple and it may take several different exercises to even get to the point where you consider changing the dysfunctional movement responsible for your pain. During this process of trial and error and endless mistakes it is VITAL you know what to do when things go wrong. This is one of the first things I like to teach people when they come to see me for help for I am anticipating that we will most likely aggravate something along the way of trying to change things. This is where I like to find a "relief exercise" or "relief workout". In this article, I share with you some ideas of how to do this and also the most critical change you need to make when this happens.

I have covered the topic of back pain and in particular bulging disc injuries numerous times on my website as it is such a common injury that statistics show it is one of the most common injuries among people today. In 2009 1 in 7 Australians (13.6%) reported having serious back problems—that’s 3 million people! This injury can affect people of all ages and in recent times I have seen many teenagers suffering with this extremely painful and debilitating injury. The worst part about this is it can be prevented. If you are already suffering with this pain it can take considerable work to eliminate the pain for good and may require a multitude of exercises to find the right balance. Having said that for over 16 years of working with over a thousand different cases of bulging discs I have found I often resort to a few key exercises. The ones I use most can vary considerably from person to person in terms of which is more important and beneficial, but in most cases the following exercises I am about to explain in this article, are the ones that provide relief in the short term and get them out of chronic pain. There will be a stack of things to do as time goes on to eliminate the problem for good but these exercises provide the foundation to work upon without risk of more damage.