It’s time to advance our current model of holistic health. Our health care system has become one of the most advanced and specialized systems in the world. And while working with a specialist has the potential to put the client at great advantage, the narrowed focus of the "specialist" may be the very thing that is preventing the client from getting the help/healthcare that they need.

The Functional Training Institute has been created to provide a synergistic learning platform from which to address this problem. Its purpose is to enable us to bridge the gap between previously isolated viewpoints. Our first course offering, Integrated Personal Training Certification, endeavors to expand our mental outlook so that we might grasp the varied perspectives of the massage therapist, chiropractor, physical therapist, nutritionist and personal trainer. This training will cultivate a new thought process – one that allows you to use an integrated evaluation method. As a result of an expanded perspective and new skills, you will understand when you are truly most functional to the client. But more to the point, you will now be able to direct the client to the other pieces needed to fit their particular puzzle picture of health.

One of the clear objectives of the course is to prepare you to sit and pass the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s (NSCA) personal trainer exam. As a nationally certified personal trainer you will be able to use exercise as a modality in your practice. In the process of achieving this end, the by-products of the course will be to deepen your assessment skills and your grasp of biomechanics, kinesiology, neurology, exercise physiology, nutrition and myology (the study of musculature). But most importantly, you will have the ability to functionally apply this increased array of knowledge to your client’s needs.

One story that illustrates how these new skills benefited Vincent's own practice regards a female client who had been suffering from posterior thigh and low back pain for eight months. Her pain was so severe that it limited her daily activities and disrupted her sleep.

We worked together one to two times a week for 8 months. Each time she was able to experience 2-3 days of relief and every time she left my office she told me how good I was. But how good was I really? Was I serving her needs fully? The answer was no.

My earliest skill set indicated the use of deep tissue massage, NMT, CTT, ice and heat as well as stretching for the affected areas: glutes, hamstrings and erectors. We co-created a self-care routine where she stretched her hamstrings on her own. At this point in my career, I believed that tight muscles and short muscles were synonymous. And, since this is not always the case, I was actually perpetuating and exacerbating her problem with the hamstring and glute stretches. I was failing to view her problem holistically.

The client was actually presenting a lower crossed syndrome. Lower crossed syndrome, as identified by Prof. Vladimir Janda, MD, DSc, is a dysfunctional neural drive pattern between the psoas and the gluteus maximus. In this patient, the syndrome began with an asymmetrical anterior pelvic tilt and a short ipsilateral psoas. The altered pelvic position put the psoas and lower erectors (tonic muscles) into a shortened hypertonic state causing them to be over-activated which led to trigger points, adhesions and muscle spasms. The glute max and lower abdominals (phasic muscles) were in an overstretched hypo-active state thus shutting them down neurologically (weakening them so to speak). Simultaneously, the altered pelvic position and weakening of the glute max put the hamstrings in a synergistically dominant role and in a lengthened position due to the tilt.

This is the reason I perceived the hamstrings as feeling "tight". They were overstretched due to the pelvic angle, not short. This limited perspective (the belief that the hamstrings were short) led me to not only inappropriately stretch them while she was in the clinic, but to teach her to stretch them on her own. I later realized this mistake had more than likely contributed to perpetuating her problem.

I was fortunate enough to still be working with this client when I started learning how to measure and evaluate muscle length and neurological firing patterns. I explained my newfound thought process to my client and received her permission to try a new approach.

I began by measuring the length of her hamstrings, psoas, SI joint mobility and pelvic position. I assessed the firing order of her glute max, hamstrings and erector spinae.

As a result of the information gathered, we stopped stretching her over-lengthened hamstrings and stretched her shortened psoas and lower erectors. We strengthened her glute max, hamstrings, and erector spinae and activated her lower abdominals. We corrected the firing order of the aforementioned muscles and a skilled chiropractor mobilized her SI joint. I continued to massage all the above areas to increase tissue health.

As a review, she never had a problem with her hamstrings. Her problem began with a misaligned pelvis, which in turn, shortened her psoas. The domino effect of the shortened psoas was to shut down her Glut max (prime mover in hip extension) and to overwork her hamstrings (assistant/synergist mover in hip extension), which caused them to burn out.

Shortly after applying this approach my client walked through my door and danced in a circle. She remained a client as she was an avid athlete and truly valued the benefits of massage. Now, however, we could focus on activity related areas vs. doing work that was never going to alleviate or change the root cause of the pain.

I had failed to perceive the factors that predisposed the tissues to this dysfunctional state of pain and inhibition. Therefore I never could have begun to change it.

The above example illustrates how, as a massage therapist, this course will expand your existing skill sets, as well as creating new ones. Your palpation, assessment and land-marking skills will be fine-tuned while furthering your understanding of why certain muscles are chronically short and others chronically long, sore and weak. You’ll be able to intelligently address whether they are long and need to be strengthened, or short and need to be lengthened and how to achieve both those ends.

The new learnings will include but not be limited to: an ability to assess the client’s spine; posture analysis; range-of-motion; the client’s proficiency with primal movement patterns; and neural drive - how it, and neurological co-ordination impact the client’s way of being and moving.

It is no small thing to develop a level of professional maturity where you are unshakably confident about your skills and yet, on the behalf of your client, can acknowledge when you need to refer out.

Why undertake a course of study that includes learning to refer your clients out? If we truly wish to be seen as holistic health practitioners we must adopt a perspective of the whole, not just our part alone.