A while ago I interviewed Vinny Crispino, the founder of the Pain Academy, and learned a lot from his approach to using corrective exercise to help people in pain. Importantly, he knows from personal experience what pain is all about, this is because he was an Olympic hopeful athlete who ended up fracturing his spine in a surf accident. His recovery was tough and after years of unsuccessful rehab, he encountered someone who taught him the importance of correct movement and mindset.
What Is A Corrective Exercise Specialist?
A corrective exercise specialist focuses on addressing restricted movement, muscle imbalances, and painful joints by devising tailored plans to correct these issues. The intensity spectrum of corrective exercises ranges from relaxing the body to providing higher stimulus for strength and tissue integrity. By understanding where individuals are on this spectrum, specialists can provide exercises to address specific movement issues. For example, many people don’t know that they are constantly holding muscles tight, or guarding an area. Bringing awareness to this area and teaching people to ‘switch off’ those muscles is usually a great first step towards beating chronic pain.
Why Traditional Pain Management Models Might Not Work
Vinny and I discussed how traditional pain management models, such as physiotherapy and chiropractic care, often lack adaptability and personalization. This means the ‘cookie cutter’ approach leaves many people wondering why they ‘failed rehab’ and not knowing what happens next. Usually, they are put on the conveyor belt towards surgery but this leaves people who don’t want surgery or who aren’t a candidate in limbo. In contrast, Vinne’s approach with the Pain Academy was to use an AI-powered algorithm to interact with clients based on their feedback, offering a unique and tailored experience for each individual. By adapting exercises to client feedback, the program aims to help individuals overcome pain more effectively and permanently. This is similar in a way to how good, knowledgeable therapists work in private practice. I say private practice here because sometimes in the hospital setting, there might be a great therapist but they are bound by the ‘evidence-based protocols’ that are prescribed to them and can’t deviate from the plan, leaving them and the patient frustrated. Whereas a therapist in private practice has the autonomy to make their own decisions based on the patient’s feedback on what is the next best step. There is a limit to this though, which is how many people can one therapist help at a time and where are they based. By using an online approach with an AI-powered decision-making process Vinny has essentially ‘cloned’ his thought process so he can help more people, in more locations, faster than he would be able to work one on one.
Importance of Mindset in Healing
Getting people to do the correct exercise is wonderful but it isn’t the whole picture. If anyone has done my scoliosis course they know I have an entire module on mindset and that with the lifestyle medicine approach mindset is key to a long, happy life. In our interview, Vinny shared his personal experience of realizing the impact of mindset on pain management and recovery. He noted that even though he was doing the ‘right exercises’ his mindset was wrong and he didn’t get better. Once he changed his mindset the same exercises began to work! This is something we both value and try to teach our clients, but mindset can sometimes be hard to define. Personally, I like to establish a goal with my clients, what is their “why”, and what can they refer to when they lack motivation or regress? I don’t let people get away with saying, they want to lose weight, or they want to run again. There is a reason underlying it, sometimes I have to go through 5 or 6 different layers before we find the “why” but once we have it, rehab can become laser-focused.
If you are recovering from an illness or injury and you are going through the rehab process ask yourself why you want to get better. Is it just so you can move without pain, or is there more to it?
Personally when I’m injured my thought process is something like this.
“I don’t want to feel this pain…
Because it’s stopping me from working with my clients and playing with my kids…
Which means I’m not helping people or being the best father I can be…
So I need to do my rehab for my clients, my family and me”.
That keeps me motivated!
Empowering Individuals All Over The World
With online training, we are removing geographical limitations by leveraging the internet and this is a new frontier of medicine. Both Vinny’s Pain Academy program and my programs allow people to make guided, informed decisions, and work towards long-term improvement in their health, wellness, movement patterns, and pain management.
You can listen to our podcast below and if you want to delve deeper into who Vinny might be able to help you with his online course you can check him out in the following places.
Episode 28: The Algorithm for Healing: Assess-Move-Reassess with Vinny Crispino
Over the last 10 years Ed has been building a YouTube library to help people manage their own pain or movement limitations and increase performance through exercise. He regularly adds videos so be sure to subscribe and visit regularly
"Oh My Gosh- I am ALREADY feeling relief after a few days! I used to wake up 2-3 times a night with shooting pain that anti inflammatories couldn't touch. Now I have been waking up just because I want to notice what it feels like to lay in bed pain free- THANK YOU!."
"When I first started with your program I was experience a lot of pain. Walking was difficult. I had to stop and catch my breath every few minutes and lean against a wall for support. Now when I walk with my husband we go for over an hour. I never had to sit down and stop...and, hardly any pain!!! 😊😊 I can’t thank you enough."
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