If you feel like you don’t move well or if you have been told you have specific movement flaws during different activities don’t worry! First, most people have different movement styles and that doesn’t mean that one movement is always better than another. Movement variability (different styles of performing a task) is ok and it even helps us learn new movements. The few times that specific movement really matters is when you are loading it up with higher forces than normal (lifting weights is the best example).

In these cases, it might be more beneficial to have “good” mechanics but learning those mechanics can sometimes be difficult or take a while to master. Well, there are a few ways in which you can try and become more proficient at moving and this is a technique I really like.

The technique that you can start to implement to help change your movement flaws is called Reactive Neuromuscular Training or RNT. It sounds fancy and cool but it is really pretty simple.

Here is my breakdown of the training approach:

Reactive- in response to.

Neuromuscular -the nerve and muscle system/unit.

Training- to practice

So what does this mean? Let’s use a squat as an example since it is the easiest.

If you squat and you see your knees cave in (see picture), most people would say that is a movement flaw. To try and correct this you can put some sort of extra resistance (such as a band) that actually pulls your knees into the fallen or caved in position. Sound a bit backwards? That’s the “reactive” part of the training.

If I were to try and push you over, your body would reflexively try and push back to keep from falling over. A similar thing happens when we put a band around the knees; your body will reflexively push out against it now that there is some resistance there.

Now that you know an example, you can apply that technique to just about any part of the body. The trick is trying to implement that into a way you can train it. Have you been told your foot falls in when doing different movements? Put a band around your ankle to pull the foot in while performing a single leg deadlift and see if that helps.

Hips shift right or left when squatting? Try pulling your hips further into the direction you shift to and see if your body naturally fights the resistance to get back to neutral.

All you are doing with RNT is providing a resistance in the direction of the movement flaw, then train that movement. Over time you should see that you don’t naturally fall into that flaw as often and you can use smaller and smaller cues or resistance to get the same “correction”.

Again, this is a simple trick that you can apply almost anywhere. If you have any questions about trying to correct your specific movement flaws, reach out to me and I would love to share my thoughts.