Sports Chiropractor Martin Kumm

Startseite
Schweiz
Basel
Sports Chiropractor Martin Kumm

"I help top athletes reach their goals" I am based in Basel, Switzerland, but due to my work I travel all around the world. What method do I use in my work?

About me
I am Martin Kumm, I am a sports chiropractor with an academic background and more than 10 years of experience working with some of the best athletes and coaches in the world. My main goal is to help the athletes achieve their maximum potential, using a unique method that gives excellent results. The most used method of training as much and as hard as possible will usually end up getting the athlete injured and will never reach their full physical potential. Instead, recovering from that takes up precious time from actually improving the results. My approach, on the other hand, is to work smart, not hard. Despite all the technological advancements, what is often lacking in the current performance world, is smart monitoring and adjusting the training load to individual athletes' needs. Yet, there is a so-called “Green-Zone Window” for training. It's where training/racing stimulus matches neurological and tissue loading capacity - recovery exceeds tissue breakdown (optimal loading). To say it simply - this means that if an athlete is physically and mentally in the “Green Zone” the likelihood of getting injured is minimal and the highest level of performance can be expected. If an athlete trains out of the “Green-Zone Window” the body needs to start using compensatory mechanisms Which in turn and in time leads to a chronic overload which in turn ends up the athlete getting an injury. The question is, how to find the “Green-Zone Window” for each athlete, since it's very personal and depends on the person. That's exactly where I come in. What's the exact process? With athletes I work closely together I use a simple but effective protocol: Test, Treat, Leave It. Test - the simplest and quickest way to tap into their neuromuscular system is to use muscles as indicators to see what is the maximum load where the compensatory systems won't be switched on. When they do the so-called “glitch” happens by the central nervous system as a protection mechanism. It’s my job to figure out using different tests where in the system this “glitch” is and Treat it. To treat the “glitch” I use different chiropractic techniques. After finding and treating the “glitch” in the system comes the most important part - Leave It which means leaving time for the results to show. This part is where the magic happens. Athletes body needs time to react to the treatment and mostly it has 3 outcomes: Got better, stays the same, got worse. Any one of these outcomes carries a very valuable information to me. While using the same tests again I can compare and figure out if the “glitch” in the system is manifesting with the same tests or it has moved. Especially with chronic overload injuries it might take quite a long time before I have removed all the compensational “layers” and I reach to the true cause of the athletes pain. An example of a success story
In 2016 I had the honor to work with Swiss Orienteering superstar - Judith Wyder. A year before she had dominated the orienteering World Championships by winning 3 gold medals. In 2016 her body gave in and she was far from medals. Post Worlds she turned to me to figure out what had gone wrong. She was not able to lift her left leg and had upper back pain. How she still managed to even run at the Worlds beats me. MRI and X-ray scans were all unremarkable - all her doctors said she is fine. We set to work. I used the same principle - Test, Treat and Leave It. I knew as long as she is not able to lift the leg on the treatment table she's far from running. We did multiple sessions per week to monitor her progress. Within a couple of weeks her neurology started to improve. She had regained some hip muscular activity which in turn allowed her to start lifting the leg. Her muscular activity was improving, even though her pain had not changed much. For me this was all good news as 90% of the times muscle strength precedes pain. Even though pain was not completely gone she started training as our indicator muscle tests stayed strong - meaning her neuromuscular system was healed and ready for loading. Within 2 months she returned to racing pain free. Whom have I previously worked with? Teams:
-EHC Basel Ice Hockey Club
-Estonian National Ice Hockey Teams (U20/Men)
-Sm'Aesch Volleyball Team
-Education First - Easy Post Professional Cycling Team. Individual Athletes:
-Robert Rooba (Ice Hockey)
-Marko Albert (Triathlon)
-Judith Wyder (Orienteering)
-Silvan Wicki (Track and Field, sprinter)
-Alexandra Burghart (Track and Field, sprinter)
-Amelie Lederer (Track and Field, sprinter)
-Markus Fuchs (Track and Field, sprinter)
-Ivona Dadic (Track and Field, Hepatlon)
-Anu Ennok (Volleyball)
-Pascale Stöcklin (Track and Field, Pole Vault)
Danijel Vukicevic (Handball)

If you are an athlete or a coach and feel that I could be of help when reaching your goals, find my contacts on www.martinkumm.com and contact me!

11/03/2026

Cyclists often think knee pain means something is wrong with the knee.

But many times the knee is just the messenger.

The real issue is how the system handles load.

A simple squat or step-down test can reveal this.

Watch closely:

If the knee collapses inward or loses control, the surrounding system may not yet be ready for the load you’re producing on the bike.

And when load exceeds capacity… pain appears.

That’s why I use a simple framework with cyclists:

Test → Optimise → Perform

Find the weak link.
Build capacity.
Ride pain-free again.

💬 Have you ever tried a step-down test for your knee?

10/03/2026

Why do so many cyclists struggle with knee pain?

Often it’s not because the knee is weak.

It’s because training load exceeds tissue capacity.

Every tissue in your body has a “Green Zone” — a window where load is high enough to stimulate adaptation, but not so high that it overwhelms the system.

When you train in this zone:

• tissues adapt
• capacity improves
• symptoms settle quickly

But when load repeatedly exceeds capacity, the system moves into the red zone, where pain becomes a warning signal.

This is why simply reducing training load rarely solves the problem long term.

The real solution is to build capacity so your Green Zone gets wider.

When that happens, you can tolerate:

• harder climbs
• longer rides
• higher training loads

Without your knees complaining.

This is exactly the principle behind the TOP Method I use with cyclists:

Test → Optimise → Perform

Identify weak links, build capacity, then return stronger on the bike. Save this post for your next training block.

If you want to go deeper into this concept, I’m running a small in-person seminar for cyclists where we break down:

• why knee pain develops
• how to test your own weak links
• how to build your Green Zone

Limited to 10 riders.

Link in bio to reserve a spot.

09/03/2026

Most cycling injuries don’t come from bad luck.

They come from training outside the green zone.

Your tissues adapt to load — but only if the load is within your capacity.

Too little load → tissues don’t get stronger.
Too much load → tissues get irritated.

The goal is to train in the green zone:

✔ enough load to stimulate adaptation
✔ not so much that it exceeds tissue capacity

This is what we call optimal loading.

And it’s the key principle behind preventing most overuse injuries in cycling.

If you want to stay healthy on the bike, you need to understand:

Load vs Capacity.

Send this to a training partner who is always in the red zone 🔴

06/03/2026

Best investment I’ve ever made.

Unlimited fun.

04/03/2026

Knee pain isn’t random.

It’s usually a signal that load exceeds tissue capacity.

Most cyclists try to “fix” the symptom:
• New cleats
• Different saddle height
• Softer shoes
• More stretching

But if load tolerance hasn’t been tested first,
you’re optimising blindly.

Ask yourself:

Does pain increase with intensity?
Does volume trigger it more than cadence?
Can you tolerate back-to-back training days?
Does reducing load settle it predictably?

Patterns mean it’s mechanical.
Not mysterious.

TOP – Step 1: Test.

Save this before your next training block.

And tell me —
does your knee flare with intensity or volume?

02/03/2026

Before changing your saddle, cleats or shoes —
test this first.

If you have knee pain, ask:

Can I tolerate long seated climbs without symptoms increasing?
Can I hold high cadence for 2+ hours? Can I ride back-to-back days without flare-up?
Does intensity change symptoms — or just volume?

If you haven’t tested load tolerance,
you’re not optimising.

You’re guessing.

TOP = Test. Optimise. Perform.

Save this before your next block of training.

27/02/2026

Stiff shoes don’t cause problems.
They expose them.

The real question isn’t stiffness.
It’s whether your foot–ankle complex can handle the load you’re asking of it.

Capacity > equipment.

25/02/2026

Different sport.
Same feeling.

Speed. Flow. Presence.

Movement is movement. Did I miss anything?

24/02/2026

Cycling shoes are getting stiffer. But where does that extra load actually go? More stiffness isn’t automatically better.

It increases force transfer.
But it also shifts load.

If the ankle can’t manage it,
the knee often does.

19/02/2026

Most cyclists try to fix knee pain in isolation.

One muscle.
One stretch.
One exercise.

But pain in endurance athletes is rarely isolated.

It’s usually a load distribution issue.

When something hurts, it doesn’t automatically mean that tissue is the problem.

Medial knee pain?
Often blamed on hamstrings or VMO.

But the real question is:

What changed in the system?

Volume?
Intensity?
Cadence?
Run load added?
Recovery reduced?

If you don’t test properly, you optimise blindly.
And if you optimise blindly, performance suffers.

That’s exactly why I built the
T → O → P framework

Test.
Optimise.
Perform.

Fixing isolated parts rarely solves performance problems.

Structured thinking does.

—

If this resonates, comment “TEST” and I’ll send you something useful.

17/02/2026

This exercise won’t fix your pain.

But it can help.

What it gives you:
Access.
Strength.
Control.

What it doesn’t change:
Load.
Recovery.
Timing.

Access alone doesn’t solve pain.

If the context doesn’t change,
pain usually comes back.

Exercises support better decisions.
They don’t replace them.

Start with readiness.
Free Knee Readiness Guide → link in bio.

15/02/2026

Oman dump.

Early mornings.
Long transfers.
Quiet work behind the scenes.

Grateful for the experience.
Back home.

Adresse

Reinacherstrasse 116
Basel
4053

Webseite

http://www.humanrx.ch/

Benachrichtigungen

Lassen Sie sich von uns eine E-Mail senden und seien Sie der erste der Neuigkeiten und Aktionen von Sports Chiropractor Martin Kumm erfährt. Ihre E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht für andere Zwecke verwendet und Sie können sich jederzeit abmelden.