Sports Chiropractor Martin Kumm

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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 t

he 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!

19/06/2026

Most cyclists wait until they almost can’t get on the bike. By then, the damage is already done — and your event is getting closer.
I sat down with two experienced cycling coaches to talk about load, injury and performance from podcast— and why most riders are looking at all three the wrong way.
Here’s what I wish every cyclist understood:
1. Your knee isn’t the problem.

Pain shows up in the knee. The cause is almost always somewhere else — the foot, the hip, the way load travels through the whole system.
2. Rest is not a plan.

The human brain is wired to delay action until something breaks. But after 40, your body doesn’t regenerate the way it used to. Waiting costs more than acting.
3. Load is the only thing that matters.

Injuries happen the same way for everyone — when load exceeds capacity. The difference between a WorldTour rider and an amateur is just how many people are watching when it happens.
4. Your foot is running the whole show.

Cycling shoes are so stiff that most riders have switched off their feet entirely. But every pedal stroke still starts there — and when the foot stops absorbing load, that force travels straight to your knee.
5. The green zone is where progress lives.

Too little load and too much load are equally dangerous. The goal isn’t rest. It’s finding the zone where your body is adapting and building — and staying there.

17/06/2026

Cyclist with lateral knee pain.

You can only pick one.

Which exercise are you starting with?

👇

16/06/2026

Your event is 8 weeks away. Your knee is still there. And you’re starting to wonder if you’ll even make it to the start line.
You’ve tried rest. You’ve tried stretching. Maybe a physio visit or two.
But nothing has really changed — and the clock is ticking.
This is exactly who Ride Ready was built for.
Not for riders who are completely broken. For riders who can still train, but are making every decision around their knee. Cutting rides short. Skipping intervals. Hoping it holds together until race day.
Here’s what Ride Ready is:
An 8-week programme built around your event date, your training load and your specific knee behaviour. We start with a full movement and load assessment — so we understand why your knee is reacting, not just that it is.
From there you get a progressive exercise plan, ongoing WhatsApp support and adjustments as your training evolves. We work around your rides — not instead of them.
The goal isn’t to stop you training.

The goal is to get you to race day with a plan instead of a question mark.

→ Support until your event day

→ Starts with a free 15-minute call
If your event is in the next 12 weeks and your knee is still a concern — now is the right time.

15/06/2026

And the frustrating part? I knew what I was doing. I’m a sports chiropractor. I’ve worked with WorldTour riders, helped cyclists get to start lines when everything was telling them to stay home. I know how knees work.
But knowing didn’t stop it from hurting.
What those six weeks taught me — really taught me — is that rest is not a plan. Ice is not a solution. And hoping it holds together before your event is the most expensive gamble you can make.
Because the event doesn’t wait. The Marmotte doesn’t move.
L’Etape doesn’t care about your knee.
And if your knee is the thing standing between you and your next big event — I’m here.
Not just as someone who understands it clinically.
As someone who’s in it right now, just like you. DM KNEE and I’ll point you in the right direction.

11/06/2026

Yesterday my knee pain flared up.

My first thought?

“Why is this getting worse?”

Turns out it had very little to do with yesterday’s training.

Interesting reminder that symptoms often make sense once you find the right piece of the puzzle.

Ever had a ride where your knee suddenly felt worse for no obvious reason?

09/06/2026

L’Etape in 6 weeks.

And your knee is becoming part of every training decision.

I get it.

DM me: KNEE

29/05/2026

I took 6 weeks off the bike because of my knee pain.

Honestly?
It changed absolutely nothing.

If anything:
the system tolerated load even worse afterwards.

That’s what finally pushed me to stop looking only at the knee itself.

Because recurring cycling pain is often less about one isolated structure…

…and much more about how the whole system behaves repeatedly under load.

The interesting part?

None of these tests actually reproduce my knee pain directly.

But they expose:
→ asymmetry
→ compensation
→ altered load sharing
→ fatigue behavior

And over thousands of pedal strokes…
those small differences matter.

Recurring cycling pain?

Rest hides it.
Load exposes it.

28/05/2026

A lot of cyclists end up stuck in this strange middle ground.

Not injured enough to stop riding.
But never fully symptom free either.

I’ve spent the last 6 weeks trying the classic:
“ride less and rest more” approach with my own knee.

Honestly?
Didn’t change much.

So now the focus shifts back to:
→ movement quality
→ load tolerance
→ rebuilding capacity progressively again

Current structure:
3 mobility drills
3 loading exercises
Isometric → eccentric → concentric

30 minutes.
Consistently.
Let’s see where it goes.

27/05/2026

If you’ve been told to “just rest for a few weeks” as a cyclist… I get it.

I just tried that approach myself for 6 weeks.

Honestly?
Got me absolutely nowhere.

Sometimes recurring pain isn’t about stopping movement.

It’s about understanding how the whole system behaves under load.

26/05/2026

Late addition to the race program for me last weeks 4 Jours de Dunkerque.

Days like this are always a reminder that high performance sport isn’t always about getting the result you deserve.

But the boys showed guts, balls and grit all day long. Respect ✊

On to the next one 🔥

Adresse

Reinacherstrasse 116
Basel
4053

Webseite

http://www.humanrx.ch/

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