Functional Movement Screen

[Neal Winkler]

For all you trainers out there, do you use assesments like Gray Cook's Functional movement screen? If not, what sort of assesments do you use, if any. Might make a good PM article.

[James Hall]

Would love to see what others are doing. Am always for function. Damn insurance companies...hopefully references on Cook's stuff?

[Mike ODonnell]

You could...I used Cook's methods...Boyle's tests..Chek's assessments...and even that Body Map....but after a while you can pretty much eye-ball things, or know what corrective exercises people should be doing to address issues...plus most people have 95% of the same issues with regard to muscle imbalances, flexibility issues and posture misalignment. Still good stuff to use, but since I really don't do the 1-on-1 stuff anymore I dont have a use for it...I train mostly in groups now. Sometimes I think Boyle's tests are meant to make you fail at something...just so you think you need to train his way....may have some truth to it....but hey, that's selling the business.

[Robb Wolf]

I'm suuuuper simple in this. Hip function (squatting DL'ing), general posture (hyper/hypo kyphosis/lordosis) Pressing ability overhead, horizontal rowing.

Pretty simple but it ferrets out a lot of problems. Fixing these issues involves movement coaching and addressing soft tissue health ie.-foam rolling, ART, stretching and less repetitive stress injuries.

Articles in the works.

[Gabe Rinaldi]

If I had to pick just 1 assessment for a new client it would be a PVC overhead squat. This is one of the exercises from the Functional Movement Screen. It can tell you a tremendous amount of info. One problem with a lot of assessments, especially static postural tests, is that the results may not affect dynamic movement and they may not affect the type of training or exercise selection. A lot of corrective exercise stuff is bogus in my opinion.