Integration of the functional movement screen in your routine

After one week away from the functional movement screen related blogs, we should now have an idea about the seven tests that we use (Deep Squat, Hurdle Step, Inline Lunge, Shoulder Mobility, Active Straight Leg Raise, Trunk Stability Push Up and Rotary Stability).

Some people may think that this is some sort of assessment which brings us to a certain diagnosis but that is not the case. The functional movement screen is there to filter athletes that are at risk of injury or not. It catches fundamental movement patterns compensations which leads to some energy leaks (which is waste of energy) in our sporting endeavours. It is important to understand that we need to provide a training plan once the whole screening process has been addressed. Trying to draw conclusions before the test is done may lead to some errors in testing.

Depending on your compensations, on your sport and the level at which you are, your risk of injury will vary. If you wish to have more of an assessment where you want to find the root cause of your compensations, we will need more investigation with the help of different tests or even the help of a sports medicine team when needed (when pain is present during evaluation for example).

First it is important to address asymmetries in our movement patterns because that is what puts us at the higher risk of injury. Since the score that you may receive between each movement pattern varies from 0–3, you will need to address the pain first (presence of zero), the asymmetrical lower scores second and then the symmetrical lower scores third.

The priority that needs to be addressed in terms of functional movement patterns is usually related to mobility issues, therefore, the active straight leg raise and the shoulder mobility patterns should be at the top of our priority (hip mobility and shoulder and thoracic spine mobility).

The question now is where do we fit the exercises that work on our dysfunctional movement patterns? You can use them in your pillar preparation (which is part of your warm up). Address the tension in the soft tissue then mobilize and stabilize. That will mean that after foam rolling the tissue and doing some dynamic stretching, you need to challenge the stability of the movement which means that most of the time, your core and stabilizing muscles will be working.

The other way you can use your dysfunctional movement patterns can be by dedicating your strength training routine to taking care of the compensations that you may have. Regeneration is also a good way to address your weak links (dysfunctions), you do not need to drain yourself in order to change your movement patterns. You can also build an individual training session that will prioritize improving your movement patterns. The possibilities are limitless.

For my part, I enjoy most working on improving my movement patterns when I am warming up before running, cycling, swimming, climbing (any sport really) and I also enjoy including it in a regeneration session when I focus on either cooling down or on helping my body recovering.

My question for you is do you take time to take care of yourself? If so, when is the best time for you to do so? What motivates you to take care of yourself? For my part, transforming the good into better, and the better into the best is what keeps me getting forward.