These muscles can act as an isometric or dynamic stabilizer for movement, transfer force from one extremity to another, or initiate movement itself. The following screens will allow you to assess your core stability and conduct core strength tests to see how you measure up.

Your core is a complex series of muscles, extending far beyond your abs, including everything besides your arms and legs. It is incorporated in almost every movement of the human body.

These muscles can act as an isometric or dynamic stabilizer for movement, transfer force from one extremity to another, or initiate movement itself. The following screens will allow you to assess your core stability and conduct core strength tests to see how you measure up.

What the Core Is

In this article, we address how to become a functional and strong human, as opposed to being another of the overrated endless rants on chiseled abs. So, we must first identify the core and what it looks like. In this diagram, we see the external musculature of the human body.

Our core has three-dimensional depth and functional movement in all three planes of motion. Many of the muscles are hidden beneath the exterior musculature people typically train. The deeper muscles include the transverse abdominals, multifidus, diaphragm, pelvic floor, and many other deeper muscles.

What the Core Does

Your core most often acts as a stabilizer and force transfer center rather than a prime mover. Yet consistently people focus on training their core as a prime mover and in isolation. This would be doing crunches or back extensions versus functional movements like deadlifts, overhead squats, and pushups, among many other functional closed chain exercises.¹

By training that way, not only are you missing out on a major function of the core, but also better strength gains, more efficient movement, and longevity of health.

We must look at core strength as the ability to produce force with respect to core stability, which is the ability to control the force we produce.

According to Andy Waldhem in his Assessment of Core Stability: Developing Practical Models, there are “five different components of core stability: strength, endurance, flexibility, motor control, and function”.²

Without motor control and function, the other three components are useless, like a fish flopping out of water no matter how strong you are or how much endurance you have.

It is important to first achieve core stability to protect the spine and surrounding musculature from injury in static and then dynamic movements. Second, we want to effectively and efficiently transfer and produce force during dynamic movements while maintaining core stability.

This can include running, performing Olympic lifts, or picking up the gallon of milk far back in the fridge while keeping your back safe. Research has shown that athletes with higher core stability have a lower risk of injury. This is proven perhaps most effectively by the Functional Movement Screen.³

There is a multitude of various tests that measure core stability, but I consistently use and recommend the FMS because of the research results and effectiveness of the corrective strategies.

Trunk Stability Pushup Test

For the purpose of self-evaluation, we will conduct a simple pass/fail version of the screen (this is different than the standard FMS test, but we will use positions that represent a “2” in that system).

First begin in a prone pushup position, with toes tucked under, lying flat on the ground. Your hands should be shoulder-width apart. Men will have the palms of their hands in line with their chin and women in line with their clavicle (collar bone).

In a single motion, perform a pushup while maintaining a completely straight body. For evaluative purposes, you may use a dowel rod or PVC pipe to asses maintaining a solid core and straight body, as shown below.

Women’s start position, hands in line with shoulders (men start by chin).

Top of pushup.

Passing:

• Proper start position is assumed and maintained (hands may not slide down lower)
• The chest and stomach leave the ground at the same time
• Spinal alignment is maintained with the body moving as a single unit (can use dowel to help determine and measure alignment)

If any of the criteria are failed the screen is deemed as a failing score. You have a maximum of three attempts to complete this screen. If you successfully pass the stability screen, progress to the strength screens.

Progress in core stability and strength should yield more effective progress and strength gains in other movements including both the squat and deadlift. Without core stability gross movement patterns become very difficult to impossible.

Core Strength Tests

The plank and side plank evaluate static core strength, while the knees to chest and toes to bar evaluate dynamic core strength. Finally the deadlift strength evaluation puts a higher demand on the posterior core stability to handle larger loads.

Plank

Hold a plank on your elbows for 90 seconds. Strict posture must be maintained, with a flat back and level hips. A dowel may be used to help evaluate postural alignment. Hands should be in front of shoulders, with forearms parallel to your spine, while elbows are located directly under the shoulders.

If struggling to maintain or find alignment then use the following procedure: Assume the prone position with elbows located under your shoulders. Flex your quads, raising your knees off the floor, squeeze your butt, and tighten and retract your abs. When all three muscles are contracted properly you will lock your hips into the correct position ensuring a flat lower back.

Side Plank

Hold a side plank for 60 seconds. Your elbow must be located directly under the shoulder and feet stacked on top of each other, while maintaining straight spinal alignment horizontally and vertically.

Knees to Chest or Toes to Bar

Complete 5 strict knees to chest for a passing score and 5 toes to bar for an optimal score. While hanging from a pull-up bar, first ensure active shoulder alignment, to keep your shoulders safe, as shown below. Slowly and deliberately lift your toes to the bar (or knees to chest) and lower them under control without swinging. Complete five repetitions.

In order to pass this strength test, you must maintain full movement control, not use any momentum to achieve the full range of motion, and remain pain free.

Left photo: Toes to bar. Right photo: Knees to chest.

Left photo: Active shoulders (good). Right photo: Relaxed shoulders (not good).

Deadlift

Complete a single deadlift meeting the Novice weight listed below in the strength table. For optimal results complete a single deadlift meeting or exceeding the Intermediate weight. For questions on deadlift form refer to the hip hinge article.

For a detailed core stability, strength, and conditioning program to start improving your screens and working towards optimal strength scores, continue to 10 Day Core Strength Program – Screening, Testing, and Training.

References:

1. “Closed Kinetic Chain Exercises” accessed February 18^th 2013 

2. “ASSESSMENT OF CORE STABILITY: DEVELOPING PRACTICAL MODELS” Andy Waldhelm May, 2011

3. “Functional Movement Screening” accessed February 18^th 2013 

4. “Deadlift Strength Standards” accessed February 18^th 2013 

The post Do You Know What Your Core Really Is and What it Does? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

RELATED: Exposing The Importance of The Functional Movement Screen (FMS)

And, hopefully, our client’s condition improves. He or she moves more efficiently and safely or improves performance on the field or at work, and everyone happily moves on with their lives. Right? Isn’t this the way it is supposed to happen?

How Valuable Is the FMS?

But what if this cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work? What if your client completes the FMS without any significant weakness, deficits, asymmetries, or flexibility limitations, but is still limited functionally and having trouble performing at work or on the playing field? What then?

Do we abandon the FMS completely? Or does this potentially valuable evaluation tool still have merit in our treatment plan or fitness program?

I believe the FMS most certainly does have value, but based on a particular aspect of the screen. An aspect that, in my clinical experience, is frequently either never considered or not fully understood. I am talking about the aspect of neuromuscular control and sequencing.

When Measures Are Normal, But Movement Is Not

Let us use, for example, a female patient who comes to physical therapy with an order from her doctor for you to “evaluate and treat” generalized weakness. You decide to administer the FMS as part of your initial evaluation. Your patient performs the FMS without difficulty and scores twos throughout. 

RELATED: Can the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) Actually Determine Ability?

According to the FMS, this particular patient has no outstanding deficits that would potentially limit her functionally. But despite three weeks of a treatment plan consisting of stretching and strengthening, your patient still cannot flex forward and touch her toes in sitting or standing position. She reports that this limitation is problematic in several aspects her life, including caring for her children and completing tasks at work.

So, being the thorough clinician that you are, you again tediously check all the normal parameters: hamstring and gastrocnemius flexibility, hip range of motion, lumbar flexion, pelvic tilt, and sacral angle. As with your initial evaluation, all the measures prove to be relatively normal. Without any new objective findings, you and your patient continue to blindly implement a program that is clearly ineffective.

Neuromuscular Control and Proper Sequencing

But the problem may not be the musculoskeletal system exclusively. Rather, this patient may have deficits related to neuromuscular control and proper sequencing of key functional movements. Consider that maybe this patient has an overactive posterior chain. In other words, her hamstrings and gastrocnemius-soleus complex are always on and she does not possess the ability to consciously turn them off.

As evident by your initial evaluation, it is not a posterior chain flexibility or tissue extensibility issue. Rather, it is a neuromuscular sequencing problem or motor control dysfunction. Gray Cook, one of the creators of the FMS, uses the term SMCD (stability or motor control dysfunction) to describe such a deficit.

But why does this happen? How do we develop muscle groups that are excessively active and hypertonic and limit normal functioning? In his book Movement, Cook provided a possible reason. He hypothesized that it is due to “pain, previous injury, or chronic dysfunction.” Furthermore, he stated that such dysfunctional patterns need to be broken before implementing an effective program to improve stability and motor control.

“Incorporating effective corrective exercise into a rehabilitation program requires thorough examination of a patient’s history and current condition as well as intense effort regarding design and implementation of stability and motor control corrections.”

Designing Powerful Corrective Exercises

Treatment of SMCD can be difficult and is, for the most part, outside the scope of this article. Evaluating and treating SMCD borders on application of the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA). The SFMA is the clinical big brother to the FMS and is performed only by healthcare professionals (physical therapist, chiropractors, etc.). However, for discussion’s sake, we will consider how to approach SMCD.

Let’s be honest, the neuromuscular system is relatively abstract when compared to the musculoskeletal system. In our example, we can easily understand posterior kinetic chain tightness. We know the origin and insertion of the hamstrings, and we know several effective ways to stretch them, both at the proximal origin and distal attachment. Furthermore, we understand the gastrocnemius -soleus complex. And like the hamstrings, we can easily attack associated deficits in our treatment plan or fitness program.

But such superficial understanding of the musculoskeletal system is not sufficient to treat a true SMCD. As Cook stated in Movement, “[W]e cannot simply lengthen a tight muscle or move a stiff joint and think we have effectively changed a movement pattern.” Unlike the musculoskeletal system, the neuromuscular system is not always so easily understood. As a result, it is often ignored. Incorporating effective corrective exercise into a rehabilitation program requires thorough examination of a patient’s history and current condition as well as intense effort regarding design and implementation of stability and motor control corrections.

Two Important Factors in Designing Corrective Exercises

True corrective exercises are not challenges to the body. Rather, they are challenges to the brain. Gray Cook went as far describing corrective exercises as “experiences” instead of exercises. It is important to remember the brain has developed and memorized faulty and inefficient movement patterns that inevitably lead to dysfunction and injury. The brain and body would love nothing more than to continue to perform and refine these patterns as long as possible (as long as we allow).

In order for corrective exercise to be effective, the brain must perceive that it cannot perform a new challenge (or experience) without developing a new behavior. The brain realizes the previously learned, faulty movement patterns are not sufficient to support the new demand and a new behavior must be learned.

Corrective exercises must also remove all compensatory strategies and techniques. The brain is a master at creating and using compensation patterns throughout life, particularly when faced with injury or pain. This talent can be a wonderful thing, but it becomes problematic when compensatory techniques are developed with no regard for quality.

“In order for corrective exercise to be effective, the brain must perceive that it cannot perform a new challenge (or experience) without developing a new behavior”

Habits are formed for the sole purpose of immediate survival (or function). The brain never considers potential detriment, injury, or dysfunction in the future. It is not until these detriments, injuries, or dysfunctions present (possibly years in the future) that we become motivated to correct them. So, it is imperative that corrective exercises remove compensatory patterns and force the brain to adopt a new, safer solution.

Conclusion

Treatment of SMCD is not always the answer. Often, your patient or client may truly only be lacking hamstring flexibility or shoulder range of motion. But if your current plan is ineffective in addressing whatever deficits exist, consideration of neuromuscular control and sequencing may prove to be invaluable.

References:

1. Cook, G. Movement: Functional Movement Systems (Santa Cruz, California, 2010).

Photos 1 & 3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

The post Beyond the FMS: How to Design Powerful Corrective Exercises appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But despite how much better it can make things for a client, some will always oppose doing corrective work. “It’s boring” is a common complaint. One of my big things is to not just lead people to the water, but have them walk away not even realizing how much they’ve been drinking. So how can you hide corrective exercise within regular training so clients do what they need, rather than just what they want?

The first thing is to clearly understand the correct flow of training. First comes mobility, then stability, static motor control, dynamic motor control, strength, and finally power. Let’s look at one of the FMS patterns to see how this develops.

In the active straight leg raise (ASLR) test the first step would be to develop mobility and this is done via passive stretching of the hamstring. That may then be progressed to something like an active straight leg raise with core activation. Moving on from there you might end up in half kneeling – developing stability. That may then be progressed to a single leg deadlift, which includes an anti-rotational element, tying together both mobility and stability. The next step would be to go from unilateral work to bilateral work and onto a slow strength pattern like the deadlift. The final step, power production, could be the kettlebell swing.

So, if the swing is the final correction for the ASLR, which itself is quite often the first target chased via the FMS, what happens if you ignore the correctives and just work on refining the swing? Because if I watch someone who has a crisp, beautiful swing, then surely it means that they’ve got a decent active straight leg raise too, right?

Well, I can tell you – I’ve had clients that we’ve identified with a poor ASLR test, but no other issues, who we have just progressed through the mechanics of the swing, and wound up with a better FMS score a month later, despite no actual corrective work.

For me, one of the reasons that the FMS makes so much sense is that I’ve always looked at all exercise as corrective. Take the squat as an example. People will tell you the squat is a great leg exercise. They may also tell you it’s a quad-dominant exercise or maybe even a great assessment of whole body strength. But how many people tell you it’s also a great test of abdominal bracing and thoracic extension? Because without those two things you’re going to collapse like a ragdoll if you put a decent load on your back.

So when I watch you squat, I’m not thinking, “That’s a lot of weight there.” I’m looking at your feet and seeing if you’ve screwed them into the ground, which creates a strong arch in your foot. That, in turn, causes you to externally rotate and abduct your femurs so your knees are pushed out without any sign of collapse. I’m also looking to see that you don’t collapse in the upper body. You’ve seen those people squat with their upper bodies parallel to the floor, haven’t you? That’s a sign of a lot of things not working properly.

To fix the squat I can do one of a few things. Most likely trainers would start pulling all kinds of bands and tricks out, hoping to fire in the dark and hit the right one (and it is a shot in the dark as the squat involves movement at the ankle, knee, hip, and spine in the squat), or they’ll screen you to find the issue and then work on whatever the screen shows.

One of the things about the FMS is that you start with the simplest thing and go from there. Often, working on a single joint or a movement that crosses a single joint can be the best way to attack a much more complicated looking issue. So it’s quite common to begin a client with work on the ASLR and shoulder mobility. But let’s assume that everything is acceptable with these tests, as well as the others, and the only thing left is that pesky squat.

One of the final strategies for fixing the squat is to load up the front panel and do a squat while a band tries to pull you into trunk flexion. The abdomen has to fire up to prevent this happening and you end up with a good squat. But what about the goblet squat? The weight being placed in front of the body puts that same effect into motion, and the body has to fire up muscles it often ignores to prevent any kind of flexion. So as long as I get you to squat correctly with the kettlebell in front of you, either as a goblet squat or a double front squat, I know I can achieve the exact same thing.

Executing a movement well is corrective. It may even be a better assessment in some cases than screening. This is why I often get all funny inside when I see people mindlessly thrashing about while training. I don’t even listen to music while training so I can focus on every nuance of what it is I’m doing. I’ve found over the years that fussing over what seem like minute details in training can have big carryover to other things. Get the movements right, and you’ll receive many benefits beyond getting bigger, stronger muscles. This is the root of what functional training should be – it should make you function better, and not just at a single task.

Photo 1 courtesy of Miguel Tapia Images.

Photo 2 courtesy of Andrew Read.

The post Good Movement Is Corrective: Why the Squat Might Be Better Than Screening appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is an evidence-based exercise philosophy developed by Gray Cook, one of the world’s most respected injury-prevention specialists. According to Cook, the primary cause of athletic injuries is neither weakness nor tightness, but rather muscle imbalance. Just because you can bench five hundred pounds doesn’t mean you won’t dislocate your shoulder during the opening kickoff of a football game. Raw strength does not equal functional strength, and ignoring whole-body stability in favor of isolated muscle mass and power is a recipe for disaster.

Exercising muscles in isolation will change their shape and size, but it’s not likely to make your body any safer from injury. Working basic body movements, however, will strengthen muscles and make movement safer, whether it’s doing gymnastics or lifting a laundry basket.

Want proof that Cook knows what he’s talking about? During the 2007 NFL season, after Cook introduced the concept to the Bears and Colts during the off-season, both teams utilized the FMS to successfully keep their athletes healthy and both went on to make appearances in the Super Bowl. Athletes throughout the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA, as well as Special Ops military personnel, now spend millions annually for trainers specializing in FMS to keep themselves injury-free.

So what is the Functional Movement Screen? It’s a set of seven fundamental movement patterns that can be evaluated to identify movement limitations and left/right muscle asymmetries. It’s a trouble-detection system to prevent injuries before they happen.

The tests are:

1. Deep Squat (Lower Body): Used to assess symmetrical and functional mobility of the hips, knees, and ankles.
2. Hurdle Step (Lower Body): Gauges stability and functional mobility of the hips, knees, and ankles.
3. In-Line Lunge (Lower Body): Used to assess torso, shoulder, hip and ankle stability and mobility, quadriceps ?exibility, and knee stability.
4. Shoulder Mobility (Upper Body): Assesses shoulder range of motion as well as shoulder blade mobility.
5. Straight Leg Raiser (Lower Body): Gauges functional hamstring and calf flexibility while maintaining a stable pelvis.
6. Trunk Stability Push-Up (Upper/Lower Body): Used to assess symmetrical core stability.
7. Rotary Stability (Upper/Lower Body): Assesses core stability in combination with upper and lower body mobility.

These tests place the individual in extreme positions where weaknesses and right/left imbalances become easily noticeable if appropriate stability and muscle balance is not present. The beauty of the FMS it is that just about anyone can learn the basic system quickly and have an effective way of evaluating basic movement abilities. It’s also provides a clear baseline to mark progress and measure performance during an exercise program.

Providing corrective measures for every possible deficiency in these seven movements could take fifty pages of dense reading material (for that, head over to functionalmovement.com. But for everyone else, assuming you perform the screen and discover imbalances, Cook names these as the best across-the-board corrective exercises to fix the most common deficiencies:

• The Chop and Lift (Whole Upper Body Stability)
• The Turkish Get Up (Connects Upper and Lower Body Stability)
• The 2-Armed Single Leg Deadlift (Whole Lower Body Stability)
• The Cross-Body 1 Arm Single Leg Deadlift (Advanced Whole Lower Body Stability)

These exercises should be learned in the order they’re listed, as better coordination is required as you move down the list. There’s no shame in sticking with the simpler exercises for several weeks if the more advanced exercises are too difficult at first.

A potential strategy for adding these exercises to your workout routine is as follows:

Stage One

Based on the weaknesses identified in the FMS, practice the appropriate exercises listed above without weight until you are able to perform them for 5 reps on each side. Only when you can do this flawlessly without weight should you move on to stage two. This stage may take just one workout or may take a week or more depending on your beginning level of balance and fitness. If you weren’t 100% sure whether right/left muscle imbalances were present after performing the seven screen tests, it should be obvious the first time you attempt these exercises.

Stage Two

Based on the weaknesses identified in the FMS, perform 7 sets of each of the appropriate exercises twice per week. Use a comfortable amount of weight with a strong side to weak side ratio of 5 sets to 2 sets and a repetition range of 3-5 reps per set. In other words, perform 5 sets on the weak side and 2 on the strong side for each indicated exercise. Continue with this stage for four weeks, then re-evaluate with the FMS and repeat if necessary.

Don’t have the time? Do as much as you can. Consider that sacrificing forty minutes each week takes less time, and less loss of progress, than six to eight months of recovery after an injury.

As a physician, I want to stress that the FMS is a screen, not a diagnostic tool. As effective as the above exercises are, they won’t correct any underlying structural (whether spine or extremity) issues that only your doctor can properly diagnose and treat.

Nonetheless, utilizing the Functional Movement Screen before beginning a new sport or exercise program can help you determine functional deficits that are often overlooked by traditional athletic physical exams. If the weaknesses exposed by the FMS can be identified and addressed, decreased injury risk and improved athletic performance should follow naturally. Focus on pre-hab so you don’t have to do rehab!

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1. The implement you use does not by default make an exercise functional. The implement used, whether it be a barbell, body weight, a kettlebell, or a cable stack are simply tools. Just like a hammer can’t build a house without being used the right way no tool will build functional anything unless you use it right.

2. The action performed doesn’t make it functional either. Mimicking a sporting action with weight only does one thing – it actually destroys performance. Adding weight changes the motor pattern just enough that whatever it is you were training is now different. That teaches the body a similar, but different enough pattern that performance is diminished.

The simple truth is what makes an exercise functional is that it transfers to improved performance. One of the things that really jumped out to me when I went to the RKC was how much transfer there was from RKC methodology.

But this is where the confusion starts. The transfer from training to athleticism isn’t from the kettlebell. Like with most things that are seemingly simple there are many layers of complexity involved. On a shallow level we teach people at the RKC how to instruct others in the safe use of kettlebells. But on another much deeper level what we’re doing is teaching movement and it just so happens that the kettlebell gives you enough feedback to actually get the drill right.

Looking at the FMS system one of the ways we teach the body to get the pattern right is with what’s called core assistance. If we did this using the squat as an example you’d see that the resistance of the bands are trying to force the body into flexion. In this case the abdominals brace to resist that flexion force and the result is a cleaner squat. (Because to get a really nice clean squat the abdominals need to be able to brace independently of the hip flexors which in turn are needed to pull the body into deep hip flexion at the bottom of the squat).

If we take a seemingly simple kettlebell exercise – the goblet squat – we see the exact same thing. Holding a kettlebell in front of you by the horns will act to flex the trunk and the abdominals will have to brace to resist that. This in turn frees up the hip flexors and allows a deep squat. The only difference between this squat and the FMS deep squat test is the arm position (which in the case of the test is there to check for other possible issues).

So a goblet squat is functional because it can be used in place of the FMS core assistance drill for the deep squat. So can we stop there? The answer is of course not. The training continuum starts with developing mobility and stability, progresses to muscular endurance, and then onto strength and power. While the goblet squat can be used for strength or endurance, it’s not well suited to either and is best used to teach the pattern and develop the mobility and stability to squat seriously. Once you start to realize that all types of squats teach the body to do the same thing – reflexively brace the abdomen while the legs move independently – you see that we can use any type of squat. The only difference will be whether we choose a squat that helps our mobility, like the goblet squat, or one that helps our strength, like the back squat.

So along with adding leg power and teaching bilateral force production and all the other things people tell you squats are good for, what we’ve really done is teach the body to reflexively use the core by creating proximal stability so that we can create distal mobility at the hips, ankles and knees. That skill – of disassociating the legs from the core – will transfer to anything that is upright and therefore is incredibly functional.

And this gets me back to my role teaching others how to use kettlebells. We have two kettlebell certifications that I teach, the gold-standard RKC and the one-day HKC (Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification). What always gets my attention is that people seem to think the HKC is almost insignificant compared to the RKC. In my mind, the HKC is the jab-cross of the kettlebell world. In other words, I am going to use the skills from the HKC every day and constantly, as opposed to something like the bent press that we teach at the RKC Level II, which is more like an overhand right used only when the opponent parries with their left lead. The HKC skills are the bread and butter skills we should all be using and the instructors who really stand out are the ones who have those skills nailed down the most and understand how all this functional stuff ties together.

The general format for the way the FMS works is that you go for the easiest fix first. As a general rule you move from single joint to more complex functions, fixing only the three functional patterns of squat, lunge, and hurdle step, last. The reason why is simple – an improved active straight leg raise will improve your squat. Better shoulder mobility, courtesy of some thoracic mobility will improve your squat. And so will better core activation from the trunk stability push up and rotary stability.

Do you know what the final piece of the puzzle is for active straight leg raise? It’s the deadlift. But the deadlift is slow strength. What if we want power? Then we can do the swing. So the swing is actually one of the most useful corrections for the first thing that usually needs to be addressed during the FMS. And if we go all the way to the other end of the screen and look at the inline lunge, do you know what one of the final corrections is? It’s the get up.

What I’m getting at is this – the HKC and the FMS go together, hand-in-hand. They both appear to just be a collection of exercise progressions, but if you start to get to know them in-depth you’ll see why they can be all the training you need. From correctives and patterning to strength and power, both of these are vital elements of delivering truly functional training that has enormous carryover to the field or the ring.

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So you can imagine my reaction when I went to Dragon Door’s Certified Kettlebell Functional Movement Specialist course a few years ago. It’s a souped up version of Gray Cook’s Functional Movement Screen (FMS) course that includes some extras you don’t find attending the normal FMS 1 and 2 courses, such as how to modify some of the exercises with kettlebells. Participants liken the four-day course to having your mouth taped to a fire hose that is then turned on.

I remember someone telling me that at some point we’re all going to end up sitting in front of a doctor. If you’ve lived your life excessively it’ll be a cardiologist, as he tells you that your choices have put you at risk of heart attack. If you’ve lived it right it’ll be an orthopaedic surgeon who needs to clean up some issues you’ve developed from a life of playing hard. But either way you’re going to end up in front of a doctor.

At my age I’ve got a few things that are a result from things I shouldn’t have done. Reconstructive joint surgery, having muscles stitched back onto bone, and breaking more bones than I sometimes remember have all been part of my life. I like to think I’m not clumsy; I just don’t bounce as well as I imagine I do.

All of these things take their toll on my movement. Getting screened at this seminar for the first time, I think I was an eleven out of twenty-one. The scoring system for the FMS is easy. There are seven movements each scored out of a maximum of three. If you have pain during any of the movements you get a zero. A perfect demonstration of the movement is a three, while not being able to do it is a one. Anything else is a two. So two is a pretty grey area and gives a lot of wiggle room. The goal of the test is a fourteen or better, so my eleven was definitely leaving room for improvement.

With my particular issues I should have completely laid off overhead work, as my shoulders were really showing signs of an injury coming. The problem was that at the time I was training for RKCII, which meant I needed to be doing as much overhead work as I could handle – with pressing, jerks, windmills and bent presses on the curriculum and the course only six weeks away there wasn’t much I could do in terms of cutting out my overhead work.

So how do you reconcile what the FMS says and how you train?

One of the things to keep in mind is that there is such a thing as necessary tension in a muscle. If I’m as bendy as Gumby there’s a fair chance I won’t be able to handle squatting really big weights. There’s a reason they don’t make bridges out of rubber. There are times when stiffness is exactly what is needed and in my case at the time I needed the stiffness in my shoulders to protect me while pressing.

I witnessed the same thing when I trained a MLB pitcher. As you can imagine there was a massive discrepancy between left and right in terms of movement, both at the shoulder as well as in his trunk rotation. Basically he was a big slingshot designed to whip a ball at someone at 94mph. Just like a slingshot he had one part that was very mobile and another that was very stiff, which allowed him to throw that fast. Removing either part of that equation would have destroyed his career.

For an athlete, or anyone training for a specific event, there needs to be a realization that specific training is going to cause specific problems. Being proactive in figuring these out and working to minimize the effects is the key to high performance.

In my case, knowing my shoulders were an issue, my pre-emptive plan of attack went like this:

• Joint Mobility – Paying extra attention to thoracic spine, neck, and shoulders. Perform two FMS corrective drills during this phase, too.
• Indian Clubs – There’s something odd about these things that I struggle to put in words. Whether it’s the way having a light weight in the ends of your hands opens the joints slightly, pulling on them rather than compressing them the way lifting heavier weights does, or it’s the rhythmic movement that greases the joints, Indian Clubs have been a staple in my shoulder saving work for a few years now.
• Kettlebell Armbars – There are plenty of videos around showing how to do these, so I won’t go into detail here. If you are looking for a good mobility warm up I suggest this video we did, which also has armbars at the beginning.

Then, we get to a big element in my plan – Get Ups:

Specifically, get ups done with various drills done inside them. These are one of the little secret things from the CK FMS course, but are also found in Kettlebells From the Ground Up. There are two thing I really like that I find make my shoulder feel great.

To start with divide the get up into sections. There are obvious steps in the get up. They are: roll to press (flat on back, kettlebell extended at arm’s length), to elbow (upper body raised off ground but supported on elbow), tall sitting (kettlebell overhead, weight supported by posted hand), knee to hand (think of this a windmill done in a kneeling position), lunge position (kneeling lunge, kettlebell overhead, arm in line with ear) and standing (upright, feet shoulder width apart, bell vertical).

Two drills in particular make these a great addition to your shoulder saver plan. Firstly, at each step I want you to rotate your head from side to side three times. This forces you top pack your shoulders properly. If your shoulders are shrugged up your head won’t turn. Shrugged shoulders can lead to impingement at the AC joint. Next, rotate the arm holding the kettlebell both directions three times. Think of it as trying to screw the shoulder into and out of the joint, don’t just rotate the wrist. It sounds easy but your shoulders will burn after only a single rep each side.

The second drill is to add a press at each step. Pressing from a variety of angles gives you that weird kind of in-between strength that exercises like the bent press do but without the huge flexibility demands that it has – strong stable shoulders from all angles.

While my shoulder mobility didn’t improve on this program, which only takes a few minutes, it helped to bullet proof my shoulders to get through the final hard six weeks of work before RKCII. At that point I did drop all pressing and went to work on my shoulder mobility for some time. The recognition that I did have a problem, but that I had no time to address it was important as it allowed me to safeguard myself and keep training. When my event finished, the same as an athlete’s season or career ending, there was plenty of time to work on fixing all the issues.

Testing and screening is important, but don’t get so distracted by it that you forget to actually train. Use the screening process to pinpoint weaknesses and potential injuries and plan your training to protect you if you don’t have the time to address it now. Make sure this is only a short term plan though as eventually you will need to pay that piper and the sooner you get onto your corrective work the better.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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“You can’t put fitness on dysfunction.” – Physical Therapist, Gray Cook

Have you heard of the expression “fundamentals first?” All top-level coaches, professionals, and experts advocate the simplistic approach of having the fundamentals before anything else. One of the challenges today is that many of us want progress to the next level without having our fundamentals down first. This is a problem. In regards to exercise, this is critically important if we want to minimize our risk for injury.

The number one goal we should all have with an exercise program is to prevent injury. This comes before any goal of fat loss, weight loss, muscle building, or performance enhancement. If you get hurt, then none of those goals even matter because you can’t train.

Now that we have our number one goal established, we must have strong fundamentals in our exercise program. Digging down deeper, we must have sound fundamental movement patterns before we put a fitness program on top of baseline movement. I really hope that makes sense because this is so important in exercise progression.

There is a need to appraise “human movement” with a proven system to precede physical training and performance. Without a quality appraisal and determination of whether baseline movement is acceptable and symmetrical, there is risk for injury.

The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is the appraisal system. It is essentially a quick and easy way to screen fundamental movement before you train it. If you train with a baseline of a poor quality of movement, the risk for injury is significantly increased. If, however, you correct baseline movement in a methodical corrective exercise strategy prior to advancing performance training, the risk of injury is significantly reduced.

There are three basic outcomes of the FMS:

1. You will have an acceptable screen after which it is safe to proceed with full activities.
2. Next, you may have a screen that is not acceptable, but you simply may require a corrective strategy in place before advancing.
3. Or you may have pain with movement, in which this will require appropriate referral to a health care provider.

It should be noted that just because you have good movement patterns, this does not guarantee you won’t get hurt. It does suggest that the risk is much less than a dysfunctional movement pattern. And, “normal motion” does not mean “normal movement.”

WHAT IS AN FMS AND WHO SHOULD GET IT?

The FMS looks at fundamental movements, motor control within movements, and a competence of basic movement patterns. Its job is to determine movement deficiency and uncover asymmetry. Further assessment can be conducted, if revealed in the FMS. The evaluation is done by a simple grading system, without judgment.

The system was developed by Physical Therapist, Gray Cook in approximately 2001. The goal was to use the screen to add insight to movement problems that would ultimately lead to the best exercise choices and program design for individuals that would minimize risk of injury.

The FMS is designed for all healthy, active people and for healthy, inactive people who want to increase physical activity. It is designed for those that do not have pain or injury.

The FMS itself is a series of seven different movements and three clearing tests that are combined into a movement screen. By screen, this does not mean it’s a diagnostic tool. The FMS is not diagnostic at all. It is a proven tool that looks objectively at quality of movement. It is extremely objective, reliable, and reproducible. It used by a wide range of fitness and health care professionals.

The seven tests require a balance of mobility and stability. Mobility and stability are the essential elements of the movement patterns in the FMS. If there are limitations in either, the FMS will reveal them.

The purpose of this information is not to go into the details of each of the seven movements, but to explain the practical application and utility in the athletic and recreational exercise population. With the increased desire to be fitter, stronger, and more athletic, people need to realize the importance of having fundamental movements before advancing into higher-level activities. What often happens is people are putting exercise and performance on top of dysfunctional movement, which can impair performance and cause injuries.

There is a saying that “something is only as strong as its weakest link.” The FMS strives to identify the weak link and correct it. The FMS looks at fundamental movement patterns, which are the foundation for fitness and performance.

Once the FMS has revealed a dysfunction, if there is one, an appropriate exercise strategy can be implemented to correct the problem. This is part of the magic of the FMS and corrective exercise system.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NEXT? HOW TO GET A SCREEN

I highly recommend getting an FMS for the reasons I mention. The screen may score completely “normal” and that’s a great thing if it does. If it does not, that’s not bad either, as the next step is in building an appropriate corrective exercise strategy, which is easily built into your program to correct the underlying dysfunction.

If you’d like to get a movement screen, the next step would be to search the FMS website to see where the closest local certified expert is to you to perform the FMS. There are many functional movement certified experts that can perform the complete screen, which will only take about ten to fifteen minutes.

I strongly believe in the effectiveness and value of the FMS. The last thing any of us wants is to sustain an injury while exercising. While the FMS does not guarantee that won’t happen, it does significantly cut that risk. The FMS is a great evaluation tool to reveal a movement dysfunction or asymmetry that could be the crack in your exercise foundation.

In summary, the FMS is simple, but highly reliable and effective.The main benefits for getting a screen include:

1. Identifying individuals at risk for injury.
2. Implementing a corrective exercise strategy to improve or normalize functional movement patterns.
3. Providing a tool to monitor progress in dynamic or changing fitness programs.
4. Establishing a functional movement baseline for appropriate exercise programming.

The important consideration to remember is that proper functional movement precedes performance and may ultimately lead to an injury reduction. If you haven’t had a screen and you are beginner or experienced exerciser, this is something you should give strong consideration.

Remember, you can’t put fitness on dysfunction. Unfortunately, this happens much too often in today’s fitness climate.

The post Exposing The Importance of The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.