Functional Movement Screen
The Functional Movement Screen is the screening tool we use with all our personal training clients to identify limitations or asymmetries in seven fundamental movement patterns that are essential to good functional movement quality. The screening process is designed to provide observable performance of basic locomotive, manipulative and stabilizing movements by placing our clients in extreme positions where imbalances and limitations become noticeable if you don’t have good mobility and/or motor control.
We’ve used the alignment of your car as an analogy many times to describe why this is important. If the wheels of your car are out of alignment, it doesn’t really matter if the car is parked in the garage and never driven. Or, if you only use your car for infrequent and short trips to the Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, you may not even notice the misalignment. However, if you start to drive frequently long distances at highway speeds, you’ll soon notice that the tires begin to wear irregularly. You might even feel a little shimmy. Eventually, if you don’t do anything to fix the problem, the trouble will begin to become much more severe and expensive to fix.
Your own body’s ability to move well is precisely the same thing. A wonky knee might be caused by a funny ankle which can lead to a messed up hip (all technical terms). If these things haven’t actually kept you from an activity you enjoy, they certainly will impact your approach to it. We refer to these as movement compensations and those will absolutely lead to big trouble down the road – either by the cumulative stress or by the effects of activity avoidance.
So, get screened! Learn how to move well before you move often, far and fast.
And get your front end alignment checked and change your oil, too.
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