The Functional Movement Screening Test is a tool that was developed by Cook and colleagues in 1997 to screen individuals for risk of injury. The tool is used to identify asymmetries which result in functional movement deficiencies by using a series of fundamental movement patterns.
What is the Functional Movement Screening Test?
The Functional Movement Screen consists of seven movement patterns which require mobility and stability.
- Deep Squat
- Hurdle Step
- In-line Lunge
- Active Straight-leg Raise
- Trunk Stability Push-up
- Rotary Stability
- Shoulder Mobility
How the Functional Movement Screening Test is applied
The concept of the Functional Movement Screening Test as explained by Cook is to position the body in extreme positions where weaknesses and imbalances become apparent. In these extreme positions, in the absence of adequate mobility and stability, the body will compensate in order to perform the movement pattern. These compensatory patterns are often not efficient leading to poor mechanics and often injury. The 7 movements are meant to pick up these compensatory movement patterns and are scored from 0-3 in a simplistic method for a total score of 21.
Who can benefit from a Functional Movement Screen?
The Functional Movement Screen is intended to serve as a screen to identify individuals with functional movement deficits that could indicate an increased risk of injury. By definition, it can be used for everyone.
If you specifically look at the literature, its utilization varies from young, active individuals to middle-aged individuals, elite, collegiate and professional athletes, as well as military and firefighters.
Functional Movement Screen and performance
The Functional Movement Screen is designed to evaluate the quality of human movement patterns that may cause injury, but isn’t necessarily a measure of one’s performance. From your Functional Movement Screen, we are able to customize an individualized corrective exercise program based on your imbalances. By customizing your workout based on your individual needs, we will be able to eliminate your imbalances and maximize your efficiency of movement and function.
Take Home
At Body Restoration, we incorporate the Functional Movement Screening Test into the comprehensive evaluation of our athletes and have designed many individualized sport specific programs for our athletes. We work with both teams and individual athletes. If you’re interested in more information or are looking to get a Functional Movement Screening Test in Edmonton, don’t hesitate to contact us.
References:
Cook G, Burton L, Hoogenboom B. Pre-Participation screening: The use of fundamental movements as an assessment of function – part 1. North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy 2006;1(2):62-73
Cook G, Burton L, Hoogenboom B. Pre-Participation screening: The use of fundamental movements as an assessment of function – part 2. North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy 2006;1(3):132-139
Kiesel K, Plisky PJ, and Voight ML. Can Serious Injury in professional football be predicted by a preseason functional movement screen? North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy 2007;2(3): 147-158
