Functional Movement Screen
Whether you want to have more energy for day-to-day life, stop getting injured, or make gains in your sports performance, it's important to understand the relationship that functional movement patterns have with your health and fitness goals.
Here at Sheffield Sports Medicine, we use the Functional Movement Screen to eliminate dysfunctional or performance limiting movement patterns and help you reduce your risk of injury.
Our Functional Movement Screen (FMS) helps us to identify irregularities in muscle flexibility, strength imbalances or compensations which result in functional movement weaknesses. Rather than looking at different parts of the body in isolation, the idea of the FMS is based on the premise of assessing the body as a whole, including it's coordinated movement of the brain and nervous system to create different movement patterns.
Functional Movement Screen Test
This Functional Movement Screen Test is designed to help our experts assess your movement patterns and identify opportunities to improve fundamental movements. It is a standardised test that works through a systematic rating and ranking system. Our practitioners evaluate seven fundamental movement patterns that require strength, mobility, stability and neuromuscular control.
With seven fundamental movement tests, we test:
Total body mechanics and neuromuscular control
Neuromuscular coordination and energy transfer
Bilateral, symmetrical, functional mobility and stability
Rotation, deceleration and lateral movements
The counterbalance of the upper extremities used to complement each other
Upper body symmetrical movement
Lower extremity function and mobility
Flexion, extension, internal and external rotation, adduction and abduction
Reflex stabilisation
Stabilisation of the spine in the sagittal plane during the closed kinetic chain
Reflex stabilisation and weight shifting in the transverse plane
Natural complementary rhythms
The seven tests are:
Deep squat
Hurdle step
Inline Lunge
Shoulder mobility
Active straight-leg raise
Trunk stability push up
Rotary stability
These tests place you in day-to-day functional positions where weaknesses and imbalances can become noticeable. When you perform these extreme positions, movement deficits become very visible so our trained experts can see when you are not using the correct muscle stabilisers and mobilisers.
It surprises many patients, even elite athletes, when they are unable to perform these simple movements with good strength and motor control. We often find that they are compensatory mechanisms instead of efficient movements, which can lead to compromised biomechanics and injury.
By assessing limitations and irregularities in movement patterns we can help you to significantly reduce your likelihood of injury so your training progress will not regress or be hindered. Through the FMS we are also able to improve gains in performance, and enhance your body's ability to become more adaptable to the demands of your sport.
The FMS Scoring System evaluates movement patterns and identifies movement limitations, muscle weaknesses, asymmetries and instability. The score that is generated from the test is used to highlight and target problems.
Each movement pattern that we test for has a certain criteria that must be accomplished to gain a score. With the use of this FMS system, our practitioners look at these scores and then use a procedure to look at the restrictions and asymmetries evident in the results, we can then use corrective exercise to correct dysfunctional movement patterns.
Functional Movement Screen Corrective Exercises
The FMS Scoring system indicates the most effective corrective exercises to help you restore normal movement patterns. Once we have completed the test with you, we develop a personalised corrective exercise programme for you that works in tandem with your current training regime.
These corrective exercises will focus on stability, balance and fundamental movements to give you the platform to build long-lasting movement patterns that help you stay strong and away from injury.
The Functional Movement Screen Corrective Exercises we give you will be totally dependent on your results, your individual body's needs and your goals. It is likely, however, that your corrective exercise programme will include some or all of the following:
Self-myofascial release - this can release any tensions or overactive muscle fibres that can cause asymmetries.
Stretching - this is a really important step to complete after self-myofascial release.
Strengthening underactive muscles - the FMS identifies which of your muscles are underactive. We will give you specific strength exercises to activate and strengthen these.
Functional movement work - the final stage of your corrective exercise programme will be to introduce functional movements to your training regime. This will include squatting, pushing, pulling, core strength work and sport-specific movements for athletes.
These FMS Corrective Exercises will help you train with more purpose and accuracy to help you achieve your goals. After 4-6 weeks, we will reassess you to ensure improvements are being made and to move you to a higher level of performance as you get stronger.
