I just got back from the 3-Day Perform Better Functional Training Summit, in Long Beach, California. Perform Better is an equipment company that is one of the best providers of education on training in the country. They recognized 15 years ago that if you educate people on how to utilize a piece of equipment better, they are more prone to purchase it. The growth of the company in the last decade provides evidence their theory is correct. Taking this approach, they have been able to attract the leaders in the personal training, strength and conditioning, and rehabilitation industries as presenters. This was the 4th year I attended with my staff. Taking a lesson from prominent business owners, I’ve learned that one of the best investments I can make in my business is education for my team.
One of the lead presenters is a physical therapist and strength coach, Gray Cook. Cook is known for co-creating an assessment process widely used called the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). It’s a simple 10-minute diagnostic screen that allows you to get a picture of someone’s movement competency. I started screening people 7 years ago and currently use the process at our studio. I admit that I adopted this protocol initially because people a lot smarter than me were using it. I had my “A-ha” moment a couple of years after using it. Then, once I opened the studio, I knew I needed some type of assessment for my members that we could use as a standard for designing programs. I should explain that the FMS is a movement screen checking your movement quality in 7 different patterns. It’s not a fitness test. It’s not sports specific. Cook states “It’s species specific”. What it does is grade movement competency for someone. This is the top priority when advising someone how to train. It’s a metric that allows you to be efficient with your training.
You may feel I’m outthinking this. Some trainers disagree with Cook’s approach. Let me ask you a question. If you were approached by a 250-pound woman looking to lose weight, would you recommend she stand on one leg and jump up and down continuously 750 times? And take into consideration you apply 3-5 times bodyweight to a joint from high impact, that’s 750- 1,250 pounds of impact to her ankle, knee and hips. Sounds ludicrous right? Well, that’s what happens if you recommend that she jog a mile.
Listening to Cook talk is always enlightening. Like other brilliant thinkers, he can take a complex concept and explain it in a simple way. He breaks it down to the lowest common denominator. He states that his motivation to design this screen years ago in his clinic in West Virginia wasn’t to sell books (his book Movement is a benchmark in the strength and conditioning industry) or become an internationally recognized speaker (he has been featured in books such as Tim Ferriss The 4-Hour Body and been asked to speak at the NFL Combine and at Google). It was so he could do a better job as a therapist.
I see the value in the screen and understanding the nuances of how someone moves everyday in my practice. I’ll give you an example. I recently started working with a national level amateur bodybuilder. He’s the 1st bodybuilder I’ve worked with in many years, but his goals are like most people that walk through my studio doors every day. He wants to increase muscle and drop his body-fat level. He could care less about how he moves. His training has been 100% aesthetically driven prior to meeting me. He was introduced to me through his orthopedic surgeon who he’s been seeing to help him with his knee and joint pain. His complaint is that both of his knees are in pain, which have forced him to stop training his lower body entirely. That may be a problem competing in Mr. USA. After getting MRIs for his knees, his surgeon explained that his problems were from his movement, not the integrity of the joint. After giving him an assessment, I was able to determine he has multiple restrictions that are creating dysfunctional movement patterns. His issues are a combination of tissue and joint restrictions which are creating faulty motor control. Compare it to writing a story with poor grammar and spelling and then hitting SAVE on the document. Then re-reading the article over and over and over again.
One of my goals when working with anyone is to first clarify how they move and then design a program that will march them closer to their objective without them experiencing any injuries along the way. A woman may want to lunge to improve the appearance of her glutes and lower body, but if she has poor mobility at her ankle joint and tight hip flexors, there’s a good chance she’s going to complain of knee pain when she lunges.
Trainers are great at learning exercises. I’ve had seniors whom have never exercised before come in and tell me what they want to do. “We should do this, my friends do these.” The job of the coach is to assign the appropriate exercise, instead of guessing and hoping that it works. Move well, then get stronger, clean up your nutrition and you’ll be able to lose body-fat. That’s the order, not the other way around. I’m sorry if you come to our studio and we ask to check your movement first. I promise, after we establish that, we’ll get your waist or dress size smaller.
See you at the studio.