The Importance of a Movement Philosophy

Welcome back! Before we get into today’s topic let me preface it by saying I was not indicating in my last post that you should buy the "muscles in minutes" book and start drinking protein shakes to lose weight (you'll get my humor). Moving forward today I want to talk about what Gray Cook would call a movement philosophy.  Basically, a systematic way in which we approach movement, movement dysfunction, and exercise in terms of rehab and performance.

Speaking of those two terms "rehab and performance" until very recently there has been far too big of a gap between the two.  Don't get me wrong, I know a ton of really talented and intelligent Physical Therapists but unfortunately they don't have the capability (mainly because of insurance) to take someone all the way back to 100%. And the insurance company generally forces them to only work on one issue at a time. This is where the strength & conditioning coach, personal trainer, or fitness professional has the opportunity to bridge that gap (hopefully) or send the person back to rehab (no bueno). There is a lot more I could say on this topic but my point is that there is a no mans land between rehab/physical therapy and training for strength, performance, or to just get back into shape.

People like Gray Cook, Lee Burton, and Kelly Starret have been instrumental in bringing this issue to light. Unfortunately, the system is still the system and the bureaucracy of healthcare hasn't changed much. So lets say you get a new client at the gym and you do all the usual body composition tests, medical questionnaires, and get an idea of what there goals are. Then from their throw them right into a workout that involves loads (weights) when you have absolutely no idea how they move or what restrictions they may or may not have. It's only a matter of time before a poor movement pattern that has been loaded repeatedly, reaches the pain threshold that sends up the red flags and the sirens saying "we got a problem"!

Unfortunately this happens all too often and is actually very preventable with physical therapy. However, it is very difficult to get a prescription for physical therapy if you are not in PAIN. In lay man's terms "get injured first then we can talk." This is why it is so important for fitness professionals to have a tool, screen, test, ANYTHING to get a movement baseline to give us some direction. As Gray Cook always says, "If your not training for function, your training for dysfunction."

The FMS or Functional Movement Screen is a widely recognized tool for assessing movement QUALITY not QUANTITY i.e. (sets/reps) like we are so use to doing. The screen involves a series of 7 movements that can reveal many movement compensations throughout the kinetic chain.  From there, we can work to correct many of these issues through exercise and other modalities before loading any particular movement pattern. It isn't until compensations have been revealed, a corrective exercise strategy implemented, and a passing score after being re-screened has been achieved that a strength program should be implemented. In other words, make sure you have your shit together before you try to start moving big weights.

The FMS performance pyramid provides a great visual to help us understand this. If you are lacking movement quality but have tons of movement quantity its only a matter of time before the pyramid topples (injury). This is why we must focus on the quality of movement before anything else.

With the recent debate at Stanford between Dr. Stuart McGill and Gray Cook, with Craig Liebenson as the moderator, the FMS has come under question. Many clinicians feel that there are better more accurate ways to assess movement and that the FMS isn't good at predicting injury. In my opinion, the FMS wasn't necessarily created for clinicians but for personal trainers, strength coaches, and any other fitness professional as a tool to assess movement and prevent the exact scenario I discussed earlier.

Many trainers have developed their own process for assessing movement and that's great! It doesn't have to say FMS on it as long as we are doing something to get a baseline.

To summarize this post in a few points:

1.) Implement a diagnostic tool/system/process to assess movement.

2.) Focus on movement QUALITY before movement QUANTITY.

3.) Don't wait for a small problem to become a big problem (painful) before doing something about it.

That's all for today folks, I'll be back in a few days to discuss exercise strategies to improve posture in light of our horrible habit of sitting all day. If you have any questions feel free to email me at s.ferguson89@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!