Most athletes at every level have a comprehensive exercise program with sport-specific training regimen. However, not all athletes know about their weaknesses and imbalances.
For any athlete to perform at their maximum abilities and be most resistant to injury, they must have quality movement patterns. The idea of “dysfunctional fitness” is all the strength and conditioning not being put into good practice due to a lack of fundamental movement in certain areas.
Why an athlete needs a functional movement screen
When an athlete’s foundational functional movement patterns are impaired, whether from a weakness or from an injury, they continually compensate with a poor movement pattern. This leads to a domino effect where injuries may never heal making peak performance nearly impossible. A functional movement screen is used by athletes to determine the areas that are causing the poor movement dysfunctions and to help athletes stay healthy and compete.
What is a functional movement screen?
An athlete movement screen is a comprehensive assessment used to classify movement patterns and direct manual therapy and therapeutic exercise interventions. This helps determine the most dysfunctional region that is negatively affecting the movement pattern.
It captures tightness, weakness, poor mobility and poor stability, which may be remote from the area of pain. This information gets pieced together in a program to resolve movement-pattern asymmetries.
Strength and conditioning is an important foundation, however, the ability to use all the strength in functional patterns is what makes the athlete more successful.
What happens at my functional movement assessment?
A trained physiotherapist will talk to the athlete, demonstrate movements and ask the athlete to perform those movements. The Physiotherapist will observe and analyze the movement and “grade” the quality of the movement. Based on the findings, the athlete will either be provided with exercises to help correct poor movement patterns, or if they pass, they are sent on their way to continue as before. If there is any pain with any of the movements, athletes will likely be advised to have a more comprehensive assessment and treatment with a physiotherapist.
What types of exercises will athletes be prescribed?
The true answer to this is, “It depends”. All athletes are individuals with varying issues preventing peak performance. Anyone needing exercise will be prescribed an individualized home exercise program to help them correct imbalances. This might include stretching, strengthening, stability, activation or endurance work.
If you have any questions regarding an athlete functional movement screen, our physiotherapists in Markham are here to help you #movebetter. Book an appointment at our Markham physiotherapy clinic online or give us a call.
