One of the reasons that I haven’t been writing here is because I have spent the last eight months studying and learning the Functional Movement System by reading Gray Cooks’ book called Movement. It has taken me that many months to get a handle on what I was reading which included my having to re-read sections more than once. It’s not that it is hard to understand but instead, I wanted to be certain that I had enough understanding of this information before I started testing my athletes. All of the information that I am working with here is from the Movement Book written by Gray Cook. I haven’t taken his FMS class because of lack of funds but I hope to get some formal training in the future.
After lifting weights for over 30 years and training others for over six years, I feel that I made good progress but I needed to find something that could take the people I train and myself to the next level. The athletes that I train have their primary focus on Karate and even though they are excellent competitors, there is always room for improvement. Their strength and speed has improved a great deal but it has plateaued and improvements have slowed. Because of this, I have been searching for something to take us to the next level and I am confident that Functional Movement System is going to be a key factor in busting this plateau.
Reasons for looking outside of the standard lift and lift more mindset…
After studying my athletes, I have noticed a few key factors.
- Squatting, dead lifting and pressing movements are causing pain and or showing movement limitations.
- There are slight but noticeable asymmetries in speed, strength, mobility and balance between the left and right side of the body.
- Although abdominal and overall core strength is good, there is a disconnect between the upper and low body at times.
- At least three of my athletes had or have lower back pain and two others have shoulder pain or movement.
- The pain or limited movement has reduced the amount of exercises that I can us use, including some fundamental exercises.
- Tight muscles become tighter and slower with certain movements.
- Karate posture (alignment in stances or when executing techniques) isn’t improving.
- Muscle pain after workouts in well conditioned, not over trained, athletes is present.
- Muscle cramping in stabilizer and or antagonist muscles because they are compensating for prime movers weakness or tightness.
- Stretching causes pain in joints of muscles not being stretched. For example, knee pain when stretching hips.
Expectations of the Functional Movement System….
It is possible that the Functional Movement System isn’t the answer to all of the problems listed above but what it gives us is a place to look at the way the body moves and give us a baseline of where we are today related to movement. The seven movement screens in the FMS will give us a way to see if there are fundamental movement problems.
After testing four of my athletes, I have found at least one issue with their movements using the FMS. These issues vary from asymmetries, limited range of motion and or pain while performing these movements. Seeing these results gives me a place to start as far as correcting the issues that are keeping me from using fundamental exercises (squats, deal lifts and overhead presses) in our workout routines.
Another hope is to find out if the stabilizer muscles are under trained or over trained and to find out if the right muscles are doing the work they were intended to do.
I am still in the beginning process of analyzing the videos and notes that I took on my athletes FMS screens. The part that I like the most is that I have something to measure improvement. The goal of the FMS is not to have everyone get a perfect score, instead, it helps us observe measurable improvements by establishing a baseline to work from. Not only can we gain the insight to help our at athletes improve, we also have the ability to find potential for injury based on body movement. I feel that any improvement or reduction in the chance for injury is a good thing.
After I analyze the current data that I have collected, I will share the results here and outline the plan that intend to take to make corrections and improve the movement dysfunctions that I found using the FMS screens.
All of the information that I am working with here is from the Movement Book written by Gray Cook (not an affiliate link). I haven’t taken his FMS class because of lack of funds but I hope to get some formal training in the future.