What Is a Movement Screen—Guide to Functional Movement and Injury Prevention

What is a movement screen, and how does it help? At Personal Edge Fitness, the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) assesses mobility and provides guidance on reducing injury risks by managing the body’s movement patterns.

Introduction to Movement Screens at Personal Edge Fitness

Understanding the Purpose of a Movement Screen

A movement screen checks how your body moves. It looks at basic movements like squats, lunges, and pushes. Trainers use movement screening tools to see how flexible you are. They also check for any movement asymmetries—that means one side moves differently than the other.

This functional movement assessment helps find spots that might need fixing or more work. The screen doesn’t just find problems. It also shows how you move during everyday activities.

The test focuses on fundamental movements that everyone uses a lot. These movements are crucial for your mobility and injury prevention.

Why Movement Screens Matter: Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement

Movement screens help spot risks before injuries happen. Here’s why they matter:

Prevent Injuries: Trainers can spot potential risk early. Then, they build programs to fix weak areas.
Optimal Movement: Knowing your body’s mechanics lets trainers plan exercises that help you move better.
Enhance Performance: When you see where you need to improve, it’s easier to get stronger and faster.

Adding injury prevention screenings into your workout routine can lower your chance of setbacks. Plus, it helps you get more out of your training sessions.

The Purpose and Goals of FMS

The Functional Movement Screen, or FMS, is a movement screen that checks how you move in simple ways. It looks at basic movement patterns you use every day, like squatting, lunging, and reaching. The FMS isn’t about giving you a diagnosis. Instead, it shows how well you move and finds any imbalances or movement asymmetries that might cause problems later.

By spotting these asymmetries early, the FMS helps trainers make plans to improve your mobility and stability. This kind of functional movement assessment helps you exercise safer and perform better by fixing weak spots before they lead to injuries.

The Seven Fundamental Tests of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS)

The FMS uses seven tests to check different parts of your body for mobility and stability:

Deep Squat Test: Checks how your ankles, knees, hips, and core work together when you squat deep.
Hurdle Step Test: Looks at balance and how you move your legs when stepping over something.
In-Line Lunge Test: Tests lower-body strength, flexibility, and how well your trunk stays steady during lunges.
Shoulder Mobility Test: Measures how far your shoulders can move along with upper back flexibility.
Active Straight Leg Raise: Assesses hamstring stretch and control of your pelvis.
Trunk Stability Push-Up: Shows how strong your core is while pushing up without losing spinal control.
Rotary Stability Test: Examines how stable your trunk is when moving arms and legs together on different planes.

Each test gives a score based on whether you move correctly without pain or making up for weaknesses. Trainers use these scores to find weak areas or asymmetries that might cause injuries or hold back performance. Then, they select exercises to gradually address these issues.

Interpreting Your FMS Results

Your Functional Movement Screen (FMS) shows how well your body moves. Trainers watch for movement quality, asymmetries, and limits that might cause problems. They look at movement compensation too—when your body changes how it moves to avoid pain or weakness.

The FMS is a screen, not a full diagnosis of movement dysfunction. It helps spot issues but isn’t a medical test. The evaluation process scores each movement to find weak spots or imbalances.

For example, if one side moves differently than the other, that asymmetry could mean injury risk. Movement compensation can hide problems but might lead to more trouble later. Our expert trainers use these results to create workouts that fit you, not just one-size-fits-all plans.

Keep in mind that the FMS helps decide if you need a deeper check from health professionals.

Understanding Your FMS Score

Your functional movement score tells you important things:

Identify asymmetries: Differences between the left and right sides
Potential risk: Moves that could cause injury
Acceptable compensations: Small changes that don’t hurt performance
Insufficient movement: Limited control or range in certain motions
Pain during movement: A warning sign to stop and inspect

Trainers use this info to make personalized treatment plans. These include exercises for mobility, stability, or strength in weak areas. This focus lowers injury chances and helps your body work better.

If you feel pain during the screen, stop right away. Talk to a health provider before changing anything in your workout plan. Consistent progress based on unambiguous data from your functional movement assessment is the aim.

What Your Results Mean for Your Fitness Journey

Watching your FMS results over time helps track how you improve. Fixing what the screen shows means you can boost physical performance safely.

Better movement brings more balance, strength, and endurance. These factors assist you in achieving your fitness objectives without experiencing constant injury or pain.

Using these results makes sure every workout fits your body’s needs and keeps you healthy.

Remember:

Use your scores as markers for improvement.
Focus on fixing imbalances first
Work with trainers who know functional assessments well

This way, you get smarter workouts based on how your body actually moves.

How Personal Edge Fitness Uses Movement Screens

Personal Edge Fitness checks how your body moves with movement screens. These tests look at your movement quality and spot any imbalances or odd patterns. Trainers watch you do basic moves like squats, lunges, pushes, and pulls. They check if your joints move freely (mobility) and if you can control that movement well (stability).

This kind of screening helps catch harmful movement habits before they cause injuries. Sometimes, if needed, physical therapy screening is suggested to resolve bigger problems outside regular training. The results help build a personalized treatment plan that focuses on corrective exercise programming made just for you.

This way, workouts hit the right muscles and lower injury risks. Personal Edge Fitness follows standards from groups like FMS (Functional Movement Screen) and NASM’s OHSA (Overhead Squat Assessment). This means you get tested with trusted methods for better results.

Here’s what they focus on in their movement screen:

The movement screen assesses how you move.
Functional movement assessment for common motions
Conducting injury prevention screenings helps identify risks early.
Spotting movement compensation patterns
Differentiating mobility vs. stability issues
Offering personalized treatment when needed
Using corrective exercise programming after the screen
We recommend physical therapy screening if any serious problems are identified.

Creating a Personalized Fitness Plan Based on Your FMS

After your Functional Movement Screen (FMS), Personal Edge Fitness builds a plan just for you. They use your scores to find weak spots or unstable areas to fix.

This plan includes:

Core muscle stabilization: Builds deep core muscles to improve posture and balance.
Multi-plane trunk stability: Exercises that help control movement in different directions.
Corrective movement exercises: Moves that fix incorrect patterns found in the screen.
Rehabilitation exercises: Help clients recover from injuries or follow physical therapy advice.

Athletes Looking to Improve Performance and Prevent injuries

Movement Screens for Athletes

Athletes really benefit from movement screens like the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). These tests check how well someone moves. They find movement asymmetries and compensation patterns that might cause injury later. Trainers use the info to tell the difference between mobility and stability problems. Then, they build corrective exercise programming that focuses on core muscle stabilization and multi-plane trunk stability.

Here’s what movement screens do for athletes:

Spot weak areas early to prevent injury
Help improve athletic performance evaluations.
Guide the strength and conditioning assessment.
Reveal movement compensation patterns that slow progress

For example, if an athlete has poor hip hinge mechanics, they could hurt their lower back. Targeted exercises fix this and help with functional fitness testing results. The FMS is well known in sports science for injury prevention screening. Coaches use it to improve training while cutting down time lost to injuries.

Movement Screens for the General Population

Movement screens help more than just athletes. Regular individuals also benefit significantly from injury risk assessments and physical therapy screenings. These screens check things like mobility, stability, posture, balance, and musculoskeletal health. That info builds personalized treatment plans made just for each person.

These tests guide targeted interventions such as

Rehabilitation exercises
Balance training
Progress tracking based on individual needs

A typical screen looks at joint range of motion and core stability. Both are important for everyday stuff like walking or lifting without pain. Posture assessments detect imbalances that could cause long-term problems if ignored.

Physical therapists use these screens to measure client progress during rehab phases (NASM, 2023). This helps people regain function faster with fewer setbacks than general workouts alone.

Scheduling your movement screen appointment at Personal Edge Fitness is essential for starting your fitness journey—please book your session to get started.

Scheduling your movement screen is the first step in your fitness path. At Personal Edge Fitness, our trainers follow strict screening standard operating procedures. They make sure the assessment is right for you. The timing for your movement screen depends on your goals and health. Usually, it happens before you start any new workout plan.

During the session, trainers use demo videos and guide you through movements like squats, lunges, and push-pull exercises. This helps find your client’s movement baseline. It shows how well you move now. From there, we get a functional movement score. This score points out where you need to work on mobility or stability.

You can expect clear explanations about each test. Trainers tell you what the results mean. They also say you should see a healthcare professional for extra help or safety.

Personalized Treatment and Progress Tracking

After your movement screen, you get targeted interventions made just for you. These personalized treatments focus on fixing imbalances found during screening. The goal is to help you move better and lower injury risks.

Progress tracking plays a big role here. We check in often to see how your mobility, stability, and strength improve over time. This information helps you change your workouts, so you keep moving forward.

By mixing expert checks with custom plans at Personal Edge Fitness, you get a clear path ahead—built around how you move today for better results later on.

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Directions:

Start: Fairhope, Alabama 36532
Head southeast on Scenic Hwy 98 toward Old Marlow Rd
Turn left onto Co Rd 32
Turn left onto AL-181 N
Continue onto AL-181 N
Turn left
Turn left toward Consolidated Pk Dr
Turn left onto Consolidated Pk Dr
Finish: Personal Edge Fitness 25341 AL-181 Suite 101, Daphne, AL 36526