Using the Functional Movement Screen in Team

Settings

Michael Boyle

www.strengthcoach.com

www.bodybyboyle.com

Do We Use It?

• The most common question we get it “do you use the FMS with your teams?”

• The answer is yes. The next question is “How?”

• The purpose of this presentation is to answer how and hopefully, why.

Why I Like Gray Cook

• I like Gray Cook because he helps me to achieve my goals.

• I want to get my athletes better.

• I have no financial interest in any of this.

• This is about results and “best practices”

Do I Use the FMS

• We use the FMS with every injured athlete.

• We have used the FMS with enough athletes to see trends.

Who’s Program Is It?• It’s yours!

• I don’t run Gray Cook’s program and you don’t have to either.

• In fact, I don’t agree with Gray on everything.

• We use very little of his corrective stuff as we have not found it “group friendly”. As I understand more, I integrate more.

Strength and Conditioning?

• The question is does Gray Cook and the FMS have the ability to make us better at our jobs?

• I absolutely believe it does.

An Assessment or A Sales Tool?

• Stop thinking of the FMS as an assessment and start thinking of it as the best tool you can have to sell your athletes on your program.

• It may not change what you do but it will change how your players perceive what you do.

What the Results Mean

• FMS results generally reinforce program design concepts.

• FMS results direct program design.

A well designed program yields good FMS scores.

What Does This Mean?

• MBSC example

• Our coaches all scored very high.

• Not surprisingly, our coaches at the time were all former athletes who had spent years on our program.

Reinforce?

• How many of you in the audience have attempted the FMS Rotary Core Stability test?

It’s Easy to Sell Core Training After They Bomb This!

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Influence of FMS on the Thought Process

• The FMS changed the entire way we think, coach and train.

• The knowledge gained from Gray and correspondingly the FMS, drives our entire thought process.

Follow Thoughts, not Gurus

• “Stability before mobility”

• Maybe one of the smartest things I’ve ever heard.

Mobility or Stability Issue?

• A consistent problem is a mobility issue.

• Ex- poor squat in standing, inability to flex hips while supine

• An inconsistent problem is a stability problem.

Continuums

• Static stretching ( slow or no motion)-----> AROM ( conscious motion, in place-------> Dynamic Warm-up ( conscious motion, while moving?)

• A fluid continuum. Where does stuff fit? Does it matter?

Develop Progressions

• How? Think about movement patterns.

• Stable to Mobile

• Confusion?

Movement Progressions or Exercise Progressions?

• For movement, proper mobility must precede developing stability ( see constructing a warm-up)

• For exercise progressions the athlete must be able to be stable prior to adding mobility ( i.e. multiplanar actions)

Follow Patterns

• Transitional postures

• 1/2 Kneel ( lunge, decrease number of joints to control)

• Stand ( increase number of joints to control)

• This follows the stability first idea.

Lift Progression

• 1/2 Kneel Stable

• 1/2 Kneel Sequential

• Standing

• Step Up

• Stability to Mobility

1/2 Kneel Stable

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1/2 Kneel Sequential

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Standing

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Step Up Lift

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Don’t Add Strength to Dysfunction

• What does this mean?

• If you can’t squat, don’t squat.

• Go single leg

• Don’t modify stance to get depth. If you can’t squat low, don’t squat heavy.

Risk versus Benefit

• Difficult versus beneficial

• Difficult versus safe

Thought Process

• Less joints moving -->more joints moving.

• Stability to mobility

• 2 Leg to 1 leg

Single Leg Progression

• Split Squat ( two stable points)

• Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat (decrease in stability)

• 1 Leg Squat ( another decrease in stability)

Split Squat

Rear Foot Elevated

1 Leg Squat

A Totally New Thought Process

• Different joints need different approaches?

• You are a stacked pile of joints

JointJoint Primary NeedPrimary Need

Ankle Mobility

Knee Stability

Hip Mobility ( ROM +)

Lumbar Spine Stability

Thoracic Spine Mobility

Scapulo-thoracic Stability

Gleno-humeral Mobility?

Results of Joint Dysfunction

• Joint dysfunction will effect the joint above or below.

• Poor ankle mobility=knee pain

• Poor hip mobility = low back pain

• Poor t-spine mobility = cervical pain

Without Gray Cook and the FMS, I Wouldn’t Have Had

These Thoughts

Hockey Example

• 18 out of 20 got 2’s on the hurdle step.

• This indicated an obviously dysfunctional pattern of hip flexion.

• Finding: poor psoas/iliacus activity

• Solution: work on hip flexion from the top down

Hockey Players Have Trouble Doing This

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Why?

• Maybe because they are always bent at the waist?

FB Example

• Abundance of OH Squat 2’s

• Problem- ankle mobility

• Solution- add ankle mobility to warm up

Video Examples- Ankle Mobility Progression

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Real Life Examples

• We have made millions ( for others) with FMS data

Quick Thought• Is In-Line Lunge a Lunge?• By my definition no.• I refer to it as a split squat. A static

exercise.• A lunge has motion and would be

classified as dynamic.• Lunge has a transitional component.• I think Gray is looking at a single leg

pattern

Why We Added 1 Leg Squat

• We think lunge and 1 leg squat are too disimilar.

• Both at MBSC and at AP we added 1 Leg Squats to the screen.

Example 1- In Line Lunge

• Subject- NBA All Star Guard

• Problem- Torn oblique

• Finding? 0 on the In-Line Lunge on the Left Leg

• Significance? History of turf toe?

What Does Turf Toe have to do with Oblique Strains?

• Turf toe led to altered gait

• Externally rotated hips and supinated feet.

• Externally rotated hips took away hip mobility for “spin” moves.

• Lack of hip mobility caused an abdominal tear

Example 2- Chronic Hamstring Strains: NFL Wide

Receiver

• FMS finding

• 1 Rotary Stability

• 3 Rotary Mobility

• The “perfect storm” of back pain.

• Great mobility w/ no control

The Plot Thickens• This guy stopped lifting after college due to

numerous back strains.• The reality is that he should have never been

loaded in college• Solution- unilateral program to develop

glutes.• Previous rehab had centered on hamstrings.

Hamstring issues were a symptom of poor glutes, not the cause of the strains.

• In the absence of glutes, hamstrings will fail every time. They are a secondary extensor.

Example 3- NFL Defensive Lineman

• Abdominal surgery, back surgery, current complaint L knee pain.

• 0 Single Leg squat test. Painful collapse on the left.

You Have to Able to do This!

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If You Can’t?

• You’ve got problems.

• Big problems.

RNT Squats

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Colts Example

• 17 w/ 3 assymettries

• Asymettry is a more significant problem than 2’s

Developing a Strength Program

• Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater?

• You can squat and olympic lift and use the FMS.

What You Need

• You need to combine your favorite tools with the FMS findings.

• Look at your poor patterns.

• Reinforce them in the warm-up or in the workout, or ideally in both

Example

• 1 Leg Squat progression show previously

• 1 Leg SLDL pattern ( hip hinge)

Reaching

1 Leg Good Morning?

1 A 1L SLDL

2A 1L SLDL

Developing a Warm-up

• How?

• Joint by Joint

• The joints that need mobility lose it, the joints that need stability often become unstable.

• Ex- Lumbar and GH

Ankle Ideas

Knee Stability?

Hip Mobility ( passive)

Hip Mobility ( active)

Lumbar Stability?

Lumbar Mobility?????

T-Spine?

• Passive ( tennis balls) vs active ( drivers)

• Be careful of drivers as t-spineoften goes off course and goes lumbar. T-spine is hard ( big band), lumbar is easy ( small band). They should be reversed.

T-Spine- passive

T-Spine- active

Scapulo-Thoracic Stability and GH Mobility

• GH mobility sounds like a mistake, it is not.

Wall Slides

Conclusion

• The FMS in team settings may not allow you to help each individual but, the results will clearly help your team.

• Look for trends and design a team program that corrects your trends.

Joint by Joint DVD