Functional Movement

Functional movement refers to the movements our bodies are called upon to perform on a regular basis.  There are six fundamental movement patterns our bodies must be able to perform in order to move optimally and live injury free— bend, squat, lunge, push, pull, and twist.  Everything we do from mowing the lawn and taking out the trash to playing basketball is a combination of two or more of these fundamental movements.  If any one of these movements is inhibited or limited in any way, then our training, physical conditioning, and body awareness are also impaired.

When designing any exercise program, we at Further Fitness first assess your movement patterns using a Functional Movement Screen (FMS) developed by physical therapist Gray Cook.  The FMS tells us where the “weak link” in your body lies.  If you can’t perform a movement pattern properly, then we know it is likely due to an imbalance, limitation or weakness.  If left unaddressed, these may lead to poor performance and/or injury.

Using the results of your FMS (in conjunction with analyses of your posture, core function, flexibility, and lifestyle), we design a corrective exercise program to re-balance your body.  The FMS also gives us a baseline to gauge future progress.  It takes only few minutes to perform the entire screen whenever we want to see how effective our corrective exercise program has been.