Tim Maiden of The Foot Practice sheds light on the subject.
Every winter I would gain a few pounds and decide to go to the gym to get prepared for the summer. I did the cardio and running but would always get to a roadblock.
Not because of lack of will but I would accumulate minor nagging injuries or aches. Luckily though, in this line of work there are some methods out there being used like the Functional movement screening (FMS) and its benefits. Before we get into this, not so difficult, concept we must first know what it is. Just like a baby, it first needs to learn how to walk before it starts running.
Functional Movement Screening FMS is a sceening tool to find deficincies in functional movement by identifying assymetries. And how do they do this? Through seven movement patterns that require stability and mobilitiy. They are:
- Deep Squat
- Hurdle Step
- In-line Lunge
- Active Straight-leg Raise
- Trunk Stability Push-up
- Rotary Stability
- Shoulder Mobility
The point of this madness is simple. To identify people with functional movement deficits who have a much greater chance of injury. It seemed so simple, almost too good to be true. So, being the person that I am, I decided be like Sherlock Holmes and do some investigating by researching the latest research studies.
The most obvious one I found was a systemic review Efficacy of the Functional Movement Screen: A review. Kraus, Kornelius; Schütz, Elisabeth; Taylor, William R.; Doyscher, Ralf
Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: 10 June 2014. It asked the key question, is FMS reliable? They looked at 34 articles that met all criteria and were subsequently, read, abstracted and reviewed. The publications were also classified into stages, showing the meticulous seriousness of this review. And after all the analysis what is the ultimate conclusion? “On the descriptive level, results suggest that the FMS is a reliable screen, if the rater is educated and has solid experience (>100 trials).” Well this does make sense. Pretty sure a doctor who has done over 100 operations is more reliable than one with only a couple. Also it highlights:
- limited ability to predict athletic performance
- moderate evidence to predict risk in team sports
- majority of the FMS based intervention programs showed an improvement on general motor quality
This is thought provoking indeed. I didn’t stop there though. I spent more time with various journals coming upon with this neat thesis review.
THE FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT SCREEN AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO MEASURES OF ATHLETIC-RELATED PERFORMANCE, BODY COMPOSITION AND INJURY RATES” by Valdez J. Crouse atThe Pennsylvania State University. May 2014. He stated, that to date, albeit 3 years ago there are not many researches looking for the correlation between FMS and athletic performance unlike with body fat (every person’s sore spot especially in the winter).
In the thesis they looked at the relationships between performance measures, FMS scores, anthropometric measures, and injury rates in Division I college football players. He goes on stating, “results demonstrate significant relationship between FMS scores, anthropometric measures, and athletic performance measures.
The results suggest that Division I college football players with higher FMS scores and lower percentage of body fat (%BF) perform significantly better in athletic performance measures.” Who would have thought that you perform better when in shape!? But he goes on stating “findings did not imply relationship between FMS scores and injury rates. Further research is needed to substantiate the application of these findings across each gender and all sports”. Very interesting indeed. He said further research is needed, so therefore I did continue!
My search led me to Functional Movement Screen Scores in a Group of Running Athletes Loudon, Janice K.; Parkerson-Mitchell, Amy J.; Hildebrand, Laurie D.; Teague, Connie J Strength Cond Res 28(4): 909–913, 2014. The aim here was to find the mean values of FMS in runners and to see if there are any differences between sexes and young/old.
They found no major differences in composite scores between men and women but there were in push-ups and straight leg test scores with women being better. Oh, and there were differences with younger runners scoring better than older ones which might come as a shocker to older generations who generally think they do everything better. All in all, the study provided mean values so they can be used for reference when comparing other runners to be screened using FMS.
Finally, we have The reliability of Functional Movement Screening (FMS) and in-season changes in physical function and performance among elite rugby league players by Waldron et al. published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: 9 February 2014. Basically, the aim was to “1) assess the reliability of the FMS protocol and 2) to establish changes in both FMS and tests of physical performance throughout a season”. Results showed that there were no significant changes in FMS during the season but there was improvement in physical performance in the bench press and sprint times (who would of thought performance improves as the season goes along. Lebron James will be surprised if he ever reads this) and the researchers stated FMS can be adequately used for elite rugby league players but will not change along with physical performance during the season. In the end, Waldron state, “our findings should not necessarily deter practitioners from using the FMS but begin to question the specific qualities that are being assessed through its administration.”
In essence, despite not having all the answers and kinks worked out with FMS and more research needs to be done, there seems to be adequate evidence that it does help in the grand scheme of things and is useful along with other methods.
