RBS FITNESS MYTH #3:

"Movement evaluations are mandatory for all clients and athletes"

I want to preface that at one time or another over the past 20 years I have practiced exercise testing and various popular and supposedly essential movement evaluations with my clients and athletes.  Whether Its The NASM's OH/Single Leg Squat Screening, Goniometric Testing, The Functional Movement Screen, or Orthopedic Tests (i.e. Kuhns Series), Impingement Tests, or any other I've been there and done that. 

The FMS is the most popular mainstream movement screening tool ever created. It was innovated by Dr. Gray Cook back in the early 2000s

I'll admit that testing and movement diagnostics are very insightful and fun to practice, especially when you are beginning a career as a trainer and coach.  However, if you have been in the game for awhile and really understand your functional anatomy then outside of rare special cases, time should be spent on actual training and applying maximal effort towards your clients training goals.  Looking smart in front of your clients and building your ego is cool and all I guess, but these tests and their subsequent treatment measures and prescriptions are "highly" predictable and should be for the sake of creating proper training systems to serve the masses hopefully.  They are a learning tool for the trainer pretty much.  That's why the industry refers to standard human movement in terms of "patterns.". It's highly predictable, reliable, and effective once you understand how all the pieces work individually and synergistically.  

I'll take it a step further and tell you that if you are paying good money on a so called expert, and they are claiming that they are using these tests to *learn how you move" which I hear often, then that is the exact moment you should run for the hills and take your business elsewhere.

Let me ask you; would you take your car to a shop that is in the process of learning how your engine works?  Never.  So why would you ever take your hard earned money to someone that admits they need to learn how you move?  They should always be educated and know precisely how you should move, and exactly what techniques are required to get you to an ideal state.  If they actually are competent then it's then an issue of conveying the right message and rhetoric and improving the expectations they are establishing with that alarming statement or fallen cultural cliche. 

Bottomline, is that sooner rather than later you will see these patterns as a trainer utilizing these tests.  There is nothing wrong with them, but they become overly predictable and so does the targeted focus or movement pattern, which is a great thing.  At this point, proper integration of standard corrective exercise and movement quality techniques is more than sufficient, and a majority of correction comes from structurally balanced and intelligent strength training anyways according to recent research from Dr. Ramsey Nijem, and it's contrary to everlasting popular belief.

In closing, let's take a positive finding in a classic Impingement, or "SAI Test" administered by the arm crossover raise.  According to shoulder training mastermind Eric Cressey, Impingement occurs in 98 percent of people.  It's normal.  What's abnormal is surpassing an individual limit or threshold of Impingement that inevitably elicits pain symptoms and or injury.

If pain ensues at some point, this outcome could be due to Grades 1-3 Acromion Process, a weak posterior rotator cuff, Serratus Anterior, thoracic mobility, Scap/Lower to Mid Trap Weakness, and Lat and Pec tightness, or regional or collective back weakness, to name a few. You also have to consider global (i.e. core/lower body) strategies and strong influence as well.  This is a general corrective exercise breakdown for the shoulder.  For more rare and special cases see Eric's products here, here, and here.

For the majority this will be more than enough to address in your warm-up and recovery or non-training days.  "Everyone" can benefit from this general approach, and we all function this way.  The difference lies in that certain people are struggling in one of the previous areas more than others.  For example, your Pectoralis Major head may be tighter than another, or your trap is weaker than mine.  Don't get lost in the weeds here though.  Like I said; structurally balanced strength training, and a general shoulder based corrective approach will suffice.  As a result, this hybrid approach will almost always solve what could easily be validated through a movement assessment.  Which at this point you can clearly understand doesn't have to be performed by an expert.