Functional Movement Screen

What is the Functional Movement Screen (FMS)?

The FMS screen is a simple and effective tool used by FMS professionals to capture a client/athlete's current movement quality and injury risk. Seven total movement patterns as well as additional assessments are screened to further identify the issue within the movement pattern, narrowing it down to a mobility, stability, or dynamic stability issue.

Screening lays the baseline for developing a corrective strategy blueprint to improve your "weak links", manage risk, and prioritize exercise selection for your workouts. This non-biased baseline allows asymmetries and deviations to be efficiently identified. Asymmetries always take priority since they create the highest risk for injury, as research has shown us that these asymmetries and deviations can increase the risk of injury by 3.5 times.

Study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2953296/

Screening & Scoring Rules Each movement pattern is allowed 3 attempts and scored as follows: 3 - movement excellence (perfect score) 2 - movement competence (requisite for loading movements) 1 - movement dysfunction (needs correcting) *0 - pain

A score of 0 must be evaluated and treated by a medical professional*

Scoring Goals & Results

A score of 21 (all 3's) is NOT the goal. The goal is to eliminate all asymmetries and achieve at least symmetrical 2's on each movement screen.

A score of 15 or more is desired, although depending on your sport and injury history, the cutoff for injury risk would be a score of 16. The number one risk factor for future injury is previous injury!

A score of 14 or less predicts a higher risk of injury in individuals without previous injury.

Test/Retest After screening and correcting the weakest links, the next step would be to retest the dysfunctional patterns, and expect a positive outcome of improved functional movement!