What a gym assessment usually tells you
A standard gym assessment gives you a set of numbers:
- What you weigh.
- How much you can lift for one rep.
- How long you last on the bike.
- A body fat percentage, give or take.
All useful. None of it shows how you got the weight up. That is the job of a movement screen, and it is where your first session at Ocean Fitness Poole starts.
What a movement screen is
A movement screen is a set of simple movements done slowly while I watch. A squat with your arms overhead. A toe touch. Standing on one leg. Turning your hips while your shoulders stay still, which is harder than it sounds. I compare your left side with your right, and I look at whether another part of your body has to join in to get the movement done.
You do not lift anything for a score. I am watching how you move.
What a gym assessment measures well
If you want to know how much you can lift, a strength test is the right tool. In 2020 Jozo Grgic and colleagues reviewed 32 studies of the one-rep maximum test with 1,595 people. Repeat the test on another day and you get almost the same number: the typical reliability score was 0.97 out of 1. That held in the 12 studies of older adults too.
So you can trust the numbers. They tell you how much you lifted and nothing about how you lifted it.
What a movement screen shows that the numbers miss
In 2006 Gray Cook, Lee Burton and Barbara Hoogenboom set out the case for screening movement. Performance tests measure how much someone can do, not how well they move. A person can post a good score while their body works around a problem, and every rep at that score practises the workaround.
The screen picks up three things a strength test does not:
- A difference between your left and right sides.
- A movement your body completes by borrowing from somewhere else.
- Whether you are short of range, or have the range and struggle to control it.
That last one changes the training. Not touching your toes does not automatically mean tight hamstrings. If you already have the range but lack control, stretching harder may not help.
Movement screening in Poole: what the research says
In 2017 Nicholas Bonazza and colleagues reviewed the research on one well-known screen, the Functional Movement Screen. In the reliability studies they pooled, two trained people scoring the same person agreed closely, and so did one person scoring twice. The reliability score was 0.81 both ways.
The same review found that people with low scores had higher odds of injury, but it also raised significant concerns about what the screen measures. I will not sell you a screen as a crystal ball. It is a careful look at how you move today.
What a screen does well is give you something to retest. In a 2011 study, Kyle Kiesel, Phil Plisky and Robert Butler screened 62 professional American football players, then gave each one a seven-week programme built on their results. Average scores rose by about 11%, and the number of players with a left-right difference fell from 31 to 20. They were young professional athletes, not a 50-year-old golfer from Parkstone, and there was no comparison group. It still shows that a programme aimed at the screen results can move the scores.
How the screen works at Ocean Fitness Poole
We start with a chat about what you do, what your body has been through and what you want to improve. Then the movements. If one hurts, I stop or change it. A movement screen is not a medical diagnosis, and pain may need a referral to a healthcare professional.
Afterwards I pick out the few things that matter most for you. You do not get a list of everything that is apparently wrong with you. I build your personal training programme around those priorities, and we repeat the relevant tests later to see what has changed. For golfers, I wrote about the TPI movement assessment here.
Matt has trained with me since my previous gym. In his words: "His approach is different to most coaches."
The studio is private, at 1 Victoria Road, Poole, BH12. Book a free consultation and we will start with how you move.
Movement screening in Poole: common questions
What is a movement screen?
A set of simple movements, such as a squat, a toe touch and standing on one leg, done while a trainer watches how you move. It looks at differences between your sides and at movements your body completes by borrowing from somewhere else.
Will a movement screen hurt?
It should not. Some movements may feel stiff. If a movement hurts, it is stopped or changed. A movement screen is not a medical diagnosis, and pain may need a referral to a healthcare professional.
Can a movement screen predict injury?
Not on its own. A 2017 review linked low scores with higher odds of injury in the studies it pooled, but also raised significant concerns about what the screen measures. Its value is showing how you move now and giving you something to retest.
What happens in my first session at Ocean Fitness Poole?
A conversation about what you do and what you want, then a movement screen. Your programme is built around what the screen shows, and the relevant tests are repeated later to check progress. It starts with a free consultation at 1 Victoria Road, Poole, BH12.
References
- Bonazza NA, Smuin D, Onks CA, Silvis ML, Dhawan A. Reliability, validity, and injury predictive value of the Functional Movement Screen: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2017;45(3):725-732.
- Cook G, Burton L, Hoogenboom B. Pre-participation screening: the use of fundamental movements as an assessment of function, part 1. North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. 2006;1(2):62-72.
- Grgic J, Lazinica B, Schoenfeld BJ, Pedisic Z. Test-retest reliability of the one-repetition maximum (1RM) strength assessment: a systematic review. Sports Medicine - Open. 2020;6:31.
- Kiesel K, Plisky P, Butler R. Functional movement test scores improve following a standardized off-season intervention program in professional football players. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. 2011;21(2):287-292.