The Functional Movement Screen
The 7 Part Functional Movement Screen and R.O.T.C.
The Dynamic Duo, Alan Barb DPT, OCS, and Reid Moseley DPT, CSCS, were at it again. The brief this time was to about eighty-seven of our nation’s future military officers in training, at UVA. The brief entitled The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a seven part “test”, of sorts, that helps physical therapists determine a body’s strengths and its weaknesses. Although originally developed in southern Virginia for local high school and college athletes, it’s usefulness there means it is now being used in the military and professional sports teams as well. And yes, since Move Better is an evidence based therapy clinic, they use this tool in their evaluations too
Explaining the Screen
To explain the various aspects of the functional movement screen, it seemed only fitting to select MIDSN Riley Mazariegos to demonstrate. Watching both Alan and Reid 
work through the FMS with Riley was both riveting and perplexing. Riveting in so much as we wanted Riley to succeed and perplexing in that we wanted to see what weakness looked like too. By the way, future officer + volunteer firefighter = near perfect score, but that is not the norm. People do have weaknesses that can be turned into strengths with the right PT!
What does the Functional Movement Screen cover?
The functional movement screen runs the gauntlet of squatting, stepping, lunging, reaching, leg raising, push-up, and rotary stability. Each aspect of the screen can earn the participant three points with a maximum score of twenty-one. Both Alan and Reid fully explained each part of the screen. They also provided exercises that could be done, if a score was less than perfect.
Questions, answers, and where to go
Questions in abundance is the norm as our Move Better team is engaging and knowledgeable. If you feel that you can benefit from a Functional Movement Screen to help keep you injury free, please reach out to movebettertherapy.com where you are always seen, at every visit, by a highly trained, doctoral level physical therapist. If you would like to experience just how a Move Better Physical Therapist can help to determine areas of weakness please press here https://movebettertherapy.com/contact-us/