Assess and Prioritize

When foam rolling and stretching it is tempting to give your body a once-over-everything approach, often before or after a workout. Given the limited time most of us have and considering that your body can only react to so much stimulus in one dose, it is very advantageous to assess and prioritize your routine, rather than taking an unfocused approach.

When exercising, as with any project, it’s important to manage your time accordingly. There are always far more things that need attention than you can really handle in any one workout, or even one cycle, so it is key to determine the most important things to focus on. To do this you will need to assess where you are. There are multiple tools for doing this, one of my favorites being the FMS, which I wrote about in my own post (the functional movement screen fms), and which you can investigate at their website functionalmovement.com. Assessments are worth performing because they can show you where you really need to focus your attention right now.

The overhead squat is a very effective assessment tool. It can be used as a stand alone, or as part of a larger battery, such as in the case of the FMS. To perform a proper overhead squat many pieces have to fit together. Restrictions in any of the major joints will create obvious signs during the assessment. Typical issues you will see include a lack of depth, an inability to keep the arms up overhead, leaning forward, arching or rounding the back, or falling backwards. Each of these can have multiple causes. The next step is then to determine what the biggest cause is, the next biggest cause, etc. Once completed, you now have a plan of attack that you can prioritize in your workouts.

For more clarity, let’s look at a hypothetical example. Many people will have trouble getting low in an overhead squat. In order to get lower, their arms will fall forward and they will have a tendency to rock back.  Tight lats will be an obvious contributer to their arms falling forward, however, the biggest issue in most cases won’t be the lats, but rather the ankles. A lack of ankle mobility requires compensations up the chain, most notably, leaning forward. The way to determine this is to take the ankles out of the equation. If you have the ankles placed up on blocks (to put the person on their toes, as if wearing high heels) and then have them squat you more often than not will find that the problems clean up. If this is the case, you know your number one priority should be to loosen up the ankles. As you investigate further in the assessment, you might find that the person does in fact have tight lats as well, and that these contribute to the problem. They should also be stretched, but second on the list.

I could go on with other various points on assessing, but what I really want you to take away is that the assessment helps you to prioritize. There will be many things  that need to be addressed, always, but what you really need to know is how to decide what to focus on. I see a great number of people (I’m guilty myself) spending time working on hips, and lats, and core in order to clean up a squat that primarily is being affected by the ankles. All of these other areas usually do need work, but it will only go so far if the biggest issue is not addressed first.

Assessments show a great many things, from immobile areas, to weaknesses, to imbalances. A skilled screener can give you a good read. They can also help you to prioritize by giving you insights into what are the most pressing concerns. I highly recommend having an evaluation and acting on what you find. It can greatly accelerate your gains!