Last year, I took the FMS online certification class and it left me wanting more information. Screening someone for imbalances is fine, but what do you do with them afterwards?
Getting some corrective exercises prescribed to me was great, but I didn’t have a great idea on how to prescribe correctives to someone else via their results of the screen. I spent a ton of cash on DVDs and materials from Gray Cook but still I felt there was something missing.
This is why I leaped on the chance to take the FMS Level 1 and 2 certification when it finally came to SF. And also, it was being taught by Dr. Mark Cheng, renowned martial artist, Sr. SFG instructor, and proponent of the FMS. I have been a big fan of Doc Cheng’s for a while now, after I started on my path to the SFG Level 1 certification. Now I would get the chance to meet him live and hear him teach the FMS.
I took both the FMS Level 1 and 2 even though I already was certified in Level 1 via the online system. I didn’t want to miss Doc Cheng’s lecture on the first part – hearing it live versus in online materials is much better and it constantly evolves, so I would get the latest information that weekend. FMS Level 1 teaches the screen only, and FMS Level 2 teaches the corrective exercises. So to me, knowing the screen is great but less than half the battle; most of the work happens after the screen in making the client a better athlete.
It was more than I hoped for! Now I had the templates and methodology to apply corrective exercises in a systematic way to correct an athlete’s imbalances which were sorely missing from just taking the FMS Level 1 course! The general path to treating a client goes like this:
1. Identify the imbalances via the screen
2. Mobility
3. Static motor control
4. Dynamic motor control
5. Strength and conditioning
You screen someone and determine their most critical imbalances; then you go through each step in order, making sure that the client has achieved a basic level of each step before moving onto the next. In our course, we are given a ton of corrective exercises, most of which are found at Functional Movement website. Without taking the course, these exercises were all a big jumble. Which ones should I apply and when? Which one should I do first? How do I know when something is working? All these were outlined in the course.
Learning the screen in Level 1 is great, but without Level 2 it is almost pointless. I highly recommend taking both together and not just online but live in front of a lecturer. Doc Cheng was awesome and I hope to hear him again, as well as someday Gray Cook and Lee Burton the creators of the FMS soon.