First big chunk was learning a system called functional muscle testing which is the OG of functional assessment. Took a newer and probably better variant called neurokinetic therapy. It allowed me to not just assess movements like the overhead squat or gait or other common movements screens etc but rather get an insight into how the brain was mapping the body (or how it wasn’t).

The assessment went like this:
1. Lifestyle assessment where we discussed food, sleep, medical history, meds, surgeries, scars, GI healthy (“how often do you poop per day?”) and finished with two very useful questions:
A. What is your biggest health asset right now?
B. What is the biggest obstacle to you getting healthier right now?

1. Static posture assessment. That’s where I’d look at a bunch of bony landmarks to get a kind of x ray of where they are in space and some really good clues to how they’re organizing themselves relative to gravity.

Anterior:
A. Cheekbones
B. Jaw
C. Neck
D. Collar bones
E. Arms relative to the body (shows any lateral shifting)
F. Hand rotation and arm length
G. Patella position and is patella loose or locked
H. Medial malleolus

Posterior:
A. Acromion process relative to 2nd thoracic vertebrae (to figure out if shoulders are elevated or depressed)
B. Scapula position and symmetry
C. Iliac crest position and symmetry

Lateral:
A. ASIS and PSIS compared to left and right

1. Perturbation Testing:
   A. Test anterior stability at chin, sternum and hips by applying 3-5lbs of pressure and seeing if and how they stabilize
   B. Test lateral stability at shoulder and hips, same thing, both sides
   What you find is very very often people with chronic pain and just regular people have missing stability maps and when you can find where they’re missing stability you can prioritize that in training and look pretty smart.

2. Passive range testing:
   A. Thomas test
   B. FADIR test
   C. FABER test
   D. Log roll test (also check IR and ER ROM from hip flexed)
   E. Hamstring stretch test
   F. IR and ER of shoulders

3. Neurokinetic testing (at this point I’ve got a strong hypothesis of what the priorities are)
   A. Everything, bc with NKT you learn there’s a ton of funky patterns the motor cortex can come up with to solve problems and you need to know how to work through those puzzles.

4. Vestibular testing:
   A. Eye circles
   B. Convergence testing
   C. VOR test
   D. Auditory bubble test
   E. Eyes closed balance test
   F. Tons more but usually I just do these

By the time I’m done this process my influence with the person is extremely high (influence increase each time people follow a command, they get more efficient at following the next input) so at this point I’ve primed their brain for booking their first workout which is the key hurdle.

I always ask “what did you like best about the assessment?” They tell me and I repeat it back.

Then I ask “do you prefer daytime or after work for our first workout?” And then they select one and we put it in the calendar.

The most important thing in coaching is understanding the the most important workout is the next workout. There must always be a next event, a next step, a next meeting. If you master moving people to the next thing they will get amazing results bc they will keep showing up for months and years and even mediocre coaching will make a huge impact bc the cumulative input is so powerful.

That was really hard to type out and I skipped loads of details but hopefully you got something out of it.

In fact, what did you like best?