Today Coach Dan Sanzo introduced us to the Functional Movement Screen and how to use it as an effective assessment for athletes. At my first interview for an internship at NU with Coach Boothby, he spoke to me about the FMS and how much we were going to use it throughout the semester. Coming from a training philosophy where I train myself and my high school athletes with a “ground and pound” type mentality, I did not know what to expect. To be honest, when Coach Boothby started mentioning names like Gray Cook, Janda, and Stuart McGill, I thought I was in for a long semester. Clearly, I was wrong. I went home that night and watched several videos on YouTube with Gray Cook and Brett Jones. I was amazed and could not believe I was missing out on this information for all of this time.
After being tested through the FMS by my fellow interns, my eyes opened wide to my biggest flaws that I would have never known I had. I realized what spots on my body need a lot of work, mobility, rest, and strength. FMS taught me not to be so close minded about programming and to really crack down to target the exact needs for each athletes training programs. These past two weeks I have learned over 10 mobility and dynamic warm ups from Mike Zawilinski that I have been using for myself and my athletes. To say the least, they have been nothing less than excellent results. My athletes are lasting longer in our training sessions, missing less days in between workouts because they are not as sore as before, they have much more energy, and their overall core strength is increasing faster than ever. As for me, my bench press 3RM is now at 320#, and I deadlifted 545# for 5 reps last friday for the first time ever. It blows my mind to see such a huge turnaround in a short period of time. I am looking forward to becoming a better coach and expanding my knowledge with everyone at the NU Strength & Conditioning Department.