This is a highly effective and very comprehensive functional screening system that has been designed to highlight any structural imbalances or weaknesses that a client may present with.
Do you want to improve your upper body and lower body lifting dramatically?
Yes? Then determine if you have any structural imbalances.
How? By being screened and tested and rectifying the issues found.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link so once these limiting factors are identified and rectified you will be able to lift more weight due to the fact that the weak links have been strengthened.
Once these structural imbalances are identified subsequent programs are written to rectify them.
Please note that retesting is required to determine that all issues have been satisfactorily resolved.
Using this comprehensive screening system it is easy to identify areas that are limiting factors to an athlete’s or client’s progress.

Elements of the Screening Process

Over Head Squat Testing

If a client does not receive at least 8.5 out of 10 then they are not allowed squat

Structural Imbalance Testing

Determines all muscular imbalances and weaknesses

Posterior Chain Firing Sequence Examination

Determines if the correct firing sequence exists. If it doesn’t then corrective action can be taken to resolve this. This is an essential test for all power athletes.

Length Tension Tests

    Determines current flexibility levels.

Core Stability Tests

    Determines current core endurance capabilities.

There are four key areas of potential Structural Imbalance

1. Weak Vastus Medialis Oblique (VMO)
One of the most commonly weak or imbalanced areas is the vastus medialis oblique. This is a tear drop shaped muscle on the inside of the knee (medial side).

This muscle is responsible for the following:

1. It controls Foot Contact time on the ground
2. Terminal Knee extension
3. Moving you from the deep part of a squat.
4. It is essential for maintaining correct tracking of the patella (knee cap)

                        Overhead Squat BEFORE Structural Balance Correction for weak VMO.
For example, if this muscle is weak, which will be determined during the above Functional Screening, an athlete’s foot contact time on the ground is increased.
This means that the athlete’s knee buckles in slightly.
This means that they are slower.
Immediate improvements in speed can be made by strengthening this muscle alone.

It is important to note that women have notoriously weak VMOs and they suffer 4 times more ACL injuries than men (due to the inferior Q angle at which the femur hits the tibia because of the wider female pelvis). Therefore, strengthening the VMO should always be a priority.

                        Overhead Squat AFTER Structural Balance Correction for weak VMO
2. Weak Hamstrings
Hamstrings are designed with two functions in mind – to flex the knee and extend the hips.
A weakness in the hamstring can result in overcompensation injuries in the quadriceps or glutes or pulled / torn hamstring muscles themselves.
Poliquin has come up with an easy way to test the balance of the quadriceps / hamstring structure. Simply compare the maximal effort front-squat to the maximal effort back squat. If front squat strength (primarily focusing on the quadriceps) is less than 85% of the back squat, then there is a structural imbalance that needs addressing.

This will emphasise the results of a structural balance test which will highlight if there is uni-lateral or bi-lateral hamstring weakness.

The best way to address a hamstring weakness is to pick the right rep range protocol. Hamstrings respond better to a specific rep range and time under tension.

Far too many programmes are written with ill conceived time under tension aims for hamstrings. Hamstrings, specifically the bicep femoris responsible for flexing the knee during leg curl type movements, are fast twitch muscles and therefore respond best to short time under tension. This means that rep ranges are low [4 – 6, 6 – 8, 2 – 4] depending on the specific goal of the program and the subsequent tempo prescribed.

3. Weak Scapulae Retractors
When you pull your shoulder blades back you retract your scapulae. Having functionally strong scapulae retractors helps avoid many injury scenarios and helps avoid postural deficiencies such as rounded shoulders and a forward jutted head.

Achieving good control of the scapula is essential for healthy shoulders as it’s the shoulder blade muscles that help keep your upper body erly attached to your body!
Prone shrugs (face down on an incline bench, shrugging dumbbells back using only your shoulder blades, and holding the contraction for at least 2 seconds) are a great exercise for gaining scapulae control, and they don’t even require that you use too much weight. In fact as a general rule it’s not necessary to use a huge load when aiming for control – far better to feel the movement in a controlled and precise fashion.

4. Weak External Rotators
The external rotators comprise of the teres minor and the infraspinatus muscles of the rotator cuff. These are crucially important for stabilising the shoulder during all forms of throwing, pressing and punching movements.

Advantages of Full Squat

The reluctance to squat properly (deep and below parallel) is also responsible for the prevalence of weak VMOs as the VMO is active in the deep part of a squat and on terminal knee extension. Therefore, if a client is not squatting through the full range into a full deep squat than the VMO is not recruited fully and does not develop fully.

The knee joint was designed to squat below parallel as pressure on the joint is at a maximum at 900 and is decreases significantly in the full squat position.

The deeper the squat the longer the time under tension for the muscles that are being worked.

So proper squatting is always recommended

For example, the incidence of knee injuries amongst Olympic weightlifters, all of whom squat to the absolute bottom of their range of motion with extremely heavy loads, is amongst the lowest in the sporting world.

However there is one requirement:  The client or athlete trainee must earn the right to squat. This means that they MUST BE structurally balanced.

Advantages of a Half or Quarter squat
However there are advantages of doing a shorter range of movement Squat
For some sports there is a higher event-specific effect (you squat only as deep as you need them for your event)
Much higher loads can be moved due to the favourable angles in the knee and hip joints, which has a positive effect on the recruitment of muscle fibers.
So, full squats are recommended in the build up and strength phase and in some cases, depending on the sport, half or quarter squats may be beneficial.