“There’s usually a sign before there’s a symptom.”
-Shirley Sahrmann
I would have to say that I fall into the “if you’re not assessing, you’re guessing” group of fitness professionals. Everyone program that I develop for individuals that I work with is based on how they present to me during some form of a direct assessment.
At the other end of the spectrum are the group of professionals that don’t believe that an assessment is warranted. Perhaps it’s the belief that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In other words, a lack of pain is indicative of normal function.
I personally can’t follow this line of thinking because of information that has been accumulated in the last 10-15 years in regard to how the body works as a linked system. When we evaluate athletes and fitness clients, many times we find that although they may be high level performers or appear to quite fit, they are also great compensators during movement.
Much like your car driving out of alignment, it may still drive fairly well but the progressive wear ‘n’ tear accumulated over time will result in some form of costly breakdown. In the case of the human kinetic chain, malalignment and compensation combined with repetitive movement results in adaptations leading to injury that may not be all that fixable.
Assessments and reassessments allow professionals to not only track progress (maybe just to see if your program really does work) but to identify signs that if ignored may very well become symptomatic or lead to serious injury. Then we can implement an appropriate corrective strategy that may prevent potential injury and even raise performance as the body becomes a more efficient system.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Bill
P.S. Sorry for the big gap in posts. We had some family health issues to resolve and then some technical issues, but we are back up and running.