DYNAMIC ASSESSMENTS

By James Thayer

James is an Assistant Director of Fitness and Wellness, educator, presenter and Pre-Script Coach. He believes the best approach to learning is to engage, educate and empower individuals and communities. James utilizes coaching, programming, performance and movement proficiency to set a standard for conversation to application. 

Dynamic Assessments

The initial intake assessment sets a foundation in which the start of the program is based on. It offers time to build a relationship with clients, develops cue connections, lines of communication and efficiency of movement. Assessing the movement quality and limitations or restrictions in mobility, stability and strength establishes what should be addressed in the program. 

While the initial assessment is important to the starting parameters of a program design it would be inefficient to conduct the initial assessment at the beginning of every session. This is where a dynamic assessment in the session can hold value. While assessing clients movement quality and potential compensation patterns should never really stop during the session, giving particular focus to assessing dynamic movements in the warmups saves time, cues and identifies modifications that might be needed in that session. 

The goal of the warm up is to find the minimum effective dose needed to begin the workout. If half the session is spent walking on a treadmill claiming it as a warmup, when it only correlates to putting the weight back on the rack after being used,  we’ve strayed far from the intended purpose of the warmup. Selection of exercises to prepare for the workout should mimic similar positions for the demands of the workout, simply to a lesser degree. 

By the same note if we undervalue the time and purpose in preparing for the demands of the workout we will find ourselves skipping any preparation completely and only addressing compensations at the arrival of pain.

Introducing a dynamic assessment to the preparation phase is highly dependent on the coach/trainer’s ability to assess a movement. The higher complexity of the exercise the more developed a coach’s eye should be to detect multiple compensations or limitations in a singular exercise. The more developed a coach is in their experience, the more complex exercises can be applied.

A multifaceted assessment such as a split stance lunge would look for foot pronation, ankle mobility, flexion/extension/internal rotation/external rotation at the hip, and rib cage to pelvis mechanics.  This, simultaneously opposed to a singularly focused assessment that is more isolated and stabilized like a glute bridge, limits the variables to be accounted for and focuses on hip flexion and extension.