At SPARK, our Northern Virginia sports physical therapist team assesses (almost) everyone who comes in with a pain complaint with the same basic tests of functional movement. These tests represent the ways a typically functioning, healthy body should be able to move without restriction or pain.
Regularly assessing your functional movements is a great way to stay ahead of injuries and make sure your body is firing on all cylinders. We have 8 tests for you to perform to determine how well your body moves. These tests require no equipment, only some clear floor space in your living room.
8 Tests to Perform on Your Body
An assessment like this is the best way to know the specific limitations of your body, allowing you to focus on improving strength and range of motion in areas that your body is limited in. Knowing your own limitations is the first step towards taking back control of your body’s physical health.
Please note, that these tests are not meant to diagnose any injuries or pain when performed on your own.
If you are experiencing pain with one of these motions, that is an indication that you need to seek professional help for a thorough assessment. Our team here at SPARK is trained to get to the root cause of your pain by considering all aspects of your pain experience, including your strength and range of motion limitations, prior injury history, what activities you want to enjoy, and more.
Each test comes with criteria you need to meet in order to pass. If you do not meet the criteria, we have provided some basic exercises and mobilizations to improve each movement pattern. If a test is painful and limited in range of motion, we do not recommend starting the exercises until you have consulted with a professional to determine the root cause of your pain.
Each test will begin with you standing tall with your feet together and your mouth closed. We recommend videoing yourself doing the movements so you can compare what your movement looks like to our examples shown below!
Test 1: Neck and head
Instructions: There are 3 different motions we will be testing. You must pass all of them to pass.
- Keeping your mouth closed, tuck your chin down as far as you can.
Passing criteria: Can you reach your chest while keeping your mouth closed?
- Tilt your head back and look up towards the ceiling.
Passing criteria: Chin is roughing parallel with your body (within 10 degrees)
- Keeping your mouth closed, reach your chin down towards the middle of each collarbone.
Passing criteria: Chin touches the middle of each collarbone without your shoulder rising or your mouth opening.
Full range without compensating on any of the neck motions means you pass the cervical test!
If you did not pass, try incorporating these movements to improve your neck's range of motion and strength.:
Instructions: Using a lacrosse ball against the wall or a cane, find a tender spot in your upper traps and reach your chin down towards your opposite collarbone 30 times. Repeat on the other side.
Instructions: Set up a side plank either on your feet or with knees bent. Turn your head to look down at the shoulder that is supporting you on the ground for 3 sets of 10 reps.
Instructions: Using a cable column or band anchored to the wall, row and rotate your torso while keeping your head still for 3 sets of 15 reps per side.
Test 2: Functional Shoulder External Rotation
Instructions: Reach your right arm up and over your head, attempting to touch the top of your opposite shoulder blade.
Passing Criteria: You can reach the top of your opposite shoulder blade without arching your back, leaning to the side, or moving your head out of the way.
If you did not pass, try incorporating these movements to improve your shoulder range of motion and strength:
Instructions: Using a lacrosse ball either against the wall or on the floor, find a tender spot in your lats. Reach your arm up overhead and back 30 times while keeping pressure on the tender point.
Instructions: Using a lacrosse ball on the wall or floor, find a tender spot on the back of your shoulder blade. Put your arm up at 90 degrees and rotate it back and forth 30 times.
Instructions: With your arm up at 90 degrees and palm facing out, place a towel between the back of your knuckles and a wall. Loop a band around your hand and pull the band away using your opposite hand without the hand on the wall pulling free. Complete 3 sets of 10-15 reps.
Instructions: With your back against the wall and your arms up at 90 degrees, slide your arms up as high as possible while maintaining constant contact with the wall. Attempt to maintain full contact of the entire arm with the wall throughout the movement.
Test 3: Functional Shoulder IR
Instructions: Reach your right arm behind and up your back as high as you can, attempting to touch your fingertips to the bottom corner of your opposite shoulder blade.
Passing Criteria: You can make it up to the corner of your opposite shoulder blade without leaning your body forward as you go or walking your hands up your back. Fun fact, your dominant side will typically be more limited on this test, so don’t be surprised if you can only pass this test on your non-dominant arm!
Shoulder IR:
Instructions: Using a lacrosse ball against the wall, find a tender spot in your pecs or anterior deltoid, hold the ball against the tender point and provide deep pressure for 30 seconds to a minute. Repeat 3x.
Instructions: With arm held away from wall, push hand towards floor, repeatedly roll torso towards shoulder.
Instructions: Toss ball laterally behind your back, rotating at the shoulder.
Instructions: With your arm up at 90 degrees and palm facing out, place a towel between the back of your knuckles and a wall. Loop a band around your hand and pull the band away using your opposite hand without the hand on the wall pulling free. Complete 3 sets of 10-15 reps.
Test 4: Multisegmental flexion
Instructions: Keep your legs straight and reach down as far as you can towards the floor.
Passing Criteria: You can touch your fingertips to the floor without bending your knees or falling forward.
If you did not pass, try incorporating these movements to improve your forward-bending pattern:
Instructions: standing with feet shoulder width, place your hands on the ground in front of your feet and walk them out until you come into a plank position. Drop your hips down to the ground to arch your back, then walk your feet back up to your hands. Repeat for 10 reps.
Instructions: Lying on your back, squeeze your abs and flatten your lower back against the floor. Lift your shoulders and feet off the ground to hover while maintaining your low back flat against the floor. If you are unable to hold your lower back against the floor, bring your arms down by your side and tuck your legs up, which will make the movement easier. Hold for 20-30 seconds and repeat 4 times.
Instructions: holding a moderate to heavy weight in one hand, walk 50-100 ft, and maintain good posture without not leaning forwards, backward or sideways. Switch hands and repeat.
Test 5: Multisegmental extension
Instructions: Reach your arms up overhead and lean back as far as you can go without falling backward.
Passing Criteria: You are able to keep your legs and arms straight while pushing your hips forward and arching your back. When viewed from the side, the front of your pelvis should be in front of your toes, and your shoulder blades should be behind your heels. You should look essentially like a crescent moon when viewed from the side. If you meet ALL of those criteria, you pass the extension test.
If you did not pass, try incorporating these movements to Improve your backward bending pattern:
Instructions: Lying on your stomach, press your upper body up while leaving your hips on the ground, attempting to arch through your mid and low back. Lower yourself back to the ground and repeat for 3 sets of 10 reps.
Instructions: With your shoulder blades up against a bench, lift your hips and lay back until your hips are level with your shoulders and you form a straight line from knees to shoulders. Try not to arch your back by keeping your belly tight and pelvis tucked under you as you squeeze your glutes to finish. Repeat for 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
Instructions: Holding a kettlebell, dumbbell or barbell at the hips, soften your knees and push your butt backward as you lower your chest. Continue to lower the weights, keeping them close to your body and your upper back engaged until you feel a strong stretch in the back of your legs or the weights have reached approximately mid-shin. Push your butt forward to stand back up tall. Complete 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
Test 6: Multisegmental rotation
Instructions: Turn and look your whole body (hips, shoulders, and head) over your right side, attempting to look at the wall behind you. Repeat on your left side.
Passing Criteria: Are you able to make it all the way around while keeping both feet flat on the floor and staying tall (not leaning forwards)? Your hips and shoulders should both move. If both sides rotate equally as far and you meet all the criteria, you pass the rotation test. If one side is more limited than the other, take note of which one. You must have full range on BOTH sides in order to pass this test.
If you did not pass, try incorporating these movements to improve your rotational pattern:
Instructions: Holding on to a support with one or both hands, lift one leg up while dropping your chest down until you are roughly parallel with the ground. Rotate your pelvis up and out until you have reached the end of your range, then rotate your pelvis down and in. Ensure your knee stays soft and does not waver side to side as you rotate your hip. Switch side and repeat for 3 sets of 5 reps.
Instructions: Get into a long lunge with both hands on the ground inside your front foot. Your front foot should be flat and you will feel a stretch in your inner thigh. Your back leg should long behind you and knee off the ground. Keeping your outside hand planted, reach your inside hand up and rotate your trunk until you feel a good stretch. Repeat 10x per side.
Instructions: Set up a cable or band above shoulder height. Setting your body up parallel to the cable, chop the handle down and across your body, turning as you go, moving from your shoulder to opposite knee. Repeat on the other side for 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
Instructions: Set up a cable or band below knee height. Setting your body up parallel to the cable, left the handle up and across your body, turning as your go, moving from your knee to opposite shoulder. Repeat on the other side for 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
Test 7: Single leg balance
Instructions: Pick up your right knee until your hip is flexed to 90 degrees and hold your balance. Repeat by picking up your left leg.
Passing Criteria: You are able to hold your balance for 10 seconds without any movement at your hip or knee or needing to catch yourself.
If you didn’t pass the single-leg balance test, try these exercises to begin improving your balance:
Instructions: Pick a leg up and hold as long as you can trying to stay as still as possible. For extra challenge, close your eyes.
Instructions: Get into a stagger stance with one leg forward and one leg back. Using a medicine ball, slam the ball to the side of your front leg, trying to maintain your balance the entire time. Perform 3 sets of 20 slams per side.
Instructions: Step out wide to the side as you shift your weight towards your heel and sit your but down and back. Return back to standing tall and lift your leg up and hold your balance for a few seconds. Repeat for 3 sets of 10 per leg.
Instructions: Holding a weight in one hand or just using your bodyweight, lift one leg as you drop your chest down towards the ground. You should feel the back of your leg stretch as you get towards the bottom of the movement. Push your butt forward to return to standing. Repeat for 3 sets of 8-12 reps per side.
Test 8: Overhead squat
Instructions: This is our hardest test! Starting with your feet shoulder width, put your arms up overhead and squat down as low as you can.
Here are all the criteria you need to be able to meet to pass this test:
- Upright chest and arms in line with your ears with no bend in the elbows throughout the entire movement
- Hip crease below the level of your knees at the bottom of the squat
- Knees tracking outside of the big toe
- Heels stay on the floor throughout the entire movement
- No falling forwards or backward at any point in the movement
If you were unable to pass the overhead squat assessment, try adding in these three exercises to improve your squat mobility and motor control:
Instructions: Attach a band low and hook it around your ankle under the malleoli (the round bones that stick out on either side of your ankle). It should be pulling backwards. Step your foot out until you have a strong backward pull, and drive your knee forward while keeping your foot flat. Repeat for 30 reps.
Instructions: With feet shoulder width, reach your hands down and grab your toes. Pull yourself down into a deep squat with elbows inside the knees. Hold for 5 seconds and then return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times.
Instructions: Hold a kettlebell or dumbbell at chest height with elbows down and chest tall. Squat down, keeping your chest up and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Fight the pull of the weight that wants to drag you forward. Perform 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
