Book review | Movement | Gray Cook

If you want to have a better understanding  of human movement then this book is for you. It highlights the importance of movement screening prior to prescribing exercise. Much like we screen an individuals health, with PARQ forms and BP assessment, Gray Cook urges that we also screen movement too.

I personally love the idea and it makes perfect sense. If an individual cannot carry out fundamental movements without pain, asymmetries or overcompensation in other areas then we shouldn’t be giving them exercise programs that instruct them to do these movements on a regular basis. Especially under load (with weight). First we need to identify why they can not carry out these movements, then work on correcting these limitations before we consider working on their strength, endurance etc.

Below are a few snippets from the book:

“Consider quality before quantity”

“Only after developing a command of general movement patterns should we strive to screen, assess, train or control specific and skilled movement”

“It would not even be necessary to train stability if quality and functional patterns had not at some point been neglected. The neglect occurred the minute we started to train partial movement patterns instead of whole movement patterns, the minute we focussed on quantity maximums and did not set a quality minimum”

If your passionate about exercise, health and fitness then have you considered training to be a qualified fitness instructor and personal trainer?

We run personal training courses in Sussex and the Brighton area. Give us a call for more information 01273 613014 or email info@stormfitnessacademy.co.uk.