If you’ve ever stood on the sidelines, dreading the moment someone might call your name, this might feel familiar. Standing there, hoping not to be picked last, but also hoping not to be picked at all because you might mess it up. Maybe you swung at the ball and missed, tripped over your feet, or froze under the pressure. And then came the laughter, the whispers, the heat of embarrassment that stayed with you long after the game.
Even if you were one of the lucky ones—always picked first—sport might not have been easy. The pressure to perform, to win, and to carry the team came with its own challenges. For some, even the joy of being good at sport was overshadowed by the fear of messing up. For many girls, school sports and PE lessons create one of two outcomes: confidence or avoidance. The ones who were laughed at, left out, or shamed often carry that experience into adulthood, believing movement isn’t for them. Early experiences in movement shape how we feel about our bodies and whether we believe movement belongs to us. This blog isn’t about creating athletes or winning medals. It’s about ensuring movement belongs to everyone, no matter how fast, strong, or skilled they are. Movement isn’t about competition or performance. It’s about creating environments where every girl feels excited to move, free from judgement or fear.
Why Sport Feels Excluding for So Many GirlsFor many girls, sport stops being fun as soon as the stakes get high. Puberty brings new challenges, and suddenly, movement feels awkward and exposing.
Here’s what so many girls face:
What Happens When Girls Disconnect From Movement
The girl who dreaded PE often becomes the woman who avoids fitness. She remembers the judgement, the embarrassment, and the feeling that she doesn’t belong. The girl who tripped over her feet in netball may avoid trying new activities as an adult, afraid of being laughed at. The girl who leaked through her shorts might never set foot in a group fitness class, worried about the same thing happening again. These experiences stop being about skill and start being about fear. These stories don’t need to define the future. Movement isn’t about being the best or proving yourself to others. It can be about joy, freedom, and discovering what your body can do. Rewriting the Story of Movement As trainers, coaches, and teachers, we have the opportunity to change how people experience movement. It begins by making movement joyful, not pressured. For some, this might mean leaving competitive games behind entirely. For others, it’s about creating spaces where it feels safe to try, to fail, and to laugh. Four Ways to Reframe Movement for Girls and Women
How to Avoid Fallacies and Make Better Decisions
Everything we do as trainers should have research in mind. The problem is that “research” is often used as a catch-all term, covering everything from personal opinions to decisions based on large-scale, peer-reviewed studies. At FASTER, research is at the core of everything we teach. Through the Motor Skill Application Specialist programme, I teach the components of research that help you find the best information without needing to become a full-time research scientist. The programme is designed to be accessible, so you don’t need to have studied science at university to apply these techniques. Before diving into research, it’s important to avoid falling for common fallacies that can lead to bad decisions. In my experience, these are the three biggest fallacies in the fitness industry:
The second stage of research is asking the right question. For example, instead of searching “How does wine improve my health?” (which assumes a benefit), frame the question neutrally. A better question might be:
Finally, it’s important to set clear criteria for the evidence you’ll accept. If you’ve decided to only use peer-reviewed journal articles, don’t include blogs or books to fill the gaps. Many students on the MSAS programme are women who have experienced different stages of life and want to use their research skills to avoid the scams and misinformation aimed at them on social media. These skills help trainers offer better advice, avoid harmful trends, and create real impact for their clients.
As a club operator or trainer, you have the power to reshape how girls and women experience movement. By equipping your team with the right education and tools, you can create environments where movement feels safe, joyful, and personal.
The Motor Skill Application Specialist programme gives trainers the skills to ask better questions, design meaningful movement experiences, and support clients through every stage of life. Whether you're working with clients navigating puberty, the climacteric period, or specific performance goals, this programme provides practical, evidence-based techniques. If any of this article piqued your interest in learning and taking the next step, please reach out to me Whatsapp +447515813171. The MSAS course I frequently mention includes the following modules, and I'm happy to provide more information if you're interested:
Thank you for reading the article. Please reach out if I can help you further. Below is the link to the course I teach if you are interested.
Part 2 ; Moving through Pre and Postnatal changes
0 Comments
Thank You for joining me If you have ever laid awake worrying about your client's movement patterns, you too may be an over thinker. The thought of missing something, when you see your client move, that could cost them an injury. Its terrifying ! Many of the students who work with me, want to ensure they are doing everything they can to prevent client injuries. They were taught, like myself, to be obsessed with posture correction, then fixate on muscular imbalances to help eradicate dysfunctional movement. While some may feel they are living the dream of being a healer, a guru fixing dysfunctional movement. Some trainers may talking about how they are preventing injury, illness, and improving performance. This sounds great. Just getting someone to move, does all those things! So if you are doing that, you get to give yourself a pat on the back, and thats without making anyone feel rubbish about the way they move. What we are really talking about here is moving in optimum ways. This is where you may find the industry likes to sell techniques, and methods to clients, to overcomplicate things. It preys on conscientious trainers who are looking for more confidence, more revenue or those with an ego, and I fell for it on all three accounts! *I Don't think that's ethical on the client and I don't think it’s ethical on the trainer either. So let's define what a dysfunctional movement is and have a look at what we are doing when we think we are “fixing” it Define Dysfunctional Movement Dysfunctional Movement is often touted as a movement pattern that deviates from what is considered to be a 'normal' musculoskeletal function or movement pattern. NASM, who I trained with in the US for instance, describes it as a state involving muscle imbalances, decreased flexibility, or lack of core and joint stability. Many educators say that by identifying and correcting issues like muscle imbalances and asymmetries, we can prevent injuries, alleviate pain, and enhance performance. However, this may not be as straightforward as it seems. The terms used to describe these dysfunctions are vague and when you dig into the research (one of my favourite parts to teach on Motor Skill Application Specialist, "MSAS" as we call it!) lacks a standardised approach for measurement, which glosses over the complexities of human movement. This oversimplification neglects the unique and varied nature of individual movement patterns which makes it challenging to measure. How to measure dysfunctional movement Many different tests or screens claim to measure dysfunctional movement patterns, like, Functional Movement Screening (FMS), The Overhead Squat, and various postural assessments. These tests have a commonality, they all look for asymmetry, in an attempt to identify tightness or muscle weakness. However, these terms are vague and can overlook the nuances of individual movement patterns, skill, structure, emotion, and environmental factors. This raises questions about the predictive value and validity of such tests. It casts doubt on their ability to accurately determine what is deemed good or what is deemed bad movement that requires “fixing”. There is still so much to unpack: My hope is you stay with me. Asymmetry: What the tests help identify so you can correct it. These tests are looking for asymmetry or muscular imbalances: This term refers to a lack of balance between functionally opposite muscle groups, for example, the abdomen and back or between the left and right side. They claim that the originally balanced state of muscular tension is off-kilter, and some muscles are too tight or some not tight enough, leading to changes in strength and mobility. To define strength and mobility that would need another blog or you can join me on MSAS where we delve into what strength and mobility mean to unique clients. Now lets get back to measuring dysfunctional movement through a barrage of generic tests that all aim to highlight asymmetries, and muscular imbalances to prevent, predict an injury, or pain, or enhance performance. Before addressing these claims I think it may be good to first define posture. Posture: Both Static and dynamic Static posture is a snapshot in time, it’s how the body maintains one alignment for a given period. Dynamic posture is how the body holds itself in movement, like when walking and running. I love seeing someone running who is hunched over because the old me would have been thinking, posture correction, weak, tight muscles, whereas now, I just smile and say “ You’re doing a great job! “ With that, they usually look up smile and begin to run more upright with more confidence. This little comment influences their mood, bringing them into a more upright, efficient running style ( dynamic posture). For those interested in learning more about programming to improve your running efficiency, top pace, acceleration or muscular endurance this is covered on MSAS. Back to the prediction of pain and injury: Using the research process taught on MSAS it would seem that posture in some cases can be correlated to pain. It is essential to remember that correlation does not equal causation. That's like saying “If you eat ice cream you are more likely to die of a shark attack” 😂. ( Nope when it’s hot weather more people eat ice cream and more people swim). However, posture does not seem to have a significant link to pain ( unless of course maybe you believe it does - that's another blog). In the past, I was fearful of clients with anatomical positions like a forward neck and was taught to label this as muscle stiffness ( here we go again ). Muscle stiffness can be described as the feeling of pain or tightness in your muscles. This would have then been blamed on a muscle being overactive with a notion to “fix”. However, the perception of feeling is influenced by the central nervous system, which encompasses factors such as emotion, mood, skill and so much more ( but that's for overthinkers who want to join our MSAS community). By the way, If a forward head or *text neck * was a thing to worry about, back in the day fishermen and stone merchants would have also been in trouble! How I like to describe posture (from the studies I have read), I would say it is about the body's best way of holding itself within the context of mood and skill. For example imagine your body’s posture when entering a doctor’s surgery expecting seriously bad news, compared to leaving with a clean bill of health. Our posture dynamically reflects our emotional state, skill, and the environment, not just structure. Recognising this can offer a more effective, and positive approach to unique movement behaviours. For those wanting a little more detail join me on MSAS.  What appears to be missing so far when looking at correcting movement patterns with these generic tests is an understanding of the complexities of individual movement, and how we learn to adapt and refine our movement skills, known as motor learning. But let's get back to injury prevention for now. Injury and Injury Prevention  An injury is when something breaks down. When something snaps or straightens too far or breaks. If it is a ligament tear, a ripped tendon or a broken bone unless you are a surgeon it has nothing to do with us. Most injuries are caused by being unlucky, for example, tripping on your weights in the gym so the first big tip is to make sure you put your weights away! If your client has had a previous injury and you are already doing a basic background check such as your Par-Q, and another patient on your back, you are already establishing the increased injury risks of your client in a more reliable way than many movement screens.Then there’s the risk of doing too much too soon, too much volume, and load, or lacking the skill to handle certain movements or speeds. It’s like someone at a buffet eating more than they can handle – in the gym, don’t let your eyes be bigger than your muscles. If someone says to me “It is for injury prevention”, my first response is “Which one specifically? “ From there we can head to the specific research. Testing movement patterns or muscular imbalances while in some cases could be a correlation to some injuries, from the balance of quality studies i read, it did not appear to be a causation. *It's worth a reminder that injury is different to pain. While it can lead to pain or pain can sometimes lead to an injury, they are not the same. Pain: Acute and Chronic  Pain is a response to a sensation when your brain decides you are in danger whether is or isn't for another blog! *Before going any further: if a client has any unexplained pain, they should first seek a diagnosis from a medical doctor. The last thing we want is to change their experience of pain to discover it has cost them 3 months of critical treatment for a disease. Acute Pain: Something that normally happens with an injury, like that nightmare kid, skiing into my ACL ( now I’m triggered ). It can last for anything up to 12 weeks. Anything after that is usually considered chronic. Chronic pain: is the type we more often encounter in fitness settings. To ensure we are on the same page, pain is a response to a sensation, where your brain has decided you are in danger. “You can have pain with damage and where there is no potential damage" The British Pain Society. You can dig into injury and pain in more depth on Motor Skill Application Specialist ( MSAS) where we have more time, videos and really useful ebooks on this topic. While there may be a correlation between muscle imbalances, and pain, it is not a causation or predictor of pain or injury. Phew, and breathe, we don't need to lose sleep over it! Many athletes are asymmetrical. Interestingly instead of this being detrimental to their performance, it seems it may well be advantageous! Improving Performance Performance is an area we need to get right. Most trainers want to ensure their unique client can execute a specific task, to the best of their ability in a way that is challenging enough to get optimal adaptation and results. It is often measured by criteria such as strength, speed, skill level, and endurance. To get more nerdy about how you can improve performance, getting to the right inter and infra muscular contractions, all happen in the right sequence with the appropriate power you may want to join other trainers like you on MSAS. There, we will explore how to target your client's training, towards their specific needs, such as increasing muscle strength for their deadlift, power for their punch, or over-head squat. Learning the Faster process to help refine skills through motor learning and skill development can lead to enhanced performance in any given activity. Some sports require a move synchronised movement pattern, for example, powerlifting as any deviation from keeping the bar parallel to the floor will require more muscle activation, being less efficient. However some sports require athletes to have asymmetry, and it would seem this is not at a cost to their performance! Usain Bolt has a unique running style and he's pretty quick! *This is an N=1, so you would be right to check the research on this yourself! So you may not need to worry about making your client symmetrical ( unless of course they are a bikini model and would get their “scores” marked down if they had one glute or calf bigger than the other ) certainly don’t worry on an account of preventing pain or injury! RecapMy hope is that this blog helps to challenge the fitness industry's traditional beliefs or reasons for measuring muscular dysfunctions and posture. It would seem instead of focusing on correcting, we could adopt a more nuanced understanding of human movement. Using principles of motor learning to help recognise our body's capacity for adaptation, we can enhance our client's fitness practices in a more positive, effective manner. The body adapts to various environmental challenges. For example, a football player learns to adjust their movements on different playing surfaces; this adaptability is a product of the body’s dynamic response to external factors, which can be crucial for skill development, efficiency and performance. Using the simple research process from MSAS enabled me to write this blog, if you would like to find out more about this process or more about how MSAS can practically help you and your clients, follow the link below. Having the tools to be a great researcher means you can critically evaluate any technique and method : without taking my or any others persons word for it!Here are some examples of techniques I've used and then learnt to critically evaluate. I would recommend doing your own research.  1. Corrective Exercises: a concept based on the thought that natural movement variations are inherently wrong and need fixing. It’s a flawed argument that overlooks the uniqueness of individual movement 2. Foam Rolling and Myofascial Release: While they may offer short-term changes to the central nervous system, this is at a long-term cost to performance. This creates reliance on techniques that can detract from effective movement skill development. 3. Perfect’ Posture: The pursuit of an idealised posture is a myth with no solid backing in research. It can lead to a harmful fixation on unattainable standards, causing more stress than benefit. 4. Movement Screening: Often lacks the nuance to account for individual variability in movement. It can lead to overdiagnosis and an unnecessary focus on ‘correcting’ non-issues. It should not be used to attempt to predict an injury. 5. PNF Stretching: While it can create a short-term increased range of movement, the belief in its ability to ‘correct’ deeper muscular issues is exaggerated and not supported by robust evidence. 6. Pilates and Yoga: I"m a big fan of moving, while yoga and Pilates are beneficial for many things including general health, the claims of ‘fixing’ musculoskeletal issues are overblown and not backed by solid research. 7. Chiropractic and Osteopathic Manipulations: Not based on sound scientific research. They can lead to a dependency on short-term fixes rather than addressing long-term movement health. 8. Gait Retraining: The idea that everyone’s gait needs fixing is a flawed premise. It overlooks the natural variability and complexity of individual gait patterns. 9. Thomas Test (or other movement tests done lying down): Commonly used to assess muscular imbalances, claimed hip flexor tightness, but its relevance to functional movement is questionable. Conducted in a lying-down position, it fails to replicate the demands of most activities. (Reference: González-dela-Flor et al. (2023)) You’ve made it this far, thank you! This could show that you are dedication to your clients or maybe, that you want to tell me how wrong I've got this! My hope is this blog helps build your confidence in what you are already doing well. That it helps remove some of the stress and anxiety in training your clients, by questioning a concept of needing to "fix" at the risk of taking away your clients self efficacy in movement. Either way, you’re exactly the kind of student who thrives on MSAS. If you’re keen to explore how motor learning, learning in abundance, and dynamic systems can enhance your clients’ experience, or how to learn more about the process of getting to the balance of best scientific evidence, join me now on MSAS. If you think I have missed anything I would love to hear from you in the comments below. Joanne  References : *Dhawale AK, Smith MA, Ölveczky BP. The Role of Variability in Motor Learning. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2017 Jul 25;40:479-498. *Shi LZ, Zhao ZH, Yang ZZ, Li ZJ, Shen XJ. [A study of the correlation between low back pain and occupational stress in coal miners]. Zhonghua Lao Dong Wei Sheng Zhi Ye Bing Za Zhi. 2018 Nov 20;36(11):849-852. Chinese. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.1001-9391.2018.11.014. PMID: 30646652. * Chimera NJ, Warren M. Use of clinical movement screening tests to predict injury in sport. World J Orthop. 2016 Apr 18;7(4):202-17. * Lederman E. The myth of core stability. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 2010; 14(1): 84-98. * Latash ML. Synergy. Oxford University Press, 2008. * Moseley GL, Butler DS. Fifteen years of explaining pain: The past, present, and future. Journal of Pain, 2015; 16(9): 807-813. * Bialosky JE, Bishop MD, Cleland JA. Individual expectation: An overlooked, but pertinent, factor in the treatment of individuals experiencing musculoskeletal pain. Physical Therapy, 2017; 97(9): 893-903. * British Pain Society. Understanding Pain. * National Health Service (NHS). Musculoskeletal Health. * Reference: Cook, G., Burton, L., & Hoogenboom, B. J. (2006). "Pre-participation screening: The use of fundamental movements as an assessment of function - Part 1." North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. * MacDonald, G. Z., Penney, M. D. H., Mullaley, M. E., Cuconato, A. L., Drake, C. D. J., Behm, D. G., & Button, D. C. (2013). "An acute bout of self-myofascial release increases range of motion without a subsequent decrease in muscle activation or force." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. * Barrett, E., O'Keeffe, M., O'Sullivan, K., Lewis, J., & McCreesh, K. (2016). "Is thoracic spine posture associated with shoulder pain, range of motion and function? A systematic review." Manual Therapy. * Dorrel, B. S., Long, T., Shaffer, S., & Myer, G. D. (2015). "Evaluation of the Functional Movement Screen as an Injury Prediction Tool Among Active Adult Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis." Sports Health. * Sharman, M. J., Cresswell, A. G., & Riek, S. (2006). "Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching: Mechanisms and clinical implications." Sports Medicine. * Wells, C., Kolt, G. S., & Bialocerkowski, A. (2014). "Defining Pilates exercise: A systematic review." Complementary Therapies in Medicine. * Ernst, E. (2008). "Chiropractic: A critical evaluation." Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. * Cheung, R. T. H., & Davis, I. S. (2011). "Gait retraining in runners: In search of an evidence-based practice." Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. * González-de-la-Flor, Á., et al. (2023). "Validity and reliability of a new hip flexor muscles flexibility assessment tool: The reactive hip flexor (RHF) test." Physical Therapy in Sport. * Roffey DM, Wai EK, Bishop P, Kwon BK, Dagenais S. Causal assessment of awkward occupational postures and low back pain: results of a systematic review. Spine J. 2010 Jan;10(1):89-99. doi 10.1016/j.spinee.2009.09.003. Epub 2009 Nov 11. PMID: 19910263. * Myer GD, Kushner AM, Brent JL, Schoenfeld BJ, Hugentobler J, Lloyd RS, Vermeil A, Chu DA, Harbin J, McGill SM. The back squat: A proposed assessment of functional deficits and technical factors that limit performance. Strength Cond J. 2014 Dec 1;36(6):4-27. doi: 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000103. PMID: 25506270; PMCID: PMC4262933.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4262933/ Joanne Groves If you're a trainer who's tired of delivering the same generic sessions you see plastered all over social media, and you're eager to ensure that every exercise you prescribe has a unique, purposeful intent, then MSAS is for you! I'm thrilled to invite you to join me on our upcoming 12-week group motor skill application specialist course. I'm always excited to witness the impact this course has on trainers and their clients success. Thank You for reading, I’m Joanne, a proud wife and mother to two amazing children. With over 28 years in the fitness industry, I've grown into roles including Course Director, International Master Trainer, Presenter, and an accomplished author with Faster Health and Fitness. My passion lies in guiding trainers and business owners to deliver exceptional, evidence-based experiences your clients rave about.
|