The Fundamentals of Structural Assessment

Identify the Cause of Your Clients’ Pain and Limitations

Musculoskeletal disorders and imbalances affect millions of people in the United States, with as many as one in two Americans afflicted, according to the National Institutes of Health. With corrective exercise, you can help your clients target underlying muscle and movement imbalances that cause pain and discomfort. By learning proper movements and techniques aimed at mitigating and eliminating musculoskeletal imbalances, you can help clients begin, return to or continue a program of regular exercise without limitations. The key to success, however, is designing the right program for each client.

The Fundamentals of Structural Assessment provides fitness professionals with a step-by-step process for assessing clients for the 12 most common musculoskeletal imbalances that can cause muscle dysfunction, joint discomfort and movement limitations. You will learn how to apply essential assessments with clients in real-life fitness settings to help you understand how musculoskeletal imbalances can affect a client’s ability to perform exercises and activities of daily living successfully and without pain.  

Career Outlook

With the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in America, the reality is that most clients who seek health and fitness services are among those suffering from these conditions. In fact, studies have shown that 90% of people who currently use personal training services report experiencing pain related to temporary or chronic musculoskeletal issues while performing even low-level physical activities (Schroeder and Donlin 2013). Gaining the knowledge and skills to identify and correct muscle and movement imbalances is both crucial to your current practice and to your career growth. The lack of fitness professionals with the appropriate skills to serve people with muscle or joint pain and other physically-limiting musculoskeletal conditions has created a significant gap in the care continuum. Learning these skills will enable you to fill this need—and position yourself as a go-to professional in this area.

You will learn:

• Various techniques for assessing the musculoskeletal system (i.e. verbal, visual and hands-on)
• A step-by-step process for assessing the feet, ankles, knees, lumbo-pelvic hip girdle, thoracic spine, shoulder girdle, neck and head
• How musculoskeletal imbalances can cause muscle dysfunction, joint discomfort and movement limitations
• How musculoskeletal imbalances can affect the function of the entire body
• How to record the results of a client’s musculoskeletal assessment

The Fundamentals of Structural Assessment is a standalone course as well as Module 1 of The BioMechanics Method® Corrective Exercise Specialist Program. To learn more about earning the full specialist credential, click here.

Purchase price includes all online materials, unlimited test retakes and access to the course itself.

This course contains online lessons, digital text material, step-by-step video instruction and demonstrations, client assessment forms, skills tests, self-check activities, and online tests. When accessing the course, you’ll find a list of printable downloads with each lesson under the “course downloads” tab. Digital material not itemized in the downloads tab is not printable.

Please note:  There are no refunds for The Fundamentals of Structural Assessment online course. All sales are final.

References

Schroeder, J., and A. Donlin, eds. 2013. IDEA fitness programs and equipment trends report. San Diego, CA: IDEA Health & Fitness Association.