GRAY COOK

The 10 Movement Principles

An Expansion on the Principles Section of the book, Movement

Principle #1 hear a guy who’s a strength coach, physical therapist

Separate painful movement patterns from or sports enthusiast being as vocal as I am about
dysfunctional movement patterns whenever possible separating out the pain.
to create clarity and perspective. It’s what I’ve learned about motor learning. It’s
Pain produces inconsistent movement what I’ve learned through clinical practice for quite
perception and behavior. We should not exercise some time that tells me you’re not going to meet a
around or into pain hoping it will get better lot of your goals by working around the pain. It’s
without first attempting to manage it systematically. better to take the time to understand it.
The movement screen at its core is designed to Now, I’m not talking about skipping a workout
capture pain and identify situations that should on a day when your muscles are sore or tight, as I
be properly evaluated prior to consideration for stated early on in Athletic Body in Balance. The pain
exercises, activities and conditioning programs. we’re talking about is reproducible. It’s consistent
The movement assessment improves clinical and it’s usually localized around a joint.
perspectives by separating pain and dysfunction, Joint pain, unlike muscle soreness, is a legitimate
and placing equal focus on movement dysfunction red flag. Muscle soreness usually changes when
to manage regionalinterdependence. an appropriate warm-up, foam roll or flexibility
The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) effort is performed. Sometimes the best remedy for
separates pain by pretty much kicking out pain. muscle soreness from a good workout or athletic
If movement causes pain, the screen is over. The competition is actually to get moving again. That’s
Selective Functional Movement Assessment not what we’re talking about.
(SFMA)—the medical counterpart of the movement We’re talking about sharp stabbing pain, dull
screen—picks up where the movement screen ends. aching pain or pain associated with redness and
There are two situations. If someone already swelling. If you push against that type of pain, it’s
knows that movement causes pain, we go straight to going to push back. It’s going to push back harder
a medical situation where the SFMA can be part of and it’s going to win. We need a systematic way to
the overall evaluation tool. separate the pain and movement, so we know the
The FMS, on the other hand, is basically targeted type of problem.
toward people who are asymptomatic and don’t I wish I could tell you how many email messages
have any pain, but wish to have a little more specific and questions I’ve received. ‘Hey Gray, I have low
orientation or profiling prior to training. back pain. What exercise should I do?’
A lot of us don’t achieve our training goals. Wow, you must think I have a crystal ball!
Sometimes it doesn’t have anything to do with our I have no idea what’s causing your back
work or our efforts. Maybe we’re not aiming in pain. There is no preset program to undo what
the right direction. The movement screen adjusts is happening to you. Your back pain could be a
our aim, but in the event it uncovers pain, it also completely different issue than another person who’s
requires that we need to maybe figure out a little getting ready to ask the next question three minutes
more about it. from now. It’s a really inappropriate question if you
Pain is something that is often coupled with think about it.
movement. Since we’ve been training for the last 30 I can ask this if you’re a real estate agent, ‘Hey,
years under the adage ‘no pain, no gain,’ it’s hard to what should I sell my house for?’ What’s the next

~1~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
question? You need more information! That’s a If we see deficiencies, dysfunctions, asymmetries,
pretty dumb question. It’s not even an answer you mobility problems, motor control, stability or
want to hear because it’s going to be wrong in a balance problems, we really shouldn’t expect the
million and one cases. Pilates routine to arbitrarily fix the problem. It
The first order of business is to subscribe to and might, and it might not. You’re just hoping it’ll work
use systems that fit this principle. I designed the or you’re just hoping that Turkish getups, strongman
FMS and the SFMA specifically to adhere to this training or a little more cardio will fix the problem.
principle. I didn’t design this principle to work with But you haven’t clearly defined the problem yet.
those tools. I designed those tools because I believe It’s very important to me that even though we
in this principle. come at movement from different disciplines with
different skill sets and different methodologies, we
Principle 2 should at least agree on the fundamentals and basics
The starting point for movement learning is a of opening the sensory pathways and assuring that
reproducible movement baseline. the motor pathways work.
Professionals working in physical rehabilitation, There are a lot of different kinds of chemists, but
exercise and athletics must adopt systematic they all work off the same periodic table of elements.
approaches that transcend professional specialization Mechanics working on internal combustion engines
and activity specificity. Movement professions need all agree on the principles of internal combustion,
movement-pattern standards. The book Movement even though one may be endorsing Toyota and
develops two systems that logically rate and rank another may be endorsing GM.
using movementpattern fundamentals. Different disciplines can still have some of the
We all come to movement from different same fundamental baselines. It’s really funny—
places. God bless those places—kettlebells, Pilates, when we get into fitness, performance and athletics
yoga, military boot camps, athletic conditioning, that all use movement, for some reason we invent
strongman competitions, wrestling, gymnastics, tests that support our discipline, but that may not
dance. I could go on and on. create those fundamental parallels.
We come to movement from many different Believe it or not, a lot of the strength and
methodologies, but movement doesn’t serve conditioning techniques we use with NFL players is
those methodologies. Those methodologies serve used in the clinic with people who have total knee
movement. I can see how every one of those replacements and vice versa. A lot of the stuff we talk
disciplines, and even more than those, could still about at the RKC from a Turkish getup to an arm-
agree on a movement baseline. bar, I have used in neck therapy at the appropriate
time and place. I’m not stuck using one exercise
A movement baseline just creates a foundation.
within one discipline.
What do I mean when I say foundation? I don’t
mean strength, endurance or skill training. A I see exercise and movement as this beautiful
foundation for movement demonstrates that you continuum that starts with a child learning how
have an appropriate perception and capacity for to roll and winds up with somebody winning a
behavior. This means you can feel what’s happening Gold in the 100-meter dash. Everything involved
on the outside and do what’s necessary on the inside. requires establishing better sensory input, better
When I say foundation, I’m talking about alignment, motor pathways and better command of movement
mobility, stability and functional proprioception. patterns.
What I’m really saying is that your movement This second principle is my way of saying,
system has the capacity to learn. ‘Do what you do. Specialize in what you want to

~2~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
specialize.’ However if we can’t all agree that some Many times I’ll see somebody with a performance
fundamental cornerstones need to be in place before issue, from getting stronger on the bench press or
we build the building to honor our movement gaining more endurance in a chosen sport. There
discipline, we’re missing the boat. We have a lot is a fundamental error there. We often seek power
more common ground than we think we have and when really we have poor efficiency. If you’re not
we need to acknowledge that. efficient in the way you move, becoming stronger
really doesn’t get you more horsepower because
Principle 3 your wheels are spinning.
Biomechanical and physiological evaluation does The people we coach and train often show an
not provide a complete risk screening or diagnostic amazing gain or big improvement in just a couple
assessment tool for a comprehensive understanding of of weeks. We shouldn’t be so naïve to think strength
movement pattern behaviors. or capacity improved that much in that short time
The book Movement presents the case that we we had the opportunity to coach them. Instead, we
have investigated physical capacities and movement need to realize made them more efficient. We helped
specializations in greater detail than we have the their muscles coordinate with the brain’s motor
fundamental movement patterns that support and program so they don’t have unnecessary tightness
make them possible. Our application of knowledge or restriction and they’re not fighting themselves
regarding exercise physiology and biomechanics going into movement.
surpasses our application of what we know about Many times when we don’t have a fundamental
the sensory and motor development of fundamental movement-based test and we see deficiencies in
human movement patterns. physical capacity or skill, we immediately offer
As professionals, we have tried to solve physical more physical capacity programming or more skill
capacity problems with solutions exclusively training. I’ve seen it happen a lot on the golf course,
targeting physical capacity. We have tried to enhance four more instructions for the swing, but the person
movement-specific skills by detailed maps of skill can’t even balance on the left foot. I would venture
that are often practiced at the very edges of physical to say that learning to balance on your left foot
capability. These practices are valuable if they would probably have a greater effect on your swing
identify the weakest link in the movement chain. than any verbal cues given on that faulty base. It
However, if they simply identify physical capacity doesn’t devalue skill training; it just points out the
and skill problems caused by some fundamental hierarchy.
movement problem, focus on these areas actually Movement competency comes first. Physical
overshadows a crack in the entire foundation. The capacity comes second. Using these two things to
roof isn’t leaking, the basement is. then develop movement-based skills in a particular
This is really my way of saying that the fact that direction or specialization is third.
I’m a proponent of movement screening doesn’t We can work on this stuff together. We just can’t
mean I discount or devalue second- and third-level load a movement pattern that has a poor foundation.
testing. To me, second-level testing is performance- That’s what this movement principle is all about.
based testing—metabolic testing, physical capacity
testing. Third-level testing would be the specific Principle 4
skill or endeavor. Movement learning and re-learning has
If your VO2 max is the best in the world, but you hierarchies that are fundamental to the development
still can’t win a marathon, maybe it’s your running of perception and behavior.
mechanics. Maybe it’s your race strategy. There are The natural movement learning progression
different tiers where we have to deconstruct and starts with mobility. This means unrestricted
reconstruct the people we train and advise. movement is necessary for clear perception
~3~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
and behavior through motor control. It may be then work on their flexibility for six months. Kids
unrealistic to expect a full return of mobility in are pretty much born with ultimate flexibility and
some clients and patients, but some improvement is no control. Then, they earn their stabilization.
necessary to change perception and enhance input. When our clients, athletes and patients work with
Active movements demonstrate basic control us, they have restrictions, past histories, injuries,
and are followed by static stabilization under load. bumps and bruises. However, it doesn’t mean we
This is followed by dynamic stabilization under load. blindly run into conditioning or stabilization.
From this framework, our freedom of movement We first go back and grab more mobility. The
and controlled movement patterns are developed reason we do this is because perception drives
for transitions in posture and position, maintenance behavior. We can change mobility quickly without
of posture, locomotion and the manipulation of a lot of complex programming, so why shouldn’t we
objects. and why wouldn’t we?
This hierarchy makes a lot of sense to most people
at first glance. However, when we turn around and Principle 5
do what we do, we don’t always follow those rules. Corrective exercise should not be a rehearsal
Many of my contemporaries have published articles of outputs. Instead, it should represent challenging
or written book chapters on stabilization. It’s good opportunities to manage mistakes on a functional
material and says a lot of the same things I say about level near the edge of ability.
static and dynamic stabilization and motor control.
Technological advancements in movement and
However, I think the one error they make is that exercise science that neglect functional movement-
they don’t position the statement. People may write pattern baselines ignore the natural laws that
an article or develop a program based on trunk govern the sensory motor learning system that
stabilization or core stabilization and never have an produces our perceptions and behaviors. This is the
asterisk. process that initially produces these patterns. Some
We’re assuming that thoracic spine mobility, hip conventional practices rehearse proper movement
mobility, ankle mobility and shoulder mobility are outcomes without establishing proper sensory
adequate and symmetrical. If you target stabilization inputs. They attempt to manage behavior without
and motor control first attempting to maximize the addressing perception.
available mobility and symmetry within the system, It’s common to see movement scientists identify
you’re allowing the system to compensate, therefore the best technique for an exercise or an athletic
reducing the effectiveness of the stability program. movement. To create an acceptable standard, they
I don’t think these peers or contemporaries are map the sequence of movements that consistently
actively neglecting to consider mobility. I think they produce great performance. Coaches and trainers
assume that most competent people are doing this. come along and try to mimic those movements, and
I hate to say it, but I don’t think we are. We need a these become drills and exercises. The drills and
systematic checklist as to whether mobility is being exercises get recycled and modified. They’re applied
managed. It has been managed, has plateaued or it on top of dysfunction and they become protocols.
can get no better… and then we attack stability. After a few years, no one questions the logic.
Almost every window of better proprioception This is not to discredit the high-end skill drills.
comes through greater range of motion or a higher, It just points out that drills are applied whenever
more complex position in which you try to stabilize. deficiency is noted without considering other
aspects of movement or performance. The ironic
Thus, mobility comes first. This isn’t Gray Cook’s
part of the story is that the elite individuals who
rule. It’s the law of nature. Kids aren’t born stiff and

~4~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
produced the near-perfect movement sequence that if you can half-kneel on one side with no balance
become the standard did not actually practice or use loss and actually do some activities, but you can’t
the drills. even acquire balance on the other side, there’s a big
To state it a different way, the analysis of the asymmetry.
superior techniques produced exercises that did not The very first thing I try to do is demonstrate
produce the technique in the first place. How could through my screening and assessment that there are
they? The best arrive at excellence without access to some milestone positions where my clients, patients
drills because the drills are built on observations of and athletes will say, ‘Oh my gosh, where did that
their athletic output, but not their input. come from? I can’t do that on one side.’
Fancy drills are often developed by watching I then challenge them, ‘Now, let’s see how you
the end result of a movement, performance or skill, can do it.’ Of course, trying harder to do a natural
and not the fundamentals and deep practice that movement sometimes makes things worse. I say,
produce the superior outcome in the first place. We ‘Relax. Breathe. Listen to what’s happening.’ They
must be cautious at each level of movement learning may feel very wobbly, but as long as they’re not
not to practice rehearsals of outcomes. This might falling over, that’s stimulus.
produce very fine imitation, but not authentic That fall prevention stimulus is probably causing
movement behaviors. more positive motor programming. However,
The challenge I speak of here basically reduces managing those little mistakes right at the edge of
the need for a lot of verbal and visual feedback or ability is causing more motor programming than a
instruction. If you appropriately address someone’s blind rehearsal trying to create the world’s perfect
corrective issue with the right exercise at the right bridge or the world’s perfect plane.
time, it should be challenging but not so difficult I said this in the book a few different times.
that the person can’t be successful the majority of Corrective strategy is not a performance for
the time. everybody else in the gym. It’s an intimate exchange
Let’s use a few examples like I have in the book. between the trainer or coach who sets up the
If there’s a hip stability problem on one side, I may situation and the client, patient or athlete who needs
have you half-kneeling. There are quite a few reasons to benefit from it.
for this. In other words, I created a challenge. Overcome
First, removing your foot, ankle and knee from that challenge.
the mix helps me focus just on the hip and core. I have dosed the challenge so it’s not overly
Reducing your body height reduces the amount of difficult or doesn’t stress you too enough to cause a
balance reaction. With one knee down and one foot learning opportunity. Overcome this challenge and
up, this puts you in a position that isolates the single we will move on, or take more time to overcome this
side. challenge. The extra time under tension, under load
Basically, I get to turn my microscope onto some and under stress will teach you.
stability issues that are very central to your core. I Often we’re not patient enough. If we rush
also get to compare that response in a very narrow children when learning to crawl or walk, we make
base half-kneeling to your other side, knowing the them skip an important step. Later on, it would
human body should be symmetrical in most cases. probably show through in a delay in their complete
Now, we’re not perfectly symmetrical, but there’s development.
a rule of about 10% that works for strength, range Nor should we rush the current strategy.
of motion and functional patterning. Even though If it takes you two months to get half-kneeling
we’re not supposed to see perfect symmetry and appropriately, then it takes two months. I’m sorry I
perfection, you should be able to demonstrate that

~5~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
can’t speed up the process. If it takes someone else coming in. If we over-adjust, we can cause a fall, a
two minutes, then I plan to progress that and turn loss of balance or throw a ball instead of a strike. If
it into something else. Corrective strategy often we under-adjust, we also make mistakes.
doesn’t look as academic or clean from the outside We forget sometimes that we’re doing a set of
as it is naturally correct from the inside. 10 repetitions—we almost should think of this as 10
sets of one repetition. Some good practical examples
Principle 6
come from this. When I’m teaching deadlifting, I
Perception drives movement behavior and use the cue from Pavel: Let’s do one deadlift, set the
movement behavior modulates perception. weight back down, resume standing, bend over and
The question is, how does movement develop do it again. What Pavel is telling us is that getting
naturally and how do all these great performances into position and doing a respectable pull is just
come about? Could the same forces produce both as important as standing up and down, clinking
a toddler’s first step and the authentic running the weights on the floor trying to get to that fifth
stride? They are both driven by inputs that influence repetition.
perception. We get stuck in the practice of outputs Getting into position, aligning oneself, creating
and assume our input is the same as those we want tension and doing a respectable movement is all
to emulate. We perform step-by-step exercise and part of the process. A person’s awareness going into
assume our brains will find value and therefore a movement is just as important as the outcome, the
commitment it to movement-pattern memory. alignment or the position of the body.
We should know better, but we all expect that I spend a little more time setting up the input
practicing outcomes will create favorable movement whether I spend that time working on mobility,
patterns. The fact is we should try to emulate all the giving some type of preparatory drill or doing a
sensory inputs that produce favorable general and little reactive neuromuscular training—some of the
specific movement patterns, rather than practice the things I covered in Movement. I really try to juice
motor outputs. This will put our focus on perception, the sensory system so I get the outcome I want
and when we hit the correct perception dosage, without asking for it. If I ask for it, I might see a nice
movement behavior will provide the feedback. clean job of acting, but I’m not sure it really changed
Actors mimic the outputs of the characters they the person.
play and often give us convincing performances, but When we do “tell,” we just make people rehearse
these are scripted. The actor is not the character, but something in the mirror without really owning
for a brief time, they behave like the character. We hip hinging, shoulder stability or single-leg stance.
treat exercise and rehabilitation in the same way. We’re seeing people simply posturing because that’s
We coach movements in a controlled environment what they think we want them to do. Try to set up a
and assume we have changed behavior across other more holistic situation so they can reproduce some
situations or even other activities. We forget that of the movement patterns we’re training. If there’s
when the actor leaves the stage, he or she returns not a practical application of the training we’re
to daily life eventually forgetting the character life. doing, why are we doing it?
Our clients and patients often do the same thing.
Most people, whether a professional football
The way they move will tell the story of what they
player or someone just hoping to get in a good
have learned and what they have forgotten.
workout, assume this investment of exercise is going
This principle reminds us always to remember to have a carryover. ‘I’m going to feel better.’ ‘I’m
there’s a continuous loop of information coming going to look better.’ ‘I’m going to move better.’ ‘I’m
in and activity going out. The activity going out going to get a million-dollar contract.’ ‘I’m going to
is always trying to adjust itself to the information win the 5-K race I haven’t told anyone I’m going to
enter.’
~6~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
 We all have assumptions loaded up on our Your brain forgets to move with integrity and
exercise. Exercise should never be an entity into balance and just goes into survival mode. You
itself. It’s a learning situation. The workout, as Dr. Ed survive the load, but you don’t benefit from it. You
Thomas eloquently says, is a side effect. The physical don’t learn to engage or pressurize from the load.
benefit of breaking a sweat and getting endorphins You don’t get any motor benefit.
is simply a side effect of having an unbelievable We see a bad lunge and think we have to get
mind-body learning experience. that lunge better. We load it, and all of a sudden,
I’m very disappointed when I see people just the extra load triggers engagement. We think we’re
beat themselves or their clients down. You haven’t benefiting in some way, but what we’re really what
gained or added anything to that session, other than we’re doing is rehearsing compensation under load.
the random burning of some calories you could’ve The load we’re talking about is weight, core
easily burned by having integrity. impact, velocity or excessive range of motion. If
you don’t have a minimum level of competency or
Principle 7
some degree of integrity, when we stress or load
We should not put fitness on movement unnecessarily, we reinforce whatever you have.
dysfunction. Stress reinforces things in biological organisms.
It is possible for fit people to move poorly and What doesn’t kill you may make you stronger, but it
unfit people to move well. We measure basic fitness can make you stronger in the wrong direction.
quantity and basic movement quality with different If you’re squatting wrong and it’s not killing
tools. We forget this and assume that fitness is the you, it can make your hip flexor spasm stronger. It
fundamental baseline, but it is not. can make your swayback worse. It can make your
Fitness and physical performance or capacity rounded shoulders harder to bring back.
is the second step in a threestep process. As you When you go into your workout—your
discuss the information in this book with peers, exercise and your conditioning—with underlying
other professionals, clients or patients, keep it simple dysfunction, remember that exercise is trial by fire.
at first. Make sure you establish agreement on the We want to optimize the situation and then temper
fundamentals. If there is a problem understanding the steel. We don’t do it the other way around.
the basic logic of functional movement systems,
That’s sort of what’s behind the statement. It’s
you will have little chance creating weight and
not a contradiction. When I’m talking corrective
appreciation for the corrective parts of the model.
exercise, there’s not a lot of stress or load because
People must understand the basics of the pyramid
we’re learning to manage bodyweight. Managing
approach.
balance without a load is something that’s natural.
I’ve used this statement; I’ve heard a lot of people Everybody does that as they’re learning to walk.
repeat it and they attribute the statement to me.
However, it’s unnatural to load a squat that
I think I made it up one day, but I have definitely
doesn’t have any integrity to it. There’s no situation
gotten the sentiment from many people in addition
where a baby would think, ‘I can’t really squat that
to my own ideas.
good right now. Could you put a mini backpack on
The only practice that’s worth anything is practice me and see if that helps my balance?’
that doesn’t rehearse continual, unmanageable
This is another form of what we’re doing at the
mistakes. If you have a bad lunging pattern on the
gym when we throw on quantity to clean up quality.
left and I load that up, moving way past the challenge
If you want to clean up quality, clean up quality. If
and into just difficulty, your brain shifts to, ‘I have to
you want to reinforce quality, throw on quantity.
survive this.’
This brings me to the other thing.

~7~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
 When Brett Jones and I dissected the Turkish Competency
getup in Kettlebells from the Ground Up, our intention This we test with movement screening. If
was not to make everybody do light Turkish getups. screening reveals pain or dysfunction in the form
We meant if you have less-than-optimal integrity of limitation or asymmetry, there is a movement-
in your getup, go light until you recapture your competency problem. Alternatively, there is a basic
integrity. Then get heavy again, because that’s the movement-aptitude problem—pick your term, but
best way to see if you can hold integrity and manage make the point. Adequate competency suggests
quality. acceptable fundamental-movement quality.
Once quality has an acceptable base, start Capacity
exploring greater levels of quantity—strength,
speed, stamina, endurance—and see if you can Capacity is measured using standardized tests
maintain a minimum level of quality. for physical capacity against normative data specific
to a particular population or category of activity.
Principle 8 Football players are compared with football players
and golfers are compared with golfers. If movement
We must develop performance and skill
competency is present and if testing reveals
considering each tier in a natural progression of
limitations in basic strength, power or endurance,
movement development and specialization. This is
there is a fundamental physical capacity problem.
the pyramid model of the competency, capacity and
Adequate capacity simply suggests acceptable
specialization part.
fundamental movement quantities.
Try to keep it simple even when using the
Specialization
pyramid model. First direct the conversation
away from perfection and exemplary performance Coaches and experts grade skill with the use of
and redirect the focus to minimums using blood observation, special tests, skill drills and by previous
pressure as an example. When we screen a group statistics when available. If capacity is present and
for blood pressure ranges, we’re not looking for a if testing and statistics reveal limitations in the
perfect blood pressure number—we’re looking for performance of specific skills, there is a specialization
red flags. Without much thought, we will probably problem. Adequate specialization simply suggests
separate the group into high risk, borderline and acceptable specialized movement abilities.
low risk. This is a way to discuss the performance
Why can’t we just start our movement pyramid without a diagram. It’s also a great way to
conversations the same way? Throw out three terms see if someone has an appreciation of the natural
when discussing the topics of rehabilitation, exercise developmental continuum that produces human
or training: Are we talking about competency, movement.
capacity or specialization? This usually gets a A few words of caution: We cannot become
confused look, but it’s a great way to start. It forces movement pattern snobs demanding total
perspective. It forces a consideration of principles. perfection on screens. Practice balance and look for
Each of these levels of movement must be cleared deficiencies at each level of movement. Our ultimate
for minimum competency, and in a progressive goal should be to identify the weakest link, because
order. sometimes the problem is not movement quality. It
is a deficiency within physical capacity or a shortage
Competency
of skill or specialization that is causing problems.
Capacity
I first introduced the pyramid concept in
Specialization Athletic Body in Balance. I simply used it as a
visual vehicle to discuss the logic behind getting

~8~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
fundamental movements down first, doing a lot Functional Movement Screen, and found your
of these movements and developing some degree movement screen information was horrendous. You
of physical capacity and endurance. Then, we really can’t move that well.
would target these specifically…running, jumping, But your strength is pretty good. You can jump
climbing, throwing and kicking. pretty high. You’re definitely explosive. You have
The hierarchy just demonstrates how one some moderate endurance. You’re shooting the
fundamental activity supports the next, and eyes out of your three points. You’re a pretty good
how the next activity of strength, functional basketball player. You can do a lay-up, and some
patterns, explosiveness and endurance supports people could argue why we even worry about the
the acquisition of skill. The acquisition of skill in movement screen.
throwing, kicking, dancing, spinning, tumbling, The Functional Movement Screen first tells
gymnastics and fighting moves all require practice. us, from most of the research we have, that
If you only have enough stability, integrity and without having the integrity of these fundamental
strength to hit a small bucket of golf balls every day, movements, you’re giving up something. You’re
you’re never going to be a good golfer. You need a lot giving up the durability that comes with having
more time. If you only have enough wind to practice fluid movement. There’s a durability rating,
two fighting moves a day, you’re never going to win. meaning injury risk increases when you have a poor
Developing efficiency first in your movement movement screen.
where you’re not fighting yourself—fundamental Secondly, there’s physical adaptability. We see
mobility and stability—and then developing some great athletes who don’t have great movement
degree of physical integrity where you can lift, turn, screens. However, we see one of two things: It’s hard
twist, jump, manage your bodyweight and maybe for them to change their game and adapt to new
even manipulate things is the next tier. things, or they have elevated injury risks. Both of
Now you’ve developed a big enough gas tank so these point back to cleaning up the foundation, and
you can enter the skills arena and explore gymnastics what we’ll find is greater efficiency.
or mixed martial arts, dance, golf, tennis or catch 50 You’ll go longer into your sport or practice
passes in a row and learn to develop your skill. without fatigue. The increased resistance to fatigue
It’s not that these motor programs just set up will allow you to practice with more integrity.
safety, durability, alignment and integrity. They also Practicing with more integrity reduces micro-
literally provide the physical reserve to do multiple trauma, the chance of injury and the chance of an
repetitions with integrity before posture starts to accident.
falter, shoulders start to droop and ankles start to These tiers constantly play with each other. If
roll. Any practice you do beyond that means you’re you review the Movement book and Athletic Body
learning to move that way. in Balance, you’ll discover the different profiles of
When I talk about these tiers, it doesn’t mean if the overpowered and the underpowered individual.
your true interest is golf, you can’t start hitting golf These create metaphors a lot of our clients,
balls right away. However, don’t invest three hours athletes and patients often fit into. It gives us a good
in hitting golf balls when you only have the physical logical construct and template that tells us exactly
capacity to hit 30 of them correctly. Let’s also invest what to do here. We have to go back and get them a
time in developing that support system of physical better foundation.
integrity so you can train. On the other hand, it could be that the foundation
For example, say I were to analyze you using is great, but we’re not practicing skill enough so that
some performance tests, some skill tests and the becomes the problem.

~9~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
 Principle 9 screen. All of a sudden, a light bulb went off in my
Our corrective exercise dosage recipe suggests that head. I looked out at the 50 faces looking back at
we work close to the baseline at the edge of ability me for advice on functional training and corrective
with a clear goal. This should produce a rich sensory exercise and thought, ‘Oh my God. They don’t have
experience filled with manageable mistakes. the same gauge to rate movement quality.’

Our actual goal is silent knowledge—no words, What I was saying to the front row meant
just better movement perception and behavior. In something completely different to the second row
The Voice of Knowledge, former physician Miguel and yet again to the third row. I was showing how to
Ruiz discusses the silent knowledge of the body with play golf and I hadn’t given the rules of golf. We’re
eloquence and clarity. He states, “Your liver does not never going to enjoy a great game of golf that way,
need to go to medical school to know what to do.” because there’s no defined qualitative standard.

We can expand that brilliant and simple What I said to myself was, ‘I have this idea of what
statement across the movement systems as well. good movement is, but I haven’t even standardized
These systems naturally use their perceptions it for myself.’ We have to standardize a minimum
to create their behaviors, and their behaviors to movement quality.
refine perceptions. Your abdominals, diaphragm There’s a lot of research that supports the
and pelvic floor know what to do and how to work movement screen. Most of the evidence states
together if you let them. This is why we don’t need that you should be able to balance without a lot of
to do core work with toddlers. Their curiosity drives postural movement—10 to 20 seconds on a single
exploration and their lack of control demands leg. Well, it only takes three to five seconds to do a
movement coordination if they are to explore. The hurdle step. If you can’t even do a hurdle step, I’m
exploration requires movement, and they work at pretty sure you have dysfunctional single-leg stance
movement to achieve exploration. or not enough mobility to go over the hurdle.
When your clients and patients arrive on the It doesn’t matter which of those problems
scene with movement dysfunction, you can’t leave it you have—you have a problem in that movement
to Mother Nature, because for a long time they have pattern. If I’m going to correct that movement
been working against her. To help them, you might pattern, now I know how bad the problem is and
need to break a behavior and reset an experience. we have a grading scale for your issue. Everything I
From the experience, you will have to develop a do in hopes of improving your stance on one leg or
corrective strategy. your stepping on the other leg is targeted at whether
Manageable mistakes means mistakes managed it changed hurdle stepping.
by the individuals doing the corrective. The mistakes One of the questions that comes back to me
aren’t managed by our holding up a red flag every often is, ‘Where did you get all of these exercise
time they teeter or wobble. Manageable mistakes innovations? Where did you get all of these exercise
mean that even though it doesn’t look pretty, they’re ideas and how come I’ve never seen people use chops
not going into dysfunction. and lifts or single-leg deadlifts like this before?’
The whole purpose of doing corrective exercise It’s not because I started thinking this way. I
is to improve movement quality within a particular used to do everything we were all taught to do. But
pattern. Why even do it if you don’t set a baseline or once I had this movement baseline I was trying to
have a qualitative standard? stay close to, I realized something was supposed to
This goes back to my history. I was on the change the squat, but it really didn’t. Something was
lecture circuit teaching functional exercise and supposed to improve shoulder mobility, but it didn’t
corrective exercise before I invented the movement last. I had this genie on my shoulder saying, ‘Hey,

~10~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
you have this movement screen. You’re throwing all I like getting after it. I have accidents. I hurt
these neat, well-defined exercises to the screen, but myself all the time. I’m very much into pushing
they aren’t changing movement.’ the limits. I really want people to explore as much
So I reached a professional dilemma. I either had physical capacity as they have.
to trash the screen because it’s telling me the wrong If you’ve done your homework and have
thing, or I have to question the exercise philosophy gotten your body right, go out and have fun. Run
of the current state of our profession. And do you a marathon. Do an ultra. Fight somebody in an
know what? I don’t think the screen is really asking organized setting. Play some golf. Do whatever.
people to do that much. But self-limiting exercise means exercise that’s
We often have a lot of difficulty with the screen, the 180-degree opposite of climbing on a treadmill,
but when we look at it theoretically, it shouldn’t be plugging into your iPod and just blindly becoming
that hard. Lift a leg. Squat down. Step over a string. a rat on a wheel.
Lunge. Scratch your back. These things aren’t that Self-engaging exercise and self-limiting exercise
hard. is balancing on a beam. It’s doing an inverted
We’ve become so myopic in our training or bottom-up kettlebell press or a Turkish getup. It’s
so highly specialized and lost a certain aspect of doing some tumbling or gymnastics. These are
physical mobility. All of a sudden, ‘Oh my gosh. all things that require us to be fully engaged. This
How do we get it back?’ engagement really closes a loop on the mind-body
If you really consider what improves and situation.
what doesn’t improve, you would actually develop Here’s my thing if you have dysfunction. Our
exercises the exact same way I did. I kicked out standard for this is anything below a ‘2,’ anything
everything that didn’t give me a quick or appreciable that’s an asymmetry or anything with pain in your
change in a movement pattern. movement screen. If you have a dysfunction, work
on it. Clean it up. Get it fixed—get some help.
Principle 10 Once you get above that cut-point, you don’t have
The routine practice of self-limiting exercises can to necessarily do six hours a week of foam rolling,
maintain the quality of our movement perceptions then do your correctives. Make sure your corrective
and behaviors and preserve our unique adaptability is solid and that you’ve made a true change.
that modern conveniences erode. Some of the activities I put in the Movement
When corrections have done their jobs and it’s book are true examples of self-limiting exercise
time to get back to exercise, this is your opportunity where they require engagement as well as a good
to prevent future problems. The addition of self- blend of mobility and stability. Use some of those
limiting exercises to the exercise program or as exercises in your weekly routine to really challenge
preparation or cool down can keep authentic all the different faculties you’ve brought together
patterns maintained. Since self-limiting exercises by recapturing some of your movement. Do this in
offer greater challenges, you can create situations to exchange for becoming a corrective junkie.
use these as a form of play or self-competition. I’d like to think that a few times a year I get back
This is the bow I hope everybody gets to in shape after all this travel. My movement screen is
when reading Movement, because if they stop at not great, but it’s adequate. Without any stretching
Principle 9, they’ll literally think Gray Cook is a or foam rolling, I can maintain a great movement
corrective exercise geek who doesn’t appreciate screen just by doing a few Turkish getups on each
‘bad ass’ strength training and exceptional feats of side, whether I’m weight training, doing stand-up
athleticism. paddleboarding or doing a little jogging.

~11~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.
 All of those planes of movement and all of those
movement patterns are in a Turkish getup. Many
of them are also in a yoga sun salutation. Grab
something that works for you and do it. It’s not so
much done for corrective strategy. It’s self-limiting.
Please visit graycook.com for a longer discussion
of self-limiting exercise, including a PDF of my
favorite exercise ideas. And to continue your study,
please consider the book Movement, and our live
workshop DVD, Applying the FMS Model.

~12~
This is an expansion of Gray Cook’s 10 Movement Principles described in his book, Movement.
To learn more about the book and get more post-publication insights, please visit movementbook.com.
For more from Gray, visit him at graycook.com, and for more on movement screening, see functionalmovement.com.