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Understanding Your Physical Test Results
Flexibility
Nearly everyone starts out life with a body that has the flexibility of a ballet dancer, dictated by the shape of our joints and the ligaments that define how far a joint can move. When we start to lose flexibility it is simply because the muscles that control the joint in question have become contracted and the brain is unwilling to let them go.
Its worth remembering that a muscle can only stay contracted if the brain continues to send signals to it and the body continues to provide the resources necessary to maintain the contraction. Thus a muscle only stays contracted if the brain has a good reason to do so.
Assessing where you are losing flexibility tells us which muscles are contracting and allows us to work out why. The reasons can be down to factors such as posture, biomechanical stress, musculo-skeletal inefficiencies and internal discomfort. Whatever the reason inflexibility is the sure sign of physical stress and therefore an indicator of problems to come.
Forward Bend
Reduced flexibility in this posture suggests tension in either the legs or the back muscles. It is often due to a forward leaning posture (see side profile below), inactivity or back injuries.
Squat
Reduced ability to squat comes from tight calf, thigh or bottom muscles or knee/hip problems. When you can bend your knees fully but can’t easily put your feet flat on the floor this is probably because your calf muscles are tight (possibly due to a forward leaning posture or ankle problems).
Kneel
An inability to fully kneel is usually due to knee problems.
Twist
Problems twisting fully suggests that your spinal muscles are tight or your ribcage is inflexible. Internal organ discomfort can often be an underlying cause.
Your front profile shows whether you are leaning to the right or left. A general lean often comes from contractions emanating from the trunk region, often protecting uncomfortable organs such as the digestive system. These contractions pull down the corresponding shoulder and the head often goes with it. Localised leaning can also occur and gives an indication of a specific local problem.
Your side profile is a very important indicator of your physical stresses. When we sit for long periods at desks or computer we often get rounded shoulders and a rounded upper back. After a while this posture becomes fixed such that when we stand up again a lot of our upper body weight hangs forward of our normal gravity line. To compensate for this we usually adopt one of three compensatory postures, i.e. a sway back, a tight ‘S’ or a flat back (see diagram). If you have one of these postures then you will be predisposed to a number of characteristic physical problems.
Pelvic Symmetry
When lying face down your body should be able to lie symmetrically with the legs side by side. If one leg seems to be pulled upwards it suggests that the pelvic bone on that side is being pulled up towards the rib cage with the hip bone and thus the leg following it. This often suggests problems in the organs on that side of the body. (Apparent shortness can also be caused by shorter bones but this only happens in rare cases when a leg bone has been fractured while growing).
Strength tests are useful to see how your strength improves or diminishes over time. A standing jump is often a good test of not just strength but elasticity and athletic ability.
The VO2 sub-max test is a classic test for assessing your body’s ability to mobilise and utilise energy and oxygen to be able to sustain physical activity. This test is also often used to assess susceptibility to heart disease.