What a movement assessment actually measures
A movement assessment grades quality, not capacity. Across a small number of standardized patterns it looks at four things: available range of motion at each joint, stability under load, left-to-right symmetry, and the compensations your body substitutes when range or control runs out.
That last one matters most. Bodies are relentlessly good at finding a way to complete a task. When an ankle will not bend far enough, the torso leans forward. When a hip will not rotate, the lumbar spine does it instead. The task still looks finished, and the cost lands somewhere else.
- Range of motion — how far a joint travels before something else has to move.
- Stability — whether you can own a position rather than fall into it.
- Symmetry — whether the left and right sides score the same.
- Compensation — the substitution pattern used when range or control is missing.
How the SmartyMove assessment works, step by step
Setup starts with a short readiness questionnaire and a goal, so the screen is interpreted against what you actually want to do. You then perform five patterns, one at a time, with the phone framing the correct view for each test — side-on for the squat and hinge, front-on for the lunge and shoulder test.
Pose detection runs on the device itself while you move. Each pattern is graded 0–3 against functional movement screening criteria, weighted into sub-scores for mobility, stability, balance and quality, and combined into your Smarty Movement Score™. If you report pain during a test, that test scores zero and the affected sub-score is capped, because pain is a signal to see a professional, not something to train through.
What movement issues an assessment can reveal
The five patterns are chosen because they overlap: a limitation in one joint shows up in more than one test, which is what lets the engine separate cause from symptom.
- Limited ankle dorsiflexion driving a shallow, forward-leaning squat.
- Restricted hip flexion or hip rotation showing up as a rounding low back in the hinge.
- Hamstring and posterior-chain restriction limiting the active straight-leg raise.
- Thoracic and shoulder restriction limiting overhead reach, often asymmetrically.
- Poor single-leg control and balance exposed by the in-line lunge.
From assessment to a personalized program
An assessment that ends with a number is a scoreboard, not a plan. Every failed pattern in SmartyMove is mapped back to the joint most likely responsible, and that joint drives exercise selection from a curated library organised by area and by category — mobility, stability and strength.
The program is phased. Foundation work opens range and re-teaches position. Build work loads the new range so it holds. Maintain and perform work keeps it. You rescan every 14 days and the program updates against the new result, so the plan follows your body rather than a fixed template.
Who a movement assessment is for
Anyone whose training or day-to-day life is limited by how their body moves: lifters who cannot reach depth, runners with recurring stiffness, desk workers with a stubborn low back, people returning to exercise after a long gap, and athletes who want a repeatable baseline they can retest.
It is not for anyone currently in pain or under treatment. If something hurts, that is a physiotherapist's or physician's question first.