Functional Strength: The How and Why Behind Your Exercises (Dec 12 - 13, 2026)

Functional Strength: The How and Why Behind Your Exercises is organized by Great Lakes Seminars (GLS) and will be held from Dec 12 - 13, 2026 at Professional Physical Therapy – Morristown, Morristown, New Jersey, United States of America.

Description:
Come learn a fresh approach to strengthening your patients! This course will teach you to look at movement dysfunctions through an entirely new lens, and explain the specific reasoning behind why we use the exercises we do. We’ll also dive deep into the concepts of force couples, muscle slings, and functional/dysfunctional movement patterns. At the end of the weekend, you’ll leave with the ability to customize functional strengthening programs that address your patients’ goals as well as modifications and progressions for specific patients and populations. Your patients will feel and see immediate results, improving their compliance, understanding and overall fun during treatment!

Course Objectives:
At the completion of this seminar, the participant will be able to:

• Given a case study, assess functional weakness in a patient using the four pathological barriers to ideal/optimal movement
• Perform an assessment of a dysfunctional movement pattern and specifically identify 2 primary and 1-2 secondary compensatory movements occurring due to weakness and/or pain
• ?Accurately justify the use of functional strength testing versus manual muscle testing when assessing a patient
• Properly exhibit and/or correctly perform 4 exercises using a functional approach to muscle activity
• Correctly state the rationale for an in-depth functional strength assessment of upper extremity, lower extremity and trunk
• Properly execute an in-depth functional strength assessment of upper extremity, lower extremity and trunk
• Correctly apply force couples, synergies, and muscle slings to the body to address function-specific strength deficits
• Develop and implement a comprehensive functional exercise program, progressing from basic to advanced levels for patients