I also had a question regarding …… the Beighton Laxity Score. At what point do we start to assume “congenitally lax” in a persons assessment and go through the Beighton Testing Criteria? Specifically though, how many mobility/flexibility assessments do we perform before we say to ourselves “this person might have congenital laxity, i need to use the Beighton Tests”.
First of all, congenital laxity can be a major, major problem from a medical perspective. Movement-based and athletic implications aside, hypermobility may not always be benign.
https://www.ednf.org/dmdocuments/eds-brochure-high-res.pdf
The Beighton Scale, which I learned initially as the (Mariano) Rocabado’s Hypermobility Screen is as below with an interval scoring system.
1. Extend the first finger (2nd digit) over the back of the hand—if 90 degrees or greater score:
1 point left
1 point right
2. Flex the thumb toward the forearm—if the thumb touches the forearm
Score:
1 point left
1 point right
3. Extend the arm—if 10 degrees or more of hyperextension at the elbow
Score:
1 point left
1 point right
4. Extend the leg—if 10 degrees or more of hyperextension at the knee
Score:
1 point left
1 point right
5. Flex at the waist—if you are able to touch your palms to the floor score:
1 point
Total your points and compare below:
1-3 points—low flexibility
4-6 points—moderate flexibility
7-9 points—high flexibility
When do you go to this in part of your initial evaluation? The easy cop out answer is you’ll probably just know.
If this is an initial session, I would still always stick with the SFMA for a painful individual and FMS for a non-painful individual. For folks that appear to be major stability problems, the non-painful weak links are still going to guide your exercise selection and/or soft tissue interventions.
When you have someone able to do a back handspring for Multi-Segmental Extension or is giving you solid 1’s in the Trunk Stability Push-Up or Rotary Stability screens, doing the hypermobility tests will give you an idea of really how good you are going to get.
Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with hypermobility as long as you bring hyperstability with it. It may take a very long time, but if you follow the red lights, yellow lights, and green lights of the FMS and the SFMA, I think even a low Beighton score can still yield a very functional or athletic individual.
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