Background: to examine relations between functional movement patterns and weight status in Spanish primary school children and to determine the differences between sexes.
Methods: three hundred and thirty-three, 6-13 years old children (164 boys and 169 girls), participated in this study. The main outcome measures were the body mass index (BMI) and the Functional Movement Screen™ (FMS). Children were classified as normal weight (NW), overweight (OV) or obese (OB) according to international cut-offs.
Results: total FMS score was negatively correlated with BMI (p < 0.001). FMS score was different between children from NW, OV and OB groups (p = 0.001), lower with the increased BMI (p < 0.001 between all groups). Significant differences (p < 0.05) between NW, OV and OB were found in deep squat, hurdle step, in-line lunge, shoulder mobility, straight leg-raise and push-up tests. As for the sex differences, girls obtained higher scores (p < 0.05) in in-line lunge, shoulder mobility and straight leg-raise, whereas boys did it in push-up (p = 0.044) test.
Conclusions: these results confirm that total FMS score significantly and inversely correlates with BMI in a group of 333 school-age children. As for the sex differences, girls outperform boys in movements requiring flexibility and balance, whilst boys outperform girls in tests where muscular strength is required.