AFAA Group Fitness Instructor Practice Test

When analyzing movement patterns, remember that some muscles can become overactive and pull joints into positions that create compensations elsewhere. If the short head of the biceps femoris and the tensor fascia latae are overactive, they tend to pull the leg into external rotation and the hip into abduction. This combination commonly contributes to a lateral pull on the knee (via the IT band) and may accompany a tendency toward knee valgus when a movement is performed. That pattern often indicates reduced activation or control from the gluteal stabilizers, so the overactive pair is the best fit for describing the observed compensation. The other muscles listed would point to different alignment or control issues, so they don’t match this specific overactive SAMPLEpattern as directly.