Strength is conveniently tested by having the patient resist your force as you attempt to move their body part

against the direction of pull of the muscle that you are evaluating. This is graded on a scale of 0-5, with "0" representing absolutely no visible contraction and 5 being normal. A grade of "1" means that there is visible contraction but no movement;"2" is some movement but insufficient to counteract gravity;"3" is barely against gravity (with inability to resist any additional force); and "4" being less than normal (but more than enough to resist gravity). In order to test strength at various levels of the nervous system, several muscles must be tested. It is often very efficient to test patients using functional tasks rather than by manually testing each muscle.