Functional Movement Screening - back to Programs & Services

Functional movement screening is a comprehensive assessment that is used to classify movement patterns to direct manual therapy and therapeutic exercise intervention. It is an individualized approach that starts with attaining a baseline movement profile. From this information, deficiencies in a patient's movement are specifically targeted to improve overall movement quality. For instance, different patients with hip bursitis may demonstrate different strategies to complete the different movements.


This treatment approach also is based on the concept of regional interdependence, which states that dysfunction away from the site of pain must be assessed and treated by the clinician. For example, impairments in the hip are often related to low back pain or knee pain. Although the site of pain may be in your low back or knee, movement dysfunction in the hip may be the cause of the problem and may need to be addressed to allow the pain in other areas to clear.


Functional movement screening also addresses changes in motor control after an injury. Motor control is when the neuromuscular system activates and coordinates muscles involved in completing certain tasks. However, there is research that shows the onset of muscle activation after an injury may be delayed, even when the patient is pain free. When the pain subsides, altered motor control that was acquired in the painful state still persists. Therefore, motor control should be examined and addressed after an injury.


Because of these changes in motor control, functional movement screening often uses a neurodevelopmental approach to retrain patterns of movement after an injury. The principle behind this theory is that movement was not developed by training individual muscles, but by developing motor patterns to begin rolling, crawling and kneeling prior to standing. By developing authentic movements, we are able to correct movement to improve overall function.