A Revolution in the World of Evaluating Movement for Rehabilitation and Performance

  • The FMS is our tool for standardized movement screening to see how an individual, no matter their age, is moving in everyday life. It takes into account both mobility and stability and equips us with information to make programming decisions with precision and purpose.

    How does the FMS help with programming decisions?

    It identifies movement patterns the individual moves well in, patterns that can be developed or loaded, but it also identifies patterns that are not ideal and need to be protected and corrected. In other words, there is no more guessing! At the end of an FMS, we will have valuable information for that individual to create a program specific to them to foster an environment to meet their goals and keep them healthy.

    The FMS is a standard operating procedure for discharge back into activities. Getting someone out of pain is no longer enough. We must look at movement to ensure success in their return to what they enjoy so they do not end up back in pain. The FMS targets movement as it relates to exercise, recreation, fitness and athletics. The FMS is for healthy, active and inactive people who want to increase physical activity. The FMS is not intended for those displaying pain in basic movement patterns (painful movement is covered in the SFMA).

    In the FMS, there is no need to identify anything other than a limited or asymmetrical pattern. Its role is to impose minimum standards on movement patterns in active populations.

  • The SFMA is our clinical assessment for those who experience pain. It is a movement based diagnostic system which systematically finds the cause of pain - not just the source - by logically breaking down dysfunctional movement patterns in a structured, repeatable assessment.

    Look at it this way. When you head to the hospital for shooting arm pain, the immediate course of action is to check your heart, not your arm. The symptoms down your arm are just a result of a problem elsewhere in the body. Similarly, the SFMA focuses on underlying dysfunctional movement to find the cause of pain, not just the source. This concept is better known as regional interdependence - how seemingly unrelated problems are actually driving the dysfunction.The SFMA targets patients and athletes experiencing movement pain. The SFMA helps in the musculoskeletal evaluation to determine diagnosis and the best rehabilitative treatment and therapeutic/corrective exercises.

    What makes SFMA unique? We are the first organized system that takes into account altered motor control – the inability to coordinate proper movements. This system allows us to identify the correct problems - mobility versus motor control – to best equip clinicians for a successful outcome.

    There are many great mobility treatment systems, but in the SFMA, we introduce you to our methodology on reprogramming motor control. We use the neurodevelopmental perspective – the way we learn to move as infants – to create a system to reteach our brains how to communicate with our bodies.

    When you leave this course, you will be armed with a repeatable diagnostic system to apply the manual techniques already in your toolbox, as well as now add a motor control component tool.

    The SFMA tests determine the breakouts used to separate pain and dysfunction. When possible, it will help identify movement patterns where exercise is indicated or contraindicated. The SFMA navigates the musculoskeletal assessment when pain is present. It is helpful during the initial patient examination, although some acute problems make it impractical at the outset.

  • Enhancing performance is a common goal for many, but what if there are fundamental fitness issues hindering those you train from reaching their true potential?

    The Fundamental Capacity Screen (FCS) gives you those answers, and is an innovative approach to fitness testing to get your clients and athletes on the most efficient path to optimal performance. FCS was designed to test four (4) key components of athletic capacity and identify issues affecting an individual's ability to:

    Produce power

    Store and reuse energy

    Maintain posture under load

    Control balance

    Performance is the goal for many clients and is the foundation of all skill based sports and activities. The FCS is a straight forward, efficient and repeatable method used to measure 4 essential movement capacities:
    1. Motor Control
    2. Postural Control
    3. Explosive Control
    4. Input Control

    Once movement compitancy is established with the FMS, the FCS is a stepping stone between the functional movement patterns and skill based coaching. The FCS demonstrates ways of which the four fundamental capacities affects sport and other physical activities. It also provides a baseline measure which enables professionals to know where to focus training to reach higher goals.

  • The Y-Balance Test is an add-on of the functional movement screen used to evaluate dynamic balance and functional muscle symmetry in order to further determine a person’s risk for injury or return to sport or exercise readiness. Results from this test offers even more specific corrective exercises integrated with the individuals exercise programming (prescription).

    Asymmetries are a factor in increased injury risk.

    How do we measure and quantify a person’s motor control and functional symmetry? The Y Balance Test (YBT). YBT allows us to quarter the body – left versus right and upper versus lower body - to test how the core and each extremity function under bodyweight loads.

    What is YBT?

    Having control of your limbs requires a stable core. The Y Balance Test was developed through years of research in injury prevention and identification of motor control changes that occur after injury. The YBT is a simple way to measure a person’s motor control and demonstrate functional symmetry. The result? A map that identifies roadblocks to a person’s functional performance both in rehabilitation and performance worlds.

  • A novel, research-based breathing screen can be utilized to quickly determine if breathing dysfunction is present. The screen takes a few minutes to administer and provides invaluable feedback with 89% sensitivity. The breathing screen covers the relationship between core function, breathing, and movement and provides us with the tools to quantify and categorize people with breathing dysfunction and offers a pathway to help determine if greater assessments and collaboration with other tools are needed.

    Breathing dysfunction is frequently associated with common musculoskeletal problems and is present in approximately 60% of active, healthy adults. It is also a contributing factor in movement dysfunction and can lead to decreased pain thresholds and impaired motor control and balance.

  • Computerized dynamic posturography (CDP) is an assessment technique to measure postural control objectively. It isolates and quantifies the functional contributions of different sensory systems (i.e. somatosensory, visual and vestibular input) and the mechanisms for integrating these sensory input for maintaining balance. It is a valuable tool for investigating sensory, motor and central adaptive impairments. Computerized dynamic posturography detects postural sway by measuring shifts in the center of gravity (COG) as a person moves within their limits of stability. It can quantify postural strategies to static and dynamic perturbations, by determining whether an individual uses an ankle or hip strategy during the CDP protocols, or a combination of the two, in response to postural disturbances.

    Balance assessments are routine in clinical and rehabilitation settings. They provide an indication of a person's ability to control their balance under different conditions, such as reduced base of support (e.g. tandem or unilateral stance) or without visual input (e.g. eyes closed). Thus they are often used to determine an individual's susceptibility towards falling.