SFMA / FMS

What is SFMA/ FMS

The purpose of the FMS (assessment for the client who is pain-free) and SFMA (assessment for those clients/patients who are currently in pain or have a painful movement) is to find the WHY you have pain by uncovering dysfunctional movement patterns that are lending to or causing your stiffness, aches and chronic pain. Now this can be due to a mobility/flexibility problem or a stability/motor control problem. Once these have been identified through the screening process of FMS/SFMA, we link the assessment information to the ideal therapeutic strategy and initiate the most appropriate treatment plan (Active Release or functional exercises or both) into the personal rehab program to fix dysfunctional movements and normalize your bodies ability to move correctly.
What does this all mean???
For the 9-5’er to a professional athlete this means that we all have some type of movement dysfunction, whether simple or complex, these movement problems contribute to your tightness, stiffness and chronic pain by constantly forcing your body to compensate and change ‘normal’ movements into compensatory movements. The best example of this is when you sprain your ankle you begin to limp to avoid putting weight on that leg/foot that hurts. What happens over time is that you begin to move this way (compensatory movement) as a ‘normal’ movement pattern that never really go back to where you were before, or ‘normal’. The pain from the injury alters the way you move and that stays as part of your movement patterning permanently until you address that problem specifically and fix it.
Things to consider:
Both the FMS and SFMA are meant to be a starting point for any and all rehab programs with the added benefit of be reproducible. This means, that if Dr. Conley assess’s you the day after an injury, he can re-do the assessment along the way to identify what has gotten better and what still needs work. This is so beneficial as it allows the doctor to keep the rehab process specific to you and YOUR injury and not they typical cookie cutter approach to rehab. FYI: if your current treatment and rehab plan has no ‘plan’ or guidance specific to you and your injury’s and movement dysfunctions, the likelihood of you re-injuring yourself are well over 60%. The most common cause of a re-injury, is a past history of a similar injury with improper rehab and treatment plan implementation.
The screens are not a stand alone but are intended to help Dr. Conley fine tune the exact (or as close to as possible) the movement pattern that is lending to or creating your movement dysfunction
The findings are primarily intended to be used to assess weaknesses in your movement AND performance. Meaning that if your left ‘core’ musculature is not responding to stimuli fast enough it will slow your speed and inhibit your ability to create speed and force. Likewise for those sitting at work most of the day, if you have a similar dysfunction, you will compromise your ability to stay strong throughout the day and stable while sitting for hours on end. This one dysfunction can affect two different people, in different worlds quite dramatically and similarly.
Both screens and assessments can be done whether you are in pain currently or not. For many, weekend warrior to pro-athlete, the need to better understand your movement patterns, both good and bad, is of paramount importance if your goal is performance and mitigating the frequency of injury(s). DO NOT WAIT to be in pain before you begin to understand why you move the way you do, identify the cause and FIX IT!!

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