Functional Movement Screening in Garden Grove, CA

You squat, step, lunge, reach, and stabilize the trunk in patterns that show up in daily life and in training. The point is not a score you can brag about. The point is seeing a pattern break in a way you can point at: a heel that lifts, a knee that dives, a shoulder that will not clear a reach, a trunk that twists to cheat a balance. Functional movement screening makes that break visible before it is only a story about an injury.

Clothing should let the joints show. Shoes come off for some patterns if the foot is part of the question. Dr. Tara Kohen demonstrates first so the miss is yours, not a miss of the instructions. Pain during a pattern is recorded separately from a pattern that is simply stiff. Those two results lead to different next steps.

A limited pattern means you cannot reach the shape, and the next step is to find out why: a joint, a muscle length, a balance problem, or a habit. A painful pattern means something hurt while you tried, and that pattern is not used as exercise fuel. It is examined as a complaint. Pushing a painful squat to finish the screen is how a screen becomes an injury.

Shoulder pain that appears when the arm reaches overhead ends that part of the screen and starts a shoulder exam. Knee pain in a lunge does the same. The rest of the screen can often continue in patterns that do not hurt. A screen is allowed to be incomplete. Completing it at the cost of a flare misses the reason you came.

The screen does not tell you that you have a torn cuff, a meniscus injury, or a disc problem. Those names require a history, specific tests, and sometimes imaging ordered by the right clinician. What the screen can say is that a basic pattern is uneven side to side, or that you avoid a shape you need for your sport or your job. That is a direction, not a diagnosis.

A single number hides which pattern failed. Two people with the same total can have opposite problems, one who cannot squat and one who cannot reach. FRI talks about the pattern, not a grade that sounds like a school result. The patterns underneath a total are what the plan can use.

Athletes and workers sometimes screen when nothing currently hurts, because a pattern that is badly uneven is a reasonable place to put practice time. The screen still does not predict your future with a percentage. It gives a short list. Corrective exercise therapy is how that list becomes drills. Gait and postural analysis may follow if the miss shows up more clearly when you walk than when you squat in place.

The screen is repeated later to see if the pattern changed. If it did not, the drill was wrong, too rare, or aimed at the wrong limit. Visits often run 30 to 60 minutes depending on the plan. A screen plus a first drill can fit in that window. A screen with no plan after it is unfinished. A free 20-minute consultation can tell you whether a screen is the right entry.

You will move through several patterns with coaching on the setup, not on how to hide the fault. Expect to feel uncoordinated. That is information. Pain stops the pattern. Stiffness is noted and the pattern still counts. You should see or feel the main miss before you leave, in words you can repeat.

Wear clothes you can squat in, and bring training shoes if you want the screen to resemble practice. The office is out of network, accepts HSA and FSA cards, and provides a superbill. Nobody needs to be a competitive athlete to be screened.

Garden Grove stretches from neighborhoods near the 22 to the edge of Little Saigon and the streets around Brookhurst and Westminster. Many patients stand for work, drive the 22, and take care of parents or kids in the same day. That is a lot of load before anyone mentions exercise. Low back pain and neck pain are often traffic-plus-work stories. Knee pain is often a standing-shift story. We would rather hear the shift length than a vague activity score.

Food is also part of the week in a way that matters for gut visits. If you are coming for gut health or food sensitivities, bring the real pattern of meals, not a cleaned-up version. A sensitivity panel is not an automatic first step.

The 22 east to the 55 south, then the 73 or local freeway connections toward Mission Viejo, is the common path. About 22 miles. Thirty-five minutes is a gift. Fifty is normal at the wrong time of day. The suite is 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Parking on site. Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6.

Because the trip is long, we try not to waste it. You should leave with a plan you can run at home so you are not commuting for a three-minute adjustment. Call (949) 312-1754 to pick a time that is not the peak of the 22. The free consultation is 20 minutes if you want to confirm the trip is worth a full evaluation.

Hands-on options include mobilization, myofascial release, neurodynamics, and exercise. Sciatica is examined as nerve-root pain, not as any pain near the hip. Headaches are screened for urgent features first.

Systemic visits use advanced bloodwork or GI-MAP only when the question requires them. The Garden Grove chiropractor page lists the local links.

Travel time is the main cost on top of care. The fees are out of network, with superbills and HSA/FSA. We will tell you if a closer clinician is the smarter next step for what you described. We would rather say that on the phone than have you sit on the 22 for a problem we do not treat.

The chiropractors are Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen. See the about page and the office page.