Functional Movement Screening in Laguna Beach, 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.

Hands-on care might include joint work, soft tissue, and a few exercises chosen from the exam. Joint mobilization is often a better fit than a forceful adjustment when a joint is irritable, which is common after a flare from stairs. Corrective exercise is the part you repeat on your own so the hill outside your house stops being a surprise.

Payment is out of network, with superbills and HSA/FSA cards accepted. We will not quote your reimbursement. That is between you and the plan. Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen share the practice. Read their training on the about page and look at the rooms on the office page if you want to know the building before you drive the canyon.

Laguna Beach is a walking town built on grades. Stairs at the beaches, the climb through the village, Top of the World, and the canyon roads ask for knees and hips in a way the flat coastal cities do not. Artists, shop owners, and people who work from a house on a ridge often stack that climbing with long sitting. We want the specific hill, not a generic activity level. A knee that hurts on the way down Thalia is a different test from a knee that hurts after a desk day in Irvine.

The same ridges affect recovery. If we give you a walking program, the walk available outside your door may be steeper than the walk we had in mind. Say so. Tourist season also changes driving and standing: people who work the village in summer spend more hours on their feet. That belongs in the history next to any plantar fascia or low back complaint.

From downtown Laguna, Laguna Canyon Road (133) meets the 73, and from there La Alameda is a short inland leg. From south Laguna, Crown Valley Parkway is often simpler. Either way the trip is about 12 miles. It can be 20 minutes when the canyon is clear and closer to 35 when beach traffic fills Coast Highway and the canyon. The office is 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo, CA 92691, Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6.

Do not plan to park downtown and rideshare the rest unless you enjoy it. Drive to the suite and use the building lot. If a visit has to sit around a gallery schedule or a school pickup in the village, book it that way rather than rushing the exam. The phone is (949) 312-1754. A complimentary 20-minute consultation is available before a full workup.