Functional Movement Screening in Rancho Santa Margarita, 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.

Out of network. Superbill. HSA and FSA accepted. No referral required. We coordinate with physicians and we do not edit their prescriptions. Emergency spine and neurologic symptoms go to the ER.

Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen practice together at FRI. Read the about page and the office page if you want the people and the building before you drive Santa Margarita Parkway.

Rancho Santa Margarita spreads into Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch, Tijeras Creek, and the central town. O'Neill Regional Park and the surrounding trails add climbing that a map of the shopping district does not show. Golf and youth sports fill weekends. Weekdays are often a drive out Antonio or Santa Margarita toward a desk somewhere else. Knees and hips meet the trails. Necks and low backs meet the car. We ask which village you live in because the grade and the drive are not the same in Dove Canyon as they are next to the lake in town.

Lower back pain after the drive out of the hills, and knee pain after O'Neill, are typical reasons to come to La Alameda. Scoliosis questions come from parents who want movement help without a promise that exercise will straighten a structural curve. We will not make that promise.

Santa Margarita Parkway into Mission Viejo, or Antonio Parkway to local streets, covers the trip. About 7 miles and 12 to 20 minutes when the parkway is moving. School traffic changes that. The suite is 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Park at the building. Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6.

You are close enough to do a real course of care without giving up half a day. Use that. Spacing visits so you can practice the home plan is more valuable than stacking them. Call (949) 312-1754 or begin with the free 20-minute consultation.

Functional movement screening and gait analysis fit a town that hikes and then sits. ART is the soft-tissue option for overuse from sport, not a spa massage. Neurodynamics belongs when leg or arm pain behaves like a nerve.

For non-joint problems, sleep, hormonal imbalance, and gut health each have a page. The city starting point is the Rancho Santa Margarita chiropractor page.