I was fortunate enough to take a little vacation/continuing education trip recently to San Diego, CA. I attended a seminar on the Selective Functional Movement Assessment, and it was eye opening. The SFMA is a revolutionary tool in treating pain using movement to diagnosis the problem. Traditionally, treatment of pain focused specifically on the painful area. This certainly has its merit, but it usually leads to a plateau effect. It's essentially like going from being a couch potato with no exercise and a steady diet of pizza and soda to a person that works out but still has a love affair with pizza and soda. That person is going to lose weight initially, but its very difficult to outwork a bad diet. Same thing with treating pain. We'll see results, but if we're not getting to the root of the problem, we'll only get so far.
The SFMA takes the patient through a simple series of seven tests, taking about 2-3 minutes to complete. Each movement is rated based on whether it is functional or dysfunctional, and painful or non-painful. Ideally, we want to see functional and non-painful, meaning the movement is perfect and doesn't cause pain to perform. However, what I often see are dysfunctional movements, which can also be painful or non-painful. The dysfunctional and non-painful movements are the key, and we break those movements out to find out exactly what is limiting the motion. For example, a person may not be able to complete a deep squat because they have poor motion at their ankle. Poor movement that doesn't cause pain is often the link to pain a person is experiencing. This means they have an area that is moving improperly, leading to compensation elsewhere in the body. This is what we focus on. If we can increase that range of motion through a safe and effective program, we'll see a reduction in symptoms elsewhere. We're no longer putting a piece of electrical tape on the check engine light, we're actually finding the reason the check engine light has come on.
I am the only SFMA trained practitioner in the Madison area, and I encourage you to come see the difference. If you, or someone you know, are dealing with pain that just won't go away no matter what you do, please give our office a call. My passion is helping people live a pain-free life, and the SFMA is a a giant step in that direction.
Stay active,
Dr. Jason
www.renewedlifechiropractic.com
