Functional Movement Assessment: Understanding How You Move
When you experience pain or restricted movement, it can be tempting to focus on the area that hurts. However, the way your body moves as a whole can provide important information about what may be contributing to your symptoms.
At Balance Osteopathy, we use functional movement assessment to look at how you move during everyday activities such as bending, walking, lifting, reaching and changing position.
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Rather than assessing an isolated body part, we consider how different areas of the body work together. This can help us identify movement restrictions, changes in mobility or other factors that may be contributing to discomfort or affecting how you function.
What is a functional movement assessment?
A functional movement assessment looks at how your body performs movements that are relevant to everyday life and your individual activities.
Depending on your symptoms and goals, your osteopath may assess movements such as:
- Bending forwards and backwards
- Squatting
- Walking
- Reaching
- Lifting
- Rotating
- Getting up and down from a chair
- Single-leg movements
- Movements specific to your work, exercise or sport
The assessment isn’t simply about determining whether a movement is “good” or “bad.” Instead, it helps your osteopath understand how you currently move and whether particular movements reproduce symptoms or reveal areas of reduced mobility or control.
Why assess movement rather than just the painful area?
Pain doesn’t always tell the whole story.
For example, someone experiencing lower back pain may also have changes in hip mobility, strength, movement habits or the way they perform certain activities. Similarly, shoulder discomfort may be influenced by movement through the upper back or shoulder blade.
This doesn’t mean that a problem in one area is necessarily caused by another. Rather, looking at the body as a connected system can provide additional information that may be useful when planning treatment.
A functional assessment allows treatment and rehabilitation to be based on your individual presentation rather than simply treating the location of your symptoms.
Functional movement assessment and lower back pain
Lower back pain is one example where looking at movement can be particularly useful.
Your osteopath may observe how you bend, sit, stand, walk or lift. They may also assess movement around the hips, pelvis and upper back.
For someone who regularly experiences back pain while lifting, for example, understanding how they currently perform the movement can help guide rehabilitation and strategies for gradually returning to lifting.
The aim isn’t necessarily to find one specific movement responsible for the pain. Instead, the assessment can help identify factors that may be relevant to your symptoms and determine what can be addressed through treatment and exercise.
What happens after the assessment?
A movement assessment is only useful if it informs what happens next.
At Balance Osteopathy, the findings from your assessment are used to develop an individual treatment and rehabilitation approach.
Depending on your presentation, this may include:
Hands-on treatment
Treatment may be used to address areas of restricted movement or muscular discomfort and to help improve comfortable movement.
Exercise and rehabilitation
Specific exercises may be recommended to improve strength, mobility, coordination or tolerance to particular activities.
Movement advice
You may be given practical strategies to modify or gradually increase activities that are currently aggravating your symptoms.
Return to activity
If you’re recovering from an injury, rehabilitation can be progressed towards the activities that matter to you, whether that’s work, exercise, sport or everyday life.
Your assessment should reflect your goals
Functional movement is different for everyone.
An office worker, a recreational tennis player and someone wanting to return to gardening after an episode of back pain will have very different movement demands.
That’s why assessment should be relevant to your individual circumstances.
At Balance Osteopathy, we consider what you want to be able to do, what currently limits you and how your symptoms respond to different activities. This helps create a practical treatment and rehabilitation plan rather than focusing solely on reducing symptoms in the short term.
Functional movement and long-term rehabilitation
Improving how you move isn’t necessarily about achieving perfect posture or movement.
Bodies are adaptable, and there are often many different ways to perform the same activity comfortably.
The focus is instead on helping you develop the movement capacity, strength and confidence needed for your particular activities.
For some people, that may mean returning to exercise after an injury. For others, it may simply mean being able to bend, walk, lift or work without constantly thinking about their back or neck.
Functional movement assessment at Balance Osteopathy
Balance Osteopathy provides individualised osteopathic assessment and treatment in Melbourne, with a focus on movement, function and rehabilitation.
Our clinic is conveniently located for people from South Melbourne, South Yarra and the St Kilda Road precinct.
If pain or restricted movement is affecting the way you work, exercise or go about your everyday activities, a functional movement assessment may help provide a clearer picture of how you’re moving and what strategies may be appropriate.
Book an appointment with Balance Osteopathy to arrange an assessment and discuss your individual goals.