Functional movement screening is a tool in the arsenal of physiotherapists in Singapore to accurately identify, assess, and fix weaknesses and physical imbalances among patients.
This simple, yet sophisticated approach to understanding the musculoskeletal system has numerous benefits. From improving performance and bio-mechanical efficiency to injury rehabilitation and prevention, functional movement can play a significant role in helping athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and even just regular people.
What is functional movement?
Human beings lead sedentary lifestyles now more than ever before. Many of us have jobs and responsibilities that require us to either sit or stand in one place for extended periods of time. This means our bodies become accustomed to being tensed in stationary positions, leading to issues with mobility due to weakness, imbalance, and strain.
Functional movement emphasises moving your joints through their full-range of motions to engage your muscles and improve the elasticity of your ligaments. The seven general movement patterns of the body are squat, lunge, push, pull, hinge, twist, and walk. By looking at the stability of a patient’s body as they go through each of these movements, sports physiotherapists in Singapore can identify issues with their musculoskeletal system.
How does functional movement work?
Functional movement is firstly a method of identifying problems with balance, weakness, injury, and flexibility. Because functional movements are so fundamental to human bio-mechanics, faults in going through the full-range of functional movements may point to underlying conditions that can cause injuries or may be holding you back from reaching your full physical potential.
Once the issue has been located, treatments or corrections can begin. If it’s a muscle weakness or muscle imbalance, then resistance exercises should be done to help improve strength and conditioning. If it’s due to a recent injury, sports physiotherapists can use functional movement tests to track the progress of recovery.
In other cases, it may be an issue with poor bio-mechanical form. Such problems can be solved with private physiotherapy sessions in Singapore which can help athletes and even people with more sedentary lifestyles improve their physical fitness and avoid injury.
Benefits of functional movement
Most people may not pay attention to the movements they make every day. Whether it’s the 8 hours slumped in a chair, lifting heavy objects incorrectly, or running with an awkward gait. Over time, these incorrect movements can lead to unnecessary strain on their bodies and injuries as they age.
Introducing functional movement into our lives, under the watchful eye of a physiotherapist, can help improve our movement patterns and mobility. Beyond helping treat and prevent injuries and enhancing our physical abilities, functional movement can also burn calories, improve our fitness levels and physique, increase coordination, and relieve pain, stress, and tension. It can benefit people of all ages, abilities, activity levels, and experience.
Functional movement is not about going to the gym and lifting weights. Instead it is knowing about the different bones, muscles, ligaments, and joints that make up the body and having a fundamental understanding of how they work in tandem to help us with the different movements. By understanding how they all come together, we can make the first steps towards improving the way we live our daily lives to maximise our physical potential and minimise the risks of hurting ourselves.
Want to find out more about how functional movement can help you? Contact us today with your queries and book your private physiotherapy session with us.