Functional Movement Screen

Benefits

Risks & contraindications

Comparisons

Background

Evidence quality

Highlighted claims

• FMS and SFMA made their primary contribution to clinical practice by introducing the regional interdependence concept to a broad audience. — Rib Flares, Posterior Thorax Expansion, and Movement Screen Assessment
• FMS and SFMA established specific, criteria-based standards for what constitutes quality execution of functional movements such as split squats, push-ups, and hurdle steps. — Rib Flares, Posterior Thorax Expansion, and Movement Screen Assessment
• FMS and SFMA are predominantly sagittal-plane tools with limited frontal plane assessment. — Rib Flares, Posterior Thorax Expansion, and Movement Screen Assessment
• As of approximately 2012–2013, the only frontal plane measure in the FMS/SFMA was inversion and eversion of the ankle and foot. — Rib Flares, Posterior Thorax Expansion, and Movement Screen Assessment
• The three-step FMS/SFMA treatment algorithm is one valid pathway but not the only route to change; targeted movement activities can produce equivalent results. — Rib Flares, Posterior Thorax Expansion, and Movement Screen Assessment
• Physical therapy training historically emphasized manual therapy and basic therapeutic exercise without systematic attention to well-executed functional movement. — Rib Flares, Posterior Thorax Expansion, and Movement Screen Assessment
• The tissue extensibility versus joint mobility dysfunction distinction is questionable because current research shows that manual therapy effects are largely nonspecific and primarily neurological. — Rib Flares, Posterior Thorax Expansion, and Movement Screen Assessment
• If manual therapy does not act specifically on joints, the clinical utility of separating tissue-based from joint-based movement restrictions is questionable. — Rib Flares, Posterior Thorax Expansion, and Movement Screen Assessment