Selective Functional Movement Assessment

On June 20-21st, I attended a SFMA workshop at Queen’s Medical Center. SFMA stands for Selective Functional Movement Assessment, which is a comprehensive system used to classify movement patterns and direct manual therapy and therapeutic exercise interventions. The class was taught by Dr. Michael Voight, PT, and Brandon Gilliam, DPT, from the North American Sports Medicine Institute.

The SFMA helps rehabilitation professionals incorporate a movement pattern baseline into the musculoskeletal examination. It creates a pattern-specific perspective of how the patient moves in relationship to his/her anatomical information and medical diagnosis. I became interested in SFMA after reading Gray Cook’s book called MOVEMENT.

The class was well taught and interactive. The practical portion was excellent as Brandon gave the attendees an exercise progression to address dysfunctional movement patterns that the assessment system targets. Watch this video as Brandon shows a basic exercise for Rolling.

A big part of F&L’s company culture is ‘To Embrace Change’, a key value which we strive to live by each day. With SFMA being a new system, I am excited to incorporate it into our practice methods as it will greatly assist our physical therapists in assessing and treating patients. So when you come in to see one of our therapists, don’t be surprised if they take you through an assessment that looks at movement patterns of your entire body.