Functional Movement Screening & Injury Prevention in Salt Lake City: Find Problems Before They Become Injuries

Dr. Emily Warren, DPT offers functional movement screening and injury prevention programs at Mindful Movement Physical Therapies in Holladay and Salt Lake City. Performance PT for athletes, active adults, and anyone who wants to move better. No referral needed in Utah.

📞 Call: (385) 332-4939
📅 Book Your Screen Online →

Quick Answer

Most injuries don’t happen randomly—they happen to people with identifiable movement deficits that went unaddressed. Functional movement screening identifies weakness, tightness, asymmetries, and compensatory patterns before they become painful injuries. It’s the difference between reactive care (treating pain after it starts) and proactive performance PT (staying healthy and moving better year-round). Dr. Emily Warren provides comprehensive movement screening and individualized injury prevention programs at Mindful Movement Physical Therapies in Salt Lake City.

Why Injury Prevention Matters in Utah

Utah has one of the most active populations in the United States. The Wasatch Front offers world-class skiing, trail running, mountain biking, rock climbing, and hiking—activities that demand high levels of mobility, strength, and movement quality. When those demands exceed what your body can handle, injury follows.

The statistics are sobering:

• 70% of running injuries are overuse injuries that develop gradually from cumulative loading of dysfunctional movement patterns
• ACL tear risk is 4–6x higher in athletes with poor landing mechanics compared to those who move well
• Low back pain affects 80% of adults at some point—most cases are preventable with appropriate core and hip function
• Rotator cuff and shoulder injuries in overhead athletes are strongly associated with modifiable movement deficits in scapular control and thoracic mobility

Movement screening identifies these risk factors before injury occurs—while you can still do something about them.

What Is Functional Movement Screening?

Functional movement screening is a systematic assessment of how you move through fundamental human movement patterns. Rather than just testing strength or flexibility in isolation, it evaluates how your entire body coordinates through real movements that reflect daily life and sport demands.

Dr. Warren’s movement screening integrates multiple evidence-based assessment frameworks:

The Functional Movement Screen (FMS)

The FMS is a standardized 7-test battery developed by Gray Cook and Lee Burton that evaluates fundamental movement patterns:

• Deep squat — bilateral hip, knee, and ankle mobility + thoracic spine extension
• Hurdle step — single-leg stance stability, contralateral hip flexion, and pelvic control
• Inline lunge — hip mobility and stability in a split stance
• Shoulder mobility — bilateral shoulder range of motion and scapular upward rotation
• Active straight leg raise — hip flexor mobility and core stability during lower extremity movement
• Trunk stability push-up — upper body pushing pattern with spinal reflexive stabilization
• Rotary stability — combined upper and lower extremity movement with diagonal trunk stabilization

Each pattern is scored 0–3. Research shows that an FMS composite score below 14 is associated with significantly higher injury risk in active populations. Asymmetries between sides are particularly predictive of injury.

Sport-Specific Movement Analysis

For athletes, Dr. Warren supplements the FMS with sport-specific movement assessment:

• Runners: Running gait analysis (treadmill or track), including cadence, foot strike pattern, hip drop (Trendelenburg), knee valgus collapse, and vertical oscillation
• Overhead athletes: Shoulder mobility asymmetry (GIRD/HADD), dynamic valgus during overhead movements, scapular kinematics
• Skiers and snowboarders: Single-leg squat mechanics, lateral step-down, landing pattern assessment
• Cyclists: Hip mobility, knee tracking, and thoracic extension in bike-fit context

Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA)

For patients with existing pain, the SFMA is used to categorize movement patterns as functional/non-painful, functional/painful, dysfunctional/non-painful, or dysfunctional/painful. This guides treatment priority—which dysfunctional patterns are causing or contributing to pain, and which are compensation strategies to address later.

Common Movement Deficits Found in Utah Athletes

Hip Mobility Restrictions

Limited hip internal rotation and flexion are among the most common findings in active adults—and among the most consequential. When the hip can’t move well, the lumbar spine and knee compensate. This is a direct pathway to lower back pain, IT band syndrome, knee pain, and hip labral pathology.

Deep squat and hurdle step patterns reveal hip mobility deficits quickly. Treatment may include hip joint mobilization, soft tissue work, and targeted mobility exercises.

Ankle Dorsiflexion Restriction

Insufficient ankle dorsiflexion is a root cause of many lower extremity injuries including Achilles tendinopathy, plantar fasciitis, patellar tendinopathy, and anterior knee pain. It forces compensatory motion at the subtalar joint (overpronation) and knee (valgus collapse) during squatting, landing, and running.

Thoracic Spine Stiffness

Desk workers, cyclists, and anyone who spends long hours seated develop thoracic kyphosis and reduced thoracic extension mobility. This affects overhead shoulder mechanics (increasing impingement risk), cervical posture (contributing to neck pain and headaches), and lumbar loading during lifting.

Gluteal Weakness and Poor Hip-Knee Control

Weak gluteus medius and maximus allow the femur to adduct and internally rotate during single-leg activities—the classic knee valgus collapse pattern seen in ACL injuries, PFPS, IT band syndrome, and hip pain. This is perhaps the most universal finding in active adults with lower extremity pain.

Asymmetries Between Sides

Left-right asymmetries in strength, mobility, or movement quality are often more predictive of injury than the absolute scores themselves. A single-leg squat that looks perfect on the right but collapses on the left identifies a system under compensatory stress—an injury waiting to happen.

Who Should Get a Movement Screen?

• Seasonal athletes preparing for ski season, trail running season, or a big event — identify and address deficits before your sport’s demands amplify them
• Runners with recurrent injuries — the same injury keeps coming back because the underlying movement pattern was never corrected
• Overhead athletes — pitchers, tennis players, rock climbers, and swimmers whose sports place extreme demands on the shoulder
• Anyone returning from injury — ensuring you’re moving well before returning to sport, not just pain-free
• Anyone starting a new fitness program — establish your baseline and build on solid movement foundations
• Adults over 40 who want to stay active — movement quality declines with age; catching deficits early keeps you active longer

From Screen to Program: What Happens After the Assessment?

A movement screen is only as valuable as what follows it. After your assessment, Dr. Warren provides:

• A prioritized problem list — not every deficit needs equal attention; you’ll know exactly what to work on first
• An individualized corrective exercise program — targeted mobility, stability, and strength exercises matched to your specific findings
• Movement coaching — immediate technique corrections for your sport or training modality
• A return-to-activity or return-to-sport plan — if you’re preparing for an event, a periodized timeline for addressing deficits while maintaining fitness

Some patients need only 1–2 visits to understand their deficits and get started on a self-directed program. Others benefit from 4–8 sessions of supervised movement training. The scope is determined by your findings and goals.

The Mindful Movement Approach: Movement Quality First

At Mindful Movement Physical Therapies, the philosophy starts with movement quality. Pain is often a late-stage signal—by the time you hurt, the movement problem has usually been present for months or years. Every evaluation includes movement assessment, whether you’re coming in with a specific injury or for a proactive performance screen.

Dr. Warren’s background integrates:

• Clinical Pilates principles — breath, core stability, and movement precision underpin all rehabilitation and performance work
• McKenzie MDT methodology — systematic mechanical assessment that classifies how your spine and extremities respond to loading, guiding targeted exercise selection
• Evidence-based corrective exercise — exercises chosen based on your specific movement deficits, not generic protocols

Book Your Movement Screen

Don’t wait for pain to tell you something is wrong. A movement screen takes 45–60 minutes and gives you a clear picture of where your body is compensating—and what to do about it.

No referral needed in Utah. Same-week appointments available at our Holladay and Salt Lake City locations.

📞 Call (385) 332-4939
📅 Schedule Online →

Mindful Movement Physical Therapies — Holladay and Salt Lake City, Utah