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Functional Patterns Training

For many adults, the carefree days of running, jumping and climbing without pain or restriction are distant childhood memories. Even adults who exercise religiously combat pain, stiffness, and overuse injuries, chalking it up as a normal part of aging. But aches and pains are not “normal” at any age – they arise from tissues that have lost their functional properties due to overuse, misuse and disuse.

Functional patterns training is a methodology designed to restore the fundamental properties of the body’s soft tissues, and retrain the body to move in functional mechanical patterns that eliminate pain and stiffness, and optimize performance.

We’re located on 25th street in Manhattan NYC.
Open Monday-Friday, 10am-8pm.

Who is Dr. Lev Kalika? Why is movement more painful as we age? What is Functional Patterns Training? What is fascia, and what is its role in human movement? How does sitting affect mobility? What diagnostic and assessment tools are used at NYDNRehab? What other therapies are compatible with Functional Patterns Training? Why should I choose NYDNRehab for Functional Patterns Training in NYC? Functional Patterns FAQs

Dr. Lev Kalika

Clinical director & DC RMSK

Who is Dr. Lev Kalika?

Dr. Lev Kalika is clinical director of NYDNRehab, Manhattan’s top-rated physical rehabilitation clinic in NYC. Dr. Kalika is more than a clinical practitioner – he is a dedicated researcher who received training from some of the world’s most eminent pioneers in integrative medicine. Dr. Kalika has dedicated his life’s work to finding innovative solutions for pain syndromes, movement disorders and injury rehab.

Dr. Kalika is leading the charge in the growing trend toward holistic integrative medicine. Conventional medicine’s reductionist and drug-based approach to patient care has failed for decades to improve the health of patients, all too often worsening their condition. Consequently, a growing number of people are looking for holistic alternatives that successfully restore their health and mobility.

In his quest to provide superior solutions, Dr. Kalika has ventured into new frontiers, embracing advanced technologies, innovative methodologies and regenerative therapies. His 20+ years of experience and his commitment to professional development make NYDNRehab the clinic of choice in NYC for patients who want fast and enduring results.

Why is Movement More Painful as We Age?

At first glance, the human body appears to be symmetrical, but when we look beneath the surface, we see that this is not the case. The tissues and organs are arranged asymmetrically, and most people have a dominant side, with preferred movement patterns favoring one side over the other. Over time, we develop inefficient movement patterns that cause imbalances and undermine optimal body mechanics.

Young children are able to move with ease because their tissues are not yet fully formed, and their bones have not yet ossified. High levels of growth hormones are surging through their young bodies, building and repairing tissues around the clock. Their muscles and fascia are smooth and elastic, and their ligaments are strong and pliable.

Growth hormone (GH) is secreted by the pituitary gland, driving physical development from conception onward. GH levels reach their peak during puberty, then decline slightly and remain stable throughout the teens to early 20s. At about the age of 25, when the body reaches developmental maturity, growth hormone levels begin to drop steadily at the rate of about 1-2% per year, leveling off again in your 50s.

By the time you reach middle age, your body’s ability to quickly repair itself diminishes, and you begin to see changes in muscle mass, bone density and metabolism. Bouncing back from physical activity takes longer, and you begin to experience pain and stiffness. At the same time, the responsibilities of adulthood take their toll, reducing your overall physical activity level and keeping you in a seated position for hours on end.

What is Functional Patterns Training?

The human body is uniquely designed to walk, run, carry and throw – capabilities that distinguish us from other species. Functional Patterns Training focuses on aligning human movement with the body’s inherent mechanical design. It aims to improve posture, enhance mobility, and promote overall function, thereby eliminating pain and stiffness. Its core tenet is to train the body to move in harmony with its biological architecture.

Functional Patterns Training addresses the root causes of movement dysfunction, such as poor posture and imbalanced muscle tension. Its phases include myofascial release, corrective stretching, and dynamic exercises designed to improve posture, create resilience and prioritize movement efficiency.

Benefits of Functional Patterns Training include:

Improved Posture and Alignment
Reduced aches and pains
Enhanced mobility and range of motion
Increased strength
Enhanced athletic performance
Reduced risk of injury
Improved breathing mechanics
Sustainable long-term results
Personalized whole-body approach

The Functional Patterns approach prioritizes movement quality over force production, to reduce joint overload and enhance functional range of motion. It offers something for everyone – from elite athletes who want to enhance performance, to middle-agers looking to rejuvenate, to older adults who want to maintain independence and a high quality of life.

What is Fascia, and How Does it Affect Human Movement?

Fascia is a thin tough sheath of connective tissue that surrounds and supports muscles, organs, bones, nerves, and blood vessels, holding everything together in a fibrous web. Fascia is mostly made up of collagen, making it elastic and resilient. Fascia is richly embedded with hyaluronic acid (HA), a slippery gel-like polysaccharide, able to hold up to 1000 times its weight in water. HA keeps fascial layers hydrated, enabling the body’s structures to glide without friction during movement. There are three main types of fascia:

Superficial fascia is a loose layer found just beneath the skin. It stores fat and water, enabling your skin to glide over underlying structures.
Deep fascia wraps around muscles, bones and joints. It is a bit denser and tougher than superficial fascia.
Visceral fascia surrounds and supports the visceral organs, keeping them in place while you move.

Muscles and fascia work together to provide tensegrity – tensile integrity that supports the body’s structures and holds them in place. You can think of tensegrity as an elastic stocking that provides support but glides and stretches as you move. Tensegrity helps you to maintain static and dynamic posture, and move in a controlled and deliberate fashion, while providing resistance against outside forces. Tensegrity is compromised when muscles and fascia are injured or damaged in some way. Trauma, overuse, and disuse can all play a role, causing the fascia to thicken and become sticky. Without its slippery and elastic properties, fascia can adhere to other structures, entrap nerves and blood vessels and keep them from gliding, and interfere with muscle action, causing pain and restricting movement. Myofascial release is the first step in Functional Patterns Training. It is a therapeutic technique that targets densified fascia, to free up nerves and blood vessels, eliminate adhesions, and restore the functional properties of the fascial layers. Once tensegrity has been restored, you will be ready to move on to the next phases of Functional Patterns Training that target postural alignment and function movement patterns.

How Does Excessive Sitting Affect Mobility?

Thanks to technological advancements in the 21st Century, human activity levels rapidly devolved from the fitness craze of the 80’s, 90s, and early-2000s, to widespread sedentary lifestyles. From young children to aging grandparents, electronic devices have captivated us all, with devastating consequences for human health.

Once the domain of office workers and long-haul truck drivers, long hours spent in a seated posture has become the norm across all walks of life. Sitting for hours with hips and knees at 90 degrees creates muscle imbalances throughout your body.

Sitting impairs mobility in multiple ways:

Shortens hip flexors, promoting a forward pelvic tilt that affects joint alignment and causes lower back pain.
Weakens hip extensors, causing instability in the hip and pelvic region.
Shortens calf and hamstring muscles, creating tightness and affecting gait.
Promotes a head-forward posture that causes neck pain and headaches.
Encourages poor posture, with rounded shoulders and tight chest muscles.
Restricts the breathing apparatus of your diaphragm and lungs, reducing cell oxygenation.
Weakens core and abdominal muscles, and promotes visceral fat accumulation.
Alters joint loading patterns, causing pain and promoting arthritis.
Reduces cognitive function.
Interferes with muscle activation patterns.
Creates sleep disorders due to pressure on nerves, which in turn impairs physical performance.
Reduces blood circulation to the lower extremities, causing swelling, numbness and putting you at risk for deep vein thrombosis.
Encourages weight gain, obesity, and metabolic disorders.

One study involving older adults found that hours spent sitting strongly correlated with increased risk of sarcopenia (muscle wasting), poor muscle function, impaired gait, poor balance, and limited ability to transfer from sitting to standing. And it’s no secret that our sedentary lifestyles correlate strongly with rising rates of obesity and poor health.

Functional Patterns Training provides a system for reversing the damage done by physical trauma, repetitive overuse, and sedentary living. The system can be adapted to your current fitness level, and personalized to match your specific needs. Functional Patterns prioritizes movement quality over quantity, with the goal of restoring pain-free functional mobility.

What Diagnostic and Assessment Tools
are Used at NYDNRehab?

When it comes to diagnosis and assessment, NYDNRehab’s state-of-the-art technologies are second to none. We know from experience that accurate diagnosis makes all the difference when it comes to successful treatment.

High Resolution Diagnostic Ultrasonography

Dr. Kalika is a recognized expert in ultrasound diagnosis, with multiple research publications to his credit. Ultrasound gives us dynamic images in real time, enabling us to explore the body’s structures to identify densified fascia, entrapped nerves and blood vessels, poorly healed injuries, and other factors that cause pain and inhibit mobility.

Our research-grade ultrasound equipment gives us capabilities for sonoelastography, an invaluable tool for assessing tendon and fascia stiffness, and superb microvascular imaging, to detect early signs of healing in treated tissues. Your ultrasound exam takes place on-site in our office, on your very first visit.

ForceFrame Max

ForceFrame is a comprehensive system for accurately testing and training isometric strength in various muscle groups throughout the body. Most people – especially physically active people – develop muscle imbalances and compensation patterns over time that reduce movement efficiency. ForceFrame lets us test individual muscle groups on both sides of the body for strength and symmetry.

The results of each test appear as objective data on a screen in real time, helping us to identify muscle imbalances, asymmetrical muscle strength, inefficient muscle firing patterns, and compensation patterns developed from past injuries. The results of your ForceFrame assessment help us to customize your Functional Patterns Training protocol.

Quantitative 3D Gait Analysis

Your walking gait speaks volumes about your body mechanics. Our high-tech motion analysis lab features the most advanced technologies available for assessing joint kinetics and kinematics, weight distribution, detailed information about your pace and stride, and other critical data that gives us insight into your personal biomechanics. Our proprietary software analyzes your collected data and delivers a 17-page report detailing your results.

ShowMotion

ShowMotion is similar to gait analysis, but for the neck, shoulder and scapular region. ShowMotion uses motion tracking sensors, placed on the patient’s skin to collect data about movement quality. The patient performs a series of joint-specific movements, and the data is analyzed by ShowMotion’s proprietary software and displayed on a computer screen. The collected information provides valuable insights about inefficient movement patterns, compensation patterns, and improvements in movement in response to therapy. This cutting-edge technology can play a key role in postural restoration and athletic performance enhancement.

What other therapies are compatible with Functional Patterns Training?

At NYDNRehab, we offer a broad range of advanced therapies and technologies that complement Functional Patterns Training. Our holistic approach aims to provide each patient with a personalized experience that culminates in enhanced mobility and stability. Your customized treatment protocol may include some or all of the following.

Multimodal Ultrasound-Guided Shockwave Therapy.

Shockwaves deliver high-frequency acoustic waves to damaged tissues, stimulating a regenerative response that draws growth factors and stem cells to the treatment site. Ultrasound guidance ensures that we precisely reach the targeted tissues with the best mode, depth and frequency of shockwaves, for specific tissue types. Shockwave therapy can dramatically accelerate healing and help to restore the functional properties of myofascial tissues, to prepare you for Functional Patterns Training.

Stecco Fascial Manipulation

The Stecco method of fascial manipulation is a hands-on therapy that helps to break up fascial densifications and adhesions, and restore the elastic and gliding properties of damaged fascia tissue. By applying targeted pressure, the Stecco technique generates heat and mechanical force to restore fluidity and improve tissue gliding.

Interfascial Plane and Nerve Hydrodissection

During the hydrodissection procedure, a saline solution is injected into densified fascia under ultrasound guidance. The solution works by separating fascial layers and freeing up entrapped nerves and blood vessels. Our associate, Dr. Uri Brosnol, works with Dr. Kalika to provide orthobiologic procedures and injection therapies.

Ultrasound Guided Dry Needling

Myofascial trigger points often contribute to musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction. The dry needling procedure inserts filament-thin non-medicated needles into trigger points to evoke a twitch response, relaxing contracted fibers and immediately relieving pain. Ultrasound guidance eliminates the need for multiple insertions, reducing discomfort for the patient.

SM Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (SMNMES)

SM neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) dynamically interacts with the patient during therapeutic exercises, providing real-time sensory, auditory and visual feedback. This breakthrough technology helps patients to recalibrate muscle actions, to optimize joint function. SMNMES has helped numerous patients to avoid unnecessary shoulder, knee and ankle surgeries, even in complex scenarios.

What Makes NYDNRehab the Clinic of Choice for
Functional Patterns Training in NYC?

NYDNRehab is a top-rated physical rehabilitation clinic in Manhattan, NYC. Our clinical director, Dr. Lev Kalika, is a dedicated clinician with over 20 years of experience in treating sports injuries, pain syndromes and movement disorders. Our holistic and integrative approach has helped hundreds of athletes to recover from injuries and return to play.

Our personalized treatment protocols help everyday patients to attain pain-free functional mobility and stability that transforms their quality of life, without drugs or surgery. Functional Patterns Training is an effective approach to restoring pain-free mobility to patients of all ages, especially when supported by alternative therapies that heal tissues and restore their functional properties.

Our Awards

Who can benefit from Functional Patterns Training?

Anyone can benefit – beginners, athletes, older adults, or anyone with chronic pain or injuries. FPT is designed to meet individual goals, based on your specific issues and movement dysfunction, regardless of fitness level.

How often should I do Functional Patterns Training?

It is generally recommended to train twice a week for 45 to 60 minutes. As with any physical training program, consistency is key to achieving your desired results.

Can FTP help with chronic back, neck, or joint pain?

Yes, FPT addresses the root causes of pain by correcting inefficient movement patterns, muscle imbalances and postural misalignment. Complementary therapies like shockwaves, fascial manipulation and chiropractic care can enhance your results.

What is the difference between FPT and conventional fitness training?

Conventional fitness training often focuses on isolated muscle groups to build strength and endurance, without addressing functionality. FPT is a holistic approach that prioritizes high-quality movement patterns to achieve pain-free function and long-term health benefits.

How long will it take to see results?

The rate of results varies from one individual to the next, depending on your specific condition. Preparing the fascia beforehand and making positive lifestyle changes can help speed up results. Consistency is key to making long-term improvements in mobility and stability.

Certificates and Continuing Education

Physical therapy and rehab can be time consuming,

and a faulty diagnosis can make treatment a total waste of time.

Failure to accurately diagnose a condition in its early stages can lead to chronic
problems and sometimes devastating results

Diagnostic musculoskeletal sonography (MSUS) provides the perfect tool for the rehab practitioner. Yet many doctors and physical therapists have no experience with MSUS, are unaware of its advantages, and have no idea how to use it as a diagnostic tool.

Below is a prime example of how ultrasound can take the guesswork out of diagnosis.

Learn more »

Accurate Diagnosis Is the ONLY way to

Successful Treatment

A bad physical therapy experience is one of the primary causes of unnecessary surgery

At NYDNR, we believe in

medical innovation

We have equipped our clinic with the latest research-grade technology to arrive at objective and accurate diagnoses, and to objectively measure our patients’ progress.