Los Angeles: Top-level functional movement coach/postural alignment/etc?

January 9, 2013 10:09 AM

Visiting Los Angeles at month's end, seeking a pro to troubleshoot knee problems.

In Tim Ferriss' The Four Hour Body, the author cites several experts at detecting and fixing muscle, movement or postural imbalances. I've been dealing with knee pain for several years, have tried various approaches to fix, but had no success.

I'll be in Los Angeles at the end of January, and would like to find a truly top-notch expert to troubleshoot this problem. The kind of person who sees you walk in to a room, or pick up a barbell, and can instantly tell which muscles are misfiring/or unactivated.

I can find people who are good at this--I'm not looking for good, but superior.

posted by 4midori to health & fitness (6 answers total)

Can you make it up to San Francisco? If you want superior, you want Kelly Starrett.
posted by bfranklin at 10:19 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

The Escogue clinic in San Diego is pretty great. They might have a facility in LA too. The website is a little cult-ish but they're good.
posted by fshgrl at 10:37 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Starrett would be well worth the drive. He also does Skype & phone consults.

You're also in proximity to run afoul of functionalpatterns.com down in San Diego, which is widely regarded as a charlatan operation to be avoided.

Mike Boyle's community strengthcoach.com should have a registry of top people - it's paywalled though and I haven't bothered coughing up the dough yet, so caveat emptor.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 11:38 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Also: FMS expert registry.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 9:16 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

The person you want to seek out is Dr. Mark Cheng. He is based in LA: www.facebook.com/DrMarkCheng

I am actually the person who did the FMS on Tim Ferriss for the book and I teach for Functional Movement. Mark is a fellow instructor and is as good as they get.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions - [website in profile].
posted by EricDagati at 10:00 AM on January 10

I ended up making an appointment with LA Sports and Spine, which came referred via the abovementioned Dr. Mark Cheng.
http://www.lasportsandspine.com/
posted by 4midori at 7:34 AM on January 22