# What Is Movement Medicine? By Dr. Rodante Saballa, DC, MS, CSCS, CCSP ยท The Movement Doctor. September 1, 2026 (updated October 18, 2026). Dr. Rodante Saballa, DC, MS, CSCS, CCSP. Concierge sports chiropractor, Los Angeles, California. Adapted from Dr. Saballa's written notes and voice memos, July to August 2026. Author page: https://www.drrodantesaballa.com/about ## Summary - Movement medicine uses movement as the healthcare itself, and the aim is what your body can do, beyond pain relief. - Healthcare is shifting from intervention to prevention, and movement is the foundation of prevention. - It covers the whole spectrum, from an acute injury through rehab, training, performance, recovery, and longevity. - The plan starts with your goal and works backward from it. - The point is to teach you what you need to know so you do not need to rely on me. ## What is movement medicine? Movement is medicine. I say that to patients all the time, and I mean it. Most of healthcare stops at treating pain. Movement medicine uses movement as the healthcare itself, and the aim is bigger than pain relief. It is changing what your body is capable of doing. The moment this became my practice was "realizing how powerful movement could be in the forms of healthcare, not just treating pain, but changing what someone's body is capable of doing." That is the whole idea. "When I combine clinical care with strength, performance, and education, it created a much bigger opportunity to impact someone's life." ## Why now? "The paradigm has shifted from intervention to prevention." For a long time you saw someone when something broke. Now the aim is to not break in the first place, and "movement will continue to become emphasized as the foundation of preventive healthcare." You cannot prevent what you never look at. ## What does it cover? The way I think about physical health is one continuous line, "combining the spectrum of everywhere from acute injury care and injury rehab to training to performance to recovery to wellness to longevity." Most models cover a piece of that line. "I think the recovery and the wellness and longevity is great, but if you don't have the hands on healthcare and you don't have the performance side of it, you're really only dealing with a piece of the spectrum and a piece of the continuum of what we would see as healthcare." So an acute injury and a long-term goal are the same practice to me. Different starting points on the same line. ## What is it not? It is something you do, and nobody can do it for you. Movement is active by definition. Posture is the clearest case: "If we want to fix posture, we have to take an active approach to this and teach the muscles how to fire actively to maintain a correct posture." An injury gets external support for a while, "but after that, we have to teach the body how to move and how to become strong and resilient on its own." That is why I do not reach for a fix that works while you sit still. ## How does it work in practice? The first conversation ends with one question. "The last question I always ask in this first verbal assessment is, what is your goal?" What you are trying to get back to, or get to for the first time. I learned that from the person who shaped how I practice: "he really shaped my philosophy of defining that North Star and then reverse engineering the plan on how to get there." So that is what we do. "Once I have that piece of information, we can reverse engineer the plan on how to get there." His advice was "not to become overwhelmed, but to take your time and think methodically and think purposefully on how to create a plan that's gonna help you achieve those goals." The assessment comes next, and it is measured. I wrote separately about [what gets checked before any imaging](/journal/mri-or-x-ray-for-pain), and the ATLAS Protocol is the method behind the numbers. For now the point is the order: an assessment that ends with your goal, then the plan. ## What is the goal of all this? To make you not need me. The point of every visit is to teach you enough to look after yourself. Everything on this site is built for that. "My goal is to make you aware so you can be intentional of what you do regardless of what you're dealing with." Education is part of every visit. "With education, I'm able to create awareness," and awareness is what changes what you do under everyday lifestyle and workplace demands. "Educating them leaves them understanding their body, creates awareness, and makes them intentional with how they move." The best part of this work is "when we can empower them with education on how to take care of their own health once we get them back to that point." ## Where do I start? If something hurts, or you have a goal and no plan, book a consult. The question that matters most will be what your goal is. This is education, not medical advice, and reading it does not make me your doctor. If something is getting worse, get an in-person exam. Whatever brings you in, take control of your health. "I think the human body is extremely resilient and is very capable of things that we don't even know." Movement is how you find out. ## Common questions ### Is movement medicine just rehab? No. Rehab is one point on the line. It runs from acute injury care through training, performance, recovery, wellness, and longevity. ### Do I need to be an athlete? No. An acute injury and a long-term goal are the same practice. Different starting points on the same line. ### What is the first step? A consult, where the question that matters most is what your goal is. ### Is this a replacement for seeing a doctor? No. This is education, not medical advice. If something is getting worse, get an in-person exam. Request a consultation: https://www.drrodantesaballa.com/consult Canonical: https://www.drrodantesaballa.com/journal/what-is-movement-medicine Site brief: https://www.drrodantesaballa.com/llms.txt