Flexion + adduction + internal rotation. Three combined movements at the hip, performed by a clinician, looking for sharp groin pain. Pain is positive: the patient probably has anterior femoroacetabular impingement. The position is called FADIR, and it is one of the most reliable hip-impingement screens in sports medicine.
It is also Protocol 3 in the hip Tech Support. The same position. The same combined movement. Held for ninety seconds with deliberate PAILs and RAILs loading. Different intent, different dose, different outcome.
🎯 Same Shape, Different Meaning
The clinical FADIR is a binary test: pain or no pain. The training FADIR is a graded conditioning protocol — find the first end-range, hold, contract isometrically, breathe through any sensation that resolves with breath, refer out anything sharp that does not. The position is the same. What changes is the relationship to it.
⚖️ Dose Is Discrimination
The yogic word here is viveka — discrimination, the capacity to tell two similar things apart. The same position can be a diagnosis or a training stimulus. Knowing which one you are doing is the work. Forcing FADIR past pain is how knees and labrums get hurt. Dosing FADIR with respect for end-range is how the corner of the hip the practice has been quietly demanding finally becomes available.
— MJH