It was an honor to spend Veteran's Day Weekend with a fantastic group of movement professionals. On Sunday November 11, the 100 year anniversary of the end of WW I, we took a moment to honor those who have served our country.

With the sounds of the Veteran's Day Parade outside, we spent most of our Sunday in lab. We were fortunate to have a large group of attendees, roughly half of whom had not been a PRI class before. We had the time to do a repositioning lab, spend over two hours on the Hruska Adduction and Abduction Lift tests in detail, and then follow that up with another lengthy lab of progressing through PRI non-manual activities. Not often do we have the opportunity to have so much lab time, and then carve out some time to discuss and demonstrate how to get an individual from a PEC pattern into a L AIC pattern, for those who were new to PRI.

My great thanks to my lab assistants, Neal Hallinan, PRT, and Sean Light, PRT, who were invaluable with such a large group. I would also like to thank Damian Estrada, Yelena Gremban, Matthew Zimmerman, Tara Lewis, and Beth Lewis for their questions, re-states, and volunteering during our lab demonstrations.

We were able to navigate our way through normal and pathological mechanics, the myokinematic ramifications of being stuck in a L AIC pattern, and we were able to progress into assessment of patterns and pathology of patterning. Which allowed us to spend as much time as we did to the Hruska Abduction and Adduction Lift tests and non-manual activities.

Yes, neurology is a complicated topic. And understanding the link between the hamstring and the parasympathetic nervous system is an enormous paradigm shift. I appreciate and empathize with the difficulty that concept presents, particularly to those who have been trained in this wonderful country of ours. However, I would encourage those who are new to PRI to not completely dismiss this concept because it challenged your preconceived notion of neurology and muscular behavior. Thank you for such a memorable conclusion of my 2018 teaching calendar.

I am already looking forward to 2019!

Diakadi Fitness located in the City by The Bay, San Francisco hosted its first PRI course this past weekend. Attendees came from as far away as Japan and Ottawa, Canada and represented a wide range of professions including physical therapy, chiropractic, dentistry, athletic training, strength and conditioning and massage therapy. Over 2/3 of the class were first time attendees to a PRI course with many in attendance their first time taking Postural Respiration. The shift in thinking from a more traditional orthopedic approach to concepts like lateralization, balancing asymmetries, neutrality, stabilization vs. motion control, the effect of the diaphragm on the direction a pelvis will turn with ribcage kinematic influence on spinal rotation and how to test and treat via PRI principles was profound for the group. As always, pathomechanical compensations for breathing defined by Superior T-4 syndrome were discussed in detail and presented a new "paradigm" or way of observing and thinking how reliance on accessory muscles can create dysfunctional patterns of breathing and movement. One new attendee volunteered and briefly discussed the effects that PTSD can have creating a sympathetic response affecting every system in the body. He was in the military for four years then a firefighter/paramedic for six years and the lesson is each person brings a unique history with them into our clinics. In addition, he grinds his teeth at night so integration with other health professionals is always a must when needed. Thanks to Caleb Chiu and Joe Cincinelli for lab assisting and Tiana and Andrea for helping with sign ups and hosting duties!