Just north of the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles is the town of Valencia and is the location of the Henry Mayo Fitness Center. This is a world class facility with a combination of fitness training available to the public and rehabilitation provided by physical therapists as well. Postural Respiration was hosted there last weekend to a sold out group of physical therapists, chiropractors, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning personal, yoga and pilates instructors and a massage therapy student who has also been a personal trainer for years and has been adding PRI to his toolbelt.

From a faculty member's perspective, this was an ideal environment and an ideal group of individuals that came together with interest and energy. More than half of the students were new to PRI and many more new to Postural Respiration. For several students, Postural Respiration was their third and final primary course and was an integration that connected PRI "dots" starting with the diaphragm and delivery of air pressure sense into a thorax. This critical component of exploring asymmetries with air pressure differences into the thorax, driving spinal position and ultimately posture as a result of dynamic respiration made for exciting discoveries of understanding form and function of the thoracic diaphragm and entire skeletal system.

One of the most important learning objectives is how to apply what seems to be an overwhelming amount of information into assessment and treatment of patients and clients. This past weekend there were a couple examples of students who were subjects of PRI exam and treatment. One was straight forward and became "neutral" almost immediately. The other student, or patient example, was more complex and required focused attention on the page 50 guidelines with some tests remaining positive even with the best efforts of the instructor and excellent lab assistants. This individual had a history of ballet and lots of aerobic exercise over the years as well as recent lasik eye surgery. She was also a Superior T-4 patient and a great example of patho-mechanical respiration. One patient example in class was relatively easy, the other required more persistence and follow up care. This is the beauty of having an example of complexity and that PRI has pathways to take a patient further into discovery as this individual will have follow-up care with a PRI practitioner. The good news is this person slept better than they have in some time following PRI manual and non-manual techniques and is thrilled to continue their journey into learning more about themselves and applying PRI to their practice.

Many thanks to Rie Takakura, P.T., PRC for coming out from Hawaii to be one of our lab assistants. Her energy and knowledge was so much appreciated. My friend Locatelli Rao, P.T., PRC made my job easier as well as he provided his expert clinical knowledge of PRI and clinical application of PRI to this weekend. His ability to describe and "coach" technique is a gift to all in attendance. And last and most importantly, thank you Thomas "TJ" Di Prima, P.T., DPT, OCS, ATC for arranging and promoting PRI in this facility. His goal is to introduce PRI into his community at the Henry Mayo Fitness Center and we are all grateful for his support and look forward to returning in 2024. Thank you all, students, lab assistants and the staff at the "Center" for the privilege of presenting Postural Respiration.

Postural Respiration was presented at the Postural Restoration Institute May 28-29 to a large zoom audience of students as well as live participants. It is always a pleasure to have students from around the world in different time zones staying up late or getting up early to participate in this flagship primary course. There were students from Australia, Europe and coast to coast from North America and a large percentage of students were first time attendees to a PRI course, and for the majority of students, first time to Postural Respiration.

Delivery of air pressure sense and its effect on pelvis, ribcage and diaphragm shape, form and function are central themes that are returned to over and over in this course as it relates to neurology and ultimately biomechanics.
I taught Postural Respiration two weeks before in Chandler, AZ and there were similarities in terms of lab and demo with one student in each course presenting with almost exactly the same exam findings and same treatment guidelines as defined in this course for Superior T-4.

Often this patho-mechanical compensation can seem daunting to identify and treat, however, in both courses with both attendees, following the course guidelines with a detailed and repetitive description of both non-compensatory respiration and contrasting with patho-mechanical respiration made this difference very clear. Both students remained positive in their PRI testing on day one even after non-manual and manual AIC treatment regimens.  Then, on day two following Page 50 guidelines to determine if these individuals were in fact presenting with Superior T-4, a subclavius release with infra-clavicular pump was performed and all tests became negative with both cases.  No pressure, but the instructor is always relived when this occurs!

The overuse of accessory muscles of respiration became very clear to all attendees in both classes knowing that scalenes, for instance, need to act more like initiators of the first rib to signal rostal to caudal sequential rib elevation and not become primary rib lifters attempting to direct and deliver air inappropriately  into a right chest wall. Superior T-4 became very clear as to just one more step in the treatment guidelines for effective and balanced delivery of airflow pressure sense. This allows then alternating and reciprocal function into the entire physiological, neurological and biomechanical systems.

All in all it was a wonderful course especially the time and attention all of the students provided and "spot-on" questions that were asked. Thanks to all of our students especially on zoom from  different continents and time zones.  And the course was facilitated so well by RJ Hruska as he makes the process go so easy for students and instructors!

The first Cervical Revolution course of 2023 was presented at the Postural Restoration Institute to an international group of students. Attendees present were from all around the globe including China, Japan, Singapore, Canada, England, Ireland, Germany and Bulgaria as well as from every part of the U.S.A.  Professions included physical therapists, chiropractors, strength and conditioning professionals, an osteopath and a medical doctor to learn PRI concepts of the cervical, cranial and occlusal system.

Cervical Revolution is the introduction to the PRI concept of "top down" while acknowledging that "bottom up" is always at play since humans need to manage upright posture, gravity and gas! One of the biggest topics is that if you lose the floor then a new ground up into the cervical spine, cranium and even jaw will occur. When this over reliance on the neck occurs, cranial torsion or pathology is almost certain. This course unlocks the path into the cranium and a deeper dive into neurology which is then presented in tertiary PRI courses.

During the weekend, PRI examination of the cervical spine was then integrated with repositioning techniques that addressed position of the cervical spine, occiput, sphenoid and temporal bones all at the same time. This is part of the magic of this course in understanding how to integrate many parts to restore alternation of the whole with oscillation of atlas and occipital bones, freedom of a sphenoid, wobble of temporal bones and jaws that can freely swing or truse! Louise Kelley, PT assisted me greatly in this endeavor with lab exam, PRI techniques and answering tough questions from curious students.

For over a year, Louise Kelley, DPT, has been training with me to teach Cervical Revolution. This past weekend was her last training course as she will be "flying solo" in May to teach this course on her own. During this time working with Louise I have been so impressed by her knowledge and dedication to the science of PRI. Over the weekend and over the past year I have watched her grow into becoming a stellar faculty member especially in her understanding of PRI principles as well as describing and breaking down techniques to restore alternating cervical and whole structure alternating function. I will miss spending time with Louise and she will be a brilliant Cervical Revolution teacher! 

Cervical Revolution came back to Lincoln this past weekend with a large zoom audience spanning internationally from Asia to North America to Europe. I had the pleasure of teaching to a live audience as well as having the added assistance of Louise Kelley, PT to help breakdown PRI concepts including  the finer parts of technique for de-rotation of the Right TMCC as it relates to not only the cervical spine but the entire system as well. In attendance was an impressive interdisciplinary group including movement specialists, strength and conditioning professionals, massage and soft tissue professionals, chiropractors, physical therapists, an osteopath, two dentists and one RN who is also a CSCS wanting to expand his horizons!

This is a course about the cervical spine and the need for revolvement that maintains alternation side to side, brainstem oscillation, temporal bone "wobble" and a jaw that can freely move side to side to keep a neck and nervous system in balance of an asymmetrical human that can stand erect and move fully and freely. Atlas and occipital bones make up a highly neurologic articulation with a brainstem and autonomics that are intimately connected to this highly reflexive region. This course is the gateway to the cranium and the introduction to top down as well as bottom up concepts of PRI. The cervical, cranial and occlusal systems are all integrated in this course and an impressive demonstration for all, especially the dentists, was provided with a simple mouth guard that Ron made for Louise the day before the course started. I demonstrated this stomatognathic example with Louise by first testing her cervical spine with a mouth guard that gave her right molar contact and reinforced her RTMCC pattern resulting in positive tests of her cervical spine. Another mouth guard was then utilized that dis-occluded her right molar contact while giving her left molar contact sense and all of her tests became negative immediately. This demonstrated the neurologic effect of a simple mandibular appliance on not only the cervical spine but the entire neuro-respiratory-biomechanical system.

Needless to say, this was communicated to me by a student as 'mind blowing' and brought an experiential example of the power of this course. Thank you to RJ for expert facilitation of this course over the weekend, Louise Kelley for being such a great lab assistant and team mate and Ron Hruska for spending Friday before the course reviewing advanced PRI concepts. Most of all, thanks for all of the students in attendance especially from international locations that stayed up really late or got up really early and for all of the diverse professions that contributed their advanced thought and experience to the enrichment of this weekend.