The PRI Fitness and Movement Course had its debut in Nebraska this past weekend at Gibbie's training facility: XplosiveEdge in Omaha. Thank you so much to Team Xedge for being wonderful hosts and inviting us into your homebase. You guys are top notch and we are so grateful to have spent the weekend with you! Keep up the great work!! This specific course was jammed back with brilliant minds including Mr. PRI himself, Ron Hruska. Thank you Ron and all the attendees that came out to learn and support our affiliate course efforts. It was a fun weekend and we hope you all enjoyed the material presented! One of the main focuses of this course is to emphasize the dynamic thoracic posture required for effective diaphragmatic breathing. When we develop too much external muscle mass overtop of a rigid axial frame, our breathing system can become strained. Overtime, this strain can affect our core performance and our abdominal’s ability to synchronize properly with our hips and shoulders. The strain also causes hyperactivity of various muscle chains which can limit how our ribs move and rib mobility is crucial for our durability and spine health. With PRI, we understand breathing is more than just about the thoracic diaphragm and ventilation. We need to be able to move air within our bodies in order to shut off the hyperactive chains of muscles and dissolve the unwanted muscle tension to optimize our postural health. Want to perfect your application of PRI? Three sites left for 2017! Denver, Minneapolis, and Frederick, MD. Hope to see you there!

The PRI Fitness and Movement Course continues to make progressive leaps and bounds in its development. This course is dedicated to the potential to advance PRI application in various settings related to fitness and movement, as well as help the discussions progress beyond just using PRI as correctives, warm ups, or cool downs.

I believe the strategic partnerships and interdisciplinary teams will most effectively meet today’s fitness, performance and healthcare challenges. Advanced PRI application is a key ingredient needed to conquer these challenges and its groups like we had this past weekend that will continue to progress the discussions involving PRI and keep us all moving forward. PRI really is not just another “tool” in a clinician, coach, or trainer’s toolbox. Its only a tool when you use or know parts and limited pieces of the system. When you understand all the pieces and parts, the PRI science provides us all a framework for which we can optimize various anatomical relationships to enhance human performance.

We devote a lot of time in this course to understanding the thorax and components of pillar core strength. Fitness and movement application has a lot of limitations in core strengthening if respiratory and neurological factors are not respected. We highlight those factors and teach people how to respect them in ways which are functional and easy to implement. For many high level performance athletes as well as any of your fitness clients with chronic pain, its not in strengthening and stretching that they will feel significant improvements in their stability; instead through strategic breath work and inhibiting hyperactive chains of muscles they will be able to synchronize the thoracic-acetabular abduction which is crucial for core stability and it’s that synchronized stability which must proceed the mobility that so many people crave. Let’s rethink mobilizing --- and start synchronizing.

Thanks to all that came out to Performance Gains in Palo Alto! PG Thank you for hosting and it was awesome to see the new beautiful facility! Caleb thank you for lab assisting and helping us out throughout the weekend!

James and I recently got back from traveling across the Atlantic! The PRI Integration for Fitness and Movement Course had its debut in the UK to a stunning group in London. It was a great mix of Personal Trainers, Yoga and Pilates’ Instructors, Strength Coaches, Physiotherapists, Osteopaths, and even an emergency room Medical Doctor! Besides the UK, other countries were represented including Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, and Australia. It was a privilege and honor to spend the weekend with this awesome group and I’m looking forward to hearing success stories spread across Europe and learn how they integrate it all with their clients.

A very large percent of our attendees had never been to a PRI course before. We introduced the respiratory and neurological principles taught in the PRI science, as well as focused on rib mobility, thoracic posture, and concepts around managing gravity. There were a lot of stiff ribcages in this course--- which we made sure we got moving! I made it my personal mission to make sure unexhaled air was mobilized and misuse of the abdominals patterns were identified. Ab bracing a ribcage that is hyperinflated, stiff, and rigid contributes to hyperactivity of rib elevators, back extensors, over firing of a rectus abdominis, compensatory movement strategies and poor neuromuscular balance between the two halves of the body.

Parachutes and pancakes were hot topics this weekend. We learned with every breath you take and every move you make…the diaphragm will orient you Thanks to Monica, James really did make it to the Sting concert. Thanks to Luke Worthington and Third Space for graciously hosting the course. Luke we appreciate all the pre-arrangements you did prepping for the large group and printing the manuals. The Third Space staff were all awesome and so friendly. We could have not asked for a better host site!

 Thank you Danielle Berger from Zurick Switzerland for the comments on her course eval. She says “Course manual: excellent, you've really helped fast forward our learning with this manual. Thank you so much. Loved the reinforcement on breathing, loved the breakdown on three planes of motion, loved the application to the fitness industry. Thank you James and Julie, you are both an inspiration. Thank you for your authenticity and integrity”.  

Thanks to Moiz for sharing his craftsmanship and presenting us with a handmade BC+AIC key chain, so thoughtful and creative! We loved it!

This was my first trip over to Europe, and I hope the first of many more abroad. Sharing this information is dear to my heart and I love helping people understand the simplicity and practicality that can be found in one of the most complex and effective sciences we have to learn. PRI helps us all understand patterns of human movement and how various body segments are linked. Next course is in Palo Alto, CA in June! Check out the affiliate course link to learn more!

Video Highlight

So grateful for the wonderful weekend in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona at the Diamondback’s facility. The course was jammed packed with 55 Fitness and Movement Professionals. Ken and Ryan have an amazing staff and I would like to thank them and all their guys for their hospitality and participation. We had some great side dialogue promoting key discussion points and ideas to benefit and better further develop the course which was greatly appreciated. The affiliate course material was well received as it focuses on components of gait, biological foundations of posture and movement, and reminds us how to respect our asymmetrical axial design when upright working against gravity and external loads. One thing I continue to love about this course, is how we break down the basics of thoraco-abdominal mechanics and emphasis the value in integrating both ab walls and the frontal plane in fitness based movement patterns. Lets face it, if you can’t achieve some functional symmetry in your frontal plane when upright and integrate your thorax with your hips rotationally, your biological system will suffer. Our fitness training and conditioning programs only become as strong as our weakest link! I look forward to changing things up in the PRI Fitness course for 2017. We will be adding new activities, more videos, and strategically adding in more lab break-out sessions. It's going to be great! --- so don’t wait too long to sign up! Every course was sold out this past year and with the improvements we make I’m super excited for teaching in 2017 :) Happy Holidays to all!!