If there is one thing that is consistent in Chicago, it's the rapidly changing weather. With temperatures dropping 30 to 40 degrees in two days, it is a harsh reminder that winter is coming, sooner than later.  

Change is constant and often beneficial. Of course, there are times in which change is bad, but a change in seasons is a good thing in this part of the country. And a change in the body is, more often than not, just what the body needs as well. That was the backdrop for Myokinematic Restoration in Chicagoland.  

It was a great pleasure to have Craig Depperschmidt teach with me. We have known each other a long time (both of us are PRC Class of 2012), and we have co-taught this course a few times in the past. However, it was our first time doing it without also doing a live stream broadcast in Lincoln. It was a lot of fun to interact with everyone in the course as well as with each other.

Craig kicked off the weekend doing a great job of establishing the necessity of position and why position matters. As we moved onto testing for position, we were hopefully able to suggest a change to the attendee's perspective as to why the tests look the way they do given the influence of human asymmetry. As we discussed the necessity of changing the position of the pelvis and re-training the femurs, our discussion led us to the Hruska Adduction and Abduction Lift Tests and intervention. Our objective this weekend was to change pelvic position, change the job description of the femurs as necessary, and change how the body uses itself against gravity. To be a better Batman, we need to be a better Bruce Wayne.

My thanks to Sam Pare, DC, Nikki Galante, PTA, John Shostrand, Yoga Instructor, and Alexi Gniot, PTA, for spending even more time with me than they have already. We had so many great questions during the course that it is really hard to pick out a couple. It is really a sign of a great group of movement professionals that we could have such a diverse group and have such on-point questions. Thanks to Jennifer Carlotti, Jayme Keith, Cory Puyear, Jen Cohen, and Nikki Wierzbicki for letting us learn from you during demonstrations and Q&A.

It was a nice change to be able to talk about PRI with such a good group of in-person attendees. With the virtual changes we have had to push through the last few years, this was a welcome change, no doubt. I'm honored to call Craig a fellow Faculty Member of PRI. He makes all of us better.  It was a unique experience for Craig and I, and I hope it was for the attendees as well.

Every PRI course has its own unique flavor, and the major reason for that is the attendees. We had a unique blend of movement specialists for this recent Myokinemtatic Restoration course. Many times, upwards of 80-90% of the attendees have not taken a PRI course before, and usually the remaining attendees may have had a prior PRI course, but not Myokin. What made this course unique was most of the attendees had taken a PRI course prior to this one, and for a few folks, they had taken many PRI courses. It was a treat to have Skip George, DC, PRC, PRI Faculty in attendance. Skip's point of view was exceptionally helpful, as he is able lend a chiropractor's perspective to PRI since we had another chiropractor in attendance. It was an honor to have Lucy Yu, DPT, LMT, in attendance.

Lucy wrote a fantastic article regarding PRI and evidence based practice (EPB), and it is in the back pocket of every Myokin manual. I have seen her name many, many times, and read her paper many times as well. She was kind enough to spend a few minutes discussing her paper and how, by any criteria, PRI meets the standard of EBP. It was a wonderful conversation, and further strengthens the science of PRI by demonstrating its absolute support by research.

Craig Depperschmidt, DPT, PRC, and Jason Miller PT, PRC, are training to teach Myokin, and they did an incredible job. When learning a new concept, it is helpful to hear several different perspectives surrounding the topic, as different perspectives often allow the material to resonate more easily with more people. We were blessed to have three speakers for this course, lending clinical experience, as well as personal perspective to the material. It's not often that the live attendees receive almost one-on-one attention during our labs, but that's essentially what we had with three instructors and four live attendees. Myokin is roughly one-third lab time, so our in-person attendees were able to experience all of the tests and non-manual techniques on themselves several times during lab.

My thanks to our live attendees, and their willingness to learn, ask questions, and allow us to use them for demonstration. Their attendance helped the learning process for the live stream attendees, in lab as well as in demonstration. We are very thankful to Angela Marchant, JJ Miranda, Paul McMahon, and Gabrielle Williams-Hubbard. We know you all came a long distance to be with us, and we greatly appreciate your attendance.

And it was Jason Miller's birthday! It was an honor that Jason was willing to spend his birthday weekend helping to teach the science of PRI. It was probably a wise decision on his part to not let any of us know that it was his birthday during the course. There is a small chance we would have called him Birthday Boy the entire weekend. Despite that lost opportunity, this was a very unique and memorable course.

Without a doubt, the opportunity to present the science of PRI to a live group of movement professionals was a great sign to me that we are getting closer and closer to the resumption of our previous "normal" lives. I had never had the pleasure of speaking in Massachusetts previously, and it was a wonderful experience. The newly updated Impingement and Instability course provides a neuromechanical explanation of the "why" behind many PRI concepts and how to apply the science to a variety of conditions and patient populations.

We were able to link the scapula to the calcaneus, femur, and pelvis, so by the time we got to scapular instability, we have the freedom to discuss other avenues of treatment and concepts that we previously were unable to discuss. This is the course we have the opportunity to dive into the concept of talar wobble, balancing hamstring activity, and the pressure sensitivity of the scapula.

Our exploration into the value of pressure management and how pressure is the "Morse Code" of postural and body awareness, as well as how the body learns to make changes to movement strategies was lengthy. This course provides the opportunity to go down some rabbit holes that we ordinarily are unable to proceed into in other courses.   

My thanks to the entire Train Boston crew for a great venue and very welcoming experience. It was an honor to have three certified individuals attend the course: Mike Mullins, Donna Behr, and Phil DeNigris. It was wonderful for me to have your questions and feedback, and those who were newer to PRI appreciated it as well. Thank you for a wonderful weekend and getting back to "normal."

Timing is a tricky thing, isn't it? Difficult to measure. Tough to describe. Hard to master. But once you find timing, or timing finds you, it can dramatically change any outcome. Aren't we all searching for that nebulous and elusive thing called "timing"? One of the main overall goals of PRI is to improve neuromuscular timing to reduce patterned behavior. Timing is kind of like a unicorn with a majestic, golden mane; you know it when you see it.   

Last weekend it was my distinct pleasure to teach Myokinematic Restoration to 68 movement specialists, 45 of which were new to the science of PRI. We had 10 individuals in person, and two of them were my good friends Craig Depperschmidt, DPT, PRC and Jason Miller, PT, PRC, both of whom are new additions to our PRI faculty. We are lucky to have them. We had a group of 18 co-workers attending the live-stream together. It was daylight savings, which means we got an extra hour of sleep Saturday night. And we had a unicorn in our midst. We were fortunate to have had several unique events occur this weekend that I feel blessed to have all been able to share the experience with 68 friends, old and new.

One of our objectives in this course is to learn how to correctly interpret the tests and let them lead us into our treatment approach. Another objective is to understand how and when to use ligamentous muscle to stabilize an unstable hip capsule. For those of you who have taken this course before, you've experienced the lab portion on the second day, and we usually are able to get to around 7 or so PRI non-manual techniques. On this unique weekend, we were able to get to 15 techniques in lab. Part of it was the small class size during lab, but Craig and Jason were an enormous reason we were able to get to so many activities. It was just a unique experience afforded to those in attendance in-person and on the live stream. This extensive lab time allowed us to dive into the algorithms on pages 49 and 52, as well as the inhibition section of the appendix.  We used page 48 as a treatment flow chart, and proceeded through that page as a decision-making tree to help the attendees solidify examples of how to apply the science of PRI upon returning to their clients and patients. Do what the tests tell you to do. Reposition. Do page 39. Retest. Do what the tests tell you to do.

One of the best teaching examples for this course is an example of someone who fits the description of the algorithm on page 49, and the algorithm on page 52. Ron did this for me in my very first Myokin class in 2004, and it helped me remember how different these patients can present. It is pretty easy to find someone in the course during lab who presents with testing representative of page 52; however, finding someone who fits the description on page 49 is kind of like finding a majestic unicorn with a flowing golden mane. In 6 years of teaching this course I had only met one unicorn, until this weekend. Our unicorn's name was Brett, and he provided us with an exceptional example of how and why testing matters, and how testing helps drive the treatment decision-making tree on page 48.  

My thanks to all of those who attended on live-stream. Your questions clearly indicate you were engaged and were thinking ahead to future courses. Your questions were spot-on and I am looking forward to seeing many, many of you in future PRI courses.
 
My sincere thanks to Brett Shulte, Alison Janky, Savannah DeVault, and Angie Nixon. Your willingness to be our models for demonstration provided all of us with an exceptional learning experience. My thanks to RJ for his excellent production of our live stream, and to Jason and Craig for keeping me honest and helping us get through as much lab as we did.  

So, to recap......
Fantastic in-person and live stream audience. Excellent questions all around. Unbelievable lab. A splendid unicorn. An extra hour of sleep.
Timing is everything.