It was a wonderful weekend teaching a Pelvis Restoration as a “hybrid" course. Teaching to professionals attending the course in person and through Zoom was exciting and humbling. Thank you to everyone who attended. Your desire to learn and passion for the Science of PRI is amazing. We had great questions and interaction through both forums this past weekend. We had energy. We had passion. We had a desire to learn. I felt an improved understanding of the “external” support of the pelvis with tri-planar movement (especially the frontal plane) was understood at a deeper level for improved regulation of internal pressure and airflow. I felt course attendees appreciated the PRI objective tests and how they can assist them clinically to improve PRI Non-Manual Techniques selection for patient treatment. I also felt in insight was also gained in not only “re-positioning” the pelvis but then “re-training” that pelvis for left stance and right swing with our goal to “restore” for reciprocal and alternating movement.

We were “world-wide” this past weekend with course attendees from all across the U.S. and internationally. Thank you again for all that came. It was great to teach as it makes me a better clinician.

The Midwest started warming up to a balmy 22 degrees on the way to reaching almost above freezing on Saturday morning for the first Postural Respiration Live/Live Stream course this year. There were seven live attendees some of whom drove over 5 hours on slick and icy roads to take their first Postural Respiration course while almost 40 others from all over the country, and even internationally from Slovenia, attended this course. Ron and I had a discussion the day before I taught and it was a real inspiration to be able to emphasize to the new students the concepts of not just rib movement and diaphragm function but the importance of pressure and flow inside a chest wall and how that not only affects position and posture but every system in the human body. We spend a lot of time on the orthopedic consequences of neurologic patterns in this course but it is what is inside the chest wall in terms of how we direct air into chambers and how that affects whether ribs move up or move down, and torsos left or right as a critical element of Postural Respiration and all PRI courses. The Posterior Mediastinum has become more of an emphasis than ever before along with the role of the first rib in initiating the lifting of the rest of the ribs below it during respiration. This class really got the relationship between the right apical chest wall and the left posterior mediastinum with the role of how important inhibition to these chambers of the chest wall is.

One of the non manual techniques we focused on was the Standing Serratus Squat and the importance of learning how to perform it. This is one of PRI's more difficult positions to competently perform and that there are often precursors, especially with reaching and squatting techniques, to help facilitate this most important technique. Just because it is challenging to perform doesn't mean that students shouldn't master it and then teach their patients. This is one of many techniques that help strengthen an individual's diaphragm and give them a "sense", which was one of the key words of the weekend, of thier ribcage moving backwards!

And for forward locomotion, that is, to move forward, one most move a ribcage back! Questions came in fast and furious which is a delight for instructors since it helps to gauge where the attendees are in their understanding and to reinforce and repeat concepts that are needed to provide a good foundation to understand this course well enough to begin to apply. The students in this course were helping teach Postural Respiration by their re-states and questions with energy and enthusiasm. Shout out Meghann Vanslager and Jennifer Bacon who drove from Kansas then had a 5 hour drive home with work the next day! Thanks to Ian Katanec for being on a 9 hour time difference in Slovenia and everyone else that spent their weekend with us as over half of the attendees that were either brand new to PRI or first time attending Postural Respiration. Most of all, thanks to RJ Hruska who was my wingman performing audio and visual expertise with changing camera angles for lab and keeping things going smoothly during these virtual attendance times.

January 25th was recorded as the second highest daily snowfall in Lincoln of all time, dropping 14.8 inches of snow at a record rate. Between phone calls and emails while working from home, all of us at the Institute were busy “Digging Out”, while at the same time being driven further into a pattern. This same system (of snow) hit much of the Midwest by varying degrees, and many of you, like me, may be feeling the effects after hours spent pushing and plowing our entries back to the outside world. There are many considerations to keep in mind while performing any repetitive, patterned driven activity, and in respect to clearing snow, they are heightened by the exertion and work needed to move the literal mass in front of you. Any activity occurring “in front of you” poses challenges in itself because of the linear forward movement which is often repetitive. Many of these activities and considerations are highlighted in our “Restoring Alternation in Your Daily Lives” Patient Guide which was published last year.

When it comes to pushing snow, be mindful of the following.

When pushing snow on a flat surface, consider first your hand placement and center of mass, in relation to the mass being moved in front of you and the ground below you. The most natural position will be for you to instantly lower your right arm nearest to the blade of the shovel, and your left arm closer to your body. This will lead to your COM to shift over your right leg causing you to work through Right AF IR, Left Trunk Rotation, and Left AF ER positioning, while further driving your pattern.

Instead, consciously start by reversing the above position, lowering your left arm further down the shovel and placing your right arm nearest your body. This will allow your COM to shift to the left, leading to Left AF IR, Right Trunk Rotation, and Right AF ER positioning, while helping to minimize the above pattern. Over time it is likely that you will naturally re-adjust back to the first position as it is what your body is asymmetrically driven to. When possible alternate between these positions as much as possible to minimize some of the common aches and pains that occur from pushing snow in a patterned position!

Happy New Year!

As we approached this New Year, I reflected on the the year that was 2020. As I transitioned into this new role of Executive Director at the beginning of this year, I could have never imagined the challenges we would be facing in just a few short months. I think most people would agree that 2020 was a year that none of us could have ever predicted, but even with the challenges presented from COVID 19, we were determined to make the best of it. And that’s just what we did! The events of 2020 really encouraged us to explore new ways to expand our ‘reach’. Although we already had our primary courses available online, we transitioned quickly to live stream virtual courses for our secondary, tertiary and affiliate courses, and this allowed us to reach interdisciplinary professionals from all over the world. Several live stream courses were sold out with 100 attendees, and many had at least a dozen countries represented. We are grateful that we were able to continue to reach you through PRIVY and podcasts, in addition to some new projects geared towards expanding our reach to the general public, including the ‘Restoring Alternation’ Patient Daily Living Guide. We also took advantage of the circumstances and reached thousands with our ‘PRI Breathing in COVID Times’ 9-week webinar series, which was (and still is) available online for both the general public and healthcare & fitness professionals. The word ‘reach’ has always been a staple of our Institute, and for those of you who are familiar with the PRI non-manual techniques, you have undoubtedly experienced the power of a reach. While our ability to reach you over this past year has been primarily through digital formats, we are excited to get back to reaching (with) you at our live in-person courses. We will be forever grateful for all of you who allowed us to continue to reach you during this crazy, uncertain past year that was 2020. It’s a year that we will never forget, but due to the circumstances that were presented, we now have many new means in which we plan to continue to reach you in 2021 and beyond.

Although we didn't print a brochure this year, you can see that 'reach' would have been the theme carried out within the pages of our Programs and Courses brochure. Please visit our website over the coming year for the most up to date schedule of our programs and courses. In addition to returning to hosting courses across the country this Spring, we are excited to be offerering over 20 live stream courses this year, and we will also have limited in-person attendance available for each of the live stream courses held in Lincoln, Nebraska.

We hope we have the opportunity to reach you, in one way or another, in this New Year!