Be sure to mark your calendars and contact all your friends. Today we confirmed a new course for our 2012 schedule that is not listed in our brochure. We are teaming up with Kevin Neeld and Endeavor Sports Performance to bring Myokinematic Restoration to the Philadelphia area. Endeavor Sports Performance is located in Pitman, NJ, about 20 minutes east of Philadelphia.  All of us here at PRI are excited for this opportunity and our speaker, Jen Poulin, hopes to see you there!

David Drummer, DPT, PRC recently posted this blog on the topic of squatting.

Often I have patients who enjoy lifting weights ask me: “When can I squat again?” They ask because they’ve been educated to know that a large part of the reason they’re in our clinic seeking treatment is because they have a forwardly tilted pelvis and a strong tendency to arch their backs backward, and that doing resisted squats with a barbell on their shoulders will make it difficult to get out of this position. This is because when they do squats with a barbell on their shoulders, they have to arch their backs, which is not something we want when going through a PRI physical therapy program. I think many postural restoration therapists would tell a weight lifter that they should NEVER perform a resisted squat. As a former power-lifter, a former patient at the Hruska Clinic, and now a certified PRI therapist at the Hruska Clinic, I have a slightly different perspective, though don’t misunderstand what I am about to say. Don’t tell people that Dave at the Hruska Clinic says its okay to squat, if you don’t inform them of the parameters REQUIRED before I allow them to squat. READ MORE.

PRI Vision courses are set for 2012. To learn more about the courses offered click here!

Postural-Visual Integration

Course Description: This course is designed to educate Physical Therapists, PT Assistants, and Occupational Therapists on how a patient with persistent patterning that inhibits PRI neutral maintenance, can be objectively evaluated and managed through tri-planar visual integration and autonomic inhibition. It will allow the course attendee to better understand why a patient with cervical and cranial imbalanced neuromuscular tone and activity is unable to correct patterned asymmetries. Specific treatment approaches will be offered to improve head on body (HOB) activity and visual cortical influence of the anti-gravitational and accessory respiratory muscle of the head and neck. This course will utilize PRI concepts and theory and ocular functional integration to change vestibular postural autonomic and biomechanics of postural stability. The speakers have dedicated their careers to patients with postural and visual imbalance and have utilized scientific principles in their respective fields to treat, in this unique interdisciplinary manner, visual integrative dysfunction. No prior visual training or visual course prerequisites are required. However, information provided by attending Myokinematic Restoration or Postural Respiration would be helpful.

Vision and Body Mechanics - Beyond 20/20

Course Description : Have you ever considered what a patient’s subjective refraction or eye alignment has to do with their back pain?  Or why a patient has constant neck pain while they are at the computer, even though they are pre-presbyopic and have good ergonomics?  The answer lies in how they use their vision to direct their bodies to perform any given task, such as walking, sitting at their desk, or playing a sport.  The relationship between vision, body posture and movement can be controlled through the use of lenses, then integrated and re-trained through physical activities designed to embed the new relationship.  This frequently results in decreased pain, improved physical performance, and prevention of future symptoms for a myriad of complaints.  We can influence the autonomic nervous system to turn the right muscles “on” and the wrong muscles “off” for any given physical task. This course is designed for both general eye care practitioners and behavioral/VT doctors to gain an appreciation for how vision controls the body and muscle tone, among other autonomic functions. The relationship of refractive findings, visuomotor skills, and visual processing to muscle tone and skeletal alignment will be outlined.  The focus of this course will be on how to achieve a MORE symmetrical, relaxed, whole body musculoskeletal system through integration of the visual system. Considerations for prevention of musculoskeletal dysfunction and maximizing human performance will be discussed, including eyeglass and contact lens prescribing recommendations. Participants will be able to work as part of an integrated team to manage neuromuscular patterns that contribute to spatial disorientation, headaches, neck tension, and low back pain, as well as appreciate how these are related to visual system function.