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Welcome to the Postural Restoration Community! This is where you will read the latest industry news, hear about upcoming events, find helpful deadline reminders, and view a plethora of additional resources regarding our techniques and curriculum. The great part about it is--not only can you can view the entries we post, you can also post about the things that matter to you. Did you find an interesting article about a technique you learned in one of your courses? Do you have a patient case study you want to share with other professionals? Simply click "Submit an Entry" and follow the easy steps towards getting your information published in the PRI Community!

Blog Posts in March 2020

Please check out this 6 minute video and accompanying blog article to learn a PRI based technique to help improve lung health amidst COVID-19.

As a result of the COVID-19 virus pandemic and having to cancel several recent and upcoming courses, we are excited to be offering our first LIVE STREAM course next month. PRI's first live stream course will be our Cervical Revolution course taught by Ron Hruska on April 18-19th. To keep the excitement going, we will then be hosting our newest secondary course, Cranial Resolution on May 16-17th. *As a reminder, completion of the Cervical Revolution course is required to register for the Cranial Resolution course, so if you are interested in attending the live stream Cranial Resolution course in May, but you have not yet taken the Cervical Revolution course, be sure to sign up for the April 18-19th live stream event.

We are working with our AV company to set this up so that these live stream courses will be engaging, interactive and include demonstration of objective testing and/or non-manual techniques, in addition to course attendees being able to ask questions throughout the course. All that’s needed on your end is reliable internet access, a webcam, microphone and speaker (or a smart phone can be used if you do not have a computer or laptop with this capability). The course manual will be shipped directly to you, and you can still participate in a live PRI course while adhering to social distancing recommendations within your own home or clinic.

Registration for the live stream courses will be available on our website later this week! The courses will take place from 8am-5pm CT each day, and certificates of completion/CE credit will be awarded the following week after completion of the course evaluation survey and short post-test. For more information on whether your state/organization is approved for CE approval, please visit our website. And, if you have any questions, please call us.

Do you have a group of colleagues interested in participating in a live stream course together? Just like we do with our home study courses, we will be offering group discounts. If you have 2-4 individuals interested in registering, you will each recieve 10% off, and if you have 5 or more individuals, you will each receive 15% off. Please call us for more information on registering with a group!

We are grateful to be living in a timeframe where virtual learning platforms like this are available, and we are really looking forward to the opportunity to engage with #PRINation from all across the globe during these live stream courses. Together, we will continue to "Trust the Process". 

Posted March 23, 2020 at 2:00PM
Categories: Courses

“Lots of evidence-based practice.”
“I plan to integrate the information immediately into my practice.”

Thank you to Heather Golly, ATC, PhD, Beth Marschner, DPT, and Dawn Mattern, MD, faculty at Minot State University, in Minot, North Dakota, for hosting Postural Respiration this past weekend. We were able to sneak this course in before the travel and conference bans were enacted and had plenty of hand-sanitizer at our disposal!  

MSU was the host site for Myokinematics last year, so most attendees had that course under their belt.  It served as a springboard to understanding how the top half of the body, the thorax, influences and is influenced by the lower half.

Our ability to fully and properly compress and decompress our bodies – the thorax, abdominal, pelvic, and cranial chambers -- in the space around us is dictated by air flow patterns provided by hemi-diaphragms that are in position to do so.  This is compromised if abdominals, which wrap around the lower ribs and shape the hemi-diaphragms within to preserve their length-tension properties, aren’t sensed and facilitated.  Therefore, training the abdominals first and foremost for respiration, not core stability, is imperative.  All our movements and physiology, from HRV, digestion, and the ability to concentrate, depend on this.

One attendee grappled with when to consider prone “I’s”, “Y’s”, and “T’s” in their program.  This led to a helpful discussion, and paradigm shift, on the need to first address thoraco-scapular mechanics, as achieved by diaphragm position, rib cage expansion, and alterations of air flow patterns, before introducing scapula on thorax activity.  Without proper respiratory mechanics in place, muscles of the scapula acting on the thorax are simply out of position and lack meaningful leverage to provide safe, effective cervical and upper extremity joint performance.

Everyone appreciated and learned from those who stepped up to demonstrate non-manual techniques and to act as patient models for lab:  Stephanie Boespflug, PTA, PRC (my fellow PRC 2011 alum), Beth Marschner, Kirk Mason, DC, Terry Quijano, ATC student, Rebekah Rye, ATC, and Shane Williams, ATC student.  They enhanced and clarified how we define R BC/L AIC patterned activity and how we differentiate this presentation and its treatment considerations from that of superior T4 and B PEC compensations. Thank you also to Kari Harris, DPT, and Heidi Folk, PT, for adding to the discussion with insightful questions and personal clinical examples. I appreciated everyone’s warmth and hospitality, North Dakota-style. Thank you all for a wonderful weekend. The Institute looks forward to bringing more courses to your neck of the woods!

Posted March 13, 2020 at 3:49PM
Categories: Courses Clinicians Science

 Surrounded by the tall pine trees of North Carolina and golf courses in every direction one can look, we had 2 full exciting days exploring the power of myokinematic restoration. Discussing how the acetabulum moves on the femur was an appropriate discussion in a community full of golfers when discussing rotation and the appropriate muscles of the hip complex to help achieve rotation. We learned about the inherent pattern (s) of the human body that position our pelvis and ribcage along with tests that help guide our treatment to restore these positions. We had a sharp group of attendees who remained interested and engaged through the last hour of the course which was impressive. We had attendees that made the trip from Canada which is always exciting to see the science of PRI spreading to other countries!


- Kasey Aiken

I had a great weekend hosting, teaching and mentoring Kasey at my home clinic Sandhills Sports PerformanceKasey Aiken did a great job introducing the principles of PRI as they relate to the hip and pelvis. We discussed a dominant left AIC and patho and non-patho compensatory patterns during upright activity as it relates to the Hip and Pelvis.

We were joined by PT’s, CSCS, SPTs, SPTA, ATCs, new graduate of PT, Massage therapist and a chiropractic physician!

Our clinic was represented by Pat Tanner, ATC, Jena Landgam, SPTA, Kelsie Giannoulis, DPT, Brooke Thomas, DPT and brand new to our group Pierce Adams CSCS and Johanna Nisenholtz.  Johanna was my PT student earlier this year. It was so great to have her in her first official PRI class. We look forward to Johanna joining our staff this year!

Thanks #PRINation for growing with us!

Posted March 12, 2020 at 4:50PM
Categories: Clinicians Courses Science

"Watching individuals with Parkinson’s Disease participate in boxing when I spent time with Jennifer Smart in North Carolina last Fall, reminded me of the need for the human spirit to elongate appendages while concurrent body contraction occurs. The movement of flexing a shoulder as the elbow extends disengages the neck, momentarily and reflexively. It is art, it is personal, it is rhythmic and it is limited coordination done by someone, who for a moment, recognizes a functional beneficial event that required regaining balance from a floor the arm uses to “strike”. Beautiful un-timed imbalance followed by a timed balance act for regaining postural control, without needing or requiring tremor. Such a rewarding basal ganglia bi-hemispheric activity to watch, but more importantly to experience. Shortly after arriving back to Lincoln, I bought and hung a bag in our clinic. Now if I could just learn how to dance around the bag as it pushes me around when I punch it, as it punches me. I decided that it probably would be best to wait and listen to Kristy Rose Follmar, a former World Champion professional boxer, before I hurt myself."

-Ron Hruska

rock-steady-boxing-pri-interdisciplinary-integration-symposium-speaker-spotlight

Kristy Rose Follmar, ACSM, CPT, EIM is a 2003 graduate of Ball State University, with a degree in Telecommunications/Marketing and Sociology, a certified fitness professional and a retired World Champion professional boxer. Follmar was approached in 2006 by Rock Steady’s founder, former elected Indianapolis Prosecutor Scott Newman, to help build Rock Steady Boxing, a non-profit exercise program dedicated to help ease the progression of Parkinson’s symptoms.

Newman, a young on-set Parkinson’s sufferer, discovered that intense exercise using a non-contact boxing-style training regimen was slowing down the progression of his symptoms. Follmar understands through her experience as a professional athlete the benefits that boxing style training can bring to people with Parkinson’s in addition to Parkinson’s specific exercise.   

Kristy Rose Follmar is one of the architects of The Rock Steady Boxing Method, a curriculum that combats the physical and emotional effects of Parkinson’s. Follmar uses her experience of professional boxing and formal education in the fitness industry to design curriculums specific to varying levels of Parkinson’s disease.

Kristy’s presentation is titled “Rock Steady Boxing: The Fight Against Parkinson’s & Community-Based Medical Collaboratives”. This presentation will cover our history and an intro to Rock Steady: our story, our methodology and message of Hope to help people with Parkinson's Fight Back against their disease.  Also, a discussion about how Rock Steady has developed a community-based collaborative between local healthcare professionals and community-based Rock Steady programs.

If you have not registered for the 12th Annual Interdisciplinary Integration Symposium, be sure to register soon. The early registration rate of $525 ends on March 26th!

Posted March 10, 2020 at 11:10AM
Categories: Courses

Jennifer Smart, DPT, PRC is the headliner for our 12th Annual Interdisciplinary Integration Symposium. This symposium topic came together as a result of the extraordinary work she has been doing with those managing Parkinson’s Disease in her community, and the engaging discussions she has had with Ron over the past couple years. Jen is a clinician at heart, but also one who is current with the research and medical advancements that have been made for those experiencing extrapyramidal symptoms.

Her growing interest in Parkinson’s Disease began around 2015 when her best friend was diagnosed. This was the year she completed the PRC credentialing program, and shortly after neurologist, Dr. Jay Alberts, published research showing how, when a person with PD rides on the back of a tandem that is being pedaled at a cadence of 80-90 RPM, a variety of their PD symptoms decrease. After dissecting the research, Jen bought a tandem bike, and her and her friend rode for over an hour 3 times a week at the specified cadence. Others with PD heard what they were doing, and she ended up getting several tandem bikes and set them up on stationary trainers at a local gym, where she coordinated having members of the local cycling community ride on the front to set the cadence while people with PD rode on the back. “Park’n Ride” was officially started as a non-profit in January 2015.

Based on the success of this cycling program, Jen has become a regional expert on Parkinson’s Disease, where individuals have moved to her small coastal town of Oriental, North Carolina after their diagnosis. She became certified in LSVT BIG, Parkinson’s Wellness and Recovery (PWR!) and Rock Steady Boxing, which are all evidence-based, Parkinson’s-specific programs. Jen has attended the Parkinson’s World Congress and has even volunteered for a week with Becky Farley, PT, PhD who developed LSVT BIG and PWR. In 2017, Jen received a grant from the National Parkinson’s Foundation to organize and run a two-day event, called the Parkinson’s Exercise Program (PEP) Retreat, which was designed to help both patients and medical providers better understand how to use exercise as an evidence-based treatment for PD.

In her own words, “What I have taken away from all of this training, from working extensively with this population, and from the currently exploding literature regarding the benefits of specific exercise programs for PD, is that, perhaps unknowingly, the components that make each of these treatment techniques so effective, are the components that are based on the science of PRI. People with PD, just like all of us, need to be able to rhythmically alternate, but their disease, or somewhere along their journey towards developing this disease, this ability to rhythmically alternate was compromised so they needed to develop involuntary tics, muscle spasms, tremors, restless legs, dystonia and/or postural changes to help them to get to the other side, to help them to alternate. This is now the message that I am trying to get across in both the prevention and treatment of Parkinson’s, and so many other, syndromes or diseases.”

Ron had the opportunity to spend a couple days with Jen in her hometown a few months ago, and had this to say about his experience, “Jennifer is probably one of the most, if not the most respected, individuals in this community. Everyone who lives there knows how much she cares about humanity in general, and how much she dedicates herself to each individual specific needs and limitations. Her compassion, her wealth of knowledge on Parkinson’s Disease, her multi-level of experience, and her successful outcomes are immediately recognized by anyone who observes her classes, talks to her patients or witnesses the respect wherever she goes in this community. I am humbled by all of this and my admiration for her selflessness is unsurpassed.”

Read more about Jen’s upcoming presentations at our 12th Annual Interdisciplinary Integration below:

An Overview of the Science of Movement Disorders as They Relate to Sensory Input and Autonomic-Driven Postural Compensations
This presentation will review various types of movement disorders, examining their association with each other and with other non-motor symptoms, which may appear independently or as prodromal symptoms for various movement disorder syndromes, such as Parkinson’s disease. Current theories as to the causes of movement disorders will be explored, including evidence supporting basal ganglia oscillatory dysfunction, how and why this dysfunction may occur and techniques that are being employed to influence it, including pharmacological, surgical (especially the use of deep brain and/or implanted spinal stimulation) and physical activity interventions. Emphasis will be placed on the evidence supporting how intrinsic oscillations are being altered by afferent stimulation.

Afferentation Techniques and How to Clinically Incorporate Them into the Treatment of Movement Disorders
This presentation will be more clinically applicable, providing information about the current, evidence-based programs that are being used for people with Movement Disorders, examining their common effective elements regarding the movements involved in the activity, the dosage (time and intensity) of the activity, and the auditory, visual and tactile cues that are being used during the activity.  Emphasis will be placed on using specific afferentation techniques during these activities in order to alter the need to use pathological postural compensations, or movement disorders, to create a sense of stability and/or a method of mobility.  

A Review of Perspective and Progression Influences on Treatment and Management of Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
In this presentation, Jennifer Smart and Ron Hruska will discuss treatment and management of patients with Parkinson’s Disease and review several cases in which they have had the opportunity to collaborate together. Management discussion will include group exercise application, in addition to individual rehabilitation considerations.

Posted March 5, 2020 at 11:33AM
Categories: Courses

If there are three bones that have always had an impact on my course of study as related to respiration, airway, occlusion, oral function, head and neck position, speech, vocal cord dysfunction, tongue compensation, nasal flow, autonomics in general, auditory sense and the soft and hard palates, it is the temporal and occipital bones. Three very important nerves go through the most infamous foramen of mankind, the Internal Jugular Foramen (IJF). When the lumen or congruence of this foremen is challenged our bodies know it. Cranial mal-position and underlying associated predictable human torsional constraint increases the need for compensation and  work around this malpositioned set of paired bones, on an accompanying occiput bone that orients and houses the medulla and brain stem in off-centered state of un-rest. This positional state of unrest feeds neurologic information to our mid brain and associated cortices that are directly associated with my course of study, outlined above.   

Re-orientation of these two paired IJFs can have a major impact on ANS, SoNS and CNS function and behavior, secondary to the compression or lack of compression on these three nerves. The glossopharyngeal nerve innervates the stylopharyngeus muscles, the vagus nerve innervates the levator veli palatini, the salingopharyngeus, the palatoglossus, the palatopharyngeus, and the pharyngeal constrictor muscles, and the accessory nerve innervates the trapezius and the sternocleidomastoid muscles. I will not go over these three nerves sensory innervation, but these nerves are instrumental in how we physically, physiologically and psychologically behave and operate. Cranial mal-guidance provided by the calvaria, temporal and occiput bones and their associated torsional patterns of function can be resolved through PRI based sacral cranial repositioning and through PRI based thoracic cranial resolution, that incorporates cranial oscillatory alternation. Having the opportunity to outline and teach the reasoning behind these PRI techniques and considerations, offered by this unique course, through the involvement of the sinus cavities, the palatine bones, and the pharynx, is as fulfilling for me as any course I have ever written, designed or taught.

 

I would like to thank Amy Goddard PT, DPT, OCS, CSC, PRC and her staff, once again, for hosting another PRI course at her expansive and accommodating facility. Gail Kaiser PT, OCS, thank you for your willingness to participate in my demonstration autonomic orthotics. And Stephanie Irizarry Pt, CLT-LANA, PRC your presence is always welcomed because of your love for Pantone 269 C (purple), your predictable body performance through autonomic filtering, and your on-going smile. Jennifer Bullock PT, DPT, OCS, PRC your input, discussion and feedback was so invaluable. I honestly believe, this is ‘your course’ if there ever was one offered by PRI. I truly love everything you stand for and represent.  

    

Posted March 4, 2020 at 4:08PM

A fantastic time was had at the annual Arizona Athletic Trainers’ Association (AzATA) Winter Symposium that took place in Mesa, AZ  from Feb 8-9, 2020. Kelly Boyce, Mike Powell and I were gifted the opportunity to present to local athletic trainers of all settings in both lecture and lab formats. Big shout outs to Casey McKay and Suzie Squires with the AzATA Professional Education Committee for organizing and our teammate Jon Herzner for connecting us. The 45-min lecture presentation entitled “The Fundamentals of PRI: A Diamondbacks Perspective” covered the origins of PRI in addition to “big rock” concepts such as asymmetry, PRI-defined polyarticular muscle chains as well as reciprocal and alternating function. In addition, basic assessment and treatment approach concepts were discussed. For the lab portion, detailed demonstration and further explanation of the Adduction Drop Test, proper breathing mechanics and the application of basic repositioning techniques were provided. Due to the interest of the attendees and the leadership of Kelly and Mike, the lab portion was a fun and engaging experience for all!  Thank you again to the AzATA for the opportunity to serve and thank you to the Institute for all the support!

Posted March 2, 2020 at 11:45AM

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