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Pelvis Restoration - Fort Collins, CO - Course Review

Earlier this month, I was in Fort Collins, CO teaching Pelvis Restoration after 14 months out of the faculty circuit. For many reasons that will prove impossible to come close to articulating here, this course in review proved difficult to concisely write. These past two years, objectively, I have lost a lot—a child to disease, a dear co-worker to miscommunication, contact with a dear friend and colleague to culture, contact with another dear friend and colleague to a series of business casualties...to name a few. I mention these losses because I am certain this same window has been uniquely difficult year for most everyone reading this, regardless of where you find yourself. I’m sorry for each of your losses, yet very much hopeful.

Just through that window, I take heart, because I am confident that all of these losses are temporary, and will prove to be blessings, each in their own way, though I may not understand how presently. For certain, goodness was found in Fort Collins! It is also difficult to encapsulate how thankful I am for my good, longtime friend and colleague Craig Depperschmidt, a 2012 PRC graduate and PRI hub in Colorado, to have welcomed me back to Fort Collins with undeserving hospitality. It was tremendous working with newer friends Brian Benjamin, who served tremendously as host site coordinator, as well as Rachel Kroncke, Sara Truelsen, and Ruth Waller-Liddle in the ProActive PT Center family who welcomed PRI and me into their work home fully. Thank you each so much for your warm welcome!

Pelvis Restoration course on asymetrical pelvic influence

Pelvis Restoration course on asymetrical influences of the pelvis

The course was akin to being back on one’s favorite horse—saddle and content were true and just as they should be. Many thanks to Matthew McLaughlin for great discussion during the course and during break times. Thank you to Jason Huang, Ryan LaFountaine, Jessica Robinson, Cristi Cuellar and multiple others for your help with demonstration during lab sessions as we explored the many facets of this primary course about a pelvic inlet and outlet. Many interactions during both lecture and lab about clinical application hopefully proved beneficial to experienced veteran course participants and to the six-pack of those new to the science of PRI. This instructor enjoyed the respectful and vigorous participation from the class as we discussed optimizing neuromechanical position and triplanar control of hemipelvic inlets and outlets in order to allow alternating integrated function of synchronized ipsilateral pelvic and thoracic diaphraghms. Thank you all from ProActive PT and PRI who made this course possible once again, it really was and is good to be back!

Jesse Ham, CMP, PRC, PRI Faculty Member

Posted April 30, 2021 at 12:00PM

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Congratulations to the Newest PRI Director's Dedication Award Recipients!

This past week, at our Annual Interdisciplinary Integration Symposium, we presented the PRI Director’s Dedication Award to two very deserving individuals who not only were very instrumental in this year's symposium, but they have had a tremendous impact on our Institute over the years, and we have no doubt that they will continue to represent our Institute in the highest regard for many years to come. It was an easy decision to present this award to Jennifer Smart and Neal Hallinan. The PRI Director’s Dedication Award was established by the Board of Directors (Ron Hruska, Janie Ebmeier, Jennifer Platt and Bobbie Rappl) in 2012 to recognize individuals’ ongoing dedication to their advancement in PRI.

Past PRI Director’s Dedication Award recipients include: Susan Henning and Joe Belding (December 2012); Kyndall Boyle and James Anderson (April 2014); Michael Cantrell (December 2014); Jason Masek (April 2015); Michal Niedzielski (December 2015); Jennifer Poulin and Lori Thomsen (April 2017); Kentaro Ishii and Sayuri Abe-Hiraishi (December 2017); and Dan Houglum, Donna Parise Byrne & Josh Olinick (April 2019). An award recognition plaque, which is pictured above, is displayed at the Postural Restoration Institute® in Lincoln, Nebraska, recognizing each of the PRI Directors Dedication Award recipients.

Jennifer Smart is a Physical Therapist in Oriental, North Carolina, a town of approximately 900 people located on Neuse River which leads out to the Atlantic Ocean. Jen received her bachelors of physical therapy degree from the University of Maryland, and her doctorate of physical therapy degree from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She took her first PRI course in 2012, and completed PRC credentialing in 2015. Over the years, she has continued to immerse herself in the science of Postural Restoration® for the benefit of her patients, having completed 32 PRI courses. Over the past 3 years especially, Ron and Jen have been on a wave length of their own as they have spent copious hours preparing for this symposium, and I know that Ron has learned so much from Jen and her clinical experience working daily with patients who have been diagnosed with basal ganglia disease. I can honestly say that they have easily exchanged more than 100 email conversation threads, and I know that Ron has thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. I have no doubt that the breadth of knowledge that has resulted from this symposium will continue to grow, as the Institute becomes more relative in the prevention and management of neurological degenerative conditions. Many of you were able to see her passion as she presented at this symposium, and hopefully you whole-heartedly agreed with us that she was so deserving of this award!

Neal Hallinan is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and licensed massage therapist in New Jersey, just outside of New York City. To many, he might be known as “The PRI Trainer”, which has come through his website, podcasts and many YouTube videos. Neal attended his first PRI course in 2013, and he completed PRT credentialing in 2017. And he didn’t stop there. Over the years, Neal has completed 27 PRI courses. Neal’s personal journey and experience with PRI changed his career, and he will even say it changed his life. Through his passion to share his journey and experience with PRI both personally and as a movement specialist offering online coaching, he has easily touched 1,000’s across the country and internationally. There isn’t a week that goes by where one of us in this office doesn’t talk to someone who heard about PRI through Neal Hallinan’s website or videos. I am sure you have all heard patients or clients bring up his name as well! We not only were honored to have had Neal involved with this symposium, but we are so honored to have him represent this Institute as he continues to impact other’s lives through his nature of educating and coaching. We have no doubt that he will continue to help people discover their innate alternating rhythms through movement and dance for many years to come, and we were incredibly honored to present Neal Hallinan with the PRI Director's Dedication Award.

Congratulations to both Jen and Neal! We are so honored and proud to know you and have you associated with our Institute!

Jennifer Platt

Posted April 29, 2021 at 10:35AM

Categories: Postural Restoration Certified (PRC) Postural Restoration Trained (PRT)

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Pelvis Restoration - Live Stream - Course Review

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.

Lori Thomsen

Posted April 21, 2021 at 11:36AM

Categories: Clinicians Courses Techniques Science

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The Cantrell Center is HIRING!

The Cantrell Center for Physical Therapy & Wellness has an immediate job opening for:

PHYSICAL THERAPIST (PT)
PHYSICAL THERAPIST ASSISTANT (PTA)

***NEW GRADS, UPCOMING GRADS, & EXPERIENCED CLINICIANS MAY APPLY***

The Cantrell Center for Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine is a physical therapist-owned private practice and has been serving Middle Georgia for over 28 years. A Certified Postural Restoration Center since 2008, we’re proud to employee clinicians who have a passion for the science and value our one-on-one approach to patient care. We are currently looking to hire both a Physical Therapist and a Physical Therapist Assistant for our booming practice!

We currently have 2 Postural Restoration Certified Therapists (PRC's) in the clinic making us highly sought after by our referring physicians, our patients, and wellness members. We often have patients who travel out of town and even out of state to come to the Cantrell Center as we are the only Postural Restoration Certified Facility in the state of Georgia.

Located in Warner Robins, Georgia, the Cantrell Center is located in the Middle of the state! Just a quick drive to Atlanta or the beach, Warner Robins offers convenience to any interest without the crime rate and elevated costs of a larger city. Visit the website of Robins Regional Chamber for more information about the city of Warner Robins.

What makes The Cantrell Center a great place to work?
At the Cantrell Center, patient care is paramount and each team member’s gifts and experiences blend to create an atmosphere of integrity and encouragement. As part of our team, you will work side-by-side with like-minded and dedicated colleagues, while enjoying the opportunity to build your own career.

WE OFFER:
•   A Work/Life Balance — We understand that you have a family outside of work
•   Outstanding work environment – Beautiful, clean, state-of-the-art facility!
•   Commitment to clinical excellence – You’ll learn from the best!
•   Team atmosphere – Our employees care about each other!
•   Ethical standards – We have a reputation for the best patient care!
•   Constant training and learning – You will learn cutting edge PRI treatment methods
•   An excellent mentoring program for new hires – especially for new grads
•   Competitive salary and benefits package

To learn more about The Cantrell Center for Physical Therapy & Wellness...
•   Visit our website
•   Find us on LinkedIn
•   Find us on Facebook
•   Find us on Instagram
•   Learn about our Annual Cantrell Center 5K & Fun Run

If you’re interested in joining our team, please send your resume to pr@cantrellcenter.com.

Jen Zamora

Posted April 8, 2021 at 11:27AM

Categories: Clinicians

Myokinematic Restoration - Lincoln, NE - Course in Review

After almost a year to the day of the country shutting down, this course marked a refreshing beginning to some normalcy with teaching PRI Myokinematic Restoration again. We had at least 50 participants virtually with attendees in and outside of the U.S. ranging all the way from Canada, Slovenia, and the UK. We had 9 in person attendees that made the trek to Lincoln and served as the “models” for our myokinematic lab portion.

We began the first morning with didactic material learning all about the patterns of the L AIC. This included non pathology and pathology discussions in relation to the compensatory demands of the femur in the acetabulum. Respiration demands, underlying neurology and asymmetry helped to shape and understand the reasoning behind the L AIC pattern.

The weekend concluded with an ample amount of lab and hands on time, learning to assess position of the hip, compensatory findings, and frontal plane performance testing with the Hruska ADDuction test and Hruska ABDuction test. The attendees then went through myokinematic techniques to restore and retrain pathomechanics of the pelvis.

We had several thought provoking questions and the enthusiasm was great from the group and could be felt even virtually!

Kasey Ratliff, PT, DPT, PRC

Posted April 1, 2021 at 11:58AM

Categories: Courses Techniques Science

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12th Annual Symposium - Speaker Spotlight - Neal Hallinan

Neal Hallinan, CSCS, LMT, PRT will join Jennifer Smart and Ron Hruska as a presenter at this year's 12th Annual Interdisciplinary Integration Symposium. Neal has a unique understanding of the science of PRI, through his first hand experience as both a patient and a Postural Restoration Trained (PRT) provider, working with clients both locally in the NYC area and from the across the world. Although his first career began in the IT field, he sought out to find something he was truly passionate about, which was movement. Years of nagging pain led him to discover that movement could be healing. During a period of time spent living in Brazil, Neal first recognized the freedom of movement that many people living there expressed through dance. As the introduction and interest in this art of expression grew, Neal spent considerable time learning the steps and sequences of various styles of dance and fell in love with the influences of rhythm, percussion and beats that were included.

Neal began his journey with PRI in 2013, when he completed the three primary home study courses. He then went on to take many secondary and tertiary courses over the next several years, and continues to be very active within our Institute. "This was it" Neal recalls, as he had finally found answers to the patterns and positions he had noticed over time in his own body. He recalls his own personal journey changing when he could fully appreciate grounding and true sensory integration for the first time and discusses how in today's virtual world he tries to help his clients achieve the same level of sensory awareness through the use of PRI-based principles and techniques. Neal's interest in latin dance motion and so many other forms of rhythmic movement provided a natural fit to this years Symposium, focusing Basal Ganglia Disease and the management of kinesia paradoxica.

Learn more about Neal's upcoming presentations below, and also check out the most recent podcast episode where Neal, along with Ron Hruska discuss how these presentations will tie into movement disorders.

Inhibiting Inhibitions: Rediscovering Your Innate Alternating Rhythms Through Dance
-Neal Hallinan, CSCS, LMT, PRT
Dance is a fantastic way to get back in touch with the natural alternating rhythms of your body. This presentation will discuss the challenges of learning and teaching dance, how to find "the beat", and overcoming the inhibitions that hold us back. Please have space available for learning some foundational dance steps.

"How Do You Initiate Rhythmic Movement Provided by The Body For the Feet To Move?"
-Neal Hallinan, CSCS, LMT, PRT
Learning to dance traditionally starts with the feet. That's the easy part. Obtaining fluidity of movement requires integrated use of the thorax, arms, and head to produce a particular "style". I will introduce common elements of styling including: spinning/turning, contra-body motion, arm movement, and Cuban/Latin motion.

Jennifer Platt

Posted March 23, 2021 at 12:44PM

Categories: Postural Restoration Trained (PRT) Courses

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12th Annual Symposium - Speaker Spotlight - Jennifer Smart

Jennifer Smart, DPT, PRC is one of three speakers for this year's 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.”

Learn more about Jen’s upcoming presentations at our 12th Annual Interdisciplinary Integration below.

Practical Implication of Intervention and Management of Patients Who Have Been Diagnosed with Basal Ganglia Disease
-Jennifer Smart, DPT, PRC
The first half of this presentation will review a variety of diseases involving basal ganglia dysfunction, examining both their common and uniquely different motor and non-motor manifestations, while exploring not only the current and experimental pharmacological, surgical and physical treatment techniques that are being employed to treat them, but also the underlying reasoning behind each of these interventions. The second half of the presentation will focus more on a variety of evidence-based physical treatment programs, compiling the common effective visual, auditory, postural and respiratory components from each physical activity program. Emphasis will be placed on assessing how each technique addresses the temporal, lateralization and pressure regulatory deficits seen in people who have been diagnosed with Basal Ganglia Diseases (in order to unlock, through oscillatory function, the axial skeletal system from the appendicular skeletal system in an attempt to better balance the autonomic nervous system with the central nervous system).

A Clinical Perspective on Geocentricism, Lateralized Linkages, Sleep, Timing and Weight Shifting
-Jennifer Smart, DPT, PRC
The research states that the Basal Ganglia is involved in the perception of time, but what does that clinically mean? It means that a person with a Basal Ganglia disease, such as Parkinson’s, does not know how to navigate through space since such movement is inextricably linked to time, not only for understanding when to move but also at what speed (since speed is distance per unit of time) but also for knowing where they are (“five minutes from home”) and how to integrate all their moving parts. For example, knowing when to supinate and for how long to experience appropriate weight shifting in order to avoid over lateralization relies on timing. This presentation is going to discuss clinical ways to address the various issues involved with timing deficits, through visual, auditory, positional, and respiratory cuing, in people with Basal Ganglia deficits.

Clinical Case Study Presentations
-Jennifer Smart, DPT, PRC
This presentation will be a discussion of the treatment and management of several patients who have been diagnosed with Basal Ganglia Disease, either Parkinson’s Disease or Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). A few of the cases were ones in which Jennifer Smart had the opportunity to collaborate with Ron Hruska. Management discussion will include group exercise application, in addition to individual rehabilitation considerations.

RJ Hruska

Posted March 17, 2021 at 1:38PM

Categories: Courses

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Postural Respiration - Live Stream - Course in Review

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.

Robert George, Chiropractor

Posted March 3, 2021 at 3:07PM

Categories: Courses Techniques Science

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Updated Hruska Clinic Shoe List

The updated 2021 Hruska Clinic Shoe list is out!!

Based on Postural Restoration®principles to guide our decision making these shoes are picked based on qualities that we feel may be beneficial to assist patients and clinicians narrow their choices for appropriate footwear. There are shoes not on this list that are going to be good shoes for some and not every shoe on this list is going to be good for everyone but this is a guide to help.

Listen to Lori describe the most recent updates to our list for 2021!

To get your copy of the list go to https://www.hruska-clinic.com/shoe-list/

Hope this helps you all #PRINation!

https://youtu.be/2KU7btdMfJs

Torin Berge, PT, PRC

Posted February 23, 2021 at 10:04AM

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Cross Reference Dissection - Primary Non-Manual Techniques Workshop - Review

There are four kinds of documentation that most of us use to change our behavior:
1) Learning oriented tutorials.
2) Goal oriented how-to guides.
3) Understanding-orientated discussions.
4) And, information-oriented reference material.

Each of these four types of documentations usually have instances within the document that refers to related information elsewhere in the same document. This is important as it forms a network structure of relations that exist between different parts of data, dictionary-internal as well as dictionary-external. If the cross-reference mechanism is well designed, visibly or technically, the reader, and in this case, the course attendee, will be able to follow each and apply ‘cross-reference’ event, to the referenced content whether the content is presented visibly or technically.

The last example, of the four listed above, enhances usability and application of content in each of the PRI Non-Manual Techniques. Documentation or description that identifies direct reference and referent sites of consistent interest; is required so documentation that indirectly implicates cross references from these and other discrete or unconsidered sites can provide content-strategies to meet the desired needs and expectations, from both the provider and the participant.

As the author of these techniques, and as the author of cross-referencing design associated with each technique, effort to ensure that location and content of the target of the cross-reference in each technique needs to be consistent, regardless of the aptness of the provider or the participant.

These opportunities to provide my reasoning behind each of the techniques, that were selected by this course’s participants, are not exceeded in any other course offered in PRI. Therefore, the guidance I offer to answer questions on the ‘why’s, ‘when’s, ‘who’s and ‘what’s regarding each technique’s reference’s, referent’s, and cross-reference’s content, is an absolute unique opportunity for both the author and the attendee seeking behavior modification through documentation that is resourcefully dissected at a level that is unsurpassed in this Institute. Each technique (documentation) dissection experience is truly one of the most rewarding things I have done in my life. And I am grateful.

I want to thank Dan Houglum, Torin Berge, Dave Drummer, Jen, Hannah and RJ for their assistance in making this course so enjoyable to teach and apply to “real” life limitations and likenesses.