Essex Junction, VT

Home of Essex Physical Therapy and it’s famous PRC Owner Estelle Leclair MSPT, PRC. Estelle’s clinic has the only modern PRISM pool in the country!  Impact Physical Medicine and Aquatic Center in St. Paul, MN has the original prototype and Essex has the latest state-of-the-art iteration of the famous PRISM Pool. Yes, the one developed by Ron Hruska. Estelle and her husband Jeff decided that it was time to truly move forward and be the first in the nation to put into action this amazing PRI-based pool! I got in it and it was awesome!

During the weekend while I was there I taught Impingement and Instability (I&I) to about 30 great clinicians and we had more fun than a clown on fire!! For those of you not familiar, I&I is a deep-dive advanced course that explores exactly WHY people impinge body parts and have pain. You may be thinking that I am making it sound as though they have a choice. They DO! We choose to impinge and if you ever make it to this class you will discover not only WHY but also what to do about it. You will learn that every orthopaedic site of Impingement is actually the end result of neurologic phenomena. Sound wack?!  Listen to what one of the attendants said from this past weekend in VT. “I cannot believe that we could so easily correct what seems to be hard and fast positioning! Your demonstrations sealed the deal for me! I will NEVER look at a rotator cuff impingement syndrome the same again...EVER!!” You can also find yourself seeing the light through a lovely purple filter as well by taking this course. Oh, and if you’ve taken it before, keep in mind: A lot may have changed since then so it may be time to revisit!  God bless you all!!

What a solid group of professionals attended the PRI Integration for Fitness and Movement course this past weekend in Fort Collins, CO.  

 
It was a sold out class! Jam-packed with fitness professionals, DCs, PTs, ATCs and Strength Coaches -  additionally all having a diverse background in PRI – some were VIP newbies attending their first course while others were certified in PRI or had 17-19 PRI courses under their belt. I’m grateful to bring these diverse backgrounds together and offer something for everyone! I was really impressed with how the VIP newbies were catching on to the science so quickly.

This weekend I focused on breaking down our “5 steps” to building core stability and tri-planar movement variability through a PRI lens. Day one focused on sagittal plane organization and obtaining to maintain a symmetrically balanced ZOA on each half of the body. Day two focused on building strength and function with good positioning and grounding, emphasizing unilateral work to keep the axial frame unlocked and integrated for contralateral patterns of rotation – gait, reaching, rotation, throwing, jumping, running. Day 2 emphasized a lot of frontal plane for “functional fitness”- I call the frontal plane, the most neglected plane in many traditional exercises programs. It’s important that people learn how to integrate, program, coach and cue this plane more intentionally to help clients break through plateaus and stay symmetrically balanced.

This course is lab intensive!! And we even got to take lab outside this weekend to enjoy some 80+ degree sunshine midday.  

 
Thank you to our PRC lab assistants - Karen Hoyt and Megan Bollinger. You guys were a big help, thanks for helping me out and guiding attendees to set up and cue positioning better!

Lastly, it was great to have many of the staff members from Rebound Sports and Physical Therapy there in attendance. Thank you all for your hospitality and hosting this weekend!
I think it’s great that a team comes together to learn, grow and collaborate – plus it supports learning and integrating PRI more effectively. Can’t wait to hear how you guys integrate the material over the next few months. I hope to get back to Fort Collins one day – such a cool outdoorsy town and I didn’t get to explore enough of it!
 
Till next year #PRInation! Look out for our 2020 schedule. The Affiliate Courses are a great place to start and refine your practice with PRI.

“I have several cases I can apply this to already.”

“The course met the objectives to the full extent. Loved the course!”

“I am so glad I finally got to do a PRI course!”

“I learned a tremendous amount of information that my client base can benefit from.”

The physical therapy team of Charles George VA Medical Center hosted the most recent Postural Respiration course. This facility is considered among the top VA hospitals in the country, noted for its clinicians’ care and expertise. Surrounded by the splendor of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the 40 attendees, comprising PTs, OTs, PTAs, ATCs, DCs, and one student contemplated the asymmetrical diaphragm and its influence on pelvic-femoral and rib cage position and function. Movement starts with diaphragm, driving our lower half to one side while our upper half counter-rotates to the other. It’s a neurological concept, and it's what allows humans to be adept at things like throwing a ball, dancing, and doing flips and twists mid-air. Rib cages come in all shapes and sizes, formed not just by genetics but also by the activities a person engages in, positions they hold themselves in, and his or her unique responses to physical and emotional stress. However, regardless of rib morphology, every cage is under the influence of a powerful diaphragm that pulls it to the right, driving predictable patterns of air flow and movement. When not countered, and if skewed too far for too long, the result is pain, rib deformity, poor physiology, shortness of breath, anxiety, etc.

Lab time was generous to allow proficiency in PRI techniques, both manual and non-manual, and objective tests that indicate an individual’s neurological patterning and presence of pathology. Attendees experienced the power and swiftness of PRI’s neurological techniques -- inhibition and facilitation – to create changes to pathology-producing patterns. There isn’t a patient population out there that wouldn’t benefit from the PRI approach. Thank you to lab assistants Josh Owen, ATC, PRT, and Tracy-Lynn “I am SO ready to get my PRC” Schuster, DPT, whose guidance and clinical expertise provided clarity throughout the weekend. Great to see PRC clinics well-represented: Josh Olinick’s Steps for Recovery, Jen and Chris Poulin’s Sandhills Sports Performance, Advance PT, and Tracy Lynn’s Schuster Physical Therapy. Thank you to our avatars Debra Albrecht, PT; Nathan Crosby, DPT; Charles Fairbanks, PTA; Anthony Figuera, DPT; Linda Gutowski, DPT; Carl Heldman, DPT; Megan Humpal, PT; Caroline Lounsbury, ATC; Christiana Marron, DPT; and Pete West, DPT. Also thank you to our reader, Onyeamaechi Arinze, PT (my apologies again for botching your name all weekend. If we meet again, I’ll need to shorten it to “O”!). Finally, thank you so much to our hosts, who made the weekend go smoothly: Nathan, Anthony, Carol Harty, Deanna Mihok, Monica Sety, Keith Silcox, Pete, and Sharon Wisner. It was a pleasure to meet you all! Charles George VA will be hosting Pelvis Restoration in 2020. I highly recommend a visit to Asheville for this course. Be sure to treat yourself to a few days before or after the course to enjoy the gorgeous hikes and all that Asheville has to offer.

Rosencutter Ultra Fitness, also known as Rosen-Cutting Edge Fitness, was the location of their second hosted PRI course this past weekend. Nick Rosencutter is always looking for a way to help his clients improve whether it is thru strength and conditioning, nutrition, the latest in soft tissue workand especially PRI as it applies to performance and rehabilitation. Rosencutter Ultra Fitness had six of their trainers in attendance including Nick and they have a team approach integrating PRI into client programming. Position prep is part of their programming to provide sense awareness for neutrality before, during and after workouts. We discussed this weekend that PRI loves extension for power and performance--we just don't want you to stay in extension. Equally, and perhaps more important, is the issue of rest and neutrality via flexing into neutral with adequate rib internal rotation.

The job of strength and conditioning professionals is to help clients and athletes become stronger, faster, more skilled at movement and especially durable whether you are a grandmother picking up grand kids or an olympic speed skater. Since this class was attended by so many strength and conditioning individuals, the issue of "saggitalization" was explored as well as the ability or inability to maintain or achieve competent transverse plane-ability in rotational sports. Since all sports require rotation for power and performance, the ability to orient a pelvis fully left and right then have adequate and full counter rotation of a ribcage is a must for what is known as separation of torso and pelvis.

Testing and non-manual techniques are always "ah ha" moments as they relate to position pelvis, femur, ribcage, scapulae and even neck. What is driving these positions in this course and the best answer when a student is called upon? The diaphragm of course! Manual techniques included the big three that we cover in Postural Respiration as well as a two person infra-clavicular pump that is often needed for a person that loves to stay in extension even after the best efforts via non-manual techniques to get them neutral. Also in attendance were physical therapists, a massage therapist and an ATC from Alaska who was travelling locally with the hockey team he works with. Shout out to Nick and all of his staff for their support and enthusiasm this weekend.