News

“It’s been the best money I’ve ever spent on continuing education.”

CLICK HERE to read “What I learned in 2010” by Eric Cressey, CSCS.  Eric’s discussion of asymmetry learned from attending both Myokinematic Restoration and Postural Respiration has been featured by TNATION. Eric is president and co-founder of Cressey Performance near Boston, MA.  A highly sought-after coach for healthy and injured athletes alike, Eric has helped athletes at all levels – from youth sports to the professional and Olympic ranks – achieve their highest levels of performance in a variety of sports.  Behind Eric’s expertise, Cressey Performance has rapidly established itself as a go-to high performance facility among Boston athletes – and those that come from across the country and abroad to experience CP’s cutting-edge methods.  Eric is perhaps best known for his extensive work with baseball players, with more than four dozen professional players traveling to Massachusetts to train with him each off-season.

An accomplished author, Cressey has authored over 200 published articles in all.  Eric has published five books and co-created four DVD sets that have been sold in over 50 countries around the world.  Eric has been an invited guest speaker in five countries and more than one dozen U.S. states. His Master’s thesis, “The effects of 10 weeks of lower-body unstable surface training on markers of athletic performance,” was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and Cressey was a co-author for the International Youth Conditioning Association’s High School Strength and Conditioning Certification.

Eric’s writing and his work with athletes have been featured in such local and national publications as Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, ESPN, T-Muscle, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, Baseball America, The Worcester Telegram, Perform Better, Oxygen, Experience Life, Triathlete Magazine, Collegiate Baseball, Active.com, The Metrowest Daily News, Parents and Kids, and EliteFTS.

Last weekend, more than 20 Postural Restoration Certified (PRC) Therapists gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah for the 3rd National PRC Conference! The conference was deemed a great success and included the following presentations:

Jen Poulin – Importance of the Glute Med
Lori Thomsen – Interdisciplinary Integration and Vision Update; Pelvic Floor Dysfunction & New PRI Tests
Mike Cantrell – Postural Respiration Updates and Algorithms
James Anderson – Gait: Inhibition or Delay
Gibbie Duval, Jacob Wurth and J.R. Epley – Keynote Speakers on PRI in Strength & Conditioning

It was a great time of networking and sharing our passion for PRI!

Ron Hruska and I sat down today with Jason Masek who is the chair of our recently formed Recognition Committee. This Committee was created last year to review and recommend processes for Certified Athletic Trainers and Strength and Conditioning Coaches to achieve recognition for their training in Postural Restoration. The Committee will be conferencing again soon to discuss many pending details. In the meantime, we are sharing with you the course recommendations that have been reviewed and accepted by PRI. 

Course Requirements:
Myokinematic Restoration
Postural Respiration
Impingement & Instability
Advanced Integration will be recommended, however, not required.

Jason Masek has been busy blogging at the Hruska Clinic. CLICK HERE to read his patient-friendly analogies.

After 2 years of planning, Estelle LeClair, MPT, PRC of Essex Physical Therapy in Essex Junction, Vermont is proud to announce her plan for the first PRI Aquatic System!  Planning and design work is well under way with the pool scheduled to arrive this summer and open in the in 2012. We are excited to work with the Postural Restoration team to begin treating patients in the pool using the PRI principles that work for so many on land.  A huge thank you to Ron for bringing the science of Postural Restoration to aquatic design so that we are able to help more patients integrate PRI principles into daily living.  We are thrilled to be bringing this technology to Vermont, where PRI concepts are widely utilized in many physical therapy clinics and look forward to the collaborative efforts to improve patient outcomes through the use of this facility.

Before attending my first PRI course several years ago, I often felt as if my patients were stuck in a revolving door – we often “fixed” one problem only to have them return with a new injury or a different body part hurting.  The Interdisciplinary Integration and Cervical-Cranio-Mandibular Restoration courses provided invaluable insight into when and why our patients need another discipline to accomplish their goals.  The proverbial light bulb switched on.  I began working with a local dentist who has expertise in splint fabrication, and through him was introduced to Herb Blumenthal, DDS, an expert in non-surgical evaluation and treatment of TMD.  Dr. Blumenthal has utilized an interdisciplinary approach in his practice for many years.  He enlists the support of chiropractors, massage therapists, and cranio-sacral therapists in his treatment of complex patients with stomatognathic dysfunction.  Notice that he did not include Physical Therapists in that list.  As he explained to me, he often did not accomplish good outcomes with PTs, as they do not understand the relationships between muscular activity in polyarticular chains and occlusal patterns.  He was so impressed with how PRI evaluation and treatment coordinates with and compliments his dental intervention that he invited me to join him in Arizona, presenting to a group of dentists.  It was a wonderful experience; the dentists made immediate connections between common postural adaptations as described by PRI, and what they see daily in their clinics.  They recognized that a PRI trained therapist can be invaluable in helping them accomplish optimal results with their patients’ splint therapy, and with their own issues of pain and dysfunction.  After all, those in the dental profession have jobs with “attitude” involving strong patterns of sustained and repetitive neuro-motor activity. Surprisingly, only 1 dentist had referred to a PT.  The rest had no idea how to find and make contact with a qualified therapist.  I highly encourage each PRI trained therapist to seek out and promote working relationships with dentists that specialize in TMD.  These individuals have experience with splints in addition to the flat plane splints most commonly made by general dentists, and will be open to how splinting can be used in the treatment of not only TMD, but other types of head and neck pain.  I am grateful that my PRI training has enabled me to change that revolving door into an open door of cooperation with others as we strive to attain the best possible therapeutic outcomes for our patients. – Kathy Johnson

We have added the following courses to our 2011 schedule:

May 14-15
Postural Respiration
Rockford, IL

September 17-18
Myokinematic Restoration
Seattle, WA

September 24-25
Pelvis Restoration
Essex Junction, VT

November 5-6 (moved from September 17-18)
Impingement & Instability
Seattle, WA

Addalyn Renee Rappl! Addy was born on Saturday, January 8th, 6 lbs. 12 oz. 19 1/2 in.
Bobbie, Mark and Addy are doing great! Thank you for all the emails and calls wishing them well. We look forward to Bobbie’s return in March and in the meantime we are enjoying their occasional visits and photos:)

Ron Hruska was invited to participate in the 2011 Sports Rehab to Sports Performance Teleseminar. The teleseminar is launching on January 11th with a new interview going up every week through March 15. Ron’s interview is scheduled for January 18th. The interviews are FREE to all, but you do need to SIGN-UP in order to receive links to the interviews.  Here is the complete speaker line up this year:

Sue Falsone PT, Athletes’ Performance and LA Dodgers
Ron Hruska – PT, Postural Restoration Institute
Dr. Mike Leahy – DC, Active Release Technique
Thomas Myers – LMT,  author “Anatomy Trains”
Brian Grasso – International Youth Conditioning Association
Greg Roskopf – Muscle Activation Technique
Brian Mulligan – PT, Mulligan Concept, Mobilizations with Movement
Dr. Warren Hammer – DC,  Graston Technique, Fascial Manipulation
Dan John – Strength Coach, author “Never Let Go”
Gray Cook – PT, FMS,  author “Movement’ Book”

Click HERE to read more about each speaker and the topics they will discuss.

Ron Hruska will be traveling to Virginia Beach on January 15-16 to present Impingement & Instability. We have confirmed the course with 11 attendees. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn in this small course environment. You’ll have ample opportunity for question and answer discussion. Specific guidelines will be offered for assessment and treatment of calcaneal instability, knee instability, hip impingement, shoulder impingement, and multidirectional HG and FA instability. Here are a few comments from previous attendees:

Thank you for the Impingement and Instability course.  I am glad you focused on the “system” and integrating it.  I had an AHA moment and now I’m looking for what I should inhibit and use to get patients into neutral without any manual techniques.  It’s faster and easier to look for what to turn off and shut down to start retraining.

This course in some ways was more integrated than the Advanced Integration course.  I found it very useful at “pulling” together a lot of ideas and concepts.  The main concepts of calcaneal instability, patellar instability, pelvic instability and scapular instability are fantastic!

Our 2011 course brochure is hot off the press! Click HERE to view an electronic copy or contact us with your address to be sure that one arrives in your mailbox.

“Integrating AF IR and AF ER into Single Leg Dynamic Training” is the latest article written by Lisa Bartels, PT, PRC for the Performance Conditioning newsletter.  You can read it HERE!