The Postural Restoration Institute hosted the most recent rendition of Postural Respiration, with both an in-person and virtual group of movement professionals. They gathered with curious minds to learn about the human species’ propensity for patterned, inefficient respiration that directly leads to patterned, inefficient movement. PRI experience among attendees ran the gamut, from in-person attendee Jodi Reerink, PT, PRC, who has been around since PRI’s inception, to Drake Krogh, PTA, who was in-person for his very first continuing education course out of school.
Attendees gained newfound respect for the most important, and arguably least-understood, skeletal muscle in the body: the thoracic diaphragm, with its left-side/right-side differences in form and function. The diaphragm partners with other key muscles to direct airflow in and out of the body. This alternating, cyclical compression-decompression is sensed, not only within the lung tissue and rib cage, but also within our extremities and its corresponding joints and muscles. This sense informs the brain about position so that the brain, in turn, can direct the neuro-muscular system to preserve upright orientation.
When we lose hemi-diaphragm form and function, our movements become hijacked by overactive chains of muscles – namely, the right brachial chain, left anterior interior chain, and bilateral posterior exterior chains. As these chains exert their over-influence on movement, we become vulnerable to many of the syndromes that we treat: shortness of breath, headaches, thoracic inlet/outlet, and chronic overuse injuries. Our PRI tests and observations reflect these chains’ overactivity. Our PRI techniques re-establish the hemi-diaphragms’ form and function, the key to subduing these chains. If you aren’t incorporating airflow assessment and treatment into your patients’-clients’ programs, then you are depriving them of the key piece to rehab and recovery.
We are grateful to Katie Hedlund, DPT (fellow PT and PRC Christy Peterson’s mini-me); Hannah Horne, DPT; Dale Jensen, Feldenkrais practitioner; and Megan Kirwan, DPT, for their willingness to act as patient models for lab demonstrations of assessments and techniques. Thank you to all who asked questions, allowing deeper discussion of concepts. I hope to see many of you again at future courses!
– Louise Kelley
