Fortius Sport and Health in Vancouver is not only a world class Mecca for athletes wanting to perform at the highest level and for patients recovering from an injury, but it is also a practitioners dream location for a progressive, state-of-the-art, and integrative environment to work in and hone their professional skills. Fortius was developed as an enormous community based sport rehab and facility in the suburb of Burnaby, near Vancouver, that includes several ice rinks, grass fields for field sports and a world class weight training facility including basketball courts and therapy pools. There is a vision center for concussion rehabilitation. Physical therapists, chiropractors, athletic trainers and sport performance specialists all work in an environment that is focused on mutual respect and collaboration to provide the very best in athlete/patient outcomes. Regular meetings are scheduled with all practitioners to discuss cases including having medical consultations available for athletes. This group of practitioners that attended, many of which were from Fortius, had their first introduction to PRI this weekend. One husband and wife team from the US had taken Postural Respiration through a home study course and loved it so much that they opened up their new clinic based on breathing and respiration principles. This was their first live course for Postural and having a hands-on experience was invaluable from their response. Jon Rowe, CSCS, PRT is the only PRT/PRC in Canada and drove 4 hours through the mountains to assist this weekend from a town called Kelowna. Jon is a quiet force and by Sunday was providing an amazing amount of insight and help to new students. Some of the questions that came up included what does PRI teach in terms of breathing? Well, let’s just start with an ability to exhale fully and pause before taking a full breath in. Combine that with a new neurologic and bio-mechanical re-position or non-manual technique and now unlocking the secrets to a balanced bi-lateral human being is possible. It seems simple to veterans of PRI that if you hope to master breathing, you must see for starters that a left hamstring, glute, IO/TA’s are needed to create a left (and right) ZOA of a diaphragm. All the breathing techniques in the world aren’t going to re-position, re-train or restore function and performance without this basic building block. This one concept was reinforced though out the weekend. Many thanks to Ryan Murray, DPT and Erik Torchia, DPT for hosting this weekend in such a beautiful facility, city and country.
