This week I will be discussing a specialized type of physical therapy that I have taken an interest in over the past few years.  Both Matt and I have taken numerous courses in the study of Postural Restoration based out of Lincoln, Nebraska.  Ron Hruska, a PT practicing in Lincoln developed the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) after practicing for 26 years and recognizing certain patterns that occurred in his patients, regardless of diagnosis.  Ron is currently the biomechanical consultant for the University of Nebraska volleyball team and lectures extensively across the United States on his approach to maximizing symmetry throughout the body to coaches, physical therapists, physicians and other healthcare providers.  I was lucky enough to study under Ron and his staff as an intern at PRI and I still use many of the principles learned there in my daily practice as a PT here at Alliance Physical Therapy.  In order to understand why this type of approach may help you, think about the things you do everyday in the same manner such as always reaching for objects with the right arm and sitting the same way at the computer.  Over time these repetitive postural positions may develop into muscle imbalances.  When these normal imbalances are not regulated by reciprocal function during walking, breathing or turning, a strong pattern emerges creating structural weaknesses, instabilities and musculoskeletal pain syndromes.  In athletes this is often magnified as many sports consist of repetitive activity with one side of the body with large amounts of force.  It is easy to see how these activities can cause muscular imbalance when you watch a volleyball player serve or spike the ball over a thousand times  over the course of a season.  The same holds true for a baseball pitcher.  In coming weeks I will be discussing how the PRI approach can help athletes of specific sports including running, volleyball, baseball and of course my favorite, cycling.  Until then . . .

Yours in health,

Val