Tag: The Sensitive Nervous System

Death of Vertical Tibia, Usain Bolt, Complex Patients, and More – Movement Debrief Episode 13

Movement Debrief Episode 13 yesterday involved quite a few rants. Must’ve been the ketones talking. Here’s what we talked about: Restoring sensation with my patient with low back pain Why it’s okay to have an angled tibia during squatting Would any intervention help/hurt Usain Bolt? The complexity of Usain Bolt Struggling with a complex patient Dealing with uncertainty Embracing the struggle If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. (occasionally) They air every Wednesday at 8:30pm CST. Enjoy. Here were some of the links I mentioned in this Debrief. How to Deadlift – A Movement Deep Dive Squatting Bar Reach – A Movement Deep Dive The Sensitive Nervous System – Read my book notes here Clinical Neurodynamics- Read my book notes here A Study of Neurodynamics: The Body’s Living Alarm Mobilisation of the Neuroimmune System – Read the course notes here Explain Pain– Read the course notes here Extreme Ownership The Obstacle is the Way Ego is the Enemy The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Restoring Sensation Death of Vertical Tibia Usain Bolt Complex Patients

Read More

Continuing Education: The Complete Guide to Mastery

75 That’s my number. No, not that number.   75 is the number of continuing education classes, conferences, home studies, etc that I’ve completed since physical therapy school. Though the courses are many, it was probably too much in a short period of time. When quantity is pursued, quality suffers. Sadly, I didn’t figure out how to get the most out of each class until the latter end of my career. Two classes in particular stand out: Mobilisation of the Nervous System by the NOI Group, and ART lower extremity. Yes, the content was great, but these classes stood out for a different reason. You see, instead of just doing a little bit of prep work, I kicked it up a notch. I extensively reviewed supportive material, took impeccable notes, and hit all the other essentials needed to effectively learn. I was prepared, and because I was prepared I got so much more out of these classes than my typical fair.  The lessons learned in those courses stick with me to this day. For the stuff you really want to learn, I’ll encourage you to do the same. Here is the way to get the most out of your continuing education. By the time you are done reading this post, you’ll understand why I now recommend a more focused learning approach and fewer courses. Let’s see how to do it.  

Read More

9 weeks with Bane, I mean Zac…Oops Sorry Wrong CI

Note from Zac: This is my first guest post, and to start things up is the one and only Trevor Rappa. Trevor was my intern for the past 9 weeks and he absolutely killed it. Here is his story. It’s very exciting for me to get to write a guest post for Zac’s blog that I have read so many times and learned so much from. The experience I have had with him over these past 9 weeks has been incredible and I hope to share some of it with all of you that read this. He challenged me to think critically in every aspect of patient interaction: how I first greet them, which side of them I sit on, the words I use, and how I explain to the patient why I chose the exercises they’ll go home with. All of this was to create a non-threatening environment to help to patient achieve the best results they can. He also taught me how to educate patients with a TNE approach, incorporate other interventions such as mirror therapy into a PRI based treatment model, and deepened my understanding of the neurologic concepts behind performance. Therapeutic Neuroscience Education Perception of threat can lead to a painful experience which will cause a change in behavior. It’s the PT’s role to introduce a salient stimulus to attenuate the perception of threat in order to cause a positive change in experience and behavior (Zac and I came up with that, I really like it). Pain

Read More

The Post Wonderful Time of the Year: 2014 Edition

And That’s a Wrap It’s that time of the year that we get to look back and reflect and what posts killed it (and which bombed). It seems as though my fine fans be on a pain science kick this year, and rightfully so. It’s some of the best stuff on the PT market right now. It’s definitely a topic I hope to write about more in the coming year, and one I will be speaking on at this year’s PRC conference. But without further ado, here are the top 10 posts of 2014. 10. Treatment at the Hruska Clinic: PRI Dentistry and Vision Going through the treatment process as a patient has really upped my game in terms of knowing when to integrate with my patients. It has also been a life-changing experience for my health and well-being. Learn how they did it for me. 9. Course Notes: THE Jen Poulin’s Myokinematic Restoration So much fine tuning occured the second time around. I love how Jen acknowledged the primitive reflex origin of the patterns, as well as fine tuning both lift tests. She’s an excellent instructor (and fun to party with)! 8. Treatment at the Hruska Clinic: Initial Evaluation The start of my alternating and reciprocal saga. Made for one of the most fascinating evaluations I have ever experienced. Ron Hruska is otherworldly. 7. Course Notes: PRI Postural Respiration I love a good foundational course taught by the Ronimal. You always get a few easter eggs that allude to

Read More

PRI and Pain Science: Yes You Can Do It

Questions You may have noticed that my blogging frequency has been a little slower than the usual, and I would like to apologize for that. I am in the midst of creating my first course that I am presenting to my coworkers. It has been a very exciting yet time-consuming process. It makes me excited and more motivated to someday start teaching more on the reg. Ever since I started blogging people started asking me questions. These range from many topics regarding physical therapy, career advice, and the like. Some of the more frequent ones include: What courses should I look at? Any advice for a new grad? Seriously, Bane. What’s the deal? But the one I get asked more often then not is as follows: “Zac, how do you integrate PRI into a pain science model?” A great question indeed, especially to those who are relatively unfamiliar with PRI. With all the HG, GH, AF, FA, and FU’s, it’s easy to get lost in the anatomical explanations. Hell, the company even has the word (gasp) “posture” in the title. Surely they cannot think that posture and pain are correlated. I think there is a lot of misinformation regarding PRI’s methodology and framework. What needs to be understood is that PRI is a systematic, biopsychosocial approach that predominately (though not exclusively) deals with the autonomic nervous system. The ANS is very much linked into pain states, though not a causative factor. But of course, that may not be enough. Perhaps

Read More

Course Notes: Therapeutic Neuroscience Education

How’s Your Pain How’s Your Pain How’s Your Pain How’s Your Pain? To purge onward with developing some semblance of chronic pain mastery (ha), my employer had the pleasure of hosting a mentor and good friend Adriaan Louw. I first heard Adriaan speak in 2010 when I was in PT school. I was amazed at his speaking prowess and the subject matter. Unfortunately, my class could only stay for a little while in his course, and onward life went. I went on with my career focusing on structure and biomechanics and forgetting about pain. It wasn’t until I ran into Adriaan again two years later. He was teaching me Explain Pain (EP), and forever changed how I approached patient care. It’s funny how things have come full circle.  Here we are, Adriaan teaching Therapeutic Neuroscience Education (TNE) through The International Spine and Pain Institute (ISPI), and me promoting his work to my colleagues. A lot has changed in two years. EP and TNE are quite different courses, and I learned so much this weekend that I continue to become more engrossed with what I do. So thank you, Adriaan, for playing a huge role shaping me into who I am today.  I have now become very much more interested in what ISPI has to offer, and I think you should too. And no worries Adriaan, I will stay hungry 🙂 So without further ado, here is what I learned. The Power of Words  It’s getting worse. One person out of

Read More

Course Notes: Explain Pain

A Whirlwind I finally had the opportunity to meet my personal Jesus, David Butler, and learn the way that he explains the pain experience to patients. It was an interesting weekend to say the least. The course started off with a smash…literally. We had the unfortunate experience of someone breaking into our car to start the trip off. Then once we arrived to the course, we were informed that Dave was going to be 2 hours late. He was staying in Philly (where I also experienced flight troubles last week) and a snowstorm with a name no one cares about stopped his flight. So Dave drives all the way from Philadelphia, “tilting his head back to rest” for 1 hour, and then what happens? He, along with the other instructors, drive to the wrong campus. So after all these crazy things happen, Dave finally makes it to the course, sets up his presentation, plays a little Bob Marley, and……………… Kills it. I mean, absolutely kills it. To see Dave present this topic under the above circumstances and be on the entire time is a testament to the type of speaker and professional he is. David Butler is one of, if not the best speaker I have ever heard. So I’d like to thank you, Dave, for making an otherwise stressful weekend memorable and exciting. I look forward to applying what I have learned. If you haven’t taken a course from the NOI Group, please do so yesterday! So what did

Read More

The Year of the Nervous System: 2014 Preview

It’s All Part of the Plan And if you see my course schedule this year, the plan is indeed horrifying.   I wanted to write a post today to somewhat compose my thoughts and plans for this year, as well as what I am hoping to achieve from the below listed courses. Because of the course load and some of my goals for the year, I am not sure what my blogging frequency will look like. I have begun to pick up some extra work so I am able to attend as much con ed as I do. The Amazon affiliate links that I don’t get money for because I live in Illinois simply cannot pay for classes :). I am just putting these links up here because I want to encourage you to read these books on your own. Use my site as a guide through them. Big Goals My biggest goal for this year is to successfully become Postural Restoration Certified (PRC), and my course schedule below supports this goal. The amount that I use this material and the successes that have come along with it simply compel me to become a PRI Jedi. I see the PRC as a means to achieving this goal. The application thus far has been quite time-consuming. There are a total of 3 case studies, 5 journal article reviews, and tons of other writing that has to be done. Couple that with studying the material, and I have had a very busy

Read More

The Post Wonderful Time of the Year: Top Posts of 2013

The Best…Around Time is fun when you are having flies. It seems like just yesterday that I started up this blog, and I am excited and humbled by the response I have gotten. Hearing praise from my audience keeps me hungry to learn and educate more. I am always curious to see which pages you enjoyed, and which were not so enjoyable; as it helps me tailor my writing a little bit more. And I’d have to say, I have a bunch of readers who like the nervous system 🙂 I am not sure what the next year will bring in terms of content, as I think the first year anyone starts a blog it is more about the writing process and finding your voice. Regardless of what is written, I hope to spread information that I think will benefit those of you who read my stuff. The more I can help you, the better off all our patients and clients will be. So without further ado, let’s review which posts were the top dogs for this year (and some of my favorite pics of course). 10.  Lessons from a Student: The Interaction This was probably one of my favorite posts to write this year, as I think this area is sooooooo under-discussed. Expect to be hearing more on patient interaction from me in the future. 9) Clinical Neurodynamics Chapter 1: General Neurodynamics Shacklock was an excellent technical read. In this post we lay out some nervous system basics, and

Read More

Course Notes: PRI Impingement and Instability

Soooooooooo Dense It has been a long, busy, and great few weeks for me. After attending a cluster of courses, playing around with some new jobs, moving, and working, I got some time to settle down and review PRI’s I&I material. I traveled to Phoenix to take this course. My man James Anderson taught and several good friends attended. James did not disappoint. I&I was easily one of, if not the best course I have ever taken. You did it again PRI! The only real disappointment was leaving Arizona. The temperature was in the 80’s and the sun was shining. Now here I am in the Midwest with the temp in the mid-20’s. Why did I stay here again? 🙂 This course combined and fleshed out the concepts of respiration and myokin, and added so many more layers onto what we previously learned. I&I was what DNS C should have been. I left the course with many answers, but double the questions. You truly cannot appreciate how complex the nervous system is, and how the total body responds to perceived threat until you delve into this material. I am so excited to learn more. This course had so much information regarding the entire body that there is no way I could post all the relevant info and do it justice. It really was a 4 day course done in 2. So here are a few of the gems I got from this weekend. The PRI Basis The course started off

Read More

Chapter 8: Method of Treatment: Systematic Progression

This is a Chapter 8 summary of “Clinical Neurodynamics” by Michael Shacklock. Let’s Treat the Interfaces The two main ways to treat interfaces involve opening and closing techniques. These treatments involve either sustained or dynamic components. We will discuss which techniques work best in terms of dysfunction classification. – Reduced Closing Dysfunction – Given static openers early in this progression, continuing to increase frequency and duration. Eventually you move to more aggressive opening techniques, while finishing with closing maneuvers. – Reduced Opening Dysfunction – Start with gentle opening techniques working to further increasing the range. – Excessive Closing and Opening Dysfunctions – Work on improving motor control and stability. How About Neural Dysfunctions The main treatments are sliders and tensioners; each can be performed as one or two-ended. Sliders ought to be applied when pain is the key symptom. Sliding may milk the nerves of inflammation and increase blood flow. These techniques could also be used to treat a specific sliding dysfunction. Sliders can be performed for 5 to 30 reps with 10 seconds to several minute breaks between sets. Increased symptoms such as heaviness, stretching, and tightness is okay, but pain should not occur afterwards. Typically sliders are performed in early stages, and in acute situations should occur away from the offending site. Tensioners are reserved for higher level tension dysfunctions. The goal is to improve nerve viscoelasticity. Some symptoms are likely to be evoked, but this occurrence is okay as long as symptoms do not last.  Tensioners are

Read More

Course Notes: Mobilisation of the Nervous System

I Have an Addiction It seems the more and more that I read the more and more and read the more and more addicted I become to appreciating the nervous system and all its glory. To satisfy this addiction, I took Mobilisation of the Nervous System with my good friend Bob Johnson of the NOI Group. This was the second time I have taken this course in a year’s span and got so much more value this time around. I think the reason for this enrichment has been the fact that I have taken many of their courses prior and that I prepared by reading all the NOI Group’s books. A course is meant to clarify and expand on what you have already read. So if you are not reading the coursework prior, you are not maximizing your learning experience. What made this course so much more meaningful was being surrounded by a group of like-minded and intelligent individuals. As many of you know, I learned much of my training through Bill Hartman. Myself, Bill, the brilliant Eric Oetter and Matt Nickerson, my good friend Scott, and my current intern Stephanie, all attended. When you surround yourself with folks smarter than you, the course understanding becomes much greater. This course was so much more with the above individuals, so thank you. Try to attend courses with like-minded folks. Here are the highlights of what I learned. If you would like a more in-depth explanation of these concepts, check out my

Read More