The Technical Models course guides you from just another coach or clinician to seeing what others don’t and fixing what others can’t. In 12 weeks, you will be one step closer to confidently helping every lifter, client, and patient improve their strength, health, and resilience, taking your career to the next level ASAP.
The PRS Blackboard Technical Models course is designed to help you learn the biomechanics behind barbell training and how to effectively coach, assess, and correct movement. At the end of the course, you'll have all the tools and support you need to quickly and successfully help any level athlete without breaking the bank and in the comfort of your own home.
This course focuses on bringing you the best education and instruction on the how & why for all the lifts, provide you video coaching opportunities weekly, as well as Live Q & As with the PRS Clinical Educators. Our online course is even more interactive and long-lasting than a 2-hour, in-person private intensive or crowded seminar.
We’ve formatted this course in the same way as the Programming Fundamentals course, but it includes much more review of your videos and even your current clients’ and friends’ videos as part of the learning process.
This course is one of the Core Course requirements for the PRS Clinical Coach Credential or the PRS Coach Certificate of Excellence.
What does it mean to be a PRSCC?
(If you’re not a clinician, don’t worry - hang on till the end!)
Shortly after my first year in powerlifting, I started building my niche practice. I knew there was something more out there than the mill-model physical therapy practice, manual therapy techniques, and modalities. I experienced it myself. After struggling for years with knee pain and plantar fasciitis, receiving injections and PT (which included heat, stim, ultrasound, and Bosu ball balancing) without relief, my pain went away when I started barbell training.
As I began to practice physical therapy in 2012, I hated to get a prescription from a doctor that said, “ultrasound, massage, no resistance.”
I knew that passive treatment and inactivity were never going to help people long-term. Patients became reliant on the hands of PTs, and the thought of a tune-up killed me. Science proves it, but the authoritative words of a doctor’s narrative become burned in the patient’s brain.
What’s worse was seeing powerlifter’s careers end because of injuries and surgeries followed up with severe restrictions in range of motion and weight for months. Or seeing people become old and frail because they’ve been scared into thinking that lifting weights will damage their backs, knees, and shoulders more than becoming osteoporotic and weak will hurt them when they fall in 15 years.
I became frustrated by the limitations that standard outpatient practices set on the quality and individualization of physical therapy treatment due to inadequate insurance reimbursement rates and the general lack of knowledge surrounding the concept of progressive overload and exercise.
In 2014 I met Brandon Lilly after his massive bilateral knee blow-out at the LA Fit Expo. In his social media posts, it was apparent that he had no clue what his injury was, what the surgery meant, how long the recovery process was, and if and how he’d ever get back to high-level competition. So I reached out to him.
I was shocked; he responded to my message. And so it began. I became Brandon Lilly’s “pocket PT.”
From afar, I helped him navigate the ins and outs of recovery of multiple surgeries, restore his range of motion, his strength, and his faith in his body. It was with Brandon that I knew I wanted to educate and help powerlifters overcome the impossible and the restrictive mindset that authoritative medical doctors bestow upon us. And it was with Brandon that I realized I never had to put my hands on someone to help them heal.
Shortly thereafter, Progressive Rehab & Strength was born.
Over the years, I’ve developed my clinical practice to focus on helping people take ownership of their pain and injuries by understanding the injury and healing process, improving strength, and optimizing their movement within the context of their bodies and lives. As my practice as a coach and clinician has grown, many students and clinicians have reached out to me for advice and help on how to build their knowledge of barbell training, technique, and programming so they can better help their clients and grow their practice. I’ve had many PTs intern with me over the years and have finally put my system into an online course series — the Blackboard.
The prs Blackboard is designed to teach you what our education system fails to teach us.
Instead of going into practice with the outdated models of manual therapy and pain management, you’ll go into practice with tools to build client autonomy, strength, and resilience. You’ll be backed by a network of other like-minded clinicians and coaches who value active therapy, resistance training, and get clients results without over-billing and creating client-clinician dependence.
Our Mission:
PRS’s mission is to provide unparalleled, yet simplistic, strength-based rehabilitation and coaching to people who wish to live their optimal life through the use of evidence-based, active, and individualized treatment plans and programming.
Having the PRS Clinical Coach Credential means you:
Utilize evidence-based rehabilitation tools, bio-mechanically sound movement models, as well as custom, highly monitored programming design to help your clients in the best way possible.
Take a holistic approach to each client, allowing you to help them better and more thoroughly than anyone they have worked with in the past.
Have a doctorate in physical therapy, chiropractic, medicine, or a degree in dietetics, are an athlete, and strength-based coach.
Have a background that drives your assessment, treatments, and progressions by viewing clients as unique individuals from a micro and macro level.
Are an athlete who is active in your sport and athletic community giving you greater understanding and appreciation for your clients’ experiences as a whole.
Act as an advocate and teacher for your clients and community through education and support.
Receiving the PRSCC means you have undergone the 4 core courses of our Blackboard education system and can competently implement rehabilitation programs that most thoroughly meet the needs of not just the injury, but the client’s sport, by dedicating time to fully assess clients as people and athletes, review their injury history, course of treatment thus far, and analyze their program, mechanics, and posture to provide uniquely designed active treatment plans to get them back to sport and life better and stronger than before.
It is our mission to provide an affordable, guided platform for you to leave outpatient private practice and open your small practice utilizing the PRS System. We aim to decrease the barriers eager, motivated, and autonomous clinicians face when opening their small practices. We aim to provide start-up and continued professional support through our online Blackboard Courses and the development of our growing clinical network.
For coaches without clinical doctorates, completion of our three core courses (Programming Fundamentals, Technical Models, and Business Best Practices) provides you with a PRS Certificate of Excellence (the PRS Coach certificate). This certificate means you have demonstrated competency in our system of movement assessment and instruction, programming, and injury risk reduction to best help your lifters achieve their long term goals in the safest, smoothest, and best way possible.
Not a coach or clinician? Don’t fear! This course is still for you!
PRS Clinical Coaches have the opportunity to open PRS Rehab & Training Centers, using our system and support to grow your independently owned private practices. Both PRS Clinical Coaches and PRS Coaches have the opportunity to maintain a profile on the PRS website and provide online coaching services with us as well. Completion of the four (or three) core courses with an 85% pass rate for all exams and case studies is required to receive the credential or certificate.
As a recap of how the course is structured:
It’s delivered live over twelve weeks so that you have time to get through the material and don’t let it lag for years without completing it.
The Live lectures are recorded and available within 24 hours, giving you access to review or catch up, so you don’t always have to attend each lecture.
We provide pre-course material four weeks before the start of the course so that we can get right into the meat and potatoes of programming when the course begins.
There are extra reading and video materials for each lecture to support what you’re learning inside the lectures.
Every lecture will have outlines and templates so you can easily take notes and stay focused on what we’re discussing.
We have an exclusive Facebook community where you can ask questions, get support, and practice your skills directly with other classmates and Dr. Rori Alter.
There will be a series of Case Study assignments, so you can put what you learn into practice.
You will get personal reviews and critiques of your case studies delivered directly to your email from Dr. Rori Alter so that you not only practice but learn.
At the end of the course, you’ll be able to schedule a 1-hour video consultation with Dr. Rori to review the practical application of what you learned in the course with your clients.
You will have:
Six months of full access to the course so you can continue to review and learn after it ends.
Course lifetime access to the Facebook group where you can get continued programming support from the PRS Clinical Coaches.
Not a coach or clinician? Don’t fear! This course is still for you!
The Technical Models course is where athletes, coaches, and clinicians develop a strong understanding of movement mechanics, assessment, coaching, and modifications. At the end of this course, you’ll have a keen eye for picking up movement deviations, language to coach all athlete types and help your lifters reduce injury risk and maximize outcomes in all settings. In this course, you will learn the conceptual and biomechanical features of the main barbell movements and their variation lifts. Over 12 weeks, we dive deeply into technical execution, coaching progressions, when, why, and how to substitute each lift, as well as the most common issues trainees, have and how to fix them.
Here’s what you’ll learn in the course:
PART 1
Module 1: Foundations of a Technical Model
Lecture 1: Biomechanices
In this lecture we’ll review general biomechanics and muscle function and then identify its application to the body-barbell system. A general review of kinesiology will be provided through handouts and readings. At the completion of this lecture participants will have an understanding of physics and biomechanics as it relates to barbell training so it can be applied in future lectures to the squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, assessment, and injury risk reduction.
Lecture 2: Conceptual Ideas
Lecture 2 covers the conceptual ideas related to safe and effective barbell training. We discuss movement models as it related to all barbell exercises looking at the difference between form deviations and form break down and what roles each play injury risk. At the end of this lecture participants will understand the 8 key elements that apply to all barbell movements for safe and effective training, injury risk reduction, and pain elimination.
Lecture 3: Barbell Lift Categories
This lecture focuses on discussing the various types of barbell lift categories and the role they play in developing technique, supporting strength development, and assisting in rehabilitation. We also unpack how we can use different movement variation with individuals with injuries or movement limitations. At the end of this lecture participants will understand when and why to implement lift variations based on the individual’s unique needs.
Module 2: Movement Analysis
Lecture 4: Coaching Movement
In the Coaching Movement lecture we discuss the motor learning process from both the lifter and clinician perspectives and how the evolve together based on the lifter’s response. At the end of this lecture participants will have an understanding of how to approach coaching from a top down approach. They will understand the difference between teaching and cuing movements and the various ways to deliver each throughout the course of time working with an athlete.
Lecture 11: Assessing & Correcting Movement
Assessing & Correcting Movement focuses on teaching the participants how to observe lifters under the barbell from a macro and micro level. We cover movement assessment, observational assessment, and the various assessment angles. We also discuss how to perform video and in-person analysis and then dive into prioritizing what to address via a hierarchy of movement correction based on our 8 key elements of movement variation and understanding of coaching evolution. At the end of this lecture the participants will have the background knowledge to generally evaluate any barbell exercise to identify form deviations and possible contributing factors to injury or injury risk.
Part 1 is followed by a short answer & multiple choice exam.
PART 2
Part Two of this course covers the four main barbell lifts for strength development in any strength & conditioning program, powerlifting, CrossFit, bodybuilding, and weightlifting. There will be two lectures dedicated to each lift except for the overhead press, in which the same information is condensed into one lecture. The format and information for each lift lecture is outlined below.
Lecture A: In lecture A for each lift we will discuss the technical execution covering bar, grip, and foot placement, eye gaze, as well as bar path on the ascent and descent. We will discuss how it applies to the elements we discussed in module 1 of the course and discuss when, why, and how to substitute based on the individual’s abilities and goals. Two educational handouts will be delivered to participants to discuss variation and teaching progressions for each lift. At the end of Lecture A for each lift, participants will have the confidence to correctly teach the barbell lifts for safe strength development and injury risk reduction.
Lecture B: Lecture B focuses on exposing participants to the most common issues and form deviations that contribute to injury and poor performance for each lift. Half the lecture will be spent reviewing videos of various lifters to practice movement analysis and identify errors and deviations discussed in Lecture A and the beginning half of Lecture B.
Module 3: The Lower Body
Lecture 6: Squat A
Lecture 7: Squat B
Lecture 8: Deadlift A
Lecture 9: Deadlift B
Module 3: The Upper Body:
Lecture 10: Bench Press A
Lecture 11: Bench Press B
Lecture 12: Press A & B
Part 2 is followed by a short answer & multiple choice exam as well as video analysis for each lift.
Here’s what people are saying!
“It's the only programming material that I've encountered (I've done an RTS classroom plus read loads of programming books) that has translated the theory into practice with tangible examples. The fact that we have [the opportunity] to write programmes and get feedback on them from a super knowledgeable powerlifting coach is the primary reason I signed up. I've never had that opportunity before...I have done some programming before but it was all a bit shaky with progression, in particular being, a real challenge. This course has made me so much more confident about my ability to programme.”
-Sara Carr, Cairo, Egypt
“I have never had any formal education in the sport of powerlifting outside of YouTube videos, podcasts and ebooks. Rori’s course was my first exposure to high level education regarding the sport. I took her course covering Barbell Technique and the course was like taking a human anatomy, biomechanics, and sports psychology class rolled into one. Her courses are worth every penny and you will not find anything like it! I highly recommend the PRS Blackboard; not only to lifters, but also coaches who want to better their craft.”
- Samantha Calhoun, USAPL 63kg National Champion
“The information is covered well and in a way that makes it easier to digest than reading it. I enjoy the lectures and real-world examples - I'm an auditory and kinesthetic learner so it is helpful.”
-Dr. Danielle Holt, PT, DPT, USAPL Powerlifter
“Her online course is the embodiment of all her years of learning wrapped into a pretty package with a bow on it. The best part is you will get to learn and work directly with her as you go through the course, which most other courses do not provide. If you want to learn from the best, then this is the place for you and it is worth every penny. I am lucky to call her a friend, mentor, and coach.”
-Weston Hirschauer, BS Kinesiology & Exercise Science, CSCS, USAPL lifter, PRS online coaching client
“Rori does a great job at comparing different programming theories and providing rationale for decision making when developing programs for clients of all ability levels and backgrounds. Having the opportunity to consult with Rori one-on-one is a great way to receive feedback and advice on building programs for your clients and yourself. “
-Alyssa Haveson, DPT, CSCS, PRS Clinical Coach, USAPL National Team, 2-time IPF World Championship and 3-time Arnold Sports Festival competitor
“[What I’m enjoying most about the course is] the interaction and online conversation with other lifters/coaches. Rori's explanations of information (sort of tempering and mediating the hardline SS messaging that I've heard some other places) and the inclusion of "non-SS ideas…” Rori is encouraging, knowledgeable, and accessible. She seems genuinely concerned with ensuring we are getting the most out of this learning opportunity and with building a sense of community.”
-Rebecca Fishburne, SSD, (Maryland)
A one-time exclusive opportunity for our VIP friends:
We are so grateful to have the chance to work with you and that you have chosen and trusted us with your education.
To express how honored we are to be working with you, we are offering you the opportunity to sign up for Technical Models at a massive discounted rate.
Technical Models is $699 $599* for you until we open the cart for everyone on our general Newsletter list on December 1st, 2019.
This includes an additional 30-minute coaching call* as a thank you for your continued trust in us.
*When purchasing Technical Models ONLY, be sure to use code PRSVIP to get your $100 discount!
For those of you who are interested in the PRSCC or the PRS Certificate, we wanted to make sure you have more information about what signing up as a VIP means.
You have the opportunity to receive your credential or certificate by December 19th, 2020, if you stay on track with the core courses:
Technical Models runs January 12th, 2020 through April 4th, 2020 ($699)
Programming Fundamentals runs May 3rd, 2020 through July 25th, 2020 ($699)
Business Best Practices Runs August 9th, 2020 through September 19th, 2020 ($399)
Clinical & Advanced Practice runs September 27th, 2020 through December 19th, 2020 ($699)
Total Cost: $2,496
We want to extend the opportunity for you to ensure your completion in December 2020 by offering you all four courses at $1,797 or 2 payments of $998. That’s one entire course for free either way!
For coaches interested in the certificate only, we’re offering you the 3 Core Courses at $1,398. That’s 77% off and one course entirely for free!
We’re also throwing in a FREE course on how to use Google Sheets to develop your online coaching system if you sign up for all four during VIP week only.
And get this, the FIRST PERSON TO SIGN UP FOR ALL 4 COURSES will get 6 months free to our Clinical Coach Membership** program OR 3 months free of Monthly Coaching** (each valued at $300 total).
Everyone gets access to our Clinical Coach Membership while taking the courses ($49/month value).
This is $1,299 in savings available to you until November 30th, 2019 at 11:59 pm EST.
If you’re not ready to commit to all the courses, don’t worry, you can still sign up for Technical Models at $599 by November 30th, 2019 at 11:59 pm EST as well.
If you’re worried about the time commitment, don’t stress! You’ll have 1 full year after December 19th, 2020, to complete the course and receive the credential or certificate.
*The 30-minute coaching calls are only available after and up to 60 days after the completion of the courses in 2020. Only one 30-minute call can be used after each course.
**Free membership or coaching is only available beginning December 19th, 2020 for consecutive months.
Our Promise:
All PRS Blackboard Courses are backed by our 14-day guarantee. If you feel that the course did not meet your expectations you can request a partial refund within 14 days of the end date of the course. Due to the limited number of spots, live nature of the course, and one-on-one interactions each student has with PRS clinical coaches, we do not process full refunds.
IMPORTANT: All case studies, exams, and course assignments must be completed and turned in for review and you must have attended 3 Live lectures in order to be eligible to request a refund. Click here to read our refund policy.*
Processing of refunds occurs after the request has been reviewed and is at the discretion of PRS.
You no longer have to worry about finding all the pieces of your clinical puzzle.
The Technical Models course, along with Programming Fundamentals, Clinical & Advanced Application and Business Best Practices, gives you everything you need to know to build the foundations of your ideal strength-based rehabilitation practice. And what’s better is that you have a network of clinicians to work alongside all over the country, providing you with support every step of the way.
Let’s do this!
In Strength,
Rori
P.S. if you’re looking to fast track your practice and get the most time, support and education, 55+ more hours of course material, 5+ hours of 1-on-1 time with Dr. Rori, for the SAME PRICE as a WEEKEND SEMINAR, then don’t pass up this VIP opportunity. These four courses + the bonus Google Sheets course for $1,797 is only available until November 30th, 2019 at 11:59 pm.