What You’ll Get With PR Class

Runners are continuously working improving & hitting new goals. We're the same way, striving to be the best strength & education class possible to help you. We're constantly evolving & updating class to give you the most bang for your buck. 

PR Class

Our History & Philosophy

The long version: PR Running Intro Class (previously Power Running) was partly born out of my own frustrations of dealing with injuries - sciatica (not running related) & runner's knee (totally running related) - and the lack of improvement with typical medical advice & PT. I was very fortunate to do my Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation residency at UVA where I learned from some of the biggest experts in running medicine: 

Dr. Robert Wilder, founder of the UVA Runner's Clinic & co-author of the textbook of Running Medicine. 

Eric Magrum, PT, DPT, also a co-author of Running Medicine, & the PT who taught me how to fix my back & knees.

Jay Dicharry, PT, director of the UVA SPEED Clinic gait lab, author of Anatomy for Runners & Running Rewired, & inventor of the MOBO Board, & my biggest mentor.

After residency, I quickly realized that most physicians & PTs were out of date when it came to treating runners. It pains me to hear that so many docs still tell patients to "just stop running" or that some therapist still focus on passive treatments & stretching to treat an injury. Even the better therapists are still limited by insurance & time constraints - if your doctor's order & the insurance company says to only treat the knee, then your PT may not be able to also work on improving the foot, hip strength, & gait mechanics necessary to really help your knee.

The great therapists I worked with taught me two more important lessons that have strongly influenced PR Class:

1. How you perform an exercise matters just as much as what exercises you choose. Technique matters! If our ultimate goal is to move better, then we should practice moving better in each exercise we perform. This is why we work with top notch sports PTs to coach our classes since they are experts in movement & are skilled at correcting faulty movements.

2. Progression! A part of me dies inside every time I send a patient for hip strengthening and they return to clinic still doing side lying clamshell exercises after 6 weeks of PT. "Oh, but we did use a heavier resistance band." Look, the clamshell may be the proper starting exercise for some people, we've even used it in class, but there are many more exercises that better challenge the glutes and put them to use in much more functional positions. 

This is why every week of class progresses. We either add reps, add weight, or switch to a more challenging exercise altogether. If you are in therapy or working with a personal trainer and your exercises/resistance/reps haven't progressed, ask yourself if you are putting in enough effort, and ask your PT why aren't they progressing you?

Finally, performing dozens of clinical running gait analysis on a wide variety of runners gave me a few more insights:

1. The majority of runners can benefit from the same exercise progressions.

2. About half of the runners I worked with didn't feel comfortable or weren't accountable to do their exercises on their own. 

Putting all of this together, it was clear that a running specific strength class is the most cost effective way to help a large number of runners learn proper strength, mobility, & plyometric training in a safe environment.

Our first class, Running Strong, started in fall of 2015 & consisted of two 8 week blocks that built on each other. At some point we shortened that to a single 12 week class. For the most part, we've had a class every spring, summer, and fall since then, sometimes up to 3 classes at a time including in Baton Rouge, Zachary, & New Orleans, LA, and also a few classes in Vancleave, MS. In 2019 we rebranded to Power Running, & now my lawyer has advised changing our name yet again, so we are transitioning to just PR Running class. We've also trimmed our intro class down to just 10 weeks.

At the request of previous class grads, we also added our Advanced class in either 2016 or 2017. These runners saw the benefit of strengthening, but wanted to continue it in an environment similar to Intro class. Strength training is similar to running in that you can make noticeable progress with 10 weeks of following a good plan, but you can make tremendous progress with months & years of consistent work. And our advanced class members have seen that play out while avoiding major injuries while still hitting new PRs year after year.

We've also started testing the waters of an at-home version of the course since all of our handouts include exercise substitutions in case you don't have squat rack or other equipment at home. While updating this to a web-based program is going to take some time, I'm willing to offer the course using our Google Doc format for now. Please email me if you're interested, kasey@prmdrunning.com.