CEU-eligible for PTs & PTAs (Colorado) · 30 CEU hours

You already know what hurts. The important question is why.

A head-to-toe clinical reasoning framework that helps physical therapists confidently solve difficult orthopedic cases — by finding why tissues become overloaded, not simply where they hurt.

From a physical therapist who has treated — and trained other therapists to treat — chronic pain for 30 years

You've done everything you were taught.

Sometimes it worked. Too often, the patient plateaued — the pain came back — and you couldn't quite explain why.

Most clinicians ask

“What tissue is injured?”

This course helps you discover

“Why is this tissue still being overloaded?”

This is a logical, repeatable, testable framework for exactly the cases where tissue-based care plateaus.

The distinction this course is built on

Heals on schedule. Pain resolves.

Something keeps re-stressing the tissue. Pain persists or returns.

Standard training answers the acute question well. This course answers the chronic one.

Why this matters for your caseload

GBD 2021 Low Back Pain Collaborators, Lancet Rheumatology 2023

Not a skill problem. A training gap — standard curriculums identify what's damaged, not what's driving the load onto it.

You already know how to think like a clinician. This course doesn't teach you how to reason — it gives you more to reason with : movement, fascial, and reflex patterns that may never have been part of your training.

Ready to add systems thinking to your evaluation?

14 chapters · 3 full case studies · self-paced, online

Early Enrollment Price

From clinicians who've used this approach

Hear it from someone who's applied it

What changes

You'll walk into your next difficult case knowing where to start — not hoping something works.

That's the confidence this framework gives you.

Why this method exists

Where component-based training stops, systems thinking begins.

Movement Habits

Built on Dr. Shirley Sahrmann's Movement System Impairment model — the unconscious patterns learned over a lifetime that load the body unevenly.

Fascial Networks

Drawing on Thomas Myers and Dr. Robert Schleip's research into fascia as a continuous, force-transmitting, sensory network — not isolated wrapping.

Reflex Patterns

Informed by Dr. Thomas Hanna's somatic education work — primitive neurological responses that shape posture and movement long after they're needed.

You'll stop hoping your treatment works … and start knowing why it will.

Does this sound like your caseload?

If any of these sound familiar, this course was built for you.

Course walkthrough

See what's inside the course

A walkthrough of the course — the chapters, the case studies, and how the quizzes and certificate work.

Inside the course

How the course works

It's simpler than it looks. The Introduction through Chapter 4 lay out the framework — movement, fascial, and reflex patterns. From Chapter 5 on, every chapter covers one specific problem that creates pain somewhere else in the body, and every one of those chapters follows the same three-part pattern:

• 1 Test A specific test for this pattern A hands-on or observational test that tells you whether this particular problem — anterior femoral glide, femoral anteversion, a scapular pattern, and so on — is present in this patient.
• 2 Interpret What the result actually means How to read the test result and understand why it matters to the entire movement system — what it tells you about where this patient's pain is really coming from.
• 3 Correct The fix — exercise, taping, or habit change The specific correction for what you found: a corrective exercise, a taping technique, a habit change, or a manual therapy recommendation, demonstrated on video.

That same pattern repeats, chapter after chapter, for every region covered in the course — from head to toe. And then you learn how it all fits together: how a femoral anteversion pattern from Chapter 10 changes how you'll interpret the glutes test in Chapter 11, how a sidebending pattern from Chapter 7 can be quietly feeding a scapular pattern in Chapter 14. You'll learn how these individual findings compound and mix — because that's how chronic pain actually gets created and sustained: not by one broken part, but by problems that feed each other.

The three case studies then show you how to combine findings across multiple chapters into one coherent plan for a real patient — and every chapter, case study, and the final review ends with a scored quiz (80% to pass) before your certificate is issued.

Course outline

What's covered, chapter by chapter

Because this is a systems course, it covers the body head to toe, not just one joint. Fourteen chapters build the framework — the Introduction through Chapter 4 lay the foundation, and starting with Chapter 5, each one covers a specific problem that creates pain somewhere else in the body.

• Intro Why Chronic Pain Requires Systems Thinking The scale of the chronic pain problem and why treating the site alone stops working once pain becomes chronic.
• Ch 1–2 Patterns of Movement Movement-impairment problems driving back and sciatic pain.
• Ch 3 Fascial Patterns Fascia as a continuous, force-transmitting, sensory network linking distant regions of the body.
• Ch 4 Reflex Patterns Primitive neurological reflexes and how they shape posture and movement into adulthood.
• Ch 5–6 Flexion & Extension Problems A simple test and what to do about them.
• Ch 7 Sidebending Problems Testing 2 ways, why this is mistaken for leg-length discrepancies, and how to quickly solve them.
• Ch 8 Compensation How to understand if you're looking in the right place for pain.
• Ch 9 Thigh Muscle Length A hidden generator of pain above and below the femur.
• Ch 10 Thigh Bone Shape Measuring femoral anteversion and retroversion and their role in foot, knee, hip, and back pain.
• Ch 11 Gluteals Testing during gait, timing, and their role in anterior femoral glide syndrome (AFGS).
• Ch 12 Calf & Soleus Functional testing and how to link the calf/soleus up the kinetic chain.
• Ch 13 Bending Identifying bending mechanics and their relationship to pain patterns.
• Ch 14 The Scapula Scapular landmarks, taping and strengthening for elbow, shoulder, cervical pain, and headaches — plus trigeminal neuralgia.
• Cases Three Applied Case Studies Chronic sciatica, hip, and neck pain and headaches — each with a full evaluation form, case-reasoning video, scored quiz, and patient-explanation video.

Starting with Chapter 5, each chapter teaches you how to test for that specific problem, how to interpret what the test result means, and how to correct what you find.

What you get

Everything in the course

Here's everything included with your enrollment — organized to be worked through at your own pace, and simple enough to start using with patients right away.

In your $350 enrollment

Self-paced, online, available on any device.

Continuing education details

Contact hours & CEU status

30 CEU / PDA contact hours — approved by APTA Colorado (Course #CEUL180048).

Built for physical therapists — and just as valuable for every professional who works with pain and movement.

CEU contact hours apply to licensed PTs and PTAs (Colorado). The framework itself has no such limits.

Athletic Trainers

Chiropractors

Physicians

Massage Therapists

Personal Trainers

Yoga & Pilates Instructors

A working knowledge of anatomy and injury assessment is assumed; there are no other prerequisites.

Need to petition your own state board or employer for credit? A full documentation packet — including the instructional-hour breakdown, syllabus, and instructor CV — is available for download in the FAQ below.

Bring systems thinking to your next difficult case.

14 chapters · 3 case studies · certificate on completion

Common questions

Questions people ask before they enroll

Yes — this course is approved by APTA Colorado for 30 CEU/PDA contact hours (Course #CEUL180048). If you're licensed outside Colorado, check with your state board on reciprocity for approved-provider hours, or use the documentation packet below to petition directly.

Yes. Whether you're petitioning a different state board, requesting reciprocity, or submitting for employer reimbursement, we've put together a documentation packet you can include with your request: the full instructional-hour breakdown, the course syllabus, and the instructor's CV. Download the CEU documentation packet →

CEU credit applies to licensed physical therapists and physical therapist assistants (Colorado). The content itself is built for anyone who works with injury, pain, or movement — athletic trainers, chiropractors, physicians, nurses, massage therapists, personal trainers, coaches, and yoga and Pilates instructors will all find it directly useful, whether or not CEU credit applies to their license. A working knowledge of anatomy and injury assessment is assumed — there are no other prerequisites.

It's self-paced — work through it on your own schedule, whenever it fits your week. The chapters are designed to be taken in order, since each one builds on the last. Once you've been through the first few, the rest move quickly.

An 80% passing score is required on the auto-graded items throughout the course. But these aren't meant to catch you off guard: every question is reviewed together with its answer, both in the chapter lectures and throughout the required reading, before you ever sit down to take a quiz. The goal is for you to pass and retain the information — not to test your memory cold.

Most CE courses target a single joint or diagnosis. Because this is a systems approach, it covers the body head to toe — spine, hip, knee, foot, and scapula — teaching one testing-first framework you apply everywhere, rather than a separate protocol for every region. It then walks you through applying that framework to three complete, real case studies from evaluation to patient explanation.

No special equipment required. The course runs in any web browser on any device — phone, tablet, or computer. All seven companion book PDFs are included free with the course. You'll download the exercise, testing, taping, and manual-treatment videos as you progress through each chapter, so there's nothing to install up front.

Your certificate of completion is issued and emailed automatically once you complete all chapters, case studies, and the comprehensive final review at the required 80% passing threshold.

Full refund within 7 days of purchase, provided you haven't yet logged in and accessed the course. Once you've started the course, it's non-refundable.

Before you go

Somewhere on your schedule this month is that patient.

The one who's already tried what you know how to offer. Not because you did it wrong — because the plan was aimed at the site, and the site was never the source. They're not looking for another round of the same exercises. They're looking for someone who can finally explain why the pain keeps coming back.

Right now, without a different way of testing, that visit ends the way the last few did — and somewhere underneath the polite nod, that patient is quietly wondering if someone else could help them instead.

You didn't get into this work to hand someone the same protocol that already didn't work. You got into it to find the answer. This is how you stop guessing.

That patient isn't hypothetical. They're real, and they're either on your schedule now or will be soon. The only variable is whether you have the tool to help them when they show up.

Start the course

One-time payment · Self-paced · 30 CEU hours approved (Colorado)

This is an introductory rate for the course's first clinicians. It will increase over time.

• 14 chapter lectures, head to toe — not just one joint
• 3 full patient case studies with evaluation forms
• Downloadable exercise, testing, taping & manual-treatment videos
• Full chapter-by-chapter reference list
• Certificate of completion, emailed automatically

Have a question before you enroll? Email support@rickolderman.com

Who's teaching it

Taught by someone who's treated exactly these cases.

This course was developed from three decades of clinical practice treating exactly those plateaued cases — integrating three research-validated systems, movement habits, fascial networks, and reflex patterns, into a single testing-first framework.

The course teaches that framework logically, step-by-step. It culminates with real case studies, from the initial evaluation to the finished plan.

Refund & Cancellation Policy

Full refund within 7 days of purchase, provided you haven't yet logged in and accessed the course. Once you've started the course, it's non-refundable. Questions before you enroll? Email support@rickolderman.com .

Rick Olderman MSPT is a licensed physical therapist (Colorado License #5852). This course is approved by APTA Colorado for 30 CEU/PDA contact hours (Course #CEUL180048). Course content is for professional education purposes. Chapters presenting clinical-observation content carry no citations and are covered by a practice-based-evidence disclaimer noted in the course bibliography.

© 2026 Rick Olderman MSPT. All rights reserved.