ENTRY POINTby MVMTLAB

Practitioner seminar · 2 days

Entry PointFinding the rate-limiting step in the nervous system.

An assessment method for high-performance sport. We test how joints stabilize reactively to find where the nervous system has let go, instead of chasing the pain.

Reserve a seat See the program
Next seminar Vancouver April 2027

The problem

The shoulder hurts. The opposite hip let go.

An athlete comes in with shoulder pain. Motor testing finds an inhibition in the hip on the other side. The shoulder is compensating.

Treating the shoulder helps for a while. Then the nervous system puts the compensation back, because the original instability is still there.

You know this patient. Better after every visit, back again a month later.

Two ideas

The Entry Point

A specific motor inhibition: the nervous system can no longer stabilize a joint reactively, or “lock” it on demand. It is not about strength. It is about activation.

The neuroprotective pattern

The brain's Plan B: a protective strategy, such as muscle guarding, a compensatory posture or a withdrawal reflex, adopted against a perceived threat. Useful at first, costly later, and often where the athlete hurts.

Central Integrative State: the nervous system adds up all of its inputs at once - eyes, inner ear, joints, skin, breath, threat. The sum sets the state: automatic, or protect. In protect, one side of the joint contracts and pulls it into flexion. Treat only the contracture and it comes back: the inputs are still there. Start at the biggest input. Then open each noisy input and narrow it down: region, side, joint, structure; inhale or exhale; the quadrant of gaze; the axis. Down to the one place to enter first and turn the nociceptive input down. There, read the archetype and the individual pattern, then a NeuroKey changes the input, by manual therapy. End at the contracture.

“Entry Point is a method, not a soft tissue technique.”

Dr Jeff Almon

The difference is something you feel in your hands. Here's how to look for it.

The method

Four steps, in this order.

  1. 01

    The history

    The clues that direct the investigation: injuries and surgeries (scars), physical and emotional trauma, infant developmental milestones, concussions.

  2. 02

    Motor testing

    “Hold this for me.” Resistance builds to maximal over about two seconds. A positive test is not weakness: it is reactive instability. Start with the shoulder and the hip.

  3. 03

    Archetypes

    Inhibitions and compensations fall into six patterns: pyramidal or hemispheric, withdrawal reflex (grip or step), dural tension, limbic hijack, inhalation pattern, SIJ force-closure failure.

  4. 04

    NeuroKeys

    A novel sensory input at the sites the testing found, then an immediate retest under co-contraction: make a fist, hold a breath, extend the spine.

The six Entry Points

Six words.

The nervous system's protective grammar has six words. In every one, the entry point is somewhere other than where it hurts.

Where it hurts
Shoulder and hip on the same side, together
Where you enter
Taught in the seminar

From The Entry Point, a practitioner's manual, chapter 5.

The co-contraction loop

Test the logic.

Pick a step, then press and hold the button: resistance builds over two seconds, as in the test.

An illustration of the test's logic, not a clinical result.

Hip, first test

 

The foundations

Functional neurology

Functional disturbances of the nervous system, and sensory stimulation to drive change.

Developmental kinesiology (DNS)

The blueprint of normal movement, laid down in infancy: breathing, creeping, crawling. Knowing normal is how you see abnormal.

Applied neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize. Unlearn the costly pattern; relearn the efficient one.

The operating system: the Central Integrative State (CIS), the sum of everything the nervous system is receiving at a given moment. It decides how much of a muscle gets through.

Two days is enough to change how you test.

The sensory map, and how the brain reads it. Peripheral sensitization: receptors in the injured tissue answer louder, only there. Central sensitization: the gain moves up into the spinal cord and brain, and the signal spills onto neighbours. Before every move, the premovement areas read the map. Pain memories, through the limbic loop, can keep it lit with no touch at all. A loud map: the brain picks Plan B, the protective pattern. A clear map: Plan A. A model to think with, not a result.

The seminar

Two days, hands on athletes.

Who it's for

Regulated health professionals in musculoskeletal and neuromuscular care: chiropractors, physiotherapists, massage therapists, osteopathic manual practitioners, naturopathic doctors, athletic therapists and kinesiologists.

You'll leave able to

  • Find the key information in the patient's history
  • Observe physical and movement clues
  • Feel joint centration in a motor test
  • Identify Entry Points
  • Change inputs and test for changes
  • Add co-contraction tests
  • Raise the external-load threshold (DEFRAG)
  • Follow up and retest

This seminar is the prerequisite for DEFRAG, the loaded testing program.

Day1

  1. Overview
  2. Understanding neuroprotective patterns
  3. The Entry Point method: principles, archetypes, case studies
  4. Knowing normals: joint centration, Vleeming, myodural bridge; motor testing, where to start
  5. Practical application
  6. Dynamic instability workshops: shoulder; hip and lumbar spine

Day2

  1. Recap: brain networks (the Turin study), reverse neuroprotective patterns
  2. Epigenetics, sclerotomes, myodural bridge
  3. Shoulder and hip, continued
  4. Cranial nerves and co-contractions
  5. Eight case studies
  6. Complex patterns; certificate of attendance

Pick your city. The labs run in small groups.

Dates and fee

Three cities in 2027.

  1. Next

    Vancouver

    April 2027

    Exact dates and venue to be confirmed

    24 places left

    Reserve a seat

  2. Montréal

    September 2027

    Exact dates and venue to be confirmed

    24 places left

    Reserve a seat

  3. Calgary

    November 2027

    Exact dates and venue to be confirmed

    24 places left

    Reserve a seat
Registration

$2,450

Early rate

$1,950

until 90 days before the seminar

CAD, plus taxes. Seats are limited by the hands-on labs. Secure payment by Stripe.

Registration

Reserve your seat.

Fill in the form, then pay on Stripe's secure page. Your seat is confirmed by email.

Full refund up to 60 days before the seminar; 50% from 59 to 30 days; after that, transfer only.

Bring the case you can't solve. We'll find where to start.

The instructor

Dr Jeff Almon, chiropractor (DC), founder of MVMTLAB. He practises in Saint-Sauveur (Québec) and Vancouver, with athletes and high-performance sport.

Author of The Entry Point, a practitioner's manual and companion to The Automatic State. Both books are forthcoming.

Become an instructor

Learn the method. Then teach it.

Today, Entry Point is taught by its founder. The certification has three levels, and Level 3 is the teaching level. Level 3 practitioners can be invited to teach Level 1 in their region.

  1. L1

    Level 1 · Foundations · 30 h

    The Central Integrative State model, the archetypes and the motor test. Starts with the two-day seminar. Assessed by a structured clinical exam.

  2. L2

    Level 2 · Clinical application · 45 h

    Complex cases with several patterns at once. Six months of supervised case management, a case log and a case presentation.

  3. L3

    Level 3 · Advanced practice · 60 h

    Research methods, biomarkers, youth athletes, occupational health. A case series or outcomes report from your own practice. The teaching level.

  4. →

    Instructor

    By invitation, from Level 3: teach Level 1 in your region, calibrated by the founding faculty. 15 hours of continuing education a year.

Levels and hours from The Entry Point, a practitioner's manual (forthcoming).

Register my interest

Next seminar Vancouver · April 2027 24 places left Early rate $1,950 Reserve a seat