From Thursday, November 6 to Sunday, November 9, 2025, Roman Jahoda led a four-day workshop on active therapy for physiotherapy students at Alma Mater Vienna in the Kölblgasse.

Roman Jahoda, CEO of ComplexCore and author of specialist books on core stabilization, is a physiotherapist, sports therapist, and fitness coach with more than 20 years of experience in elite sport. Jahoda’s therapy and training philosophy emphasizes the body as a functional whole: mobility, stability, strength, and proprioception are trained equally – not just sport-specific muscle work.

He is a UEFA physiotherapist, served as the personal therapist for Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher for six years (2009–2014), and has worked with Formula 1 and DTM drivers such as Kamui Kobayashi and Esteban Gutiérrez. He has also collaborated with the Swiss sailing team Alinghi, national teams and clubs in jiu-jitsu, skeleton/bobsleigh, basketball, ice hockey, and other sports. Jahoda additionally served as head coach and physiotherapist for the national football referee teams of Austria and Switzerland. Previously, he was a judoka and competed at World and European Championships.

On Thursday and Friday, first-year students practiced methodological exercise sequences for the trunk, upper, and lower extremities under his guidance, with a focus on promoting motor control and strengthening. Jahoda explained that “success in therapy and training goes beyond activity,” and that one must therefore teach not only passive techniques but above all active exercise sequences.

On Saturday and Sunday, second-year students worked intensively on muscle-function tests and rehabilitative concepts for spinal treatment. Jahoda demonstrated how systematic evaluation procedures lead to individual exercise plans that sustainably involve patients in the healing process. He emphasized, “A good therapist is not only someone who is skilled in hands-on techniques, but above all in the active domain. And very important: to prescribe home exercises to the patients.”

The participants praised the high practical relevance and the direct applicability of the methods. Alma Mater Vienna plans to offer this workshop again in the future to train prospective therapists early in the active therapy approach.