How to Approach Exercise When You're in Pain There are endless benefits to physical exercise, and you should keep up with regular physical activity while you're learning Clinical Somatics exercises—unless your workouts are making your pain worse or preventing you from making progress. In this post, I'll discuss: The benefits of working out while [...]
My Journey to Hell and Back by Greg Steidel In 2003, I was in my early 20's. I weighed 150 pounds and was in phenomenal shape. I had no history of back issues and was leading a normal life. One day I was doing some landscaping at my parents' house and decided to go [...]
What type of exercise, and how much, is ideal? Most chronic diseases that humans suffer from are mismatch diseases. Daniel Lieberman, a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, uses this term to describe health conditions that result from our bodies not being adapted to our modern lifestyle and environment. It's not old age that makes us [...]
You can listen to Sarah's podcast on this topic here: What is pandiculation? Pandiculation is generally defined as the act of stretching oneself and yawning, especially upon waking. However, our automatic pandicular response has far more significance than simply prompting us to stretch and yawn. As you'll learn in this post, pandiculation is [...]
Learning to Relax After Four Decades of Chronic Tension by Lena Pollack Every time I get a tensed muscle to relax, it’s like a little miracle. It leaves me awestruck, much like being chosen by a shelter cat, or finding a beautiful field that’s completely empty. Maybe it isn’t anything objectively earth shattering but getting [...]
Using Polyvagal Theory in Clinical Settings In last month's post, I explained the basic concepts of the Polyvagal Theory, a theory proposed by Stephen Porges that describes how the mammalian autonomic nervous system evolved to keep us safe and alive. In short, the Polyvagal Theory states that: “When challenged, the regulation of the autonomic [...]
What is the Polyvagal Theory? The Polyvagal Theory is a theory proposed by Stephen Porges that describes how the mammalian autonomic nervous system evolved to keep us safe and alive. As mammals evolved from reptiles, our autonomic nervous system developed to automatically communicate with other mammals and engage different self-defense systems when needed. When our [...]
How to Use Clinical Somatics Exercises to Heal Achilles Tendinitis What is Achilles tendinitis? The Achilles (calcaneal) tendon is located at the back of the ankle, where it attaches the calf muscles to the heel bone. Overuse injuries to the Achilles tendon—whether they be inflammatory tendinitis or degenerative tendinosis—can be very painful and limit [...]
How To Retrain Your Brain's Pain Processing System I recently read The Brain's Way of Healing by Dr. Norman Doidge and learned about a fascinating way to retrain how chronic pain is processed in the brain. The approach, developed by pain specialist Dr. Michael Moskowitz, is used with people who have been in pain [...]
Medical Disclaimer: The information in this article is provided for general informational and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Readers should do their own research and consult with a healthcare professional before supplementing with iodine. Iodine as referred to in this article is the type of iodine found [...]
How Clinical Somatics Prevents Injuries and Enhances Training for Ballet Dancers Ballet dancers make their movements look effortless, but in reality, ballet is just as physically, mentally, and psychologically demanding as American football. It takes thousands of hours of rigorous training to develop the strength, stamina, finely-tuned muscular control and artistry necessary to perform ballet [...]
Slow Burn: Burn Fat Faster By Exercising Slower I just read Slow Burn, an outstanding book by ultra distance running champion Stu Mittleman. In 1986, Stu set a world record by running 1000 miles in 11 days. He currently holds the US record for running 578 miles in 6 days—that's 96 miles (more than [...]
You can listen to Sarah's podcast on this topic here: The Myth of Unequal Leg Length Your doctor or chiropractor may have told you that you have one leg longer than the other, and that your leg length discrepancy is the cause of your back, hip, or knee pain. The truth is that [...]
The Cause of Idiopathic Scoliosis: Involuntary Muscle Contraction Scoliosis is regarded as mysterious and incurable by many people in the medical community. While some scoliosis cases are caused by congenital structural abnormalities or neurological or muscular diseases, the vast majority—around 85%—are of unknown cause. The fact is, the bones in our body do not [...]
Understanding the Pelvic Floor Muscles and Pelvic Pain What is the pelvic floor? The pelvic floor is a large sheet of skeletal muscle that forms the base of the abdomen. It is made up of the levator ani (subdivided into the puborectalis, pubococcygeus, and iliococcygeus muscles) and the coccygeus muscles, and associated connective tissue. [...]
Recovering From 19 Years of Chronic Pain by Chris Werts I’ve been an athlete all of my life, not at the elite level but perhaps some would say right below that. Growing up, very little emphasis was put on strengthening modalities, and all kids are invincible as you know. Baseball was my jam, but [...]
What really causes muscle cramps? Muscle cramps have long been attributed to electrolyte depletion and dehydration, especially when they occur in athletes. However, research does not support these theories, and instead points to altered neuromuscular control and muscle fatigue as the culprits. In this post, I'll summarize the research and explain why muscle cramps [...]
The Diverse Ways in Which SMC® CEI Instructors Use Clinical Somatics to Help People The Somatic Movement Center® Certified Exercise Instructor (SMC® CEI) program was born out of a desire to make Clinical Somatic Education accessible worldwide. With the three in-person training schools all located in the United States, bringing the training online has [...]
In this video, I explain the two reasons why static stretching isn't effective for releasing muscle tension and relieving pain: Because static stretching activates your stretch reflex (myotatic reflex), and because it doesn't change the learned messages that your nervous system is sending to your muscles to stay tight. You can learn more in these [...]
Why You Can't Release Your Tight Psoas Muscle With Stretching Your physical therapist, chiropractor, or yoga teacher might have told you that you have a tight psoas muscle, and they may have taught you stretching exercises to release it. While they're probably right—having a tight psoas is a very common problem—static stretching has little [...]
