ELDOA and myofascial stretching - a new way to heal back pain

Years ago, I had a trainer come working for me who introduced me to ELDOA (Longitudinal Osteoarticular Decoaptation Stretches, is taken from the French Etirements Longitudinaux avec Decoaptation Osteo-Articulaire). He offered an ELDOA workshop at Urbanfitt years ago. Since then, I've been including myofascial stretching in my training and added to my knowledge of myofascial stretching in the Fascial Stretch Therapy I became certified in.

Then the next time I heard about ELDOA again was last week when a trainer I share space with had learned some stretches from his Osteopath. Then I also heard about an ELDOA class a friend signed up for at Sphinx Pilates on College Street offered by a very skilled instructor, Petra. I thought it was time to write a bit about it since it seems to be taking off as a new more mainstream trend in back health.

ELDOA was developed by a french Osteopath named Guy Voyer. Although Guy Voyer is known internationally for his osteopathic expertise, he considers himself first and foremost a trainer who wants to pass on his skills to the next generation.

Guy developed an ELDOA exercise for every articulation in the spine starting at the base of the skull and ending with the sacro-illiac joint. Disc compression existing at any level of the spine can be addressed through a specific ELDOA exercise.

The goal of each ELDOA exercise is to create fascial tension above and below the joint or disc that one is trying to "open up" or decompress.

The benefits include:

Reduced vertebral compression
Improved circulation
Spinal disc re-hydration
Increased muscle tone and awareness

Disc hydration is an important and misunderstood factor in spinal health. Our discs are like sponges; when the area is properly hydrated and the discs are not compressed they draw water in. This hydration is necessary to maintain the suppleness that is present in a healthy disc. If the disc is dehydrated and compressed it will dry out and become brittle. It is in this state that nerve compression and inflammation are more likely to occur.
http://koupstrength.com/ELDOA.htm

Why should you consider it? If you're finding that your back problems aren't going away despite concerted efforts to heal, then maybe ELDOA will be your answer. Most osteopaths are focused on fascia in their healing process. Don't resign yourself to back pain and instead, maybe try seeking out alternative care you haven't yet tried.

Exercising anger out of the body

There are many occasions when we experience anger and can't express it to the person that triggered it in us. Or maybe we are angry at ourselves and don't know how to deal with this energy. Many people don't believe anger is an actual emotion and much more a bi-product of another (i.e. hurt, pain) but regardless, the energy of anger is VERY real and if left to fester in our bodies and minds, can lead to extreme toxicity.

Perhaps anger IS pointing to something deeper and it's important to acknowledge anger when we feel it because it can provide clues for something deeper going on. In suggesting we find a way to exercise it out of our bodies, I by no means suggest dismissing it or infer that it's a bad thing unto itself. I only think anger repressed is toxic because it's low vibrational dense energy that can make us sick in the long run if we DON'T deal with it.

One way to start releasing anger so that we can get to the deeper meaning behind it is to use movement to get it the fook out of our physical beings. By getting it out of our physical beings, we have a better opportunity to access our higher selves in dealing with the root cause of the anger. Staying stuck in anger can be the start of dis-ease.

Many alternative health practitioners believe that stuck, overly active, dense energy is the beginning of physical illness. Stuck energy can block the flow of healthy high vibrational energy, slow blood flow to an area and keep us from transcending an emotional or spiritual deficit.

So what to do?

Engage in Yang type exercise that releases the trapped energy.

This week, I had a client come in who didn't even know that her emotional disturbance that day was anger until we chatted for a few minutes. Then as I discovered that she was freakin' pissed about something that struck at the chord of her value system, I started getting her to do things that would challenge her to release the anger.

I got her throwing a 20lbs sandbag across the room, pounding the ground with heavy ropes, kneeing a stability ball, all done in quick succession. By the time we went through these exercises a few times, she was able to talk about why what happened was so hurtful to her.

After a calming fasical stretch, deep breathing, mysofascial release, she left laughing and lit up like the divine spirit she is.

So when you want to try releasing anger:
1) Choose big explosive exercises that use your whole body and make you want to grunt to get 'em done.
2) Put your all into what you're doing (safely) by not holding back effort.
3) If you're a runner pound the ground by doing some hard core sprints to get the shit out.
4) Try throwing something heavy (not at anyone of course) and yell if you need to while you do it. This can provide a cathartic release.

Or come see me and I'll show you how to do it!

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When addiction to exercise turns ugly

Sometimes more is just not better when it comes to exercise. Although, the majority of people in Canada barely get enough exercise to sustain optimal health, there is a small portion of the population that takes fitness too far to the point of harming themselves.

These people have a disorder of sorts. Either it's an eating disorder coupled with an exercise compulsion. Over exercise when coupled with an eating disorder becomes about something completely apart from health.

Then there are the people who can't stop themselves from over training despite the effects on their joints or overall health. To me, I wonder what are these people running from.

Having spent much of my adulthood immersed in an industry apparently promoting health, I have come to find that many fitness professionals suffer from exercise compulsion to the point of over training. I know this first hand. I have been engaged in a cycle of over exercise at different points in the my life thinking that clocking more time sweating somehow equated to being more fit all the while missing the big picture. In my late teens I was also in a less severe but not healthy cycle of severely limiting my calories while clocking over 2 hours of exercise a day. This behaviour, I can attest, was not about health.

People who have an unhealthy addiction to exercise (these are some signs, not hard and fast rules):

1) will exercise despite injury only to do more harm

2) will push themselves during workouts despite illness or fatigue

3) see themselves as more productive than most people who are less active

4) feel very very guilty to the point of distraction for taking time off of working out

5) are afraid they'll gain weight if they miss a couple workouts

6) potentially suffer body dismorphic disorder, seeing an entirely different body in the mirror than actually exists

7) severely restrict calories or binge eat and feel a need to 'work off the calories' from a binge

8) don't see the need to focus on restorative activities in order to maintain health

9) sometimes can't concentrate on other things because he or she is always thinking about exercise

10) skip special events and activities in order to exercise

11) find it difficult to exercise with other people in order to not disrupt routines

And I feel for people stuck in this cycle because society rewards people in this situation because they might seem to have it more together. Yhey are so 'disciplined', often look fit yet they suffer in silence because like any other addiction, they are using exercise to chase away pain.

Like any other addiction, people who are ignoring their health and exercising out of a compulsion need to get help in facing their demons.

There is hope to find balance, to find a way to use exercise to enhance health and vitality and to embark on a new chapter of healing, rest and peace.

My heart goes out to anyone reading this who can't seem to stop. I understand where you are. Your compulsion is occupying too much of your life and thoughts. You deserve to heal.

Peace.
Jane

First step in weightloss - get rid of the shit

Today I saw a client who said "I know I haven't lost that much weight but I feel lighter inside." We started talking about how she felt about what's she's experiencing and it became clear to me that the work we were doing together was helping her get unstuck. When she came to me a month ago, it was clear to me she had lost her MOJO, her sense of vitality. She's in her mid 50s and she works hard as an accountant. Her career has taken front stage in her life for many years while she single handedly raised her two daughters. She told me that she had to make sure her daughters knew she could handle anything like a super hero single mama. They've both left home and now she was spending more time alone with herself. She wanted to feel better like most of us would like to feel in some way shape or form.

Although she hasn't been attuned to the energy in her body, she knew it was time to make a permanent change. She's spent much of her life on yoyo diets gaining up to 40 lbs a year and then successfully losing weight only to put it back on again. She sought me out because she wanted to find a way to stop this cycle.

It is true that 80% of weight loss is about what you put in your mouth. And it is also true that diets will work if followed to a T. Another truth? Most people who struggle with weight use food for comfort or as a way to stuff emotions down. Eating is a joyous experience in many ways when approached with a healthy attitude towards what we put in our mouth. Sometimes approaching a change like weight loss can leave us feeling stuck. The normal go to strategy is an extreme and short lived change. My approach in working with people is to stop a life long cycle that leaves people feeling like they have failed themselves when they gain the weight back.

What I love seeing in my clients is the life and hope back in their eyes. It's like an awakening when people start moving in a way that is personally designed to give their bodies just what it needs, starting where they are and respecting the change process that needs to evolve in a individual way for them.

My assessment of Sarah's experience feeling lighter? We have effectively moved dense dark energy out of her body and helped remove energetic blockages she has stored up over time from the cycle she has been stuck in. I've been practicing Reiki with her, using fascial stretch therapy and some myofascial release to work on her scar tissue catalogued into her body due to stress and repressed emotions in addition to working her butt off having fun and sweating her 'shit' out. It's so much more than just working out and watching what you eat if you want to make lasting change and feel more present in our lives. We've got to get the blocks out of our bodies both energetically and in our tissues.

She has changed her negative self talk and instead replaced it with a patient voice that tells her it's ok not to get this process 'right' every moment of every day. She has learned to look at her weightloss in a different way and sees this current experience as the start of something new, something healing and something very permanent. There is no finish line in her mind any more. But instead she sees this as a new way of approaching healing her past dieting experiencing with increased awareness, self compassion and self love.

Today is the kind of day that makes me feel so grateful to be doing what I'm doing. Feeling vital again does leave us with a feeling of being lighter, more buoyant and hopeful. It's taken me years of doing what I do and years of working with my own energy to really 'get it'. I know I have more to learn and always will!

My advice to anyone who's been stuck on the yoyo weight gain weight loss cycle? Try a different approach that focuses on healing your relationship with food and with your body but also taking a closer look at what role coping mechanisms have played in your life and that you probably don't need them the way you did in the past.

Top six reasons to sit still every day

About ten years ago I hired a life coach to help me maximize my life and with the idea that I wanted to achieve more. We did remote phone coaching as he was based on Vancouver. He gave me some homework. Actually, it was like the opposite of homework to me at the time and I just didn't get it. In fact, I cuffawed it.

My homework was to sit still on a park bench every day for ten minutes and do nothing.

At the time I was thinking "I'm so busy. Why would I want to do nothing? What exactly am I going to accomplish sitting on a park bench?".

It took me almost ten years to really really really understand the value of the homework I was given. And sadly, I can say I missed a lot of beauty in the last ten years that passed me by in my addiction to being busy (and my need to be busy to 'survive'). I was caught in the idea that being productive and efficient and ambitious was what was going to make my life better. I learned a lot over the last ten years but I also wish I could have taken a bit more of a short cut to get to this point. I might have found value in the simpler things that passed me by. One thing I know is that my daughter only has one childhood. I wish I go back and experience her younger years with the awareness I have now.

When I say sitting still every day I don't mean sitting at your computer on Facebook or sitting in front of the TV. I mean sitting still in quiet filled with a sense of calm and peace. This might mean mindful meditation to some people. This is what it means to me. And I'm not saying that I'm sooooo great at sitting still. It is a constant struggle for me to make the time but, finally, I need this stillness and peace in my spirit like I need water.

I'm not trying to get all Eckhart Tolle on you. I just think hearing from a fitness 'pro' about the need for stillness carries more weight than coming from some other people because fitness people are the doers, the movers, the people who buzz like humming birds and need motion to get back to stasis. We are the more wound up ones who like pushing ourselves physically more than most people. So after my long history working in this kooky industry of mine, I have journeyed a vast distance to get to where I am now.

Some people think they are mastering this stillness thing too. But sometimes we can even approach this simple task of getting better at stillness with the energy of a type A personality. Go to a packed yoga class and check everyone out. See who is there for the stillness and peace and who is there because it's another should on a long list of shoulds. Normally the chatty ones that buzz at the beginning of class are the type As in disguise. So beware of turning this mastering of stillness into yet another thing on your long check list of what will make you a better person and instead let yourself let go.

These are my top six reasons for sitting still every day:

1) After a long period of stress and sleep issues, I have suffered from adrenal fatigue to varying degrees for years. Calming the nervous system with activities that promote a sense of being grounded and peaceful are a very important part of healing the adrenals.

2) I can't listen to myself if I'm always distracted. Sitting still every day lets me hear what my wisdom wants to tell me. I can't run away from myself. You can tune into what your body needs to be in balance with this stillness too. Listen up. Your body is always talking to you.

3) We can start experiencing our true essence in this still place and might start to shift our consciousness by tuning into the present. We might even find it more possible to tune into the present in the rest of our lives gradually as we practice more stillness. This translates into more enjoyment of the smallest things that matter the most in life.

4) Sitting in stillness allows new creative ideas to come in. It creates space for new energy to enter into our beings.

5) Creating stillness in us also balances out our culture's constant focus on productivity and helps us not get swept in in the tidal wave of busy-ness that surrounds us. It's a way to stay disciplined from getting caught up in the current.

6) If you are on your own hamster wheel and don't know how to get off, the only place to start is with a little change every day. If you only have 5 minutes to sit still every day, it's a start towards a larger transformation. You don't need to do a complete facelift to set change in motion.

Nobody likes homework but...

I see many clients who suffer from chronic back pain, joint pain or have other injuries that require a lot of TLC. The funny thing is that most people would rather find a way to pay someone else take care of their issues through passive treatment AKA chiropractor, massage therapist, whomever instead of realizing that to see benefit from said treatment, they need to do lots of their own homework.

It never fails to frustrate me when someone comes in for a session and almost every time complains about the same thing over and over and over again without actually taking my advice or doing something about it. Plus it's totally unrealistic to expect 1 to 2 hours per week of strength training and mobility work to 'cure' long festering issues.

Sometimes, it is clear to me that someone's core is imbalanced and their posture all off. When I'm unsure, I always send clients to someone qualified to tell me what's up exactly. The homework I give people is very simple and can do no harm to them. Perhaps of set of 3 core training exercises to start coupled with a couple stretches and maybe a bit of self massage on a physio roller. I'm not unrealistic about what is doable in terms of fitting fitness in. I get it. I'm not expecting people restructure their day in order to take care of themselves. Thus the KISS principle.

Recently, I had to stop working with a client because her pain was getting worse and she wasn't going to get a diagnosis or treatment and not doing any regular and sound core training homework. It saddened me greatly because I get too invested in affecting change in people. It's like a reflex I can't seem to shut off even in my private life. This impulse to help. Sometimes I just can't help my clients either perhaps because they don't buy into my advice or because they don't have the will to help themselves. Because if people really believe something is going to make their lives better, they will generally tend to do it (there are exceptions to the rule I know). So my personal work is to stop trying so hard all the time and let people go on their own journeys.

Sometimes the really shitty part is that people will blame me for repetitive strain injuries even when I've warned them they need to get a diagnosis, treatment or do simple things to prevent issues from getting worse. But somehow the 1 hour a week or maybe two they spend with me has been the cause of their repetitive strain injury.

So sometimes I have to cut people loose when I realize I might be the fall guy. And it sucks because it's my reputation. But at the very least, us personal trainers can't do harm to our clients. As a basic principle in life, we should aim to not do harm to others.

So next time something goes awry in your life, including something with your body, maybe it's time to look in the mirror and see who needs to take responsibility.

Now for a little workout to pick up my dampened spirits.

Jane