Liberated Being

Anne Tierney and I talk about Ki-Hara Resistance Stretching,what the advantages are of this kind of eccentric training, why alleviating global imbalances is the name of the game, how all of this can lead to a pain-free life, the dangers of overstretching, and why the results of this kind of work are more lasting.

This episode includes outtakes from interviews I did with Jules Mitchell, Dr. Dawn McCrory, Jillian Nichols, and Rachel Bernsen for the Liberated Body Guide to Short Hamstrings. We get into the what and the why behind persistently unyielding hamstrings including why they feel like an emergency brake, how your nervous system is the limiter, why strength training is more effective than static stretching, what posture and alignment have to do with it, what some of the important things are to rule out, and how more global patterns- including but not limited to butt gripping and knee locking- create a heavier workload for your poor, put upon hamstrings.

Katy Bowman, biomechanist and founder of Restorative Exercise talks with us about her most recent book. Move Your DNA. We get into what diseases of mechanotransduction are, the profound ways our environment shapes us, why exercise and movement are not synonymous, how cardio can be harmful in our sedentary times, and how we are animals who have put ourselves in our own cages. Plus much, much more.

Constance Clare-Newman and I talk Alexander Technique, the difference between un-doing vs. doing (or relaxing into expansive support vs. propping oneself up), tensegrity concepts, the support relationships within our body, and (hey, why not!) what makes for good sex vs. “meh” sex.

Jonathan Fitzgordon, creator of the CoreWalking Method, talks about the uniqueness of the psoas muscle, how its connected to trauma and uprightness, and how and why to release it. He also gets into gait patterns, what the most common dysfunctional gait patterns are these days, and how changing your walk can actually resolve your pain and discomfort issues (and more). Last but not least we also get into one of my favorite topics- why we all need to stick our butts out more and what that means.

Bo Forbes, clinical psychologist, yoga teacher, and integrative yoga therapist talks about what Integrative Yoga Therapy is, interoception, relaxing rather than corralling into expansion, why vinyasa and restorative yoga fit together on a continuum, and how using momentum when we get uncomfortable can get us onto some pretty slippery slopes.

Darryl Edwards, founder of the Primal Play methodology and author of Paleo Fitness, talks about some of the research on inactivity, the subtle yet proliferating messages in our environment that warn us that movement might be dangerous, how his acronym PRIMALity spells out a thoughtful take on what our movement programs should address, and what a play-based lifestyle looks like.

Steve Haines talks about Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, body maps and how they become strange or distorted, interoception and why there is more pain in areas that we have less interoception about- or are more poorly mapped, and the huge role the vagal nerve plays in our bodies and our sense of well-being.

Judith Hanson Lasater talks about being one of BKS Iyengar’s first students and, especially in light of his recent passing, some of his teachings that have stayed with her the most through the years. We also discuss why she has become one of Restorative Yoga’s biggest proponents, what her take is on the explosion of yoga today and how it differs from the yoga she first studied, the how and the why of anger, anxiety, and depression being our most pervasive cultural issues, and, last but not least, why we all need to stop tucking our tailbones!

David Weinstock, founder of Neurokinetic Therapy, talks about motor control theory, how we create healthy and dysfunctional patterns, what our scars can tell us about ourselves, how eye movements facilitate muscle movements throughout the body, and TMJD including the hips/pelvis/jaw connection.