Transcript
Speaker: All right, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Basics of Balance. My name is Ariella. I am very excited for today's episode because we are here having a conversation with Morgan Rojas. She is an l m LMT, correct? With Find a Line. um And we are just going to have a really great conversation basically about kind of just some crossover that she sees in her line of work. as it relates to basics and nervous system regulation and things like that. And so really excited to have you on today, Morgan. Thank you so much for taking time out of your life. But um let's let's learn a little bit about you. So like, you know, who are you? Kind of like give me a little bit about your background, how you got into your field and um who is Morgan? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up out as an athlete. I was a swimmer when I was little.
Speaker: um I chose volleyball as my sport through high school, college, and I even played overseas for a year. And then I chose triathlons, kind of a dynamic difference there, and actually made it to a national level competing in an aqua bike and an aquathon event, which is really fun, really exciting.
Speaker: um But throughout athletic career, I felt like I was never physically where I was supposed to be after performing and working out and doing what coaches said and taking the taking the advice of other people.
Speaker: And I kind of questioned all of that. So I grew up with migraines, didn't have a lot of pain per se, but I think I was a stressed child, which led to a lot of tension headaches and migraines waking up in the middle of the night. And I just wanted someone to tell me why it was happening um and what I could do differently, or at least tell me why it was my body and not the person next to me and give me a good description about my structure and my position and my adaptations and my stressors and how that related to my symptoms. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So I chose bodywork pretty early. um My undergrad was physical education and health and i did track and volleyball and we learned how to work on each other with cupping and movement and stretching each other. And I received massages from probably when I was about 11 years old. And when I would get a massage or receive bodywork, it would make progress, but then it would always come back.
Speaker: And so I was determined to figure out why that happened for myself and also people around me. So I went to massage school in Costa Rica, which was a great experience. And as I went through massage school, I gained more questions than answers.
Speaker: And I loved just basic kinesiology, the exactness of muscles and where they are and what they do and in what plane of motion. And what I really questioned was why could I use the same test on people that felt different, that were in different starting positions, that had different histories, did different sports. And I couldn't find an instructor or a teacher or a mentor, really kind of anyone to give me those answers.
Speaker: So I went on my own path, started my own business after massage school, being frustrated that working for a franchise sucked. And I was like, I can't handle the way this business is run. So I was determined to start a business.
Speaker: figure out answers, consider each person as an individual, um and try to actually get people to a source that was so exact it couldn't be wrong. sure And I truly did that based on basics. So I've written my own curriculum and my own book.
Speaker: It's called Align What Your Body Misunderstands, The Battle Between Muscle and Fascia. And it's about how our bodies physiologically adapt to so many things, but narrowed down into five essential pillars. The structures that we use to move, muscle and fascia, have different purposes. Muscle is of course a contract, relax structure. Fascia is a load and recoil and absorb structure. And people actually use their structures wrong.
Speaker: And it's interesting to tell people that, to say like, hey, I've taken your symptoms. I've taken your sport history. I've taken what you do now, what your goal is, like and being like, I touch and feel you and you do not match what you're telling me. But if someone can come in and touch and feel and assess from the outside, from a physiology adaptation perspective of muscle and fascia, the things you use for movement, as well as like how your brain interprets your environment, your safety, your response to things and sports and movement, and say, okay, here's what you've been doing, here's probably why it's not working, and here's what we should try.
Speaker: So redirecting, not taking away things that people love to do, but maybe even pulling them out just a little bit to say, let's relearn how to use your body from where you're at. I don't need you to stop doing your sport that you love. I need to redirect how you're using your body very, very specifically. So with muscles, they're all very exact. If they're in the wrong position, they're not gonna be used the right way. So we gotta to get people in what works for their body based on where they were to their goal. And then with fascia, fascia is cool concept. I think I see it a little bit differently because it's a big hype word right now. Fascia, I see as two different things. There's the fascia you're born with, which is the structures that we can name, like your IT band, thoracolumbar fascia, the fascial sheets that encompass muscle.
Speaker: But there's also called developed fascia, which is the word fascial adhesion that we hear all the time. Like what's an adhesion? It's essentially a coping skill that your body develops for not using your muscle the right way. So then it covers up the layer of muscle that you should be using and makes your brain less aware of it.
Speaker: So then it's just a snowball effect after that is like if your body starts to cover up a muscle, it's not going to be used and then it'll be hard to turn on. It'll be painful and achy and it'll be weak. So we as a manual therapist can come in and change or facilitate change for the structure so that you better find it And I wanted to create a framework for hands-on therapists or movement professionals to say, here's how to assess visually through movement, through symptoms and through palpation. The one way of assessment I feel like is underdeveloped and missing in most professions when it comes to pain management and performance. but through palpation give you my best assumption of like, Hey, you're not using this muscle like you should. What's going on? Is it the sport? Is it the load? Is it the position? And then let's watch you do it and see how does it feel to you? Because if you can't experience what I'm trying to change for you, how should I expect you to leave my session and know what to do for your homework?
Speaker: So again, in simple, simple terms, it's the basic way the body works, but I've just reframed it to have it make sense per individual. And I, okay, so you mentioned a few things that like I love that you just touched on because number one, i would say one of the frustrations that I hear a lot in my line of work that I'm sure you can hear too is like, oh, well, this and this works for this person. Why is it not working for me, right? So like we're following some kind of um advice that is just generalized.
Speaker: When you're testing, it's like there are these one standard kinds of tests, but obviously depending on the person, you're going to see completely different outcomes of that test. And I feel like that just points to you cannot take the same approach for every single individual, which is why advice that you see online might have worked for somebody, but there's a lot of nuance that they are not explaining and they can explain because number one, we don't have the attention span for that. And also number two, they are so fundamentally different than you are with their different stressors and their backgrounds and genetics and you know, what they do through for their life and the kind of workouts they do and yada, yada, yada, that I think a lot of times in the information age, I'll say, people oftentimes look at, you know, they'll read an article and they'll say, oh, you know, if you just, you know, eat 100 grams of protein every single day, it's going to help you in X, Y, and Z goal, right? And I'm sure similarly in your line of work, oh, if you move your body in this type of way, it's going to help improve these you know symptoms that you're feeling. And it's like, while there is some generalized help, I will say, for the general population, if what you're trying is not working, then that is maybe where you need to invest in a more personalized approach. So you know, going to a coach, going to somebody who can like physically work with you and your body, physically manipulate your body because you are going to have different stressors than other people have.
Speaker: Tell me a little bit about um your somatophysics approach. Tell me a little bit about that and kind of what that is. Absolutely. So it's a word that I actually struggled to come to terms with because I didn't know what to call what I do. And so I needed a word that sounded like it would relate to somebody. So somato, somatic is the body. And so I added physics because physics is a simple enough word that people can know what that is. So it was enough in the middle.
Speaker: um between what someone could pick up if they've never heard about the body or physics or biomechanics. I was coming from a place that I touch and feel for structural adaptations. Does this muscle have more tone than this one? Does this one spend more time or has spent more time creating hypertrophy than this one? Does this one have fascial adhesion or this one doesn't? I changed the physics of the body based on the materials, muscle, fascia, nerves, skin,
Speaker: um And I tendons, ligaments, all different materials. And we talk about leverage, load, exertion, position. And so physics encompasses every possible thing that could go wrong. Right. Like physicists have to include like I'm just thinking of like F1 racing. Right. They have to include every wind direction, every type of road material, every tire that they can use. It's like every possible thing that could affect it. Right.
Speaker: And I think that's what happens in the body. And we don't do that enough. We don't say like, here's every experience that you've had that could possibly be affecting you right now.
Speaker: Here's every material in your body that you've used or not used or avoided that is affecting our situation right now. Here's every... sport that you did or every injury or every meal that you had, right? Because that affects how your body takes in and uses things. And we needed a way to be able to make that simple enough so that we could do it. So that word back to the word and the question is how can I incorporate all of that, see what worked, what didn't and why relay that back to the client so that they trust me enough to try it and that they will commit to the homework and then they'll see the results. I've seen it it so many times where almost the first or second guess, we're pretty much right because we narrowed down everything that could have affected it to now we're at this one point that's why it would work for you or why it wouldn't work for you.
Speaker: Sure. Well, and I think that's very true in terms of number one, a lot of science is trial and error. So there are going to be, you know, these big, you know, fundamental, I would say, rules or laws, right? Like an object in motion will stay in motion. You know what i mean? Like, obviously, like we're going to have that structure, but a lot of science, especially when you're dealing with a human body, and different people, because there is not one size fits all is this is the standard. So we're going to start at the standard, but we have to leave ourselves room open to interpretation. So like, I deal with that a lot, especially as it relates to like nutrition coaching, for example, right? Like, if we are following, you know, structured habits, if we are following a macro based approach, this is what we are starting with. But I need you as the client to understand it's going to take us a few variables of trial and error until we find the sweet spot. You know what i mean? So it's not necessarily just like, oh, I tried this and it didn't work. Well, why is that?
Speaker: And the why kind of like what you're saying is going to give you a deeper reason of understanding. And that deeper level of understanding is what ends up creating basically motivation to say, oh, I'm bought in now. You know what i mean? Like, right. Knowledge is power. And the more that you can explain your why as a practitioner to somebody, the more that that patient or that client is going to pick up what you're putting down. Right. And I think I think oftentimes.
Speaker: that's the one of the pieces of value i'll say of being able to work very closely with people is to be able to have that kind of conversation and say listen i'm not just going to give you surface level information right like you don't deserve that and if you want that or go back to tick tock let me know how that works for you you know what i mean but if you want to actually understand what's going on let's do these tests these trial and error and now let me help explain to you why this worked or didn't work and based on that experience this is the direction that I want us to take. You know what i mean? So we forget lot of times that when we're working with humans, it's a human-based approach.
Speaker: Yes, okay. There is oftentimes a right or a wrong answer, but as a human, we are living, breathing, changing beings. And so nuance is always going to be applicable in those situations. um I would love to kind of know from your perspective, are you able to tell a difference from people who are doing like basic I'll just say habits as far as like working out regularly, strength training versus like not right. So like the habit of moving or not doing it or, you know, do you take care of your body in terms of, you know, is this person fueling their body with like nutrient dense options versus like their bones are super brittle and they have low muscle tone. And so that kind of indicates and like kind of tells you a different story kind of thing. because I think at the end of the day, you know, it really is about the consistency. So you either have these benefits from the lifestyle that you've chosen to live or you don't. You know what i mean? Like I used to see a chiropractor for pretty regularly. Right. And my chiropractor would always tell me, man, your body just responds so well. Right. Your body responds so well to the adjustments that we give you. And arguably, the reason is, is because you
Speaker: take care of your body in a way of, you know, trying to protect your muscle, your, you know, including mobility training and things like that. You know what i mean? In your line of work, sure, you can't necessarily tell the specifics as much as can you tell a difference when somebody is investing in their health or not? You know what i mean? Like what is, what does that contrast look like kind of thing? So yes, absolutely. And I think that relates to when I was working at a franchise as well, the people, the populations, and I'm not saying that that's bad, but you can tell when someone does move throughout the week and when they don't. Like plain and simple, like their body responds if they're moving, whether, no matter what you're doing, you're doing no matter how skillful you are, the body will respond if it's used to responding.
Speaker: If the body is not used to responding with movement or prevention of injury, things like that, it will continue to stay in the state that it's in, which is usually a tightness or a rigidness. And then the symptoms repeat. You come back with the same complaints.
Speaker: As a client, too, you probably notice like, oh, I am doing the things, which means I do feel better when I get treated. um i think on the reverse side of that, too, from a practitioner perspective, we could go both ways on telling people how they're adjusting to to treatments or how they're responding. um So it's a positive thing for a client to hear, hey, you're responding really well.
Speaker: because And the reason I say this is I've seen practitioners in different modalities say that their clients aren't responding so that they can get them to come back more often, yeah which is not a positive thing. um But it's absolutely traceable and you can, and any type of practitioner, chiropractic, physical therapy, massage therapy, even personal trainers, coaches, they can all, I think, in their own way, be able to assess if someone's taking care of themselves or doing their homework. You'll be able to see if they've come back and there is a physical change that you can feel.
Speaker: Sure, sure. So when I go back to my physical therapist next week and she's like, did you do your home exercises? I technically don't even have to answer her because she's about to find out. So really that kind of question is more so just for like, hey, let's just see how you respond.
Speaker: but Yes. Let's see how honest of a person you are. yes Good to know. So everybody listening, if you've ever gotten home exercises, they know, okay? They they don't have to ask. They know. for sure. They know.
Speaker: i love it. I love it. um Okay. So I would love to kind of switch gears just a little tiny bit to the connection behind your nervous system. When we are looking at things that help regulate your nervous system, for example, Right.
Speaker: what kind of what kind of basic habits, basic actions are things that help regulate somebody's nervous system? You know, what what kind of things actually are going to move the needle compared to what is TikTok telling you to do?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. So my understanding and how I kind of talk to clients about their nervous system is it's the first line of, are you safe? Are we in threat? The nervous system doesn't always communicate through words. So we have to kind of go back to the basics of like, how do we even talk to the brain? um Some of those ways are the five senses. those is That's like your first line of physical safety.
Speaker: The second one is physical movement. Are my joint spaces perfect? Are my muscles turning on? Can my brain find the activation to these spaces? Can it prevent an injury? If your body in any way cannot calibrate perfect feedback loops, it will feel threatened.
Speaker: So then we bring in okay, what movements are people doing that help facilitate perfection in their body, which could be the floppiness movements. It could be the squeezing movements. It could be the stretching movements.
Speaker: And from my lens, the things that I talk about in my book, those would be helpful for different types of people based on genetics, movement history, and their symptoms.
Speaker: So I might tell one specific client like, hey, yeah, I think yoga flow would be great for you. But I might tell another client that to regulate your nervous system, you need to be loading because right now your not your muscles aren't being used. And I think that's causing X, y Z. But the problem that we've backed ourselves into is this generalized solution.
Speaker: Like, oh, everybody needs to meditate. And it's like... Probably not, actually. Some people don't need that. They don't need to be alone and they don't need to be quiet. Some people need the opposite. My won't let me meditate. Like I've literally tried so many times. I cannot meditate. And I understand like, you know, people are probably going to listen to this and be like, oh, you haven't tried. No, no, no, no. So it's like if you were to tell me to meditate, I would be like, okay, great. I'm writing you off now. You know what mean? So again, individualized approach. Yes. Correct. So with like all of the things that people put out to the world, and I'm passionate about this topic because like, I also tried to facilitate things that helped my own body, but people put out to the world, the one or two things that helped them the most. And that's what they think everybody needs. Right. And it's,
Speaker: It's great that it worked for them. Like it was supposed to work for you. um But you have to get back to the reason why it would or would not be helpful for someone else. And I think that understanding the individual nervous system, hey, what's your history and experience? Hey, how do your eyes facilitate movement in their in your brain? Hey, what's your personality? like You know, those things have to come first. And with research, even though, yeah, it's awesome that red light therapy is proven to help, or it's awesome that breathwork has been proven to help. But again, populations, context, um we need to be okay that anecdotal research is our number one research when it comes to the body.
Speaker: yeah um Because even though we know textbook reasons why the body works, It doesn't show us why everyone is imperfect. Right. According to the textbook. Right.
Speaker: So we have to learn how to trust that type of research and learn how to categorize it so that it can be used and helpful later. Right. But not like, hey, do this five things. It's going to help you. It's like, no, you need to kind of move the the meter a little bit. Like why or why not?
Speaker: is this helpful? That kind of goes hand in hand with your experience might be your experience, but your experience is not necessarily a scientific approach. And so like, it's great if something worked for you, but just because something worked for you doesn't mean that again, it's something that you need to be like shouting from the rooftop that, Hey, this is what you need to be doing. And I think that's what That's what we are finding ourselves involved in the middle of right now in the information age is everybody has a platform. Every single person has a platform. It is so hard to differentiate between the people who actually have an education and an experience and someone who is building a business and a name off their experience. You know what I mean? And it's right I don't know how you feel about this, but you know as a coach, as somebody who primarily you know, promotes themselves online. It is such a headache and it is so frustrating that somebody who, you know, just wants to share their own personal experience and capitalize on that seems oftentimes because we compare ourselves to everybody all the time. oftentimes seems like, man, what what are they doing right that I can't do right, even though I'm the one who has over 10 years experience and I have all this, you know, credentials and all of that stuff. And so it's so you got to be really careful with the things that you see online. Not everything online is you know supposed to be taken for face value. you And I can't I have so many conversations with people where they'll bring up a topic that they saw online and I explain to them why that's correct or incorrect. And the response is, OK, well, I disagree because of X, Y and Z from another article. And it's like, OK, you're allowed to disagree, but that person is going based off of one little tiny nuance and not this like big idea. You know what i mean? And so I think that that's where things kind of get lost in translation um a little bit. I was gonna say, it can go double-edged sword because then people are empowered to learn about their body, which is amazing. Like we wanna give people the client the client's toolboxes to be able to trust and know what their body needs to experience. yeah But on the other side of that,
Speaker: who's teaching the framework that the but the people are learning from? Like who are they listening to, right? right um And that's the hard part is like we, from the education standpoint, that's the whole goal is to have people leave us and know that they can trust themselves to make decisions about how they've experienced what they've experienced in their body. But then if someone that they like to follow is only having a one way street for a modality or a lens that's just one direction,
Speaker: they're going to fail. It's going to fail to follow them, which is hard. An example of that that I can think of, and I think this has kind of died down a little bit, but I know it's still very relevant in our society, is, for example, the carnivore diet. Okay? And so... A lot of times people will start the carnivore diet and their experience is, we're just going to say generally positive in terms of, man, I felt so much better. This worked for me. I have more energy. um You know, I feel better. Like I, you know, everything is going great. And like, I don't know, it just, it works.
Speaker: Okay, but you're not realizing that you cut out processed foods. You are eating more real whole food options. And so did the carnivore diet work or did you just provide your body with nutrient dense options and your body is responding to that in a more positive way? And so it's like, again, taking that information that somebody said, This is it. It worked. And now they're looking at their experience through their lens. Right. And not understanding. OK, well, what is quote unquote work mean? Because if you're still eating carnivore in six months, in a year, in two years, it only worked.
Speaker: If you are sustainably consistently still following that lifestyle. Similarly, just like people who are on keto, right? You know, for a little bit, you end up falling off because it's not sustainable because it's, you know, it is extreme by nature, right? You're removing food groups, right? And especially your body's number one energy source, matt you know, mind you. But at the end of the day, um Oftentimes they can't maintain that lifestyle. And so they end up reverting back to, you know, either a different way of eating or whatever the case is. And, you know, when I talk to people who have tried keto in the past, um how, you know, keto really worked for me.
Speaker: Well, if it worked for you, why are we talking about this in a past tense? You know what i mean? And so all of that kind of to say, it's like, okay, we just have to be careful at like who we're listening to because just because it's online, especially from a reputable source,
Speaker: like a wellness you know ah website or someone who is really high up in the wellness industry doesn't necessarily mean that it is a peer-reviewed scientific um you know approach that actually has a lot of these nuances taken into consideration.
Speaker: What are your opinions and what do you kind of see from kind of like a big bird's eye view, like very basic approach The value of stretching as it relates to mobility, so whether it's dynamic or static stretching, to you know improve flexibility and things like that, and also stretching modalities in terms of providing relief to a lot of common ailments, lower back pain, things like that. Like, what are your thoughts on stretching? And do you think that there is, a i would say, a better approach, generally speaking? Yes. um You may or may not like me after I answer this question. I want to know. One of the very first lesson I teach is about signaling.
Speaker: And in order for the body to talk to you, it has to be in a lengthened position. Because in a lengthened position, it means that every signal to the from the brain to that area was turned off.
Speaker: So like... When muscle contracts and shortens, usually you don't feel a lot of things. As soon as you start to let go and open a muscle or lengthen it, the muscle spindles and the Golgi tendons start yelling at you.
Speaker: and that yelling is usually your tightness. Oh, that feels good. That's a good stretch. it hurts good. I feel the burn. I feel the stretch. All of those are threats to your brain, all of them, because they are preventing your body from ripping or tearing or pulling. And it says, hey, that's like a little far for us to go.
Speaker: So whenever you have a signal or a symptom, the first thing I teach is that pain comes from a lengthened state. ah So we literally, the goal of that would be to shorten anything that's causing you pain. Now there is an exactness factor to that, right? There are so many muscles in the body, they pull in so many different directions and everyone starts in a different position. So back to your assessment of which specific muscle is it so that I can learn to contract it and not just guess that it's my general hip flexors or general glutes or general low back muscles, right?
Speaker: And I think the lack of education, sadly, in movement ah gyms or whatever it might be, that we are looking stuff up and we're guessing and then the one stretch that everyone says that works. But actually stretching is just removing more signals to your brain and then allowing the muscle to scream back at you. So in order to get rid of something, I do not believe that stretching is helpful at all. And that's a very overgeneralized statement, but from like the time that we have and the science that we're working from,
Speaker: um i don't I don't think I have ever in my oop offered the advice of someone to stretch. It was, hey, create a new starting position. Learn how to activate and hold that position. The structures are like your Chinese finger traps, right?
Speaker: We get stuck in them and as soon as we pull apart, it gets tighter and more resisted and you can't get length. um So in order to get out of that, you have to shorten, create relaxation or safety, and then it will let go or lengthen for you. Structures physically can extend or grow to like 27%. So on their own in new positions with different loads, they will automatically lengthen if done properly. So the homework that I give people is usually about eccentric loads, contract, relax, and open a little bit wider, but not necessarily holding a static stretch or a dynamic stretch that is more than 40%. Again, relative to the person's genetics, their movement history, and their sport, and their symptoms, to what position I would offer that advice in. So generally speaking, stretching doesn't do what...
Speaker: We have been told it does, and it provides temporary moments of relief, and that's all it's going to do is because it's not an actual long-term modality to get you out of that pain that you might be experiencing or the tightness that you might be experiencing or anything like that. It's bringing more attention from your brain to the body area, which is like the the intention of that, but that's not the resolution. The resolution is not that.
Speaker: Correct. Yeah. No, I'm a big fan of your response because I agree. Okay. The amount of times that um we we often pack times put too much emphasis on stretching. And the reason that it feels good for a temporary period of time is because it's not actually doing anything to heal. Right. And so sure, you're going to feel that sensation and sure, it feels good. and But if we want long term, you know, ah healing of.
Speaker: if your lower back is tight, well, first of all, why is your lower back tight? Well, and more often than not, ah you know, people are too sedentary. There's not enough movement. There's not enough blood flow. Your your connective tissue, your muscles, you know, the discs in your spine, things like that. Motion is lotion, right? And so if we are removing the motion part of that, well, then things are tightening up. OK. And so, you know, I'm a big fan of we need to move, okay? We don't necessarily have to find the best type of exercise as much as our society has a problem moving in general. We are too sedentary as a society. And oftentimes we look at these extreme measures of moving, right? Going from doing nothing at all to, hey, I'm going to go do a high intensity interval class and then wonder why I'm so sore and maybe you got injured because like, why did we go to that big extreme? Why are we not just like prioritizing light movement like hey, go for a walk. that That's going to do you so much more um or that's going to provide so much more value, especially if you are coming from a sedentary lifestyle, then going from zero to 100. And your body might not be ready for those movements yet. And especially if you are loading your body with those movements. And it's like, let's build up to that. You know what i mean?
Speaker: But all of that to say, um i am a big fan of if we want to improve those areas that are, you know, we are feeling tight or, you know, things like that, then really what we need to be looking at as strengthening those muscle groups. Okay. And that's not saying I want you to get under a barbell and squat 400 pounds, but can we squat? Can we even do a body weight squat? Can we open those hips up? Can we get your hips used to that movement pattern? You know what i mean? And then, of course, build up to full range of motion, adding low, different variations, things like that. And without without including some kind of movement, then it's going to be really hard for you to find any like long-term relief. I don't necessarily believe that strength training is the end all be all as far as like, you know, helping people get out of pain or you know, things like that. But I do think it's crucial. I do think that studies have been proven um over the years that if we are not using our muscle, then things are going to further break down. And the only way to prevent that further breakdown is to use it or lose it. So what what are your thoughts on that? Yes, I agree. And I think general movement is better than no movement. I think that changing our expectation too of one society, but two, what the results should be coming from where our body is coming from while doing a movement.
Speaker: Um, so for example, when we work with people who are hypermobile or have excess mobility just in general, and they start feeling tighter, I'm like, great, we change, we are solving the problem, right? Like tightness is going from a shorter to a lengthened state. So the tightness for you would then be like, Hey, we started shorter and your body was trying to put you back where you were, which was unstable and unsafe. Sure. So when it comes to expectation of like, how should I feel at the end of this CrossFit workout? Well, if I just picked up CrossFit last week, like the expectation is you're going feel like crap. You're not going to feel good about it.
Speaker: um And then there's an expectation of like, is my body doing what it's supposed to be doing, even though I'm doing what somebody said to do? Sure. Yeah. And if a coach tells you to do something, like they would have the best advice, can the coach let you know if your body is actually cueing the right muscle? They should be.
Speaker: Is your body producing the right heart rate right now for where you're coming from to where our goals are? Like the expectation of where people are to like how to get there needs to be shifted. Because oh yeah a lot of people will go into a new modality, a new form of movement and be like, yeah, I got to be the best at this right now. And breaking down performance to be like, it has to be in phases, especially if you're switching sports from endurance to strength, vice versa. If you did a one-handed ball handling sport and now you're doing a barbell sport, like you got to change your expectation of how to reverse yourself out of where you were and become fundamentally and foundationally ready to take on the whatever that next sport is. And that is loads, positions, activations, the muscle and integrity, right? All of those things and expectations, which is missed because it takes a long time.
Speaker: Like it takes a while for your body to do those changes. sure And we don't get taught that. I completely agree with you. I think a lot of times people fail to realize the first time that you do something is never your best and you get better each time you do it. And so like when I'm working with someone who's doing like, you know, a progressive overload strength training program, for example, I will literally tell them your first week of any new program I put you on, even if it's a similar, you know, movement style that you're used to,
Speaker: It's an annoying week. Week one is always annoying because you have no idea the flow of the exercises, the exercise selection, the tempo and the rep and the, you know, all of these things, right? You're getting used to the new layout. Your body has not learned the movement pattern yet. And so like give yourself grace, right?
Speaker: And I think a lot of times people put themselves, they are very hard on themselves because number one, they care, okay? And they want to get it right. But there is no... Relatively speaking, of course, there is no right wrong as it relates to are you showing up and doing your best? Are you paying attention to the movement that you're doing? And are you paying attention to the mind muscle connection that that movement is allowing? That is the goal. OK, you're never going to reach a moment in your fitness journey where you're like.
Speaker: I have perfected this squat. I never need to practice it again. i have perfected it. Like, I don't know about you. I've been moving my body for a very long time. And every time I record myself doing an exercise so I can look at it for feedback, there's always something that I'm noticing that I can improve on next time. And And that part of the fun of training. You know what i mean? Like that's the difference of are you training or are you working out? And if the goal is training, we want to make sure that we are paying attention to every single rep. The mind muscle connection is huge. If you have no idea what muscle you are supposed to be using and activating, that's kind of a red flag. You know what i mean? So like we want to genuinely genuinely, for some people, close your eyes and imagine that muscle lengthening, right? And then contracting at the same time. Sometimes it's helpful, mind muscle connection to touch the muscle so that you are, you know, using to create that mind muscle connection. And I think that, you know, kind of taking some time to recognize, yes, expectations, and with those expectations, giving yourself a little grace, You showed up. Are you doing your best? Amazing. You check the box, move on to another day. You know what i mean? Like there's never this moment where it's like, I i never, i've I've perfected it. And like, I never need feedback. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You are a human body. Your workouts, how you feel, how strong you are, how tight you are, all of these things, they are very much related to so many different variables that are some outside of your control. Yeah.
Speaker: Some are within your control. Did you get great sleep? Are you working out too much? Have you not recovered enough? You know, all of these different and like nuances and whatnot. However, I think a lot of times people forget, like, you're going to have bad workouts, even if you're a pro. You're going to have great workouts, even if you're a newbie. Like, this there is no, like, pass, fail, right, wrong. There is just...
Speaker: There's never a destination. There's just the journey. There's just like you just continuing. OK, and the goal is to do these things to not live with pain, to have a full quality of life, to be strong enough to, you know, climb the climb a mountain if you're 80 years old and you want to climb a mountain. You know what i mean? Like the goal is to live a full life of as few limitations as possible. What do we need to do to do that? And the answer to that might be different from person to person. But I think we can agree that there are some basic fundamentals like, hey, are you getting enough sleep? The majority of people are not right. Hey, are you drinking enough water? The majority of people say they don't even like water. Are you eating enough food or are you just constantly dieting? Are you not giving your body enough?
Speaker: sustenance to actually sort or thrive instead of survive, right? Are you giving your body enough protein to promote healing properties if you have an injury and to get stronger? Are you all of these things like very basic fundamentals, but it's so easy in the information age. to get distracted by the things that you see online about cortisol and how that is, you know, what you got to focus on. And, oh, you know, you have to do, you have to stand on a vibration plate and that's, what's going to help, you know, improve your mobility and flexibility. And it's just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, like let's slow down and think about what you're doing. Just like when you're doing a workout, slow down and think about every single rep that you're doing. Where are you feeling it? What are you focused on? You know what i mean? Like we have to slow down. We have to pay attention And I think I think that we are just in a society where things are just moving so fast and our attention span is getting shorter and shorter. And people just I don't want to say they don't care, but they are more interested in a faster way.
Speaker: method, right? They want they want a pill versus like the every single day decisions to help improve what they're actually working towards. Yeah, absolutely. And getting to like, right, we use the word root cause a lot. And even back to your scenario about the diets where like, cool, you are eating better on the carnivore diet. You did cut out processed food. The same thing happens in movement and like physical therapy is that you were given five exercises and one of them probably hit the muscle that you needed to hit for that pain pattern, but now we'll never know because you did five general exercises because someone told you to. Instead of like, let's break down every joint, every individual muscle and see like, okay, what's the why behind this does work or it doesn't work for you. And then we get too excited that the whole PT thing worked and then it comes back and then we just don't know the whys. So stepping back and giving people permission to not try everything, but actually like listen to their body and maybe do one thing at a time or seek a practitioner that can give more advice on the why. And instead of just, Hey, this is the one thing I offer.
Speaker: Let's try it. You know? yeah And I think that just comes with a more patient approach, like not patient as far as like client, but patient as far as like be patient. Yeah. Yes, be patient. You know, like it's sometimes sometimes it takes time and like that's not a bad thing, especially if you're on the right track. You know what i mean? Like, I don't know about you. I'd rather have something take more time. Right. And be more thorough. But no, we are getting somewhere versus. throwing spaghetti at a wall and just seeing what sticks. And like you said, it's like, okay, well now now we don't even know because we've done too much because we wanted it to try it all. We didn't give one modality enough time. Where did we really like spend our time? Like, was that a great use of our time? So expectation for how long it would take for things to change based on the textbook, right? Muscles change in four to six weeks. Fascia changes in three months. Digestion changes in maybe a month if you do it consistently. um So signaling from the brain can change immediately, right? Like expectation from client to therapist, like this is probably how long it will take. Let's stick to it for that long and, you know, actually do the thing so that we can work from the textbook instead of against the textbook. Yes, I would agree.
Speaker: I would agree. but Well, Morgan, this has been such an awesome conversation. yes I loved it. I feel like we could talk about this stuff all day, so we might have to sidebar this stuff. But yeah um I would love to, um you know, for those who are listening, how do they get in contact with you? So, you know, if somebody wanted to, you know, look you up and work with you, how do they get in contact with you? Who are some of the kind of clients that you really like thrive in working with. Like tell us a little bit about kind of how to how to work with you.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. So first clientele. So I do have online appointments, but I'm located in Chandler, Arizona. So I'm a troubleshooter. So you come to me, we talk about pretty much everything you've tried, what you're experiencing and what your goals are and where your symptoms are. And I say, here's what I think based on a picture evaluation, your movement evaluation. Of course, I can't touch from a distance, but I try to consider based on your images, what is going on. And so online appointments are available for clients. And then also I teach other massage therapists and personal trainers or yoga instructors how to see the body differently than maybe assessments have taught you through school. So I teach you how to read bodies, not just, oh, these are your five movement protocols or these are your five massage techniques. So if you're a therapist or a movement pro that is looking for education, you can also come that way for my CEs and my mentorship. The easiest way is Instagram. So that's And my website is www.findaligned.com,
Speaker: which also has like the appointment scheduling and my mentorship information. Awesome. Awesome. I'll put all of the like links and everything in the caption too. And I hope this was a helpful resource for everybody listening as usual. Hopefully we'll talk soon. Yeah, exactly. Thank you so much. you
