Why Stretching Isn't Always the Answer | EP8

You've stretched religiously, foam rolled everything, and still wake up feeling like the Tin Man. Sheldon breaks down why tightness is often protective—not structural, and reveals why your nervous system might be working against your flexibility goals. Learn the difference between earning range of motion and fighting your own body.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Tightness is often a sensation, not a structural problem,you can feel tight without reduced muscle length
• Protective tension: your nervous system creates tightness to limit movement when it perceives instability
• The yoga paradox: more flexibility without control triggers your brain to tighten muscles for protection
• Four red flags of protective tension: feels worse after stretching, one-sided tension persists, recurring despite consistency, only temporary relief
  Hip is the hub: lack of hip stability → low back compensates; lack of hip mobility → knees take stress
• Breath is the bridge: The fastest way to shift from a guarded state to a receptive state is through breath
• Earn the range, then own it through strength and stability work

CHAPTERS:

• 00:00 Introduction & The Tin Man Syndrome
• 03:27 Lifestyle Factors & Purpose-Driven Movement
• 08:45 The Misconception: Tightness ≠ Short Muscles
• 12:03 Protective Tension & The Nervous System
• 18:16 The Yoga Paradox: Hypermobility Issues
• 24:30 Joint Range of Motion Parameters
• 28:45 The Vicious Cycle of Stretching
• 32:28 Four Red Flags of Protective Tension
• 35:51 Weakness Disguised as Tightness
• 39:27 Eccentric Training & Rate of Perceived Exertion
• 43:15 Hip Flexors & Desk Worker Syndrome
• 46:37 The Hip as Hub: Joint-by-Joint Approach
• 53:45 Breath as the Bridge to Your Nervous System
• 57:20 Trunk Stability: The Deep Stabilizers
• 1:01:30 Practical Applications & Movement Drills
• 1:06:45 Mindset Shift & Episode Recap

NEXT WEEK:

Special guest Jacob Greer, burnout recovery specialist and PhD candidate, joins Sheldon to discuss the science behind burnout and recovery strategies.

Transcript

[...0.1s]Hey, what's going on crew? Thank you for joining me on another episode of the mbt movement. I'm your host, sheldon. And on today's solo episode, we're gonna be talking about why stretching isn't always the answer.You know, maybe you've stretched religiously, you've done the foam rolling, you've got, got all the gizmos and gadgets and you've gone stretching to the edge of the world and beyond until you wanted to cry, you've done every mobility routine and you still wake up feeling like a, like the tin man, you know, from the wizard of oz. You just feel stiff. You just feel like the body is just locked up all over again.Well, hey, this episode's for you cause we're gonna talk a little bit more about why this tin man syndrome seems to keep showing up. Alright? So we're gonna be talking about why stretching isn't always the answer. This isn't clickbait.There's an actual fundamental misunderstanding about what tightness really is. And at the end of this episode, i hope to shape your perspective a little bit more to help you better understand [...0.5s] the physiology without is what is going on with your body, even down to a [...0.4s] cellular level as to why your body seems to continue showing up in these patterns.But if you're listening to this podcast on your podcast up, whether it's apple, spotify, wherever you get your podcast, you know, you're getting the audio version.But if you want the full experience, that is the video content, you're curious about the research i talked about and you're like, man, i wish this dude provided me a research citation sheeter, you know, i wish i was able to get a little bit more out of this podcast.Hey, fear not, my friend, right? Cause i got a school community [...0.4s] that i created that does just that well. I mean, it does. That's one piece of it.We also do a lot more than just that. But, but the school community i've created, um, this is a value proposition in, you know sort of like my mantra, my new year's resolution slash mantra of going all in on me.And my intention with this whole school community was to create more or less a platform for people to congregate to talk about all things movement based therapy.Whether it's injury prevention, injury rehabilitation, whether you're trying to get back to an activity but keep getting shut down because you keep getting injured or [...0.5s] running into that nagging knee bug that comes back whenever you start running.Hey, this community is for you, alright? We have a, we have a friendly, supportive group of awesome people of like minded individuals that are in this community. In addition to that, i provide personalized insights.You can schedule calls with me if you were curious about learning more about movement based therapy. Even if you just had general questions that you wanted to learn more about, this is the place for you.But coming back to the podcast, i provide a research citation sheet as well as resource documents and the video version of this podcast as well.So if you wanna see [...0.5s] yours truly live or not live, but in the flesh via video version of this podcast, feel free to join the school community. Link will be in the show notes. You can also go to school that sk o o l dot com for slash movement based therapy. And again, i will provide this in the show notes.So having said that, let's get into [...0.6s] this episode. Alright, so what is [...0.5s] the one area that always feels tight? And this is, this is something that usually within my school community, or, you know, i have conversations with clients in person or on the social medias. And they're telling me they always got, you know, the tight hip syndrome or their low back always feels tighter.You know, they, they try to reach overhead and for some reason they just don't have that range of motion because they feel limited in that sort of way. And this is speaking to that.Oh, another one, ankles. Ankles are always tight [...0.5s] for a whole, a whole lot of people, but yeah, these are this, this is the question that, oh, it's sort of the highlighted theme of this episode is there's gonna be some specific tightness, [...0.5s] right? And what is typically the go to solution for tightness is the stretch, right?Cause it's like, it's like the yin and yang. It's like, i'm tight, i need to be loose. Therefore in order for me to get loose, i'm gonna stretch cause stretching is going to don't make it loose, right?Yeah, sure, makes logical sense. But it's not always the case. And time and time again, this is sort of the issue here is, you know, think of it like that friend that we got that always goes to yoga and talks about how much they stretch all the time, but how tight they always are, they drop into the splits and they do the talking roll.And this is kind of, this is the conundrum here, right? Is that just because you have the range of motion and flexibility doesn't necessarily predicate that you have control.And that is, i mean, that's essentially this, this episode in the summary is you need balance of adequate flexibility, and that is the ability to extend tissue, tissue extensibility, right?Do you have the range of motion, the, the sufficient range of motion based off of your lifestyle is ultimately what it comes down to, [...0.6s] right? Because time and time again, people will have this sort of comparison syndrome. And i like to say, you know, hey, comparison is a thief of joy.Old quote from teddy roosevelt there, but that's the idea here is, you know, you have a body builder who watches a yoga stretch, and they say, oh my gosh, i wish i had that flexibility.Well, no, you don't cause you're a body builder, otherwise you would be a yogi. You know, it all comes down to [...0.5s] again, lifestyle factors is what i like to say is what does your life look like. It's, it's specific to you, this is a case by case basis, right?You may have two yogis, right, but at the end of the day, you look at how one yogi lives their life and the other lives their life. They're gonna be completely, they're gonna be drastically different.So we have to understand that is that we acknowledge lifestyle circumstances and then that's what essentially we nurture in terms of activity, movement, range of motion, quality of life, etc. But we have to understand lifestyle is essentially the foundational piece of this whole puzzle.So, so when that person comes to me and says that, you know, let's just say the low back is the issue here, says that they have a tight low back, i may say, okay, well how long have you been stretching it for? Months, years, days, decades, and they'll give me a specific answer.That's one small piece to the puzzle is how long you've been stretching. But i think the bigger picture here is what i was kind of alluding to a little earlier is lifestyle factor. What is your life look like on the day to day?And then also the other highly important piece here is purpose and vision because purpose and vision are sort of like the intrinsic motivational factors that keep us going day to day. And it's the reason why we get up in the morning.So when you understand lifestyle factors that is what is the person doing day to day, you know, that is [...0.4s] consistent, and then you understand what is the purpose and vision. Like the true purpose and vision, not just the superficial thing, the thing that is like, oh my god, i wish i could do this.Well if you really did, you would be doing. It is the other side of that. So [...1.0s] the true intention, the truth of intention, what is your, why is what it, what it comes down to?And when you understand that it's sort of this inner play [...0.5s] of finding the resolution that sort of, you know like gives them what they want but more importantly addresses what they need, right?So like if they want to be able, they truly want to be able to start running again, but they keep running into knee pain. My analysis comes down to, what is your life look like?Okay. Well, and then the person replies and says, okay, well, you know, i work a desk job. So something that triggers off in my mind is, okay, well, they're probably sitting for a prolonged period of time. So i have some follow up questions that, but, okay, i work a desk job, you know, i got a family.My, [...0.8s] you know, my morning routine, i really don't have much time in the morning cause i gotta get ready for work or i gotta take the kids to school and then go to work. Whatever the case might be, that is gonna be the lifestyle piece.And then they sort of alluded to that they truly wanna get back to running, but they keep running into this nagging knee pain.So now we essentially have to fill in this void [...0.9s] of where they currently are to, where their vision, where their ideal life is and basically fill in that gap in a practical way that makes them feel acknowledged and validated.And that's probably the hardest piece right there for [...0.4s] figuring out whether it's injury recovery, so this would be therapeutic rehabilitation or if it's just, you know, figuring out the psychological component of motivational factors that tie into this plan.So once we understand that, that sort of paints the picture here and gives us a good general starting point, but there are still going to be several follow up questions as well as touch points that are gonna go on throughout this whole experience that will help better optimize care and get the individual the best results.So do you know what other follow up questions might involve? You know, what have they tried doing that has worked? What makes it worse?Because again, this is gonna hint to, [...0.8s] you know, more or less contraindications or things that they should not do because it makes them feel worse. So clearly, we're gonna avoid the things that make you feel worse. We're gonna nurture and promote the things that make you feel better.And again, by doing that, you get more buying from the individual. And that's, that's the biggest piece there is when you're working one to one with someone is you have to build that trust.And the best way to build trust and rapport is to have a collaborative conversation [...0.5s] that gets them again what they need, addresses what they need for sure, but also gives them what they want.Because when you get them what they want, that's that sort of the motivational piece there is like, man, i know i need to do this stuff. It's such a boring i need, i gotta do my homework.You know. But if you make the homework fun, you know, make it an activity that they can certainly engage with and, you know sort of grow their perspective and gain insights from, that's like reading an awesome book, you know, you're like, oh wow, i love this story.It makes so much more fun [...0.6s] versus, you know, reading something bland and boring that is like, okay, i'll get to the point. You know, you gotta make it engaging.That's kind of the peace there is. Motivation is a huge piece. Whether you're doing injury rehab or whether you're trying to get back to running a marathon, this is the whole idea here.So coming back to a few things here, the misconception is typically that tightness means that muscles are short or tightness means i need to stretch. And that's sort of like the intuitive way to look at it. And again, you know, as i mentioned earlier, it's the logical way, it's the intuitive way.It makes sense. But tightness is often a sensation. It's not a structural problem. You can feel tight without having reduced muscle length if and in a twenty twenty four systematic review, there was a recommendation put out that stretching tight muscles to improve muscle and balance and posture actually lacked scientific evidence. Meanwhile, strengthening actually showed results.So this kind of goes to a deeper root here and says that [...0.5s] the true tissue restriction does exist through something like prolonged immobilization.So, you know, for the instance of maybe you're in a cast, you know, or maybe you have post surgical adhesion so built up scar tissue because maybe the rehabilitation process post surgery didn't go as planned, you know, in the instance of a total knee replacement, scar tissue is significantly apparent here.And if individuals who have that knee replacement aren't mobilizing knee and moving it how it should be, there is gonna be adhesions and scar tissue that build up that further make the knee immobile to a point where they have to go under the knife again just to have the scar tissue removed.So this becomes apparent in these types of experiences, but chronic tightness that never goes away despite years of stretching, it's almost never a length problem. So [...0.4s] that's the question, right? Is if it's not length, what is it actually?Well, we have to look a little bit deeper and understand that maybe [...0.5s] it's the nervous system because your nervous system runs constant threat detection. It's how your brain perceives the external environment cause your brain has, it doesn't have any eyes, it doesn't have any sensory organs.Therefore, it relies on the nervous system to find the external stimulus. That is, it's not just your external environment which is what you can sense, but also internally, right?So whether it's joint instability, whether it's muscular weakness, or whether it's a perceived threat or vulnerability via the immune system, your brain and your nervous system are having this innerplay of understanding what it needs to do to continue to survive and exist.So when your nervous system perceives an area that isn't stable or strong, such as an unstable shoulder or hip or ankle, it's gonna create tension to limit the movement.And this is a phrase known as protective tension or guarding where your body is trying to generate stability or it perceives a lack of, so it's holding on to dear life just to keep the ship together.And i'll run it back to the example of our awesome yoga go getter, right? So they go to yoga every day, they stretch stretch, stretch, but they can never seem to alleviate the tightness that they feel.Well, the reason here is you can kind of think of it like your muscle fibers in this orientation where i have my hands overlapped with each other and as i stretch, i'm basically starting to, you know, lengthen the hands out where now you start to see some daylight between my fingers to a point where if i went any further, my fingers would separate.We can think of that as your muscle tissue. So your muscle, your muscle tissue is gonna get to a point where it's essentially gonna tear off the bone or it's gonna tear.So what does a brain do and the nervous system do? They pick this information up and they tighten the muscle. They tighten the muscle as a way to protect the muscle so that it doesn't tear.And it makes total logical sense when i put it this way. So if that were to be the case and that person kept stretching, they keep getting to the end range and they get probably even further as time goes on to a point where the nervous system is hanging on for dear life, just so the person won't tear their muscle.And in some instances, they stretch to enrage and they go beyond and they do tear their muscle or they do dislocate the shoulder, or they do end up having some sort of severe trauma that requires repair or significant amount of rehabilitation to correct the dysfunction.But long story short, that could have been bypassed this entire time had they stopped stretching and actually got to more function and strength based exercises.In this instance, instance, i would typically recommend isolation training. Right? So in the instance of the person who drops into the stretch, one, i'm looking at the hip joint, two, i'm looking at hamstrings and quads. What is their length look like?More than likely, all of these structures are gonna be hyper [...0.6s] mobile, that is, they have too much range of motion. And when we talk about range of motion, there are gonna be parameters within a joint. There gonna be nordive ranges.This is something many people will be familiar with if they've gone to their physio physical therapist. You know, they've gotten off the goniometer, which is basically like a protractor that measures angles and they put it on your joint and it's specifically meant to measure joint ranges of motion.So when we talk about joint range of motion within the spine, right? You should have about forty five degrees within the cervical spine, that's gonna be your neck.You should have about forty five to fifty degrees of flexion that is bending your head forward. You should have about sixty to seventy degrees of extension.Lateral flexion, you should have about forty five degrees in each. And there's gonna be deviation, right? You might have a little more, you might have a little less, but the average is gonna be what i'm talking about here.If we were to talk about shoulder flexion, right? You should have about a hundred eighty degrees extension fifty to sixty degrees. So within normative ranges for external rotation individuals should have about ninety degrees, for internal rotation they should have about seventy degrees.So that's a total of a hundred sixty degree arc for baseball pitcher though they may have a hundred twenty degrees of external rotation. So that's thirty degrees more and their internal rotation is gonna be limited. So they'll have forty degrees of internal rotation.And this is something that you'll see in a lot of athletic populations that are very sport specific. So again, baseball pitcher, they put a lot of force on the external rotation. Therefore they have that laxity in external and they don't really have much internal.So that's kind of the trade off here. But again, when we talk about ranges of motion should be a normal amount of range of motion that we should all be able to move through, no more and no less. And if we have more, that's gonna create imbalance.So our yoga friend here who drops into this puts they probably have in access, they probably have the higher range.So if i'm talking about the hip here, hip flexion should be about a hundred twenty degrees of flexion, right? So think of it like a baby who gets into a crawl position or, you know, if you do child's pose for instance, that's roughly a hundred twenty degrees of flexion.Now this person who does yoga maybe they have a hundred forty degrees of flexion. Somehow are just very hypermobile. Their hamstrings are probably a little bit more extensive, same with the quads.So you can see this hypermobility is gonna put significantly more strain on the joint itself because now we're really, we're really moving through and end range and beyond.So that's gonna cause joint instability because now the connective tissue is being more relied on where the muscle isn't really going to be able to contract at that length unless they truly do have that amount of control.But that is the whole point here is you wanna have a nice balance of tissue extensibility and contractibility that is the ability to use the muscle at said length or range of motion. And if you're not able to contract at the end range of motion, this means that you've gone too far.And the other piece of that is the nervous system is essentially, you know, you've essentially flip the circuit breaker for the nervous system where it's not able to pick up what's going on.So this can be very catastrophic because if you get to an end range and you have some forceful amount of trauma, so, you know, in the instance of a car accident or maybe you're already bent forward and that, you know, that collision essentially forces you into a deeper range of motion.It can be that it can be hanging from a pull up bar, it can be, whatever the case might be, but there's gonna be some sort of outside or external force that further applies to the joint or the structure.That enhances range of motion also enhances likelihood of injury, right? And i'm not using enhance here in the good way. I'm saying enhance. This is increasing and detrimental to health and longevity as well as structural normality. So we have to understand this, we have to understand [...0.6s] one, it's about having a balance of range of motion, but also about being able to control the range of motion based on what activity you're doing.It's very, again, lifestyle specific but also very purpose driven in that sort of way. And this is typically the vicious cycle.I see people in is that they stretch the brain tightens, they stretch harder, so the brain tightens harder. And you're basically playing this three way tug of war between your brain, body, and nervous system [...0.5s] in order for survival and protection.And this could also allude to almost like a chronic state of sympathetic overdrive where [...0.4s] your body is in fight and flight freeze, where your body is in fight or flight this entire time just to survive and protect itself.We have to understand the better we can down regulate our nervous system through conducive activities, through conducive activities such as in this instance would be strengthening and creating more stability, your body is gonna start trusting you more and you actually start making progress and not feeling tight all the time.Most instances i would say like resistance training or any form of stability training is going to be sympathetic driven because you're increasing your heart rate, you're increasing your sweat response and circulation, you're having that sympathetic response.But in this instance, especially from our injury rehabilitation, especially from a tissue orthopedic rehabilitation standpoint, it's gonna be conducive to downregulating the nervous system because the body, brain and nervous system are gonna be working together.And the other piece of that is that it doesn't have to be about lifting heavy weight. And quite frankly, i would recommend not to lift a ton of weight in this instance if you're already hypermobile because, you know, let's just take a squat.If you had a heavy squat, more than likely the person who is hypermobile isn't going to be able to control that end range.So they're gonna rely on elastic energy to overdrive and come out of the squat. Which one is gonna be bad form who is gonna put their passive tissue on further elongation underload. So like how is talking about the car accident example there?This is essentially its own form of that because the external factor is the load.And if you're overloading the individual through a dynamic range of motion which they don't have control through, this is just, this is just a breeding ground for perpetuating the injury and stifling the progress and digging them deeper into a hole.So in this instance, i would typically recommend something like an overcoming asymmetric or like an asymmetric, something like an asymmetric, really simple.Here, if i'm talking about quads knee stability, it would be a wall sit. It would be an asymmetrical lunge. If i'm talking about hamstrings, i'm thinking about isometric nordics, isometric hamstring curl holds on a swiss ball. I'm even talking about like a hamstring bridge or glute bridge isometric. Just holding it and feeling those muscles contract.Because the thing here about contraction is that's driven and triggered by your nervous system, right? Your brain has to basically send the signal through the nerve in order for the muscle to fire and it's a quick snap.So something very dynamic and effort. It just has to snap it on real quick, get the muscle to contract, and you can basically have that elastic energy to go into overdrive and overcome the rap. But something like an isometric. Your brain has to constantly fire the signal to the muscle to stay on.In addition to this, isometrics are great for collagen synthesis, which is gonna be really good for connective tissue, ligaments, cartilage, tendons, etc. These, like low load and time under tension.Here are some things that we wanna be thinking about. Let's just call them red flags of protective tension, right?The first is going to be, does it feel worse after stretching? And there's gonna be sort of a category of what i would say worse means worse would be you feel like a sharp ache, a sharp shooting or maybe a dull and achy sensation.Worse after stretching would mean that maybe you're walking off with a limp if you're stretching your hip, or [...0.8s] you're just not able to do much more because there's an actual pain sensation that you're feeling.That's worse off versus if you're doing something and you have mild discomfort, discomfort being you're doing the activity, beats a sweater coming down your forehead, like, man, this is challenging, oh my gosh, this sucks.But after you're done, you actually feel better, like, wow, that was, that was very challenging, but i feel good. I feel like i can continue moving more.You get a little muscle soreness, but it's like dom, like delayed onset muscle soreness, like a good workout sort of thing. That's gonna be good. That's where the body actually makes adaptations, so there's a difference.Here is if you're in the pain cave, get out stop, get out, don't do that anymore, cause maybe it's just too much for your body, your nervous system at that.But if you're in a zone of mild discomfort, ride that puppy all day because that's where your body is making adaptations and there's a balance. You don't wanna overdo it. You never wanna overdo it cause that's gonna push you into the pain cave. So it definitely takes a certain level of awareness to understand this.But the key is once you understand what that sensation feels like, you are going to remember that and you're gonna be able to push to training, not beyond, but you're gonna be able to push the training and push the line so that you continue to make that progress you're looking for.Number two [...0.6s] is if you have one sided tension that doesn't respond to bilateral stretching, so you stretch both sides, but there's always one side that remains tight, right?This is essentially one form of protective guarding. It's specific to that area for a reason. It could be maybe an old injury that wasn't taken care of.It could be an instability. It could be a referral pattern. And in a lot of instances, you know, for hip things, right? For hip issues, for knee issues, they could be actually stemming from the low back and referring down to the extremity. And this is how the nerve works, right?So in the instance of our hands and arms, we have what's known as the brachial plexus. The brachial plexus are a branch of nerves that stem off of our cervical spine, that is our neck, and they go into our arm. It's how we feel sensation. It's how we contract muscle, muscles.These are superficial nerves as well as deep nerves that we have. So if, you know, for instance, i sleep weird and my neck is bent off to one side and i start getting numbness and tingling going down my hand, right?This is essentially me including the nerve and now the nerve is essentially [...0.4s] having less conduction and it's a manifestation of me feeling the numbness and tingling. Think of it. Think of the nerve like a garden hose. When you fold the garden hose in half, what happens? You have less flow.That's very much how the nerve works. The nerve has electrical conductive flow that helps the fire and contract our muscles, give us sensation, help us use this awesome body that we have. But if we're obstructing the flow, whether it's structural, whether it's postural, this is when we run into issues.So we have to understand and respect that going back to red flag cut, but now coming back to red flags.Red flag number three would be recurring tightness despite consistent stretching. And we've already sort of spoken to this from a protective guarding standpoint is that if the stimulus isn't working right, there's no need to repeat it.That's just insanity literally doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, right? We gotta understand that it's time for something different. And if it's not gonna be stretching, it's probably gonna be some form of stability training.And i don't wanna see strength and strength base training though. That's what it is. It's more stability training where we're teaching the body how to stabilize through a form of whether it be isometrics, temple variations, overcoming isometrics, whatever the case might be.All i'm saying here is that there are a plethora of tool of options other than the traditional form of resistance training that we all have known and come to love.Alright, so number four red flag here is it only provides temporary relief. So you stretch and stretch and stretch, you get maybe thirty minutes of relief, and then right after that, it comes right back.This is essentially like the rubber band snapback idea here. It's hallmark of protective tension. It's your body, brain and nervous system playing tug of war with one another. So we have to understand that.So the four flags, one, feeling worse off after stretching, two, one sided tension that doesn't go away after you stretch both sides, three, the recurring tightness despite consistent stretching, and four is it only provides temporary relief.If any of these sound familiar, then there's a good chance that your body is in a state of protective tension or protective guarding. And it's more than likely that you have good enough range of motion, probably more range of motion than you actually need.And now it's time to intervene with a different strategy moving on to the next topic. Here is weakness disguised as tightness. Weakness can disguise itself as tightness.But the thing we gotta understand here is that everyone stretches through a full range of motion, but nobody strengthens them through a full range of motion. And, you know, one might say, hey, you know, i do, i strengthen to a full range of motion, but is it through the same amount of effort, right?Think of it like a resistance band. When you pull a resistance band, it's building intention and the band starts to get more and more tight.But as you start to release the band, it's a less amount of resistance that you're having to overcome as you get the band back to its starting point, which is back to, back to a neutral position in that same way.Sure, that's how the body works, but a resistance band doesn't have a nervous system plugged into it. Therefore, you can strengthen the muscle aka, the resistance band through a dynamic range of motion through [...1.0s] the same amount of perceived effort.Right. So let's just say my, my perceived effort is on a scale of one to ten. And we know muscles are gonna be strongest at their mid range, that's gonna be a neutral position.So let's just say a bicep curl here, right? I have my bicep, i have my elbow at a ninety degree position. This is gonna be where i have the most strength and leverage.Now as i get shorter, muscles gonna get weaker, and it's gonna not be able to produce, produce the same amount of force because there's no tension. And the muscles short as i'm lengthen even more.So right, because you can think of it as muscle basically the muscle fiber. As the muscle fiber gets longer, you get to a point where the muscles gonna tear. Less likely to tear a muscle in a concentric or shortened phase versus an eccentric phase.Sure, which is why you need to be training both end ranges, whether it's concentric all the way shortened or eccentric all the way lengthened.And you need time under tension, and this is the key here, because you're weaker at those end ranges. It means that you take less load, but you put more time under tension, especially in an eccentricly lengthened position.And the benefit to training eccentrics is it's gonna be the fastest way to grow strength under the conditions that you already have the base of foundation, that is you have good technique, you know what it feels like to contract, you know where the parameters land with regards to safety.And you're not gonna push your body to a point where it becomes [...0.5s] counterintuitive to conducive training or detrimental and increases the likelihood of injury. We have to understand this.So all i'm saying here is again, if i had a rate of perceived exertion from a one to ten, one being i'm not exerting much effort, ten being probably i'm exerting the most amount of effort that i ever have.Then i'll say mid range, i'll say that i can exert, let's just say ten. And as i get to a lengthened position, the longer i get that number starts to go down. I'm not gonna be able to exert that much and that much effort in a safe and effective manner in this lengthened position.But what it should feel like, again, and this is the perceived component here is it should feel that i'm exerting, you know, a ten [...0.4s] in every range of motion.The thing that difference here is gonna be the load. So i'm not gonna be having the same amount, same amount of load as if i were out of mid range bicep curl.Let's just say, let's just say at a mid range i have [...0.7s] fifty pounds. Now as i get to it, a lengthened position, let's just say now i have about fifteen degrees of an angle my elbow and i have a very eccentricly lengthened bicep here.I'm not gonna be able to do fifty pounds. If i do, it's gonna be an overcoming isometric where my hand is not moving and i'm just feeling them also contract.Sure. Okay, but there shouldn't be a force opposing me in that direction at that same amount of weight, if that makes sense. So instead of fifty pounds, maybe now i hold the elbow there at fifteen degrees and let's just say maybe i have fifteen one five pounds, [...0.5s] okay.So i have fifteen pounds in my hand [...0.5s] at that eccentric lengthened position and i'm contracting as if i were trying to induce a ten, you know, rpe, ten rate of perceived exertion, ten.We're basically saying on a scale of one to ten where is your effort, right? And you should be able to exert the same amount of effort with less of a load in end ranges. So if i'm lengthened or if i'm shortened i should have lost weight but be able to contract as if i were at mid range.And eventually what happens is you're gonna induce a certain amount of neuromuscular fatigue where you're literally not able to contract anymore because you've exhausted your nervous system.This is something you have to be aware of as well because this is when injuries are most bound at be happened because eagle comes in and people like [...0.6s] another rap. Another said, i wanna go for it, guns blazing and then pop goes bicep or whatever the case might be. We don't want that.So it's a very conscious and aware effort when it comes to training from this standpoint. There is a strategy to this and we have to understand that. But circling it back to our topic here is if it's not gonna be stretching, it's gonna be some form of stability training.This is one very general version of how you can train stability. There's a lot more different ways. You can also integrate the nervous system a bit more by doing vestibility training, that is balance training, having the eyes move around and throwing the ocular motor system.You know, there are different modalities that you can integrate here, but from a very general basic standpoint, when we talk about stability training, we're trying to strengthen the joint and the surrounding connective tissue so that the body, brain, and nervous system can work in sync with one another versus in a tug of war.I'll throw another example here and this is something that's probably gonna be a lot more practical, especially for the desk worker folks out there, is that hip flexors tend to always feel tight for a lot of people. And when people stretch them, they maybe start to induce a form of low back pain.In this instance, [...0.8s] let's, let's say [...0.5s] that i have a person here that i'm seeing and they work a desktop for eight to twelve hours a day and they don't really move around much. You know, they get a lunch, but they're on the desk the entire time. They don't have a standing desk option.And this is usually one of my first questions for those types is i say, [...0.5s] do you have a standing desk?And they say, no, i don't have a standing desk. And the next thing i say is, okay, well, i want you to set an alarm on your phone for every thirty minutes to an hour, and i want you to get up for five minutes.I know you got five minutes for every hour. You should have at least five minutes for yourself to get around, move, go to find some eagles out the window, right? Train your vision, get off the screen, move your body and more than just one way, which is at that time sitting right, and your body will thank you.These are called micro brakes and these are a great strategy if any of you are working dust jobs. Set that alarm for every thirty minutes to an hour. Yes, i'm speaking to you, and get moving around cause your body is gonna thank you for it and we're meant to move.So but back to the desk worker situation. They work a desk job for eight to twelve hours. This is not just getting tight, but they're also getting deconditioned because they don't challenge your body through a full range of motion.Now, if they don't get any activity [...0.6s] at all, this is a very sedentary individual we're talking about now where they have to challenge your body through full range of motion. And what actually happens here is when you're seated, you're basically in a position of static hip flexion.Think of it like bending forward for a deadlift or picking something something off, something up off the ground, but a lot less active because you're supported in a chair. So essentially what happens is when you need hip flexion, the body doesn't trust the range and it grips and creates tension.Not just that, in the instance of our desk worker, they're always seated in a position, they don't really stand up or move around, and they don't really get much movement outside of work.This is a very sedentary individual we're talking about now and they have basically increased their trajectory to deconditioning.And this is very important to understand because there's gonna be a category of cool morbidities that tie into this sort of thing that are related to lack of movement and mobility.So we gotta understand this. But when you're be, when you're in a seat position, you're basically in a static position [...0.4s] of hip flexion. So think of it like a deadlift or picking something up off the ground.When you do that, you have to brace and support and you're not supported in something like a chair, so you have to activate. But when you're in a chair, now you're supporting. You're basically in that position for a prolonged period of time.So think of it of just being bent forward for a prolonged period of time and now when you get up, it becomes very stiff and hard to move. That is your body, your back getting locked up, your nervous system getting powdered in condition to this position that you're in.Not just that there becomes a muscle imbalance now where the hip flexors are short and the hip extensions are long. So now we have to recreate this balance through simple mobility exercises.But the other piece of this is now the nervous system learns this and the learn the nerve and the nervous system knows now that the body is deconditioned and that the body doesn't have sufficient range of motion. And now it's gonna create a plethora of compensation is just to overcome that.For instance, someone who sits in a chair for a prolonged period of time, they get up and they try to move and they now have low back pain.Reason being is because the hips are stuck in flexion. They're not actually extending through the hips when they stand up. They're actually extending through the lumbar spine and now compressing the disc.So now they have uneven wear and tear on their desk because they were sitting for a long period of time and they forgotten the pattern of hip extension.This is not a good thing, right? So this is why i usually recommend for people who sit for a prolonged period of time to get true hip extension, right? And then to also work on trunk strengthening, you know, flexion extension based patterns, rotation based patterns move around.This is gonna be the key here. And the key thing to understand here is if you're always stretching and always feeling tight is [...0.8s] that you've been stretching something that needs to be strengthened, which is no wonder why nothing's changing, right? And i see strengthened very loosely here, it can be strengthened, it can be stabilized, whatever the case might be.There has to be something other than stretching going on, which more than likely in this instance would be a form of stability or strength based training or a combination, right? And, you know, i don't wanna, i don't wanna confuse anyone here when i say stability or strength training.They're both in the same categories and always feel like they're cousins to one another where stability focuses more on isometrics, more on joint stability, right?It's the neural component of movement and it's how the body is going to stabilize. And we all stabilize from the joints, we don't stabilize from muscles. When we strengthen, we're gonna strengthen muscle.So these are the key differences here where the training method is gonna be a little different, right?Stability training is gonna be more isometrics, temple based variations. Temple based variations also incorporate muscle, but you're going very slow compared to a normal dynamic rep where strength based methods.Again, the overlap here is you can integrate temple variations, you can do dynamic, you can do ballistic, there are different sort of modalities that you get, you would integrate when you're thinking about strengthening muscle versus stabilizing joints. And this is something that we need to understand as well.So now we're gonna talk about something like the hips where i get a lot of people that come to me and talk about having what, what i call sticky hip syndrome, [...0.5s] right?So their hips just don't move like they used to. And we gotta understand the hips are the hub to the whole kinetic chain or the direct connection to the trunk. In addition to that, our hips and trunk are how we transmit forces from the upper body to lower body and lower to upper.So we gotta be able to have a good integration here. If we don't, we have power leakage, we create instabilities, we create compensations. And it's just less than ideal if we don't have that good synergy and connection between both the trunk and the hips.So when the hip isn't doing its job, everything is gonna compensate, right? And if the hip lacks stability which should be a stable joint because we walk on our legs all day, so we need to have a stable joint.The low back is gonna pick up the slack, the lumbar which is one joint up. And there's this picture that perfectly illustrates this in this sort of way. This is the kinetic chain. We wanna think of each joint that connects and they alternate where you have a mobile joint and a stable joint.So in the instance of the ankles, the ankles can move around, they should be able to move around as well, right? The foot is stable, but the ankles are mobile [...0.5s] because they are essentially like a swivel joint.They can flex, they can extend, they can internally and externally rotate, they can also internally and externally rotate from the tip fib joint which is your shin bone. And you know, you have your shin bone and you have the bone outside to your shin.So you can also get, you know, basically your foot to turn in and out. You can also get roll [...0.4s] on the ankle joint itself. Now the knee itself is a stable joint. Only thing you can really do with the knee is flex and extend, right?Sure. You could argue that maybe you also get tibular internal external rotation, but that is more a relationship between the ankle and the tip fib joint. Hip is gonna be a mobile joint, right?Because it moves in all degrees just like the ankle, right? The hip, we can go hip flexion, hip extension, hip internal external rotation. We can circumduct the hip essentially in a sort of way, in a sort of fashion. So hip is mobile.And the low back, the low back needs to be stable via a component of our core. It's how we're able to absorb, transmit and produce forces. So we need to have a stable trunk because again, that's where the power is transferred from between our upper and lower body.Now if we think about our thoracic spine, that would be the next joint up, that's a mobile joint. And then again, we go up to our cervical spine that needs to be a stable joint. Nobody likes the rubber neck.Alright? So this is kind of a whole piece of the kinetic chain. And this is something also known as the joint by joint concept.So having said all that, there still needs to be a balance because our hip joint needs to be stable. That is, it needs to be stable enough to bear weight, but it needs to be mobile enough to move through a dynamic range of motion such as circumduction.So in this instance of the hips being the hub, if our hips were to lack stability, our low back would be picking up the slack here. That means that the low back has to work overtime to create additional stability the hip should provide.So kind of like i was mentioning earlier earlier how the baseball pitcher how they can have sort of excessive external rotation and now they basically have a deficit of internal rotation.This is exactly how the body picks up, picks it up in that sort of way where if we don't have enough stability in one structure, it's gonna make it up, right? It's not like it comes for free.Nothing's for free. Not even within the body and physiology. On the same note, if the hip lacked mobility, the knees are gonna take the stress here. So it's either gonna move upstream or downstream based off of what the joint demands are. So a lack of stability, the back has stability.Hey, let's go grab it from the back, right? We don't have enough mobility. Oh, don't worry, the knees got it, right. So this is what we have to understand here is [...0.5s] just because you have a symptom of pain, it could simply mean that you have it from a referred pattern upstream or downstream.So in a lot of instances, runners don't have good hip mobility, therefore they have knee pain and they have knee pain, they think it's, it bad, but i look at the hips, they don't have any internal rotation, right?So they got sticky hip syndrome because they have no internal rotation. We work on the internal rotation, we strengthen the internal rotation and now they're able to own and control that internal rotation long behold, the knee pain abolishes entirely. So in this sort of way, it's like your detective equation.Yeah, you're like a detective of math and the math here comes down to physiology and body mechanics.So my philosophy here is you always, you have to earn the range. And once you earn the range, [...0.5s] right? You have to own it, take ownership and hold yourself accountable to that standard. And that ownership comes through the learning and understanding of the process, right?And these are things that i teach within my system when i'm working with clients.I'm just, i geek out on this stuff. I love teaching people about, you know, what their body should be doing and seeing the light bulbs turn on and them getting that understanding of, oh gosh, this is what i need to be doing this entire time.I'm like yeah, but no worries, now you have this tool in your back pocket for the rest of your life. So if you ever run into this instance again, like pull up the emails i sent you, pull out the plans that i sent you, like start there.You might just already have exactly what you need and now it can resolve you for any time you run into this. Hopefully you never run into it again because now you know how to manage it. And i've shown and giving you the strategies of what you need to be doing.And this is exactly what it's like when people work with me as i provide them all the resources, i give them the plans, i help them understand exactly what's going on with their body. I get them the results that they're looking for and i don't just ditch them and say, hey, alright, we'll see you.Never, [...0.5s] oh no, i'm keeping in contact with them, you know, and it's all about, all about the care of the individual at the end of the day, it is, hey, what are you looking for? How can i help you?And how can we get you the most out of, you know, this investment of your time to help you get back to what you're getting back to. That's the key here with anything.So now i wanna move into something we've kind of already talked about is the muscle contraction. This is gonna be quick and quick and dirty here. Alright. So we got three types of contractions. We got eccentric, [...0.6s] concentric, and isometric.So if we think of it like a bicep curl when i straighten my elbow out, that's gonna be the eccentric. That's a lengthening. When i curl my elbow and i bring my fist to my face, that's a concentric. That's a shortening, right? And then i have an isometric.It's basically a static contraction and it's gonna be biased based off of joint angle and muscle length. So you can have an isometric neutral, isometric shorter, isometric long based off of what you're trying to do and what you're trying to accomplish.But just remember that ecentrically lengthened isometrics or isometric longs are gonna be the most strenuous on the nervous system as well as a soft tissue. But if you do it right, you can create the most adaptations.And the reason why this is so important is because if you're only stretching and you're never building capacity in various ranges of motion, specifically eccentric ranges, you're never giving the nervous system a reason to trust it.So when you do go into that end range, you either lose stability, you don't have the mobility, your nervous system is protecting you from going there because it's unknown territory and the body doesn't like that. It's about protection. It's about survival. It's gonna do what it needs to do so that you can live the fight another day.So you have to give it gentle nudges of encouragement in the right direction in order to see that progress and help the nervous system unveil what it doesn't understand, right? We have the most control because we have all the senses we can feel, we can see.But just because we can do that doesn't predicate that the nervous system should be able to conceptualize what that is.And this dives right into my next favorite principle here, which is breath. Now, breath is the foundation. It's a key. It's paramount to everything we do from working out to living everyday life. We're always breathing.And breath is the bridge to the nervous system. And it's the fastest way to shift from a garden state to a receptive state, already being sympathetic, sympathetic being fight, flight, freeze.Alright, somewhere it's called four fs, [...0.4s] right, fight, flight, freeze. And i am sure you can figure out what that fourth f is. And that is a sympathetic activity as well fornicate.There you go. I said it, and then you have your parasympathetic nervous system, which is gonna be rest, digest, relaxation, restoration. This is gonna be your parasympathetic state, but the better we can down regulate our nervous system, the better your body, brain and nervous system are gonna understand.Hey, we're safe, we're good, we can let go. And the calmer your nervous system state is, the more willing it is to release protective tension. Not just that [...0.4s] you're gonna be more receptive to learn from a more psychological standpoint.This is sort of the difference between scarcity mindset and abundance mindset, right?When you're in abundance, you're in a more calmer nervous system state. You're more willing to learn, willing to receive, and you're more open minded to different perspectives and philosophies versus if you're more guarded scarcity mindset, you don't know when the next meal is coming.These are these sort of protective guard rails that are nervous system can instill without us knowing it.This can be deep from our subconscious things that maybe we have to personally work through to overcome. But on a very basic level, this is idea here is if we have a calmer nervous system, we're more willing release protective tension.And if we skip this step, we're essentially fighting our own nervous system where we know that the nervous system is gonna win every time. Because the nervous system is essentially the governor to how far we can push our body.Alright, the next principle here i wanna talk about is trunk stability as the foundation. We have to understand here that trunk stability is the foundation and it's not just about doing simple crunches. It's about the deep stabilizers that actually help to transmit, produce and absorb these forces.Remember as i showed my awesome joint boy joint approach, [...1.1s] the trunk or the core and the lumbar spine, which is also part of this system here are gonna be meant for stability and they help, again, to absorb, transmit and produce forces between the upper and lower extremity.If we don't have a stable trunk, we're gonna look for it elsewhere in the system. So this is something that's vitally important to understand. So these are muscles like our diaphragm, our pelvic floor, a transverse abdominus. These are gonna be part of the system as a whole.And if we look at it here, right, the diaphragm itself is gonna be a muscle that directly attaches to our rib cage.This guy here and this is a balloon like muscle attaches to our rib cage when we inhale. This central tendon here is gonna descend down our abdominal wall and it's gonna fill like a balloon into abdominal wall even down at the pelvic floor, right? So [...0.5s] diaphragm is gonna be one vital muscle here. We also have our transverse abdominus.Transverse abdominus here is the natural corset that ties our whole trunk together.Think of it like your natural weightlifting belt. You see people who lift weights they put the belt on their waist. Reason why they put a [...0.6s] belt on their waist is because what they're trying to do is they're trying to push your abdominal wall outwards against the belt.And this is sort of like a pseudo stabilization strategy because if they took the belt off and tried to lift that same amount of weight, they wouldn't be able to. So basically the belt is bypassing the governor to protect your body because it's an external force to create stability against.We're really, we should be relying on our internal structures being our transverse abdominus, our diaphragm or multifidi to actually create stability. The multifidi are long muscles right alongside our spine. They're essentially one of our main spinal extensions.We also have our ileo castiles and our longestimus which are gonna be outwards against that, but our main spinal extension here is gonna be our multifidi. So our multifidi, [...1.1s] our transverse abdominus, and our diaphragm have interplay to stabilize our trunk at the deeper level. And that's what it's about.Okay, again, it's not about the superficial sexy muscles are six pack. Sure, that is part of her abdominal wall, but there are much bigger muscles at play here when it comes to true trunk stabilization.So understanding that when we work these properly, we can provide stability to the nervous system which is gonna allow us to get mobility elsewhere. And it's gonna really more or less keep the system in a state of homeostasis or regulation, right, which our body loves.The more regulated our body can be, the more predictable things are, the more our nervous system is gonna trust what we're trying to do and realize that we're not trying to hijack it.So if the deep stabilizers aren't doing their job, then the nervous system is gonna compensate with tension elsewhere.Whether it's from the hip flexors, whether it's the low back, whether it's the shoulders gripping trying to help the back hang on, and whether it's the shoulders gripping to make up for a lack of trunk stability.It all comes from here. So again, it all comes down to building the foundation before you chase flexibility or lifting a whole ton of weight. And that's all i'm talking about here. So now i wanna get to some practical applications.Okay, showing all this stuff he talked about sounds well and good. Really high theory stuff, maybe went over my head, or hey, yeah, i get it. Alright, cool. What's your point here?Well, fear not, my friend. Alright, cause here are some practical applications i wanna throw at you to make this a little bit more realistic and hopefully help it stick a bit more.Okay, so [...0.6s] as i've mentioned time and time again, breath is always the fundamental pattern. It is numero uno in this whole piece of movement here, and it all starts with the breath.So before you do anything and even with clients that i work with, i integrate breath work within their training program itself. Whether the intention here is to ramp them up and make them more sympathetic to take on the training session ahead, or if i need to down regulate them.There are strategies and ways you can tune the breath so that it can facilitate and collaborate and get them more of a productive training session. And it's simple.You can just take two to three minutes, whether it's before mobility work or whether at the end of the session, and use a pattern that is gonna be conducive to the session, right?So note that when you inhale, your inhale is gonna induce a more of a sympathetic state whereas if you exhale, it's more parasympathetic.So maybe at the beginning of a session, i'll have them really focus on length and inhales and shortened exhales, whereas at the end of the session i'll inverse that i'll lengthen the exhales to get them more down regulated with their nervous system.Hip cars, [...0.5s] right? Or just cars in general, not talking about vehicles. I'm talking about controlled articular rotations and why i'm such a fan of controlled articular rotations are that what you're doing is you're having the joint both stabilize and move through accessible range of motion. Keyword accessible.So one person may do a car and they may be able to move through a whole ton of range of motion while maintaining a stabilized joint, which is key. But the other person maybe they not, they're not able to do much, they can't get much range of motion. But again, they're stabilizing the joint.And let's throw on one more person here. One person just doesn't stabilize at all, but they move awesome. And another person, they don't stabilize at all and they don't really move that well.So this is a whole mixed bag of presentations that you can see. And each person is gonna need specific work based off of what they're presenting. So if they're not able to stabilize first, be serious teaching them how to stabilize without any range of motion.So foundational stabilization work is gonna be key here. Now someone who has good stabilization strategy but they're not able to really move to a range of motion, i'm looking at soft tissue at this point and say, hey, okay, you got muscles, your muscles are online and they're working, right?But now you don't have flexibility. Why is that? The soft tissue is bound up. So maybe i try to stretch out their latin, like, oh, that's so tight, oh, it's tender.Okay, good. We need to work on lengthening that tissue. So maybe i'll have them move around in a formal or maybe i'll give them some stretches, maybe i'll have them do some passive hangs. If it's shoulder related, if it's hip related, i'll have them do maybe through a hip. These different strategies that you can integrate into a training regiment.These are things that are going through my mind and someone who just moves awesome and stabilizes fine, well they just need to keep on, keeping on. So these are some different strategies that i'm taking out.So coming back to the ninety, ninety transitions, i'm a fan of these and i like to do them more or less what i call a segmented hip switch. So you see the video here, individuals gonna do it and he's basically just moving through range of motion.Sure, this is good, right? You can move the hips, you can get much range of motion here, but i like to take it a step further and do what i call a segmented hip switch.So for the segmented hip switch here, i, i integrate thoracic rotation with hip internal and external rotation. The key here is to find your end ranges with what you're able to move through.So you can see as i begin here, i'm not just rotating right again, that's a shin box switch. What i wanna do is i want to integrate thoracic rotation.So i'm gonna basically, before i even hit thoracic rotation, i'm gonna hit hip external rotation abduction. And i wanna find the end range. And once i hit the end range, then what i'm doing is i'm gonna have thoracic rotation while keeping that outside knee down as far as i can.So thoracic rotation which will allow me to get more range of motion in the hip. And then finally the endpiece here is gonna be that trail lake coming up and over right, you can see here.It's a lot more slower compared to a traditional ninety ninety hip switch or a shin box switch because there are so many more pieces here. But the beauty in this is you're tying in the nervous system and you can sync this with your breath.Even so when you sink it with your breath again, you're able to down regulate the nervous system. And when you move slow, the nervous system, the brain, the body can process what's going on. It's not being forced into an end range.Nothing's not sticking is what i meant essentially trying to get at here. So you can give those a try as those are great for hip mobility. And then in addition to that, you can also work on active hip flexor work in a lengthened position. Right? So instead of just sitting in a stretch, create tension, something like a half kneeling hip flexor stretch. Right?What you wanna focus on again is not compressing a lumbar, but as you bring your body through that imaginary glass wall, that's a cue that i like to use. You wanna also think about driving that back shin down into the ground.Because what you're doing is there's essentially creating an eccentricly lengthened contraction on the quad here when you drive the shin into the ground.So another great strategy to integrate, you don't have to just do it in this exercise. There's various exercises, as long as you understand the principle is contracting the muscle in the eccentric lengthened position whilst simultaneously conducting the movement stretch or activation.This is gonna be another shade of light that you can integrate within your practice.Now talking about the mindset, when the body creates protective tension, it's not malfunctioning, right? It's actually doing exactly what it's supposed to do, and it's protecting you from what it perceives as a threat.Again the brain and nervous system, they don't have eyes. They're perceiving the external stimulus as well as the internal state of conditions, and they're just trying to protect the body. It is a naturally ingrained survival mechanism so that we can live the fight another day.As i've mentioned, now your body is smart and it's way smarter than we give it credit for. And when we approach it with curiosity instead of frustration, with collaboration instead of combat, everything changes.No longer the body, brain and nervous system playing tug of war. It's them intermingling and collaborating and figuring ways and strategies that are gonna better produce outcomes based off of your goals.So the next time you feel tightness instead of stretching, ask why [...0.4s] and ask what, right that is, what is my body trying to protect? Why does it need to feel safe and what am i trying to get at here? Right? Lifestyle factors as well as purpose not comparing.So quick little recap here is we've talked about tightness, which is often protective, not structural.We've talked about how more stretching won't fix the condition and in a lot of cases actually makes it worse. We talked about some things that worked right. Whether it's strength and stability work through range, whether it's integrating breath, whether it's trunk stability or a combination.We've mentioned how the hip is the hub, is a direct connection to your trunk, which is a stable structure. And when things are off, there's gonna be referred symptoms or it might play tug of war or might try to move upstream to get what it's actually needing.So if the hips don't have stability, it's gonna look at the lumbar spine and now you have low back pain. And if the hips don't have enough mobility, it goes down to the knees and now you have knee pain where in actuality it's all stemming from the hips. So this is a foundational concept worth understanding.Finally, we've also talked about how your body isn't broken. It's actually protecting you and it's giving you what it needs to feel safe.So as i've mentioned, always understand your internal and external state and better yet, also understand your purpose as well as lifestyle factors so that it can help keep you on track and you don't get sidetracked with doing things that are unnecessary because you think you need to be able to do it, right? Really look internal and what you're trying to accomplish. And in doing that, i promise you will start seeing that progress.All right, before concluding this episode, i wanted to give you a little sneak peek on next episode here.I have a special guest, jacob greer. He is a burnout recovery specialist and a phd candidate. And we talked about all things burnout. It was a very enlightening conversation and we even talked a little bit about the science, the research behind burnout.It was just a really good time and i feel like y'all are gonna get a whole ton out of that conversation. That's gonna drop next week, wednesday. So i encourage you to tune in. Better yet, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, and you'll get a notification of when it does drop.And last if this landed, if something within this episode clicked with you, definitely get connected within my school community.That is s k o o l dot com forward slash movement based therapy. We talk about all things. Nbt gives you an opportunity to also get podcast exclusives such as our research citation sheet.So any research i talked about in this episode is gonna be directly linked into that sheet. If you wanna go into the studies and check them out. In addition to that, you'll have exclusive podcast content such as a video form version, and you can also engage with me directly.Shoot me a dm if you have any questions, you wanna hop on a call, great way to get connected.Last pertaining to the podcast, anytime i do have a guest on, i'll drop a community post where you can ask questions and have them answered by my guest live on the episode. So feel free to connect there. I'll have the links in the show notes, but i thank you for tuning in if you enjoyed this conversation. Definitely let me know if you haven't reviewed the podcast yet.Definitely do so, um, as that's gonna help boost the podcast algorithm and send this podcast to out to many people like you. But again, i thank you for tuning in to this episode. Thank you for continuing to listen to this podcast.I've been your host, sheldon. I'll see you all on the next episode, and don't forget to honor your body and restore the flow. I'll see you next weekweek