Hey ,

I was asked to share notes from the Diastasis Recti & Beyond training. 
 
Before we dive in, though, I want to remind you that Spring Yoga starts next week. Spring is like a big, full-bodied yawn, a wiggling of the toes, the time to clear out the stale air, shake off the cobwebs and begin again. Join me on the mat, and let's get moving—motion is lotion, after all!

Diastasis Recti & Beyond Training: 

As promised, the training was mind-blowing. I'm always amazed at how much material, learning, and lightbulb moments can be packed in such a short amount of time. 

Unsurprisingly, many of the topics explored in this training echoed the ideas and movement strategies we've been investigating on this blog and the mat in the last year or two.

Here are some of my notes:

• Proprioception is KING. I've briefly touched on proprioception in a post in February, and I intend to investigate it further this spring. Long story short: without a well-calibrated proprioceptive system, your movement patterns will be dysfunctional. They can cause all sorts of stubborn issues. In this training, we spent the first module fine-tuning our proprioceptive awareness.

• Stability is QUEEN. If proprioception is the beginning of everything, stability is the next logical step. In training, Katy likened the idea of stability to brakes and a seat belt in a moving vehicle. Seat belt is not going to save you if you aren't using your breaks timely and properly. Similar in the body, if you don't know how to use your postural brakes and rely only on your seatbelt (a.k.a. soft tissue), you will get into trouble sooner rather than later.

• To move well, we must be able to uncouple the movement of different body parts. This means being able to move one part of the body without affecting the other parts. For example, can you move the pelvis without moving your ribcage? How about the other way around? Can you move your arms without moving your shoulders, and vice versa? This might sound simple, but it's a complex skill that requires practice and guidance.

All in all, this training reinforced my belief that you cannot treat any body issue in isolation. It's about understanding the interconnectedness of our bodies and how one issue can affect many areas. Your back pain isn't just a back dysfunction; your frozen shoulder is more than just the shoulder; even jaw pain must be treated at the whole-body level.

This training has equipped me with a diverse set of tools and the ability to add more nuance and detail to movement programs for my clients and students.

And a closing thought, courtesy of Katy Bowman: "When we develop a habit of mindful and skillful movement, everything we do becomes a part of our practice." Forge ahead, we shall!

Frozen Shoulder & Menopause:

This short blip landed in my Inbox just as I was about to send the post out, and I thought it was important enough to share.

Frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, is an inflammation and thickening of tissues surrounding the shoulder. It causes pain, stiffness, and a frustratingly limited range of motion in the shoulder.

The exact cause of the condition is still unknown (naturally, as it often is with ailments that affect more women than men). The troubling statistic is that the frozen shoulder happens much more often in women than men (called it!) and is most common in women between 40 and 60.

Estrogen has a protective, anti-inflammatory effect on the bones and joints, so some experts now believe that a frozen shoulder can be a part of the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause. 

Even more interesting, a study of nearly 2,000 postmenopausal women presented at the 2022 meeting of The Menopause Society reported that those who had used estrogen therapy were less likely to be diagnosed with frozen shoulders than those who had not.

Fascinating stuff...

With warmth and gratitude,