Latest / Empower Your Menopause / Episode 66: Stop Chasing Pain: Back, Hips & Confidence in Midlife with special guest Cynthia Croissant

Transcript

Episode 66: Stop Chasing Pain: Back, Hips & Confidence in Midlife with special guest Cynthia Croissant · Empower Your Menopause

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Empower Your Menopause, the podcast where we talk about all things health, hormones, and happiness for women over 40.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're coaches James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40, and today we've got a special guest joining us.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: But before we bring her on, let me ask you a question.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Does your back always feel tight, your hips grumpy, and your shoulders achy, even though you feel like you're doing everything right?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're asking why aches show up in midlife and how to move better, not just push through pain.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: So our guest today is Cynthia Croisson.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Cynthia is a certified personal trainer, posture and mobility specialist, and she helps women in midlife rebuild their strength, improve back wellness and move with confidence.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: She takes a science-backed whole-body approach to address the real root causes behind stiffness, pain, and loss of mobility so women can feel strong, capable, and in control again.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Cynthia's mission is to help women stay active, age confidently, and enjoy life without limitations.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So without further ado, let's bring Cynthia on.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Very exciting day today.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, Cynthia, let's start with a simple point of reference.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: What got you into this work that you're doing now?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: What pulled you towards pull?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: See how see what I did there?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: What pulled you towards this?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to be here.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate the opportunity to share with your audience.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: What got me into what I'm doing right now was that I was diagnosed with thinning bones, osteopenia, and I knew that if I lifted heavier, that would help.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: It'd be a natural way to help protect my bone density.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I got into lifting heavier.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: I even hired a trainer and we worked at it.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: And what I found was I could get stronger to a point, and then I kind of stalled out.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: And if I really pushed, then I'd end up with little tweaks, uh, little aches and pains, and then I'd have to get a little bit injured, not some anything too serious, but then I'd have to back off and I'd rest and then maybe even do physical therapy, and I'd get back into it, and I'd train back up and kind of hit the plateau again, and I'd push and I'd get injured.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: It was like this cycle, and I was having a really hard time overcoming this.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember going to the physical therapist and the chiropractor, and they would do the same things, and I was bandwalks and planks, and just one physical therapist that I went to.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: I went to several thinking, you know, maybe a different physical therapist would give me something a little bit different.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: But they literally had a list of exercises on a paper that was laminated, and they just give it out the same thing to everybody.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, why am I paying for this?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: I've already done that, I've done it several times.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: If this was gonna help me, it would have helped me already because I've done it and I've done it, and I went searching for a different approach because I really do think that middle-aged ladies need to strength train, and I did because I need to protect my bones, and I knew there had to be something that I was missing, something is out there that can help me, so I had to seek it out, and then I found this biomechanical approach and I started to implement it for myself and then for the other ladies that I was training to be healthy and stronger to for health reasons as opposed to kind of aesthetic reasons, and it was helping all of us, and so I leaned into it more and I was wondering why aren't other people talking about this?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Why does no why is doesn't anybody else know this?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Why doesn't anybody else do this?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: So that's become kind of my mission to tell people about the importance of being biomechanically sound, aligning posture and getting strong from the inside out.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I just Cynthia, for guests who might not, for sorry, listeners who might not know, tell us a little bit about the biomechanical approach.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: What is it and how do you discover it?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And what made you decide, I suppose, then to after testing it yourself, think, do you know what, this is a game changer for my clients too?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so the biomechanical approach um was kind of developed by an organization called the Posture Restoration Institute.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: So if you look that up, it's called PRI.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: So if you ever see that, that's what that stands for.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's mostly for kind of higher-level practitioners like physical therapists, people like that.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: And it focuses a lot on joint positioning as opposed to kind of stretching muscles.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's about, well, let's get everything deep inside with the joints aligned first, especially with breathing and all the little joint movements and mobility that needs to happen.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, a lot of times the tight muscles and the restricted joint, you know, things that feel stuck, like usually you stretch it.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: This is gonna be a more fundamental approach where we're looking at okay, your chest is tight, your shoulder doesn't move as well as it could, but what's causing that?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and a lot of times that if you keep layering, pulling back the layers, eventually you'll find that it's something's up with the breathing, and something's up with how the ribs are moving, and something's up with kind of the overall positioning.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's kind of the biomechanical approach.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like um if you drive a car, the brand new car, when you drive it off the lot, it you know, it just goes.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's a smooth ride, you don't have to worry about anything.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: But you life happens just from driving the car, you're gonna hit potholes.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, things are you know, maybe even hit a curve and it's a big old bump.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: Things happen, that's just normal.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then the alignment of the car gets a little bit off.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not that the car is broken or there's nothing you can do.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: I guess it's just what happens when you have an old car.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe, I mean, it's associated with being an older car, but it, you know, you just get an alignment and it's a lot better.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: You get the wheel, you know, rebalanced, you rotate the tires, you do maintenance on it, and it gets a lot better.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's the same kind of thing with your body.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it it's associated with getting older, sure, but it's not necessarily just because you're older, it's kind of like not the years, it's the mileage, you know, like Indiana Jones says.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um you can yeah.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so you can fix a lot of it if you approach it kind of the same way that you would approach aligning a car.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna align your joints kind of that same way.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: It can it can make a difference kind of like that.
• 7:13
  unknown: Yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: What was the aha moment then where you actually went, my gosh, this is genius.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: It really works.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think that it was when I was practicing the breathing.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: I I never understood the importance of breathing, and I thought, well, I mean, I have to be breathing okay, otherwise I'd be passed out.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how big of a difference can it make?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, these little nuances of breathing, whatever.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: So what if my shoulders go up and down a little bit when I breathe?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how bad can it be, right?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I took the time to really dig in, and I was like, you know what, my breathing really is pretty bad, and uh, I can tell a difference if I just step back and I practice all the things I'm supposed to practice.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: It actually did make a difference, and I was like, okay, maybe there is something to this kind of from the deep inside that we need to address.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, because I was seeing that things were getting better, and things that I had, you know, like back tightness that I'd had for a long, long time, and I've tried all kinds of different things, but I kept coming back.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: But when I did the things that the PRI people were telling me to do, it really did stick.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: It didn't, you know, it didn't get better for a little bit and then it came back, it would actually stay and stick.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I I envision that kind of you use the car alignment analogy.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: I I envision that like when your car's out of alignment, things wear differently.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you see wear patterns that aren't good, or the same with your shoes.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: If your gait is out of alignment, your shoe pattern, the wear pattern on your shoes is off or different.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that that makes a lot of sense.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it I love that it comes down to something as simple as breathing.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you said, we all breathe every day, right?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: But we we forget that our bodies aren't working in the same way as they used to be when life was simpler.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we look for these complicated solutions that maybe we don't really we don't really need.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: So we know we know because here we are in midlife, right?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we know that that things are changing.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um what yeah, from your coaching perspective, how how do some of these changes that we're experiencing in midlife show up as movement uh problems?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, a lot of times it shows up as um tightness that you feel like, you know, I used to be able to get down to the floor and then get back up.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: No problem.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: I could sit, you know, cross legged for story time when I was younger and just pop right back up.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: But now I get down there and it's like, oh, I can barely cross my legs when I'm down there.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then to get up, it's like it's really hard, like surprisingly difficult to get up.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: I hear that a lot.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: This getting up from the floor, they're like, wow, when did that happen?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: kind of a thing.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it's those kinds of things, or um, that you go to reach something on a high shelf and you're like, I can't really get my arm up there.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, a lot of times it is the the muscle tightness, especially in the low back or the neck.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's like plantar fasciitis, uh, things like that is where it kind of shows up.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Or um knees, knees being a little bit achy.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: These these little aches and pains that are just frustrating.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's not, you know, like you're super duper injured, but you know, enough that it's kind of frustrating and it's annoying because you want to do the workouts like you used to, but now it's like not quite.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: It just is can't quite because the knees don't cooperate, kind of a thing.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing what we know about you and reading between the lines of what you're saying, we start to compensate, right, for for movement when we feel these challenges.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: So so what are the key compensations that you see people actually making when they first come to you and they say, Oh, Cynthia, you know, this is aching or that's aching.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: What what are the the common things that you tend to see?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just like for me, a lot of people get that back tightness.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: And especially for me, it was deadlifts.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to get a heavy deadlift, but like I said, I get a certain point, and then my back would just be really, really sore.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I see that a lot.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: This this oh, my back is so tight.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of them.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And with all these compensations, it's your body being smart, is what's going on.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you have these little misalignments like blocks that aren't quite stacked on top of each other, one's a little kind of almost falling over, so your body has to hold on and keep it all together, and your body's finding a way to do that, even though it's not the most efficient way.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: So if there's something going on between your rib cage and your pelvis that's a little misaligned, and you can't quite get all the abs on board, your entire core, and you can't quite get all the glutes firing, but you're like, my body, your body is kind of like, I gotta do something, it'll recruit like your low back muscles, and they'll be doing all the work of everybody, the abs and the glutes and everybody, and they get really, really tired.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: They are working all the time, they don't get an opportunity to really turn off, so you end up with this really sore, tight low back, and then your abs, you can do a bunch of sit ups, you can do a bunch of planks, but it's like I can never quite get my abs strong.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, or you could do a bunch of hip hinges or hip thrust, and you're like, my booty doesn't grow.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: I've done all the things, but I'm not getting the the growth in my glutes that I want.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: So you can end up with like sore back, uh, weak core, weak glutes.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Another compensation that I see is um that the chest kind of caves in.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: So you end up with instead of being kind of like a cylinder at the top of your rib cage, it's more like a slide.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's very steep, uh inclined, collapsed.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: And when that happens, you get tight shoulders, you can even get like a little bump in the back of your neck.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: So if you ever see, you know, I've noise kind of unicorn horn growing out of the back of your neck.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um that can be related to all of this, and you can end up over tucking.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of the times you people get the cue that you know you need to tuck your butt under all of the time, and you can overdo that.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: So that is its own problem.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: So then you end up with the no butt syndrome, and you know, your calves overwork, you get the tight calves, and it's just a cascade of things going on.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's a cascade of different challenges there, aren't there?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned tight shoulders, you mentioned tight across the chest, lower back, carrying a load of the load of everything else, and then loading up really bad.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're actually we're on video now, but some people are also listening as well.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you could just describe for people where should they start looking at if they can sort of like feel some of these common problems that you've talked about.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And is there could you talk us through a couple of easy fixes that they might actually be able to do at home?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, for the back engaging too much, a lot of times that is associated with ribs that are coming too far forward and out.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: They call it a rib flare if you ever diagnose it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: If anybody talks about, oh, you got a rib flare, that's part of this, or that um your pelvis can dump a little bit too far forward.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then a lot of these posture issues you can kind of see for yourself if you know what to look at in a picture.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, you could take a picture of selfie in the mirror, or ideally have somebody else take a full-body picture of you and then just kind of look at it and see how things are lining up.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you could see that the middle of your ear is a little forward compared to the middle of your shoulder.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: You can see that your hips are kind of dumping forward.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: If you look at the waistband on your pants, it's kind of tilted way far forward.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's sloped a lot.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can see that your entire pelvis is pushed forward.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: It looks like the top of your thighs are riding forward compared to like your heels.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so if you look from the side, you can see a lot of.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, if I look at these blocks, I can see that the blocks are being misaligned here.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can also do kind of movement pests.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: If you feel like, you know what, that chronic sore back, the tightness that just doesn't go away, that sounds familiar.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's a sign.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh your neck is chronically tight.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Even your jaw, if you are a chronic clincher of your jaw, that can be that was something that I had, and I didn't know that that was part of.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I had a bunch of dental work done, like root canals, retreatments, because I because the pain was still there.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: So they're like, oh, you just need more treatments.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I got retreatment, and it was still there, but a lot of it is this posture thing.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you could also do movement tests, like you can sit in your chair with your feet flat.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Ideally, put something like a pillow between your legs and give it a little squeeze so that you keep your your hips and your legs still, and you can cross your arms and just see how far can you turn your body.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna try to turn your shoulders and your head to look one way, and you kind of note how far you can go and the other way.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times, if you have that chronic dumping forward thing going on, where you got the tight back and all weed core, all that, you'll find it's it's hard to turn.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like um, you know, if I'm I'm in Houston, Texas.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um we have alligators, and so I'm always worried, like, what do I do?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: Does he get an alligator?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just paranoid, I guess.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: But I I have looked into how do you catch an alligator?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and what they do is they'll grab the alligator by like up by the head and by down further, and they'll extend it, they'll pull the pull it up, you know, kind of push it, bow it out, extended.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: Because an alligator is strong, their their strength comes from being able to turn, to rotate really strong and quickly.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: And if you extend them, they can't rotate.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: They they it takes away that their big strength there, and it's the same kind of thing with our body.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: If you're extended, if you're pushed forward, you're you got a big you could look at you know, you could just look at your back if it's really got a big scoop going forward in your low back.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's part of what we're talking about, but it makes it super hard to turn.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, and you can you can experiment, you can just do your normal turning and then make an effort to pull those ribs down and back and kind of get your weight coming back a little bit, and then try again.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I betcha it just feels easier and you get a bigger range of motion.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: Another thing you can do if you've got that kind of collapsed in chest, that is super tight in the upper abs.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Your upper abs are taking over everything.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you get the you can see a belly pooch.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you see a belly pooch there, could be related to your posture.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: Another test for that would be if you have chronically tight hamstrings, like you are nowhere near touching your toes, that's um a movement test you can do that would indicate that you have this kind of sunken upper chest over grippy hips.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that would be something you could address to really get you a lot more freedom in your movement, a lot less muscle tightness.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so what can you do if you're like, yep, I'm one of those people that's extended.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: I've got I'm pushing forward through my low back, I'm scissoring between my rib cage and my pelvis.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um those people can tuck under a little bit.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: And to get that little bit of tuck under, a lot of times it's it's pulling back things to pull you back in space.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the main thing for that would be get your hamstrings, the upper hamstrings on board.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you I can fake, you know, you can fake it.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: I've faked it for a long time because my lower hamstrings were strong enough to kind of mask.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: But there are exercises that you can do, like the upper hamstrings, and it's like, oh, yeah, that's really hard.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: I can barely do that.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you find those, if you do the glider things, the kind of hamstring curls on the ball, um, those kinds of things, if you find them to be really hard, chances are those those hamstrings have not been working very much.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that would be helpful.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: Also, getting the even just exhaling, getting those ribs to, you know, mindfully think, I'm gonna intentionally get my ribs to come down and pull them backwards in space.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: That would help.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: If you're one of those people that over tucks, you know, just you know, be mindful.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Don't don't do that, don't go to Pilates class and do all that tuck under, tuck under, tuck under, you know, just be mindful that that's a thing you gotta deal with.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and other exercises where you work on getting this chest to be um looser, more mobile, these ribs up here to be able to pop out like a pump, you know, like those old-fashioned water pumps.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: There you push the handle down to get the water to come out.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: It those people have these pump handles that are stuck down, so we need to get that pump handle to pop back up.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so you can do things where your chest is lower than your hips, kind of like if you're on all fours, you can come down to your forearms and just let gravity pull and pop those pump handles out.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: I hope that's helpful.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny, I'm listening to you talk and I'm standing here adjusting my posture.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you who are listening, come and watch like 20 minutes in on the video version.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see me and Julie shifting about as Cynthia's talking, trying out some of the things that she's doing.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Indeed.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, so, question for you.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, those are some great things to look for.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: People can kind of self-check that way.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: When should people not DIY these things?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you say, okay, we need to work those upper hamstrings, and people think, okay, well, I can just go and do these exercises at the gym, when should they see a professional like you or a clinician to make sure they're doing the right things in the right way?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: This is absolutely true.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: Some of these things that we're talking about, they are they're very subtle things that you need to be mindful of in order for it to have the effect that you want.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I this for your.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very good at cheating on these movements, and that's how come I could get through physical therapy and they're like, ah, you're good at this, you're fine, because I could make the shape of the hip bridges, but I was totally using my back.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was not using the right muscles, but I could fake it well enough that I even fooled the physical therapist into thinking, oh, she's got it.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: But um again, it there are subtle differences, and if you could work with a professional, um, a PRI trained coach or somebody who is expert in biomechanics, that's great.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um if you have a metal kick condition, like maybe you've got vertigo, we're lying on the floor and getting back up, something where getting on the floor and getting back up is just really hard for you, you know, that's even that it's kind of that's a test that I have for um if I work with people with this kind of approach or not.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: If it's if that's hard for you, maybe this stuff, you need to go get checked out.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: If that, you know, maybe you've got something vertigo, something neurological, or um, if you have really serious issues with your spine, uh, disc issues, stuff like that, definitely be sure to get checked by your practitioner and make sure that they think all of this stuff that we're talking about is right for you.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said, when I went to that physical therapist who had the laminated list of exercises that they gave to everybody, regardless, you know, whatever, whatever, you got shoulder issues, you got back issues, is all everybody gets the same, you know.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: It I mean, sure, moving is better than not moving for most people.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: But I think a lot of times people who are already moving, that's not that's not their issue.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: They need more specialized approach.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, like what I'm saying, this is a general approach, and ideally, you want to get that specialized approach, like get the exact thing that's right for your body.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that would be you could get that uh you know most efficiently if you work with an expert who can check out what's going on with you in particular.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you you came and kindly gave us a speak to uh talk to our membership a couple of weeks ago, and Julie and I had an insight into you know your genius and the methods that you use.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: You described breathing as being a key part of posture, of alignment, of biomechanics.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you could just talk us through so what could somebody do at their desk, let's say, from a from a breathing exercise point of view, that might just, you know, whether they're feeling massive aches or pains or or or not, just give them a little bit better posture.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, a lot of what I do, I've had people come to me because they want to get in shape, they want to work out, and I'm like, let's breathe.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: And people are like, like, what is this even gonna do?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I get it.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: You don't, I think that's a myth.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: This you really have to feel the workout, no pain, no gain.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if I'm not crawling out of a workout, I haven't really done anything.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: So just note that you don't need to work out for two hours and get super sweaty and get all Lululemoned up and you know, really feel sore for it to be effective.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: Just small things like just I call it a reset.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: You're just gonna the you know, you're gonna reset your breathing, you're gonna reset your nervous system, you're gonna reset your posture and just let less than a minute, 30 seconds even.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: And you could totally do this at your desk.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: You don't need to have workout clothes and or any of that stuff.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: So absolutely great idea to do this.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what I suggest people do, and it might seem silly, but check where your tongue is because that's gonna tell you kind of where your head is and allow for a better alignment that will allow for better breathing.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: So the easiest, simplest check-in is where is your tongue?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: And you can totally do this sitting right next to somebody in your office.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: Just check in.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Is your tongue at the roof of your mouth?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like totally, like if this is the roof of your mouth and this is your tongue, is it kind of just kind of hanging in space, or is it matching like all the way up there?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that's partly why I was having all the dental jaw issues was that my tongue tends to not be there.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's getting better.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm working at it, but I feel a difference in the pressure on my jaw and my neck just from being aware of where my tongue is.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: So that is the first thing I would suggest is you know, first, you could you could just make an effort to sit taller.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of times people are in some weird, you know, they cross their legs, they're doing like some sort of weird claw thing with the mouse arm, but you know, just just put your feet down, sit up straight, then chuck on your tongue to the roof of your mouth and back, like you're making this kind of clicky sound.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, and when I do that, I'm like sudden little um adjustments in my head.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: I can feel my low abs kind of kick on.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: So you can do that and then breathe in through your nose nice and gently, not you know, it's nice and gentle, maybe a four count.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: Trying to keep your tongue there.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then you can just kind of sigh the air out, like as you sigh the air out, see if you can find some side abs, the side of your belly button kicking on.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: And if you do, you know, you'll know that things are working, you know, where things are aligned enough that you can get these kind of um hard to turn on muscles firing that will support you so that the big muscles don't have to kind of scaffold you and keep you from losing it, keep keep you from falling over.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: So that would be the thing that I would suggest people do.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: Just make an effort, uncross your legs, put your feet down, try to try to be straight, check in with your tongue, and then do the breathing in through your nose, side the ear out, and just pay attention.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: Do I feel my side outs?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: I love that because it's the kind of thing you can do without your coworkers necessarily knowing what's going on.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, unless you're right, because we don't have to be called you know, but it's about it's a common office sound for after 25 years in HR.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you it's a common office sound anyway.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so it we could talk about this for hours, I know, because there's just so much information to cover, but um, we're coming up to the to the 30-minute mark, and I just would like to ask you a little bit of um a couple of quick fire questions.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: So um first one is what's one myth you'd like to banish forever about posture and alignment and posture and alignment, the pull your shoulders back and down myth.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Don't don't do that, guys.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: It'll just add more muscle tightness on top of the muscle tightness that you already have, and it's gonna, you know, force your body to hold it all together even more tightly than if you just proper posture should feel like things are able to relax and kind of turn off more rather than adding, oh I gotta kind of hold the middle of my back.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: So no more shoulders back and down.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: From a food point of view, Cynthia, what's your go-to mobility snack?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do you take with you when you're on the road?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I love just kind of um yogurt, Greek yogurt, not the kind with the fruit on the bottom, but just maybe a little bit of uh yogurt of um coconut or vanilla yogurt, Greek yogurt.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yum.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: What what's one purchase?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is curious because I know people they have all of these, and I own a lot of them, by the way, all of these different what what do you want to say, tools and gizmos that are supposed to help with posture and alignment.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I know a lot of them are just not really very useful, but what's one simple purchase that might be under$25 or something that somebody could use to help their posture and mobility?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: Or mobility, I should say.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I have a whole closet full of things as well.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: I totally get it.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I would say if you can get a tennis ball um in a foam roller, you know, it doesn't need to be fancy one with all the vibration or even maybe not even the big bumps on it because that's pretty intense.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: So just a normal foam roller.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times you can use that to kind of loosen things up or to gently kind of push you into getting the joint mobility that is helpful.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like you could put the foam roller under your rib cage and just kind of drape your body over it, and that's gonna take your rib cage and smoosh it from the side, and that's gonna help those the stuck pump handle ribs to help pop it out because you're you're gonna squeeze like if you take a the inside of a paper towel roll and you smoosh it so it's more oval than round, and you smush the side again, it's gonna pop out to be more round.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: You can do the same kind of thing, like for example, you could do it with your pelvis too, but you could do it with your rib cage, so you smoosh it from the side to help pop the pump handle ribs up.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: So stuff like that you can do with the with a foam roller.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it doesn't necessarily have to be a foam roller, but it is you know, it's helpful.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that would be my suggestion.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: So that could be helpful.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Quick rewind then to recap.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: So aches quite often come from compensation, not necessarily from age.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Cynthia's given you a whole host of self-checks there that you can try out and see if you can figure things out.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's try and favor like small, regular, correct movements rather than punishing ourselves in the gym.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you get any red flags, please go and get things checked out with a professional.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Cynthia, for people who want to know more about you and what you do, where's the best place to get in contact with you?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I appreciate that.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm happy to chat with people, um, even just for free, just to see if I can help you or answer some simple questions.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: You can find me, just search my name on Facebook.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: I have a Facebook group.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's called the Fitness Simply Done Action Group.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's a free group you can join, or you could search for my the company name is fitness simply done as oneword.com.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: Fitnesssimply done.com.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll make sure to drop all of that in the show notes.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: So please do get in touch with Cynthia if uh if this is something that you need some support with, because she's really good at what she does.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: So to wind up, let's just say if you've been struggling with your own confidence in your menopause journey lately, don't do it alone.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, here at Fabulous Beyond 40, our menopause impact assessment can help you unpack what's going on.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's a 45-minute coaching call that's designed to help women over 40 get unstuck and start making real progress with their health, happiness, and hormones.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we start with a clinically validated symptom questionnaire so we get a clear picture of what's going on with you right now, and then we shift the focus to your goals, your priorities, and what feeling better actually looks like for you.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you can book your session using the link in the show notes.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's it for this week, then.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've been coaches James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us today, and thanks again to our amazing guest, Cynthia Crossheim.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you back here next week.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, remember to stay strong, stay fabulous, and we'll see you soon.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.