Core + Breath

The simplest answer is this: almost every movement you do taps into your core (Yes, that includes sitting and lying-down), and you’re (hopefully) always breathing. Learning to build core stability and rigidity through dynamic motions while also strengthening your diaphragm will impact every facet of your life: your work, your play, your emotions/mood, your sense of self, your sleep and more.

It seems like everyone these days is talking about their core, but I often find a lot of confusion around what exactly that means. To me, the core is best envisioned as a 360-degree cylinder that begins around your diaphragm and extends down through your pelvic floor. The connections between your diaphragm and abdominals are a big reason I’ve linked core work with breath control—they simply cannot be separated. In this program you can expect to work on everything from the adductors in your legs to the scalenes in your neck, and just about everything in between.

I recommend that you complete at least one session of Fascial Counterstrain work prior to beginning this program. This will have immediate impacts, including a reduction in chronic fatigue and brain fog, decreased hunger drives, increased calm, and improved sleep, digestion and immune system functioning.

Since we’ll begin with at least one Fascial Counterstain session, you’ll see an immediate reduction in chronic inflammation and heightened/stressed nervous system responses. This can include:

• Reduced chronic fatigue and brain fog

• Decreased stress and chronic inflammation

• Decreased feelings of hunger

• Increased calm

• Improved sleep

• Improved digestion

• Improved immune system functioning.

As we move further into the program, you can expect to see decreased pain and tension across your neck, shoulders and back. This will impact your posture and you’ll find yourself moving with greater alignment, fluidity and ease.

Athletes can see improved endurance and recovery abilities, including increased CO2 tolerance, NO availability, and VO2 max. In simplest terms: you’ll be better able to do whatever sports you enjoy doing.

You’ll also learn about your body’s anatomy and your individual pain points/triggers, which will empower you to address any challenges you face over the rest of your life.

Almost everyone will benefit from this program. That said, I’ve designed it with several groups in mind:

• Office workers or anyone who spends long hours sitting every day. If this is you, you’ve probably noticed your posture is slouching, your back and neck are regularly tight and in pain, your shoulders and wrists don’t move like they used to, and you can’t pursue sports like you did in the past. This program will help reduce the daily aches and improve your athletics as well. Lastly, while it may sound a little silly, strengthening your core and learning to control your breathing will help you sit better. Yeah, you can get better at sitting. So, you should do that!

• Shallow/Chest breathers. This isn’t something we often think about but try this quick test: put one hand across your chest and the other across your stomach; take a slow, steady inhale and see which hands move. For most of us, it will be the hand located across our chest. This tells us you’re breathing shallowly, or only with your upper chest, and not accessing your diaphragm. Often this will manifest with psychosomatic symptoms, such as anxiety, nervousness and general edginess. Learning to access and control your diaphragm will help alleviate these issues, decrease physical discomfort and improve any athletics you’re pursuing.

• Athletes. Have you ever noticed that every athletic activity requires you to breathe… Learning to access and control your diaphragm will make every sport easier and more enjoyable. And since every sport makes some demands on the center of your body, building greater core stability and rigidity through dynamic movements will improve your performance significantly. Seriously, it doesn’t matter if you run, lift weights, swim, bike, climb mountains, take aimlessly long walks, dance, do gymnastics, the limbo or the hokey-pokey, you’ll do them better after developing greater core strength and stability.

These are hyper-focused sessions that will teach you to sense and control both your body’s center and your breath as you move through any activity. And I do mean any activity. This program will have significant impacts on every aspect of your life, including every sport you’ll ever try, watching TV, cooking dinner, driving a car, playing with your children or just tying your shoes.

This program is extremely flexible. Depending on your specific challenges and goals, we’ll focus on everything from your scalenes to your pelvic floor to those weird intercostal spaces between your ribs. (If you do this program I’ll get to poke at those spaces on your ribs. It’s fun. At least for me. You’ll probably hurt. But it’ll get better.)

Lastly, while you’ll learn these routines in my office you’ll be able to take them with you anywhere. You can do these exercises while traveling, on a break from work, as an early morning wake-up or any time you feel the need. This program will empower you to connect with your body, and since you’ll be your body until Elon says otherwise, why not make that connection as great as it can be??

Commit to your health with a focused, 6 week block of foundational core and breathing instruction.

• $825 for twelve, 30 minute sessions

We’ll meet in-person twice a week for six weeks, and you’ll get the most benefits if you’re able to spend 15-20 minutes every day practicing the exercises we cover. The more time you can give, the faster you’ll see progress.

This program is challenging but rewarding, and will require a high level of personal accountability, patience, and a willingness to show up and do the work. You must be prepared to be an active participant in your own progress and growth as these sorts of changes can’t be achieved passively.

This program is not for the commitment-phobic!