Teaching Movement

Episode 25: Got Yoga Butt? Now What?

Welcome to Episode 25 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this solo episode, Laurel shares her history with yoga butt, or, proximal hamstring tendinopathy (high hamstring pain.) This episode is packed with tendon and muscle physiology. It also busts the big myth that yoga butt (and any yoga-related injury) is because we’re all woefully “overstretched”. At the end, Laurel shares a 3-step approach to nipping yoga butt in the yoga bud using strength training knowledge and tools.

Additionally Laurel examines:

What yoga butt is (hint: a pain in the butt right at the sit bone more technically referred to as proximal hamstring tendinopathy).
What a tendinopathy is.
Short and sweet hamstring anatomy.
Why yoga students might be more likely to experience PHT.
That a typical vinyasa or Iyengar-inspired asana class involves a whole bunch of passive forward bends/hamstring stretching and why that makes managing and overcoming yoga butt tough for students in those classes.
How Laurel nipped her yoga butt in the bud.
The contradictory advice yoga teachers (including Laurel!) gave about what to do about yoga butt.
How proximal hamstring tendon compression (rather than tension) plays a role in causing or exacerbating PHT.
How strength training can help students overcome and avoid yoga butt.
Why the narrative that we’re overstretched is illogical and a distraction away from the solution.
What motor units are, what muscle recruitment is, and how understanding this aspect of muscle physiology can explain why yoga asana won’t make your tendons stronger but strength training will.
A 3-step process to overcoming yoga butt as well as encouragement to see a clinician if what you try doesn’t seem to help.

Reference links:

Get the Hip & SI Joint tutorial before the cart closes this Sunday 11/27/22: https://movementlogictutorials.com/movement-logic/hips-tutorial/

If you want to stretch your hamstrings please continue to do so

Ebonie Rio – Isometric exercise in tendinopathy

Putting “Heavy” into Heavy Slow Resistance

Do we need to think about connective tissues when strength training?

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Episode 23: Practical Strategies for Injured Students

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In this episode, Sarah outlines five practical steps you can take as a movement teacher when you have a client or student who is injured. She discusses:

Whether “just don’t do this pose” is a valid and useful answer for some teachers
Why memorizing a billion modifications can work, but there’s an easier way
What to do with a student when you don’t have any experience with their condition/injury
How to think critically in the moment when you are teaching so you can offer the most logical solution to their issue
How to relate to someone’s unique anatomy such that it might cause them pain or discomfort in a pose that you don’t experience
A logical step-wise approach for any student

Our brand new Hip and SI Joint Tutorial is now available!

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Episode 21: Is the SI Joint Painful Due to Instability?

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In this solo episode, Laurel shares her history with sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pain, and how no less than shifting her identity as a teacher, the way she thought of her SIJ, and the way she moved her body on a regular basis is what was required of her to get herself out of pain.

The SIJ is an area of the body that is surrounded by misinformation and tainted by a rather pessimistic outlook on its stability and robustness.

These fragilizing, pessimistic attitudes often result in triggering language around the SIJ that can lead people in pain to believe that their SIJ is unstable, out of place, or moving in the wrong ways.

This episode combines some anatomy and biomechanics along with plenty of human psychology and even human evolution to examine the power that words have over shaping our beliefs and identity, and how our beliefs and identity, in turn shape the language we use.

Laurel invites teachers to examine their beliefs about the body and question the words they use as thoughtfully as they choose their sequences, exercises, props, cues, and alignments. Additionally Laurel examines:

Prevailing myths around the SIJ in both the movement and PT world.
Non-evidenced based, yet unfortunately, routine assessments PTs use to show causality between SIJ pain and SIJ movement.
The problem with ideas around right and wrong alignment or good and bad exercises with regards to SIJ pain.
A walk down memory lane to remember all the poses, alignments, and whole approaches to practicing the asanas that we demonized and blamed for our SIJ pain.
Four reasons the SIJ is inherently stable, robust, and awesome.
What pain science can teach us about SIJ pain and more and less effective ways of addressing it.
What human evolution suggests about the SIJ and its stability.
Why looking for a specific faultily-functioning mechanism to “fix” the SIJ is often less helpful than casting a wide net and making the body, or a general region of the body, more tolerant to loads.
The scope of practice of a movement teacher when helping their students with painful SIJs feel better.

Reference links:

Sign up for a FREE mini course about the Hip and SIJ from Movement Logic co-creators Laurel Beversdorf, Dr. Sarah Court DPT, and Jesal Parikh.

Changing the Narrative in Diagnosis and Management of Pain in the Sacroiliac Joint Area

Diagnostic Accuracy of Clusters of Pain Provocation Tests for Detecting Sacroiliac Joint Pain: Systematic Review With Meta-analysis

The Physio-Network

Born to Walk: Myofascial Efficiency and the Body in Movement

The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease

Explain Pain

Pain is Really Strange

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Episode 18: How To Enjoy Teaching Private Sessions

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Welcome to Episode 18 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah discuss teaching privates, why we didn’t use to like teaching privates, and why we like it now. This episode is full of awkward, funny, and frustrating stories from our past as private yoga teachers. We end with helpful tips that will help you enjoy teaching privates more.

Where to meet with one-on-one clients/patients
Charging differently based on how much commuting is involved
The big reason we didn’t like teaching privates: no clear understanding of the goal.
Students who talk too much and aren’t focused on the movement
Students who have expectations but you don’t like teaching that way.
Students with persistent pain and questioning your scope of practice.
The game changer for Laurel: training strength clients with clear, trackable goals.
The benefits of talking less and observing more.
Admin is a bummer. How we avoid back-and-forth emailing and tracking clients down.
Our top 6 pet peeves about teaching privates, and tips we share to avoid these and love teaching privates!

Reference links:

Work one-on-one with Doctor Sarah Court, DPT

Work one-on-one with Laurel Beversdorf, E-RYT 500

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Episode 14: How to Handle Burnout

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Welcome to Episode 14 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah discuss burnout: what is burnout, how do we avoid it, what do we do when it happens, and why do we see so much of it in the yoga and movement world.

Does everyone experience burnout in the same way
What does it mean to be emotionally labile
Why do so many yoga and movement teachers go through burnout
Can a teacher in a big expensive city make a living on group classes?
How do we create boundaries that keep us from trying to ‘solve’ our students’ problems?
What’s the best kind of relationship to have with your students?
Some practical tips to prioritize yourself and preserve your own time
What does Work Smarter, Not Harder actually look like?

Reference links:

I Know How She Does It by Laura Vanderkam

Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Talib

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Episode 13: Should We Teach Alignment?

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In this episode, Laurel discusses whether it’s within a movement teacher’s scope of practice to help people with their posture. Here’s what this episode digs into:

How Laurel formerly identified as an alignment-based teacher and why she no longer does
The difference between “default-mode” alignment versus deliberate alignment
Why Laurel views alignment less in binary terms of good v. bad and more as a neutral tool for helping to restore variability as well as influence adaptations toward specific capacities.
A 1947 definition of posture from the Posture Committee of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and why it might need an update.
How our beliefs about posture can produce a nocebic effect in our students.
How Laurel sees posture and alignment instruction as being something well within a yoga teacher’s scope of practice to offer, but how she also sees movement teachers stepping outside of their scope of practice in providing this instruction, as well.

Reference links:

SITE WIDE SALE

Research Paper: Therapists Perceptions of Optimal Sitting and Standing Posture

Estrogen Matters

Research paper: To flex or not to flex? Is there a relationship between lumbar spine flexion during lifting and low back pain? A systematic review with meta-analysis

Research paper: Posture and time spent using a smartphone are not correlated with neck pain and disability in young adults: a cross-sectional study

Research paper: Is neck posture subgroup in late adolescence a risk factor for persistent neck pain in young adults? A prospective study

Research paper: Clinical measures of foot posture and ankle joint dorsiflexion do not differ in adults with and without plantar heel pain

Article about cortical maps and smudging by Todd Hardgrove: Great New Paper on Targeting the Brain for Treatment of Pain

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