“I can’t make my body do what I want it to do”.

How many of you are struggling with your body?

How many of you feel like the body you have isn’t really yours? As though you may be living in a temporary body until you return to the one you once knew?

I was there too. I lived for years in a body so metabolically compromised, that I had no idea who I was, where I was, and how I got around. I was disconnected and I struggled to get my body to do what I wanted it to do: move, laugh, and thrive in life.

As I start to share more about my training philosophy on social media, I want to first highlight Z-Health Performance. Z-health is a brain based approach to fitness which has helped shaped my career and personal outlook on wellness. I learned about the plasticity of the brain, cranial nerves, proprioceptive mapping, vision training, sensory receptors and much much more. It provided answers. Answers that I needed to help explain why the body I was living in from 2010-2013, never really felt like mine.

You see, the brain is the governing system of the body. It oversees all movements and is constantly hard at work trying to figure out “how safe are you?” in any given environment. When your brain is compromised from lack of movement, stress, poor fueling, injury, trauma or poor recovery we adapt by creating more disuse of neurons. Disuse leads to a host of compensations including muscle stiffness, limited range of motion, injury, an increase in anxiety, fatigue, complacency, and unhappiness to name a few.

I couldn’t achieve my goals of improved mood, energy, confidence, and weight loss if my brain was constantly in a state of “survival” (a term used to refer to the “fight of flight” response of the sympathetic nervous system. Basically “will she be starving me again?” was a constant monologue my brain had on repeat).

My journey towards regaining “control” started with small drills. Drills that helped me identify and feel small joints. Drills that helped me feel better so I could move better. Drills, that may seem so minuscule to the naked eye, but drastically decreased my stress and thus propelled me back into the driver’s seat. I wanted to share those first 3 drills I did with you below:

As you start your journey towards feeling more “in” your body remind yourself of this: We all love being in control (to some degree), especially of our bodies. It’s okay if you feel scared to start or maybe scared that you don’t know where to start. My advice is this, start small. I started by moving small joints.  Small joints that I didn’t know should move. Sometimes starting there can propel you into a whole new way to experience your body.