Janis Isaman Interview Part Two Body Movement Specialist

In our last episode , we touched on her journey from injury to becoming a bodily body movement specialist . So what if your understanding of your body's mechanics and incorporating practices like yoga and Pilates could revolutionise your fitness routine ?

Janice will share the benefits of using Pilates machines to mirror the everyday movements , helping us identify imbalances and emphasising the significant role of core strength , flexibility and balance muscle engagement .

We explore therapeutic exercises , such as yin yoga and body rolling , that not only alleviate pain but also enhance overall performance , guiding you towards a more effective and pain-free fitness journey . This episode is packed with insights on preventing running injuries and promoting body sustainability .

We discuss how techniques like yoga and self-massage with balls can enhance joint health and prevent injuries , especially for us runners . With a special focus on the body's lower half feet , ankles , knees and hips . Janice explains the importance of early intervention to avoid long-term issues .

Plus , we dive into the emotional aspects of running and the necessity of having multiple outlets for emotional processing . It was a fantastic episode and maybe in the future we'll get Janice on a future episode of Brian's RomPod .

But all I can say it was great talking to her all the way from Calgary in Canada and I hope you really enjoy this episode as much as I did .

I mean just on , that is , let's say , supposing I come to you or someone comes to you who's used to working at a high intensity , always been running that kind of thing and then you're going into , let's say , either yoga or pilates , which are kind of you know they're taking the temperature down they are , and you know and , and , and .

Are you having to , or you have you had to , you know , convince people that , although you know we're not getting a heart rate up to 160 billion beats per minute , you know you're trying to , you're taking it down but it's doing as much benefit for you . You know how do you kind of like approach ?

So the first two sessions , probably even longer , especially for somebody who's really fit , who's really athletic , who's used to that feeling of pushing or burning , it's going to be . It's going to be a dramatic difference . But what I will do is I will have somebody on the Pilates machine and we start with I don't know , I think there's five or six exercises .

They lay down and start , and then I have them start telling me what they feel . I have them start telling me what they feel . I have them start telling me where they feel it . And then I give them verbally what I'm noticing about their body . Oh , I noticed that your left leg works a little bit more . Do you agree ?

And they say yes , and then they start to realize that . So the Pilates I love a Pilates machine because it mirrors a lot of the ways that we move through the world , but it's not something that most people have ever done . So . If I put you on your back on a Pilates machine doing what is a squat , you probably wouldn't recognize it as a squat .

Or there's another movement where you take your leg and you extend it backwards . That mirrors what your running gait would look like .

So as soon as we kind of start talking about oh , I see that your right side works a little bit more than your left side , oh , I see that your leg doesn't actually move behind your body and your glutes not engaging , then all of a sudden it's actually really easy for people to make that jump to oh yeah , I'm struggling with this , or my back hurts when I

do that , or whatever it is . They'll start revealing the things that they actually know are problematic . They'll start sharing what they're feeling and sharing all of this and then all of a sudden , that idea of it has to be high intensity , it has to be two hours long , we have to do this .

We have to do that all of the window , because suddenly they're very , very , very invested in mechanics how they're transferring load , core strength , flexibility , balance from side to side and a lot of those things are not things that most people have ever really been taught . They've never thought about them .

They're just trying to get through to the next thing and check the . I mean I can't speak for everybody who's listening , but I certainly did .

Where it's it's more in the category of a body work exercise , and then we go back and do that Pilates exercise again and and I don't need to convince anybody of anything after that because suddenly pain is gone , the joints are more open , the whatever problem we kind of identified is gone and they realized there was kind of all of this tightness and all of

this dysfunction in the body that can , within a five minute period , we can move forward from that and suddenly running is easier , it it's less painful and speaking just about runners and a huge part of that , again , that is that trauma piece where we're linking what do you feel ? Where do you feel it ? What do you feel where do you feel it ?

Over and over and over again , because that way the person I don't have to ever tell people to kind of repeat it at home , they want to , but B they're leaving with that knowledge that they can do on their own .

So you know it doesn't happen in an hour , but if you work with me for two months , I guarantee that you you can do this yourself it is not , it's practice and it's reinforcement and it's developing a language and noticing things .

But then you can kind of tailor your own running program and you can , you know , when things don't feel right , because we've worked through that because you kind of answered my my question , kind of my answer .

not knowing if I'm feeling the right thing . But you're kind of just reinforcing that to make sure . But you're also looking and you can see with your experience , you know you can say that you know one side stronger than the other or whatever . You know that's right .

I remember and I I actually do recommend this for runners is , do an exercise where , for one block , you really tune into . Are you using your legs equally from side to side ? I don't , so I would . So I would notice my right leg will dominate and my right glute will help push me forward . I have a lazy left side of my bum . I just do , yeah .

So then I would try to , for a block , even those out and then it would get kind of mentally and physically exhausting and then I would let it go and then I would repeat that and it really helped kind of balance my gate out . So the benefit in having someone like myself is we can really talk through that .

But I definitely absolutely think that there are things that you can do without me that are there , because the things that I'm teaching I want to keep them that simple for people it's like okay , which side of your body are you using more ? Is it at your foot , is it at your knee , is it at your hip , and can you consciously adapt and change it ?

Now where you do need to see someone like myself is , if you know that something's wrong , right , and you can identify where it is , but you can't change it , then you need kind of some interventions in terms of For instance , give an example .

It's not really a brain issue . So it's not a simple saying okay , left glute , let's do this . So they'd probably need a yoga program or they need a Yamina body rolling program .

Those things are accessible and actually if there was one kind of blanket easy thing it depends on where people are listening from but I would invest in a set of Yamina balls and I would go find a Yamina body rolling instructor . It's going to keep your shins , your hips , your knees , everything kind of pain-free and able to go .

But if you don't know where one is or who that is or what that is , yeah , um , can you just briefly explain , what it is so ? yeah , so it's a technique that it's actually based in New York city ? Um , it is . It is like it goes back a long ways that this is the root , but it's been around for 40 something years .

So it's a technique that you can do yourself , where you take the ball from where the muscle inserts to where the muscle originates or the other way around . You go origin to insertion , but basically it's very anatomically based . I give that to all my runners for their hips and their glutes .

But to link it back to your question , we can't correct everything out of our brain . The reason that I added some of these other techniques to my teachings is because it might take two , three , four months with Pilates to correct it .

I can get somebody down on a ball doing this and in five minutes it's changed because we've opened up the space in their joint . So sometimes , sometimes , we can't really get our brain to say , okay , let's just move through the glute , because if your joint is stuck , you need help releasing that .

So that could be a massage therapist , that could be a different kind of body worker , it could be a rolfer , but you might need help with something like that . But I think , especially as we age and especially as we put mileage on , we as runners really need to to invest time , effort and knowledge into that body sustainability piece , otherwise we get injured .

You know , you know , take into account , you know that , the type of experience and knowledge that you have that you can give to the audience and say you know , you know it's not just about the running and you know , here there are certain principles you know , to help be injury free or you know that kind of thing .

I'm aware of that , but a heel strike is a minimum of about 300 pounds and there's not really even shoes that can help us avoid that . So that's tremendous force going up and down your leg and it leaves a lot of room , especially the more mileage we put on . It leaves room for slight shifts in those biomechanics to lead to injury .

So I think honestly , on a daily basis , we need to really get into a check-in with how do my feet feel , how do my ankles feel , how do my knees feel , how do my hips feel , because at the very first sign of this doesn't feel good . That's when we need that intervention , if we're not already doing it . So I'm a big fan of preventative intervention .

But let's say you ignore all of that . Yeah , I'm a big fan of preventative intervention , but let's say , you ignore all of that . Yeah , you still need to do those check-ins , whether you're doing preventative or not , because , as I mentioned already , I get people in who you know .

It's two years later and then we've got some really entrenched patterns , and it's because what most of us will do most of us are can remember being younger than we were now where things spontaneously went away . they just fix themselves yes and that isn't necessarily your station in life at the moment .

But most people will just be like , okay , let's just wait for it to pass yes , yeah , yeah , yeah so right , and most of us are , and it's partly because we don't really know what we should be doing anyways .

Like if we , if we knew that , okay , if I just do some yoga today or I just go get a massage today , it would , it would help , we probably would do that .

But I just I really feel like that's probably my best tip is do an honest check-in of those body parts , because a small problem is actually relatively easy to fix and once it's entrenched it's a big problem and it takes even more of the time and the patience that you spoke of earlier to actually unwind all of that . I think as well .

You know , runners tend to be really high intensity people . We tend to be those type A people that want that accomplishment , we want to check the box , we want , we want to achieve . Those are all great things , but we really have to watch that component of ourselves as well .

And when I say that adding in those body sustainability pieces is broad advice for everybody , I don't think that there's a single runner who shouldn't also have some sort of practice , be it yoga , pilates , regular massages , whatever it is I made .

But I think , wrapping our head around that achievement being as important as the running or the miles , or the races , or the times or the whatever it else it is that we're tracking . Start to track how much care you're giving your body , because , especially as we age and especially as we put mileage on , that will keep everything kind of balanced .

And then I also would say that emotional piece is a big one because , again , many of us are . I mean , I started running to process my emotions and to avoid my emotions and time to think and time to listen to music and all of that .

But also , I have encountered many people and I was one of these people that that was . That was the only way I had to get rid of anger , aggression , sadness yeah , all of them and I think my body would have been better off to do 25% less and to have another kind of emotional processing capacity in my life yeah , doing what ?

So you know , if it could be a creative outlet , it could be another form of athleticism . I actually I really like cycling as cross training . That can give kind of that same component .

And I think the two biggest areas of injuries I see in runners are shin splints and glute problems , and the glute problems can manifest as knee problems . So just make sure that you're really tending to those areas in particular , because they can .

They can kind of feel like they sneak up on you and that's where , again , if you're going to , if you're going to take part of this advice and be like , okay , I'll do five minutes , do a glute stretch there's . You can Google what a figure four stretches , that's a good one .

Shins are a little bit harder to stretch , but you can look something up on the internet and just what I see a lot of is runners doing 22 seconds . So I would say my own experience with that was I decided to do seven minutes and I actually had a yoga teacher trainer who laughed at me . He's like what's the point in that ? But it changed things for me .

So I think 30 seconds before and after a run is not adequate for most of us right so decide , decide if it's seven minutes , 14 minutes , 22 minutes , and then kind of put that on your training plan as much as you put in your long runs I don't mind me asking .

The other piece with plantar fasciitis actually I will say this about all injury the other piece with plantar fasciitis actually I will say this about all injury . The tricky thing with our body is that most of the time when we have injury , that's not the beginning , middle and end of the problem .

So a plantar fasciitis also is a problem of the foot , but it also is a problem of higher up the body , so all the way up to the hip . So for you roll out your foot , yes , but also there probably should be a bit of an investigation of what's going on with your hips , your hip strength , your shins , your calves , your hamstrings , all of that .

So , and when I say hips , you have 22 muscles across your hips , so that's a pretty , that's a pretty wide spot of your body to kind of start investigating .

But I would say generally , this is this is a gross oversimplification , but anything that's happening from your waist down if you have an injury , a there's a high chance that whatever's happening if you feel an injury on one side , high chance that your other side is just as bad , if not worse . That always surprises people .

So if we feel that on the left side , once I start digging in to the right side on people , they're always shocked that it's usually just as bad , if not worse . The second thing is there's nothing ever in isolation .

So whatever is happening if you're from the waist down , probably the whole chunk of your legs needs to be kind of worked over again with your yoga , your Pilates , your massage , whatever it is that you've decided to do . Runners don't tend to get a ton of injuries from the waist up , but your back is usually your abs , quite often the .

The root cause , if you will in quotations , is not where you think it is . So your plantar fasciitis could be your glute . It could be a problem of your foot .

There's a gap there for your body , so sitting is going to tighten up your hip flexors at the front of the body , it's going to tighten up your quads , it's going to make your glutes really tight , and then we go out and do it a high intensity , repetitive activity where we are putting a lot of load through that system . That fundamentally , is tight .

So I often have people that really kind of argue with having to do , you know , stretches or yin yoga or whatever it is . But that's why we're actually so susceptible to injury , because we're we're . The human body was never , ever , ever , ever made to sit for 16 hours , ever , um .

So just think about all of the pieces of your body that are under compression some of them are under loaded compression from chairs and then we , for one hour a day or two hours a day , we get up and we do one of the most intense biomechanic activities that we have so there's there's trauma there .

I know that this advice is crazy and I had a desk job , but if you can even get up once an hour and just sit and stand , or there was there was a little bit of a mockery of this idea , but doing a heel , I think they call it a , they called it a calf pushup , but basically where you lift the heel , it actually it actually helps .

So there's tiny things even at a desk job that you can do Stand up , go get a drink of water . The more often you're able to actually break the cycle of sitting , the better off you are .

But there's increasing research that shows that that activity doesn't offset sitting , and so I am fully aware that part of desk jobs is focus and all of that stuff and it's hard to break that focus .

But it's going to be easier again to kind of do a few preventative pieces than it is to deal with physiotherapists and doctors and yeah and and even the mental health aspects of not being able to run . So I don't have like specific answers of how to do that exactly , because that's a really individual piece .

But you know all that advice of just park a little bit further away and walk to your coworkers office and set an alarm and stand up once an hour .

Because , um , because , I apologize I would love to yeah , so it was um , thank you very much . I mean , if you have you got any links , social media that you can sort of promote at this time ?

Calgary , but I also really love connecting with people digitally , so anywhere that I'm active on social media . I'm not the best about like putting up posts , but I am the best about engaging with people If they want to send me a DM and get a conversation started . Ask me a question , tell me your running problem , tell me your injury .

All of that because they love being able to help with solutions , especially because a lot of things that that in the running world I've been there , I've done it , um , you know , two decades of of my living in that experience . My own body is as a runner slash going on retirement from running , slash struggling in all the ways . I've done it all .

So that's always near and dear to my heart is kind of helping runners keep their shoes on their feet and not on the couch .

I apologize for the , yeah , technical issues at the beginning , but anyway , I think , yeah , so we'll work out , I'll let you , I'll , I'll let you know when it will be coming up and if you in a few weeks , be great perfect , all right , awesome , well , thank you .