For many people, working on addressing muscular imbalances and sequencing issues with the activation of specific muscles through my programming can solve a majority of their physical problems.  I have discussed some of these connections in past articles.  For others though, the answer is not nearly as simple.  There are phenomenon that I have witnessed when working with clients that defy our conventional understanding of the root causes of issues such as back pain, knee issues, and neck instability for these people.  For them, the muscular/postural answers have little long term impact to their pain and dysfunction.  These are usually issues that they have dealt with for years, sometimes decades.  Often times they have spent tens of thousands of dollars on potential solutions, searching across the country (and internet) to find an answer to their pain.  The answers they have found have either provided a small improvement, no improvement, or made their situation worse.  As someone who was in the exact same position for many years, searching for answers, I feel strongly for these people.

What if we are looking in the wrong direction?  The field of health/rehab/medicine is incredibly focused on muscular imbalances/structural imbalances/alignment and the information that a MRI can show us.  All of this information is important, and absolutely part of understanding the bigger picture.  I myself have talked about the importance of muscular balance/firing patterns at length.  However, when the structural imbalances are deemed “impossible” to fix, you have no apparent answers to a muscular issue, and the MRI comes back with no definitive answer… what are we left with?  This is the problem that many of the people I mentioned above deal with.  To understand a potential new direction for answers, we need to first understand several concepts.  We must try to understand the state of our own central nervous system, and we must understand our own reflex muscle guarding and how that could relate to our “unsolvable” issues.

You might be asking yourself how the state of your central nervous system impacts a physical issue such as back pain/neck pain, etc.  The answer is that it can have a massive impact.  We must understand that the state of CNS directly impacts how our brain/body reacts to stimulus.  Do you have problems taking a deep breath?  What is your daily normal breath length for your inhale and exhale?  Test it.  Take a breath of 2-3 seconds inhale, 2-3 seconds exhale.  Was that uncomfortable?  How unnatural did that feel?  Ideally, we should be around 2-3 seconds inhale, and a 2-3 second exhale throughout your day.  This should slow down even more when we lay down to sleep/rest/relax.  If your autonomic breathing (normal range, without trying to breathe slower) falls into this range, we can comfortably assume that you are likely in a more parasympathetic state throughout the day.  If we recall to previous articles, this state is closely aligned with rest/relax/digest.  It is the opposite of the fight or flight state for our central nervous system.  Every single person I have worked with who had long term pain/dysfunction has had significantly poor breathing patterns.  Almost all of them (other than most of the body workers I have had as clients) were at the 1 second inhale, by 1 second exhale range.  What does this mean?  It means that just with their breathing, they have locked their central nervous system in a perpetual state of fight/flight.  Note the below diagram, and how breathing is linked to fight/flight.

Being locked into this state, the brain becomes used to this state, and this continual state becomes part of your homeostasis.  Remember, all of this occurs without your conscious approval.  Some of the signs that you have become locked into this state are anxiety, nervousness, panic attacks, breathing issues, continually feeling overwhelmed, difficulty sleeping or even relaxing.  I have worked with multiple clients who have had issues sleeping their entire lives, who sleep soundly as they work on the programming.  The goal of the programming I gave them had nothing to do with their sleep, but since the state of their central nervous system was being gently and subtly altered, it improved their sleep nonetheless.  So what is the link to the physical?  This is by far the most fascinating aspect of my new research, and likely some of the most controversial.

While working with clients to get them to a more stable spinal position and a more active and sequenced “core”, I generally include specific breathing work to finish every new sequence/activation.  I do this for several reasons.  The first reason is so that they can feel this muscle move under their hands, which has a powerful impact to their neurological connection to it.  Awareness is extremely powerful.  The second reason is to check to see if the muscle is moving at all, even slightly.  I have found areas of the abdominals that had zero movement in inhalation, that after some brief sensory/programming work, became active again without the client having to think about the area at all.  The third reason is to influence more a parasympathetic state, so as to shut off guarding patterns/reflex guarding.  Reflex guarding is when a specific area of muscle will not release in response to a painful stimulus.

This is usually due to trauma or injury.  If you have ever found an area of your back or neck that is constantly tight and tense, is it possible that you are experiencing some of this reflex guarding.  This occurs completely without your conscious approval or knowledge, and we have almost no control over it.  However, this “guarding” in my opinion, can be a reflex action of the sympathetic nervous system.  It is my belief that if we can create a shift to the parasympathetic, we have an opportunity to shut off some of this “guarding” processes.  Everything I have seen in clinic points to this conclusion, and I have used targeted breathing thousands of times to help people shut off specific areas of the body that are stuck in a neurological guarding pattern.  Why do I believe that it is neurological issue and not the muscle itself?  Because of the following phenomenon.

Working through the earlier example, so after getting these clients in a stable position where they can feel their entire spine on the floor while on their back with their knees up (See past articles on this, this is done entirely through breathing/tapping and shutting off guarding patterns to restore this position) the most common result is that the client will feel entirely neutral in their low-mid-upper back.  Any pain they were experiencing, is suddenly eliminated.  While this does take targeted activation of anterior muscles at the same time, this is the result.  For some people, this is the beginning of the process of sequencing and activating muscles to help hold them in this position daily.  It is a great deal of oblique sequencing/abdominal sequencing, and breathing work that eventually can progress to strength work when all of the sequences are in the correct order.  But for other people, the people with the long term pain issues, the moment the back is clear, they have felt the “tension” move.  They have described it to me as such.  I have witnessed this tension move into the legs so that the quads start twitching and firing.

I have seen this tension move into the upper chest, making the clients chest feel heavy like they are heading into a panic attack.  I have witnessed this tension move into the neck, into the head, and transform into a migraine.  Keep in mind this movement of the “tension” takes mere seconds, and the pain/tension they feel in that area is immediate.  During this process, I have my clients place their hand on the impacted area where they feel the tension.  They continue to breathe in the same manner that I worked on them with, and this almost always clears the issue.  In the rare case that it doesn’t, the physical grounding work that I have developed does.  More on that in future articles.  Even when the tension continues to move, the clearing process usually takes less than 5-10 breaths.  The even more fascinating aspect of this, is that these tension patterns always follow activation patterns of muscles that have been stuck in “guarding”.  Usually these muscles that are “guarded” either have very poor sensation for the client, or they are extremely hard to consciously activate/turn off for them.  It is almost like the brain has been disconnected from this area of the body, and no longer consciously controls it.

One of the best examples of the power of this programming, is the client I had recently who came in looking for neck relief from an injury that was 40 years old.  She had the injury in college, and her neck had constantly had alignment issues and consistent pain/tension.

As we started to work on the guarding processes in her neck, and the muscles started to release under her hands with every specific/targeted breath, she suddenly felt her back tense, and her leg twitch.  The first time this client saw me, she had extension pattern in her lumbar spine that was creating almost all of her back issues.  That particular issue was solved in our first few sessions.  And yet as she went to unlock the neck, her brain and body responded by putting her back into extension.  Her leg where she had issues with tension/pain that we had programmed out via glute function earlier, also fired without her knowledge.  While she could feel her back go into extension, she was completely unaware of her leg twitching/firing, and her left ankle doing the same thing.  Her brain reset these areas of her body to an earlier point, as a guarding mechanism.  We were able to quickly address those areas with previous programming, and after we did and we continued with unraveling the guarding systems in her neck, that specific guarding pattern never returned.  Occasionally her ankle or leg would twitch slightly, which she continued to not be able to feel until I told her that it was occurring.  Then she was able to feel it after that when it would twitch, and the twitching stopped entirely.  No other guarding patterns occurred, and we were able to greatly improve her necks range of motion and restore its neutral position even while standing.  Keep in mind zero manipulation or touch from me was used to create this change.

The more I witness phenomenon such as the above, the more I have realized that an integrated approach might be only way to truly solve some of these issues.  Treating the body as separate from the state of the central nervous system is potentially only looking at half of the puzzle.  Attempting to get people to the parasympathetic with only relaxation techniques is only ever going to be at best, half effective in my opinion.  There are levels of guarding that must be purposefully accessed through targeted work.  The ultimate goal of all of this work, in order to create a shift in the central nervous system, is to convince the deep limbic/guarding systems of the brain that we are safe.

From all of my work, I deeply believe in Polyvagal Theory, and see evidence for it daily.

If we can figure out how to convince our deep limbic system that we are indeed safe, we will ultimately restore not only original physical function, but unlock our parasympathetic systems as well.  In my next article I will discuss more in regards to this Polyvagal Theory and how I am using physical grounding techniques to successfully re-associate limbic system patterns.  It is my belief that understanding how and why the brain perceives “safe” is the key to understanding the link between the mind and body, and may hold secrets in how to heal both.

If you are interested in my work, I currently work with clients in Vancouver, WA at a chiropractic office.  If you are not local, I have a live online platform in which I work with people across the country.  I hope that all of you find the answers that you are seeking in your journey for health and wellbeing.

Until next time,

A

1. NEUROCEPTION: A Subconscious System for Detecting Threats and Safety. Dr. Stephen Porges. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c1d025fb27e390a78569537/t/5ccdff181905f41dbcb689e3/1557004058168/Neuroception.pdf
2. The Influence of Breathing on the Central Nervous System https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6070065/

Every week or so I will be witness to phenomenon in sessions with my clients that defies everything that I have learned, in regards to how the body should function.  It is times like this that I now abandon traditional answers of the relationships between muscle/postural function, etc.  Most of the plausible explanations for what I see can only be found in neuroscience.  Unfortunately, the gaps between the physiological rehabilitation of the body, and that of the neurological and psychological have become increasingly split in traditional practice.

When I look at a poorly firing muscle, I identify the specific sequencing behind it and address it with individualized programming.  This is successful, and does address imbalances caused in the physical.  But how often are we questioning if our extremely poor breathing habits altered our central nervous system response to stimulus, and therefore these poorly firing systems are partly an end result of an overstressed/amplified central nervous system?  We look to answer the musculoskeletal issues, but we ignore the neurological and psychological systems that are intricately intertwined.  The more deeply I look for answers, the more I am led to the doorstep of trying to understand the brain, and how the brain learns and adapts to certain stimuli.  While my work is still deeply entrenched in the reprogramming of specific musculature, it is increasingly led in the direction of rebalancing the central nervous system as well.  Several of my recent clients have had incredible breakthroughs when they were able to address a chronically short inhale.  Not just physiologically, but personal breakthroughs in multiple areas of their personal lives.  The picture below shows an intro to The Polyvagal Theory, which is important to understand as we move forward.  There is plenty of information online about it, and I urge you to research it and the work of Dr. Stephen Hodges in regards to the Safe and Sound Principle.  It can most certainly shift your perspective on your own life.

I pose a question.  We are told to breathe deeply and through the belly and that will relax us and lead us to stimulating the vagus nerve (1), and therefore into more of a parasympathetic response.  So we are communicating to our central nervous system via our breath that it is safe, and that the fight/flight response can shut off.  So we lay down, we breathe, and we feel better.  We alter our breathing patterns for 5-10 short minutes and our central nervous system tones down.  Upon standing, we immediately leave this pattern and resume whatever was normal to us the moment before.  Your brain will always resume the “main pattern” when there is a slight aberration to what is normal or patterned to it.  What was the point of the exercise?  How can the brain learn that it is indeed safe to shut off these alarm systems of the CNS (central nervous system) if it is not the main pattern of your breathing?  The short answer?  It can’t.  The way you breathe right now, is the way you mostly breathe all the time.  Under stress and duress, your breathing will even become worse than it is right now.  The shorter and more shallow the breath, the closer you are to a fight/flight pattern.  Breathing is a pattern.  Any pattern can be changed with awareness, intention, and practice.  But even if that pattern is changed, does the old pattern still exist somewhere in the brain?  Does a part of the brain save patterns and their emotional/physiological associations?  What happens if these save states of the brain are triggered?  What if breathing could be linked to trauma, and even attempting to shift breathing could cause a reaction in the physiological state from the CNS?

I was working with a client a few weeks ago that had undergone a tremendous physical transformation. She had been told early on in life that there was nothing anyone could do for her spine and that she would need to live with pain/poor function.  She had always lived with intense physical pain, so much so that it restricted her from exercise.  She came in with inches of extension in her low back. We reprogrammed everything from her hips/glutes, to her entire abdominal/oblique system (which was neurologically connected to the muscles of her low back).  Her posture became remarkably different.  We worked on resetting muscles of the flexors of the forearms to address her arm pain.  We worked on resetting the biceps to shut off over-firing/compensating deltoids.  We worked to transform her gait, her feet, and the ground sense she felt from the foot to the hip.  The main compensation she came in with had to do with her quadricep muscles.  Being a truly naturally athletic young woman, her quads had somehow loaded to offset her other poorly firing muscular systems (More on this in future articles).  Because of this, it had created multiple instabilities, leading to a very similar picture to what you see below.

When we addressed all of these systems, the quads finally were able to turn off/stop guarding and her legs/knees stopped hurting as well.

She came in the other day completely without pain, and feeling consistently strong and stable in her body for the first time in her life (So she told me).  She was doing full workouts, bridges, planks, etc with zero pain.  When we worked on testing the quads we learned that she had no conscious control over the muscles.  As we worked on resetting and re-educating firing patterns of the quadriceps muscles, she was able to start firing them consciously.  When we loaded the muscles however with a longer held contraction, there was a very strange phenomenon.  The quads went into a spastic state on the right side (the main side of compensation) and would not release.  Very quickly the client told me that her back began to hurt as well.  When I checked her level of extension, it had remarkably returned.  When I checked the state of her abdominals and obliques, we learned that they had completely shut off (had lost all muscle tone).  Her connection/activation to her abdominals and obliques had been replaced by the old connectivity through her back.  The glutes had shut off as well and were resistant to being activated.  The only muscle that easily activated, and refused to de-activate, was the quads.  Her breathing became extremely uneven as she started to enter a zone close to a panic attack.

We systematically went through the last 4 months of programming (Sessions that took her entire hours to learn) in 10 minutes.  She was able to deactivate every overactive muscular system and get out of extension as well.  Her brain still had all of the programming we had worked on, but it had somehow been overwritten via the trigger/trauma.  Her breathing had shifted strongly as well, so strongly that it took us about 30 minutes itself just to revert it back to where it was in the beginning of the session.  She had worked on her breathing tirelessly before, but somehow she felt as if she could not control it now.  It took around 30 minutes of very careful coaching/guidance before she was able to tell me she felt neutral again.

So what happened?  It is my belief that a “save state” was triggered, and her brain reverted to an earlier state of physiological, and neurological programming.  We were able to quickly undo and rewrite these systems with all of the work we had done in the past, but it was traumatic and difficult for the client to go through.  She told me that it was “scary”, and that she felt remarkably unsafe when she lost control of her quadriceps muscles.  I have seen this type of phenomenon multiple times.  It never ceases to amaze me.

When I was working on my own body, I found an incredibly strong associative pattern between my left abdominal area and my left SI joint.  When I tried to stiffen this area, I could feel a strong pull on my SI joint.  I had this pain for many years in this SI area, and was my main location of injury/trauma after the car accident.  The abdominal area in question was only about one inch wide, the size of a quarter.  The deeper I pushed into this area even when not flexing, the more I could “feel” the low back and the left SI joint.  It started to pulse painfully.  I realized I was starting to panic when I started to become lightheaded.  My breathing had shifted.  I had entered into a place where I did not feel safe, and I was strongly aware of the desire to stop pushing into this area.  Using programming that would be the centerpiece for my future work on de-sensitization, I was able to completely break the association between the two areas.  I spent about 30 minutes on the floor reprogramming it before it felt clear and stopped pulsing into the low back and SI joint.  When I was done, I could stiffen the left abdominal area and my SI joint felt completely stable.  The low back had completely shut off.  I would repeat this process every day for a few weeks, and always at the beginning of the work feel the SI joint a small amount.  The more I did it, the less I felt.  One day I could no longer find the association.  To this day it is gone, and all small occasional SI joint sensations I once had since the car accident have been eliminated.

There are many other areas our lives where we witness strong neurological associations to patterns.  When an ex-smoker becomes stressed, they often crave a cigarette.  When an ex-drug addict runs into family issues, they often turn to drugs.  When someone who has used food to cope with life’s hardships runs into stress, they often resort to eating to comfort themselves.  The brain creates extremely strong associations with whatever you have done to consistently soothe yourself.  Understand that all of these people are simply looking for ways to calm their overactive central nervous system.  They do not understand why they crave the things that they do, but that they simply do.  Without awareness, we are powerless to shift these associations and patterns.  Without awareness, we will never even know they existed in the first place.  So if my client’s body/brain had used the quadriceps muscles to protect her, and guard her, there would be an extremely strong association in regards to the activation of that muscle and her safety.  I believe that when the muscle was consciously activated in our session to the point of load, the message to the brain was clear.  You are unsafe.

Her patterns were consistent with that concept.  The moment her quad calmed back down, she started feeling safe again.  This is a neurological association to a physiological trigger.  This example is not an outlier.  It is simply the way our brain/central nervous system operates.  In the guarding/over-activation pattern of the quad, her brain reset multiple physiological patterns to a previous state of when she used to feel unsafe, undoing months of work (briefly before we could reset it) in the process.  Did this occur only because of the quad, or did it occur because the breathing shifted after she felt unsafe because of the quad?  Impossible to say.  I venture to say it was a combination of the two.

Ultimately the most important thing is that we were able to reset her back to neutral in a very short time.  This shows that while the brain may reboot to a previous state, it does not wipe information.  It only fires an old neurological pathway.  As long as we have the correct pathways to jump back into via the practice, awareness, and repetition that we have done, we can feel secure and safe working on addressing these types of issues.  I will be revisiting the quad in future sessions with this client, and systematically de-sensitizing the trigger until there is no trigger to be found.  How?  The brain must be made aware that the activation of the quad is now safe, and the association reprogrammed.  I have successfully done this exact thing with other physiological triggers of other clients, including the low back.  This is completely new work, and I look forward to sharing it with you.  The brain is truly remarkable.  We are still only scratching the surface of its potential.

1. Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5859128/
2. https://www.polyvagalinstitute.org/