health – Page 2 – The Branches

barefoot bliss

(This post comes to you from Wendy – pictured below on the right – Operations Manager, strength & yoga teacher, and resident-barefoot-shoe-enthusiast, at the Branches)

I have always loved to walk barefoot outside. I enjoy the tactile stimulation I feel when walking on different surfaces. I walk barefoot so I can feel the burn of hot pavement in the summer and the gentle sharpness of blades of grass; the cool squishiness of walking through the mud and the grittiness between my toes when walking in the sand.

Barefoot shoes (also called minimal shoes) allow me a little bit of that sensory stimulation when I can’t (or shouldn’t) walk barefoot. It means I can still feel the bumpiness underneath the grass, the sharp pebbles at the edge of a dirt road. Does it hurt sometimes? Sure! I’ve landed on a few rocks while running that sent a few choice words streaming out of my mouth. But those experiences never made me want to switch back to the relative void of sensation I felt when walking in thick-soled shoes.

I initially started wearing barefoot/minimal shoes because I was experiencing knee pain and trying to find a way to improve it. I had heard minimal shoes might help, so I decided to give them a try. However, as soon as I started walking in that first pair of barefoot sneakers, I no longer really cared if they cured my knee pain – it just felt so good to walk in them!

Those shoes were the first pair of shoes that I didn’t have to ‘break in.’ My feet didn’t feel like they were being squished. I didn’t have to deal with the pain and irritation of blisters and calluses, in fact, I could actually wiggle my toes! Over time my knee pain did improve, but the reason I keep wearing barefoot shoes has more to do with the connectedness I felt with my body and the world around me.

I used to have a nice pair of ‘technical’ hiking boots that I invested in because I thought they were what I needed to be able to hike ‘safely.’ Ironically, I’ve had fewer injuries since I switched to minimal hiking boots. My balance is better, and my feet and ankles are stronger now that they can move more freely. I can both feel and respond better to the changes in the ground beneath me. I can feel the curves and edges of rocks as I walk across them, and I can respond with more agility to those small changes in balance, bending my feet and ankles to ‘grip’ the rocks as I go. Thick soled shoes take a lot of that sensory information away, leaving me feeling like I’m teetering while trying to balance on rocks, and stumbling as my foot leans too far off an edge it can’t feel. There’s a disconnect between what’s happening underneath me and what my body is doing in traditional hiking boots. That connectedness means I’m actually more confident hiking in minimal shoes because I slip and fall less often.

The connectedness to my body and the world around me is what has ultimately made me a barefoot shoe convert, and now, something of a proselytizer! I want everyone to experience the gentle invigoration of walking with more sensation and agility. Switching to barefoot shoes is something of a process – for most people a good amount of preparation is needed to build up the foot and ankle strength needed to enjoy wearing minimal shoes. If you’re interested in the (eventual) hedonism of barefoot shoes, start your journey with me at my Free Your Feet workshop, a staple offering that we host every year or two at the Branches.

Looking forward to walking in the mud sometime soon,
Wendy

let’s talk about perimenopause and heavy lifting

(A note from Branches’ teacher, Nicole, a perimenopausal gal who is passionate about the benefits of progressive overload!)

If you’ve been online lately, and especially if you’re perimenopausal, you may have noticed that menopause(!) is having a moment. As a perimenopausal woman who didn’t even know this was a thing until a few years ago, I’m relieved that this topic is finally being discussed in public forums. I’m also frustrated that it has taken as long as it has to reach the mainstream, considering about half the population will experience this life-altering transition.

If you haven’t been following the “meno-sphere,” I’ll briefly catch you up! One of the hottest topics at the moment is strength training, and specifically lifting heavy. This is essential for perimenopausal and postmenopausal people to build or maintain muscle mass and especially bone mineral density. The conversation around what exactly constitutes lifting heavy has exploded online as this can, understandably, be a point of confusion.

I love this conversation because strength work is my lane. I created and developed the Strength Essentials class over the last few years at The Branches. I’ve gotten super-passionate about both strength training and self-advocacy in my perimenopausal journey, and I find myself at the intersection where one pursuit (strength training) can help me through the other (perimenopause). Here are a few things that I think are important to think about when considering what lifting heavy means.

1. Using weights that feel hard, doesn’t necessarily equate to lifting heavy. Rather, lifting heavy falls into a category of near-maximal effort. For example, if you build up to using weight that you can lift for a maximum of 5 repetitions (or fewer!) and no more, you are working in the heavy zone! (And just to be extra clear, you don’t have to lift in the heavy zone for every single set – or even as part of every workout – to make progress.)

The next one is less technical but something to really contemplate and consider. Which is…

2. You are stronger than you think.

Not only have I learned this to be true about myself, but I’ve become more aware of how pervasive it is for people — especially women — to underestimate their physical capabilities.

Let me illustrate with this quick real-life example. You may have noticed that Leena bought us a barbell; I couldn’t have been more excited or surprised! The day it arrived, she texted me with a photo and said “Christmas came early!” I was pumped.

Prior to the barbell arriving, our heaviest single weight was a 35 pound kettlebell — and while more experienced participants had long since built the confidence to use it, many newer students were of the mindset that it was just too heavy for them.

Imagine my delight when folks were stepping up to deadlift the bar which is 35 pounds on its own— plus 20 pounds (or more) with plates — on day one! The ‘bar’ to entry (pun intended) equaled the former heaviest weight in the room, and people were blowing right past their preconceived limitations on the first try.

So how do we go from getting started to lifting heavy? My suggestion is to begin with weights that feel do-able but challenging, and then increase the weight incrementally over time. When a given weight starts to feel too easy, bump it up by a little. You’ll get better at knowing when to do this with practice. Generally speaking, you’ll use relatively heavier weights for lower-body work (think large muscle groups) than you will for upper-body work (smaller muscle groups).

Remind yourself that building strength isn’t a sprint! And, to yield the bone-building benefits of strength work during mid-life (and beyond), we need to be lifting the heaviest weight possible that we can manage with control and confidence. You don’t have to start “lifting heavy” from day one but you do need to increase the loads you’re lifting systematically over time to get stronger (AKA progressive overload). Getting stronger leads to increased independence as we age, and allows us to do more of the things we want to do, with self-assurance, today.

The hard work of building strength is gratifying in itself but the benefits really seal the deal! And while everyone’s journey is unique, here are some of the quality-of-life enhancements that I’ve personally experienced through consistent training:

Better moods, energy, and an outlet for stress reduction
A sense of personal satisfaction from striving for – and achieving – performance goals
Socializing and good times with like-minded folks
Perimenopause symptom management (it’s not a fix-all but it helps me in a big way)
Increased muscle mass

I would love to hear if these ideas resonate with you and learn more about your foray into strength work — or, to hear what’s troubling you about getting started or keeping up with it. And if you want to join me for Strength Essentials, we’re lifting heavy every Monday and Thursday.

Cheering you on in your strength and/or perimenopause journey,

Nicole

I’m finally not intimidated anymore

Hello, Wendy here. So, I’ve dabbled in strength training at several points in my life. And each time my motivation would eventually decline, or I’d reach a point where I just felt too intimidated and confused to know how to progress. Sound familiar to any of you?

Strength Training for Longevity and Healthspan

As I enter my mid-life journey, I’m learning how valuable resistance training can be for maintaining mobility and strength as we age. For folks who will go through menopause, and especially folks like me with a long family history of osteoporosis, strength training can also help increase bone density and prevent osteoporosis, (this article does a really good job of summing that up if you’re interested). Based on these life stages, I have been feeling really motivated to find a way to add resistance training back into my life.

Recently, I decided to start on my own again, and it was great… for a while. I was learning a lot, getting stronger, and I felt good in my body – all things that kept me interested. But, inevitably, I would get busy or tired and skip a session, or two, then three, and my motivation would begin to wane.

Finding the Right Coach & Community

One thing I’ve learned about myself (and still have a hard time accepting), is that no matter how much I want to do things on my own, I really need other people in order to stay motivated. But all of my past ‘gym’ experiences had been unpleasant. I either got a bunch of unwanted advice, or unwanted commentary that made me not want to be in those spaces. I needed MY people – people who would lift each other up.

Enter Strength Essentials…

From the first time I walked into Nicole’s Strength Essentials class I was struck by just how supportive it felt. It was such a radical departure from the intimidating experiences I had in the past. Nicole presented things in such an easy to understand, accessible way. We learned lots of options of how to progress, and Nicole was there to help folks to find ways to make things work for their body. It was so refreshing to not feel intimidated to ask questions or to ask for advice. With the number of questions I hear each time I’m there, it’s obvious other folks feel the same way.

The Camaraderie Effect

The instruction in Strength Essentials is wonderful (thanks Nicole!), but I’m also blown away by the community of support that has formed among the participants in the class. We celebrate each other’s triumphs, and share lots of laughter to help get through the challenges. I often hear folks encouraging each other (“You got this!”), or commiserating after a particularly hard set (“Wow, that was a hard one!”). We joke about how there’s no way we can do another round of pushups (why are they so hard?!), but then we all look at each other and do it anyway.

I’ve found a group of people who are there to learn and to take care of their bodies. No one is in class to show off or to ‘prove’ themselves to anyone, so it feels so much more welcoming than my previous experiences. I finally found MY people – and I keep going back because of them.

Sound like your people, too? Come join us for casual weight lifting with friends in Strength Essentials – I think you might love it! Just be prepared to laugh a lot 🙂

With enthusiasm,
Wendy

Competing with grandmas?

Leslie here.

You know that feeling when the reality of your limitations hits you smack across the face? When presented with a new challenge you can’t overcome (yet, or ever), I call that getting humbled. Getting humbled can offer us a lesson in acceptance and equanimity, and it can also motivate us to try harder.

When we stack up against others, sometimes we are humbled by our peers, or by those who retain the gifts of their youth, and sometimes… we get humbled by our elders.

And when I was the ripe young age of 22, an entire society of grandmas humbled me with nothing less than their commendable squat form.

I was living in South Korea, testing my teaching ambitions in an English-immersion kindergarten. Not only could my 5 year-old students drop down into and hang out in easeful and cozy squats like their little toddler siblings, but so could their parents, and even their grandparents.

Ajummas – Korean grandmas – could be found casually squatting to rest, socialize, gather herbs, connect with their grandkids, do house chores, and simply move in response to their own desires and demands of daily life.

As someone with aspirations towards physical health and freedom of movement, I was both mystified by my own incapacity to squat as well as they could, and motivated to get on their level.

There is some evidence showing that the typical bone structure of folks of East Asian descent supports the deep joint positions required for a squat. This fact, combined with not having grown up in a squat-normative culture, makes me unsure that I’ll ever quite match their ease, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying! Now at 38, my squat is more comfortable and closer to a resting position than ever.

Part of what makes squatting doable is hip mobility. My days as a foreign English teacher in Korea were formative in many ways, but one is that I will never take hip mobility for granted again – it really is a use-it-or-lose-it game.

To that end, if your hips are feeling stiff and sore, or you realize that your hips don’t move as well as you’d like them to, I highly recommend our series Hip Mobility May. It’s got all my best ideas on how to directly improve your experience of your hip joints – both the feeling and the function.

Try it! And I’ll see you in a squat sometime soon 🙂

—

Hip Mobility May can be found inside Branches On Demand, our streaming service. You can join for FREE for your first 7 days, then it’s $25/month after that, with no minimum commitment. All the content from Hip Mobility May will be live from May 1 – June 15. Each month, BOD subscribers get access to a new series. Check it out!

What I didn’t understand about pain

It’s Nicole writing today on the “other side” of a complex shoulder condition, which coincided with a perfect storm of involuntary change, including the recurrence of my autoimmune disease, the gateway into perimenopause, and a tumultuous personal time. It’s been tough!

That’s me on the far left in the photo below. Check out that shoulder action! If you look closely, you can see that my right shoulder doesn’t go as far into the overhead range as my left does – by no means is it “perfect”, but it’s so much better than it was. Progress!

In addition to physiotherapy and surgery, my shoulder recovery journey ended up including a 300-hour training program with Mindful Strength. Unrelated to my personal experiences, I wanted to learn more about pain and strength training as a teacher, so I enthusiastically signed up while unaware of how personally relevant these topics would become.

During the course, I learned that I was in fact dealing with a frozen shoulder and an anatomical joint impingement, both pretty painful experiences. This made the learning feel particularly timely and personally relevant. We examined the typical beliefs about pain that don’t actually stand up to scientific scrutiny, including these two potentially harmful ones:

Misconception No. 1: “Pain is well-correlated to tissue damage.” Contrary to this widespread belief, the science says that not only can you have tissue degeneration without any experience of pain (it’s actually very common, especially in active adults), but you can also have pain in the absence of injury or tissue degeneration.

Misconception No.2: “Any instance of pain has a single cause.” In fact, the science shows that pain is multifactorial — a fancy way of saying that it’s caused by a complex interplay of factors

The Bio-Psycho-Social Model

Central to my expanded understanding of persistent pain — defined as lasting for 6 months or longer — was the bio-psycho-social model. This framework situates pain in the context of one’s entire life, including factors both inside and outside your realm of control. Through this lens, pain has multiple influences beyond biology, with thoughts, behaviours, and social experiences holding equal weight.

It turns out that social connections and support (or lack thereof), along with your own beliefs about pain — and in addition to your biology — can directly impact your experience of it!

Read that one more time to let that sink in!

This isn’t to say that pain is all in your head (it’s so real). Instead, when considering what influences our pain, we should also acknowledge our whole human experience and the rich stew of possible contributors.

From Frustration to Hope

As a yoga teacher, a participant in a 300-hour training, and a moderately active person, I was often gritting my teeth in frustration and discomfort. Outside of my professional identity, I was emotionally and physically drained by daily chores, errands, and activities — that were equal parts painful and fatiguing. I realized that I had to apply my expanded view of pain to my choices for treatment and recovery, including which activities to continue or restart.

As I progressed through the formal diagnostics and treatment avenues, I identified an important truth that changed everything: strength training, done conscientiously, didn’t exacerbate my overall condition — in fact, I felt better mentally, physically, and emotionally following a workout, plus I got a sense of connection to my training group. Of course, my pain didn’t magically go away, but my perception of my capacity to cope with it shifted enormously, which led me to feel more hopeful.

Creating Confidence by Checking In

One of the most practical tools gained from my combined pain and strength training education is a collection of self-assessment techniques. When paired with the knowledge that pain acts as an alarm system, I’ve become empowered to assess my pain and rationally curb over-sensitized fear responses.

Checking in with myself during strength training and daily movements was sometimes as simple as noticing whether I was feeling capable, or whether doubt was creeping in. By self-monitoring, I regained confidence in my judgement, and in my ability to determine what activities were safe and beneficial.

Strength Is A Feeling – Beyond Lifting Dumbbells

The confidence I built through increased physical and emotional capacity spilled over into my interactions with healthcare providers. I trusted myself as my most-informed advocate, gathered multiple opinions, and I stayed committed despite inevitable wait-times and other systemic challenges.

If you can relate to the struggle of enduring persistent pain, know that you’re not alone! If you’re in this persistent pain boat or are simply interested in learning more from the standpoint of a movement teacher, check out an upcoming event this month from the primary trainer from my 300-hour course, Kathryn Bruni Young.

As a facilitator, Kathryn thinks deeply and then opens the floor for others to do the same. I really value her ability to clarify complexities, and her willingness to engage with differing perspectives within the learning environment.

Learn more about Kathryn’s upcoming session, Mindful Strength: Understanding Pain & Making Gains on Saturday, April 29th, 1:00-5:00pm.

Wishing you well on your pain and recovery journey,

Nicole

April Policy Update

Re: Vaccines & Masks At The Branches

As of April 1, 2022, the Branches will no longer require visitors to show proof of vaccination. We will continue to encourage mask-wearing as much as possible to limit transmission.

We’ve taken in a good bit of information, considered the risks, and weighed it all against our values, particularly community care.

Just like our decision to initiate our own vaccine policy ahead of the province, we also wanted some control over our own circumstances when it came to setting this policy aside. We applaud individuals who are taking steps to protect not only themselves, but one another as our entire globe continues to navigate the ongoing pandemic.

While our staff and leadership team have chosen to get vaccinated, and we strongly support it as a public health strategy, based on what we now understand about transmission, it does not seem necessary or useful to continue requiring all visitors to the studio to prove their immunization status. We look forward to welcoming new students and welcoming back old community members for whom this has been a barrier over the past six months.

In addition to taking in updated information about transmission, we have also been attempting to learn about disability justice. Many immune-compromised people feel as though their lives are not being valued appropriately, as they are not able to simply “move on” from COVID-19. We’re also holding uncertainty about the likelihood of developing long-COVID, which is basically a chronic-illness disability.

With these thoughts top of mind, and knowing that it does appear helpful to wear masks to prevent transmission of a virus that spreads through both droplets and aerosol, we will continue to require all visitors to wear a mask to the studio, and encourage students to continue wearing their masks as much as they can while practicing. We will maintain this policy at least for the month of April and reassess as we go.

Inside the practice rooms, we will be running our fresh-air return system consistently – this means that the air in the building will be on a constant refresh cycle, expelling indoor air outside and bringing in fresh air as it heats/cools. While on their mats, our teachers may wear their masks less to optimize for clarity and hearing accessibility .

We strive to consider the importance and influence of scientific experts, disability justice, and the relative risk of small-group 60-75 minute classes in our decisions going forward.

Finally, the Branches will continue to offer robust virtual teaching, including drop-in classes, courses, Branches On-Demand streaming subscriptions, and teacher training for those who feel best accessing our offerings from home.

When the Poses Don’t Work – Adaptive & Accessible Yoga

This post is written by Sara F, a graduate of our 200-hour teacher training program. She’s been our a familiar face on Sunday nights, hosting at the front desk during our 6:00pm $5 Basics. Keep your eyes open for Sara on June 1 at 1:00pm for our Yoga in the Park: Pride Edition.

Have you ever been in a yoga class where the teacher instructs a pose, and you either stand/lay there knowing the pose won’t work for your body, or you silently struggle into it and hope it will end soon?

Or, on a more positive note, have you been in a yoga class where the teacher offers variations of a pose, often with different props? If the teacher gave different options, you have experienced accessible or adaptive yoga, which offers solutions that allow people of all abilities and body types to practice and benefit from yoga. At Queen Street Yoga you may have heard teachers refer to pose options as “bus stops,” and how far you ride down the bus route is up to you.

Continue reading “When the Poses Don’t Work – Adaptive & Accessible Yoga”

The Body’s Intelligence: How Craniosacral Therapy works

by Amanda Ingall

My first craniosacral treatment was a pivotal moment in my life. Somehow the appointment brought me into a deep place of connection with my mind and body. I left feeling completely relaxed, my movements felt fluid. I felt connected to my core. I wanted more.

What I experienced that day is something I now call the wisdom of the body. I also think of it as the body’s ability to heal and restore itself. This happens when a therapist is able to listen and respond to the body’s intelligence, rather than impose a treatment from the outside. Craniosacral is a form of bodywork that works from the inside out, moving from your body, outwards into the hands of the therapist.

So, how does it work?

Craniosacral Therapy works with the cranium (your skull) and it’s connection to your sacrum (the back of your pelvis). Let’s start with the skull.

Your skull is miraculous. It is a moving, pulsing structure. You may tend to think of your skull as one piece, like a coconut, but it does in fact have seams or sutures that join the bones of the skull together. These sutures have a zigzag pattern and the reason for that is that your skull actually moves, expanding and contracting with a rhythm; a pulse that is created as your cerebrospinal fluid circulates. Your whole body rolls within this rhythmic tide, causing not only movement within the skull, but also throughout your whole body. It travels along the spine to the sacrum; shoulders and arms roll In and out, hips and legs roll in and out, organs rotate around their axis.

Continue reading “The Body’s Intelligence: How Craniosacral Therapy works”

Strong or Flexible – Why Not Both?

When you see the class title Strength & Flow, what feelings or images come up? Does it make you think of a bootcamp class at the gym: grunting and burpees and shouting? Or maybe it brings up an experience of tightness in your body. One of the most commonly cited reasons for coming to yoga that I hear is, “I want to become more flexible.” Those same people often wonder if going to a class focused on strength is going to make them feel more stiff, rather than more flexible. We’ve got news for you: strength is flexibility’s best friend.

First things first though; don’t be nervous to try this class! You should know that Strength & Flow is actually quite doable, and nothing like bootcamp or gym class. The great thing about it is that it’s just as customizable as our other classes. The depth of your squat, the amount you can hinge at your hip, the time you spend time in plank, or the number of push-ups (with knees down if you want!) is up to you. You can sense the balance between fatigue and energy in your body on that day, and act accordingly. (And that’s where it becomes yoga.)

So why not “Flexibility & Flow,” when we know that flexibility is a goal for most people? Flexibility gets singled out as the physical quality that folks most desire. I get that – I began yoga without being able to touch my toes, and I used to fume with frustration and envy in seated poses because there was no way that I could straighten my knees, or tilt my pelvis forward – my back was rounded, my hamstrings felt tight, and that was that.

But: is flexibility all that it’s cracked up to be? And is passive stretching even the best way to feel and move better? You can probably tell that I don’t necessarily think so.

Continue reading “Strong or Flexible – Why Not Both?”

Everybody has trauma & how yoga helped with mine

This post is by one of our core teachers, Leslie.

If it weren’t for yoga, I would never have re-learned to enjoy my body.

As a child and teen, I was heavily involved in physical activity, but in my post-secondary years I succumbed to a sedentary lifestyle. The workload of university was overwhelming, but my total lack of movement or exercise occured, in large part, because of a string of traumas. These events left me feeling disconnected from my body, and more often than not, fearful and self-loathing.

Even though I knew it would help me, I resisted all physical activity. Sports were no longer any fun, and going the gym to “work out” seemed not only boring, but overly aspirational. Moving my body felt difficult, pointless, and unpleasant. Any movement or exertion which made me aware of my body, brought with it reminders of my trauma, and the pain that still lived within me.

In my final year of university, a friend convinced me to try a yoga class in the campus athletic centre. I was seduced by the mystery around yoga, and since it was the adventurous thing to do, I decided to join her. I still remember how the instructor led us through a soft and slow-paced class with careful instruction and plenty of room to be a beginner. I’ll admit it: I was hooked.

Continue reading “Everybody has trauma & how yoga helped with mine”