One Year

One year ago, today, I was at rock bottom on a 4-day bender.  I told myself it was ok to drink, Matt was gone hunting, he’d never find out.  (I should mention I had been trying to get sober for a few months, going to meetings and some other classes; however, sobriety never lasted more than 2 weeks at a time.) Well, I didn’t stop at the weekend and Matt found out and I still continued to drink.  Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 I woke up in a daze not remembering the night before and Matt was sitting on the edge of our bed.  He said we needed to take a break.  Those words stabbed me in my heart.  I knew right then that if I didn’t change not only would I lose the best man that ever walked into my life, I’d lose everything else as well.  I called my mom crying and said the most important words I have ever said my entire life, “I need to get help”.

That afternoon, I arrived a Rogers Memorial Hospital’s detox center in Oconomowoc. 

I returned home Sunday, December 4th broken but sober and Matt waiting for me.  It was tough the next few days, not necessarily with cravings to drink but beginning to feel emotions again, guilt from all the lies I told and feeling as if I didn’t deserve Matt’s love.  But he supported me fully, along with my family, and that had helped tremendously.

With it being the holiday season, attending functions/parties where alcohol was readily available was the biggest test for any newly sober person.  I knew that I would just have to leave if any cravings started to arise.  Again tho, it wasn’t so much the not drinking that was hard, it was attempting to socialize sober while having mild social anxiety.  But going through that ended up shining a light on where my addiction stemmed from, my own insecurity of not fitting in, not being a part of the ‘cool’ group. 

Over this last year, I used counseling, family support, and yoga to aid my sobriety, but it was yoga that gave me the coping skills and mental strength to remain sober.  Yoga also helped me realize the alcohol was a form of distraction for me, a way to become that outgoing, fun girl I always wished I was, but all it did was temporarily fill the emptiness growing within me, distracting me from the swelling sadness from not letting myself be who I was meant to be.  I was pushing the true Katie under, drowning her with alcohol all because I was looking for approval outside of myself.  I believed that if I was the crazy, outgoing, life of the party girl I’d finally feel like I fit in, I’d have more friends.  Wanna know the crazy part? All those friends I thought I had seemingly disappeared when I stopped going out in an attempt to stop drinking. 

What am I getting at?  Today, I sit in front of my computer writing this blog (and enjoying it, lol) because I have found my voice.  Today, I carried my massage table in and out of houses because I’m building my own business.  Today, I wake up every morning excited to see what life has in store for me.  I don’t think it was sobriety that got me here, it was taking the opportunity to learn from the process of becoming sober that brought me to this point.  I didn’t just stop drinking... I reflected, I let myself feel and cry, I finally accepted who Katie is, a kind, soft spoken woman that enjoys intimate gatherings over large parties.  This filled the emptiness within me with love, compassion, and confidence that I never had before.  

That’s how I got here today but everyone has their own journey.   I’m just glad I followed mine, so I could write this and maybe help someone to follow theirs.

Athletic Performance and Variety Training

Ok. So I am not one to do long posts but my experience yesterday during my run lit a few light bulbs for me that I feel other athletes will benefit from.

So, I have been doing trail races every month since April this year. With it being my first attempt at trail running I new my body would need to adjust and it would take time to feel comfortable and fast like I do on road runs. Comfortable and fast never really came. I struggled all year to run a trail without my legs getting to exhaustion and having to walk up the hills. Very frustrating because I have been following a training program for trail running diligently.

Fast forward to my October 21st race. I actually was not looking forward to it because of my experience all year long. I didn't want to work so hard to do something I love. The race started and things were feeling good as most starts do. I kept telling myself to keep pace, don't rush, you'll tire soon. That tiredness never came! I was running strong, getting up and over every hill with some sort of ease, and I had a smile on my face. I was enjoying it so much that it was then that I came up with the idea of this post. My mind wasn't focused on how many more miles or how crappy I felt; it was on how amazing I felt.

Reflecting back on my training, I asked myself what I did I do differently? (yes, all this still while running, lol) I started to implement CrossFit, more mobility focused yoga, and myofascial release; not to mention I became my own boss which affected my mentality tremendously!

For a long time, I was the person that thought, "if I need to do 'this', then 'this' is all I should do to get my body trained properly. Well, this run proved me wrong. It showed me that when you give the body multiple different avenues to pull from it is then that it will perform at its highest. When your body only knows one thing, that is all it can pull from; when it has strengths in many different areas it has the ability to switch from a gas tank that's getting low to a full gas tank. Each gas tank has different strengths but having the ability to give the low tank a rest and refuel is key. With the variety training I did I gave my body multiple tanks to use...

Run training: gave my body the endurance to get thru all 13.1 miles
Yoga: kept my stride long, body flexible, mind focused, fast recovery time to train strong everyday
CrossFit: gave my body the grit strength to get me up and over the hills
HIIT workouts: quick cardio recovery
MFR: faster recovery and injury prevention

So, what am I saying.... If you want to perform at your highest level, variety is key! Doing the same thing every day does not allow your body to reach its full potential.

Namaste

Crossfitters Need Yoga

Hear me out, don’t run away screaming: “Yoga is for soccer moms and guys who want me to sit in a circle playing bongos”.  The truth is, it’s not.  Yoga may have gotten that rap over the past few years, but to be cliché “Don’t knock it till you try it”.  Chances are you may be already doing some yoga moves in your Mobility work, Pigeon Stretch (aka Pigeon Pose), child’s pose, cobra stretches and so on all have their roots in Yoga.

Benefits of Yoga for CrossFitters

Body Awareness

Knowing where your body is in space and how it’s oriented is not only good for your day to day health and well-being, but it also becomes extremely important in Olympic level lifts.  When your coach tells you to “Stick your butt out when you squat!” or “Keep your shins vertical!” knowing how that feels and being aware of that will be critical to actually getting in the right position to perform the lift.  I come from a yoga background prior to starting CrossFit, one thing that is always stressed is “engaging of the pelvic floor and deep core to support the lower back” just like CrossFitters do in squats or snatches.  That bit came easy to me because I already KNEW what it felt like to be in that proper position.  Body awareness matters.

Strength/Core Strength

Yoga isn’t going to up your back-squat PR by 50lbs, but it will help you develop strength, stability, and muscle endurance. The balance poses alone will strengthen your joints preventing future injury when increasing your lifting weight, and some of the positions that you hold are quite challenging leaving you sore the next day just like a good WOD.

Flexibility

This seems to be a given, but notice how much Yoga movements reflect the mobility movements you are more than likely already doing pre- and/or post WOD.  These exercises will help to stretch out your muscular system and become more flexible so your body is free to do deep squats, kipping, and overhead press.

Should You Do It?

Absolutely!  As an athlete I feel it’s important to strengthen your whole body through a variety of means, but also strengthen yourself mentally by means of relaxation.  Yoga works the body, mind and spirit.  When this trio is out of balance things begin to break down and you will find yourself injured, sick, depressed, etc.  Balance in your routine is key.  But the bottom line is that you’ll gain benefits in mobility and flexibility that you might not gain as quickly by only doing CrossFit.

What is this Myofascial Release thing I'm hearing about?

It is unfortunate that this approach to healing the whole body and not just masking symptoms is not more accepted by healthcare professionals limiting its potential to help people.  From my personal experiences with this approach along with the tremendous relief my clients have seen in just one session I truly believe this is a modality everyone should know about. Lets begin at the beginning... What is fascia?

Fascia is a tough connective tissue that spreads throughout the body in a three-dimensional fluid web from head to toe with no end and no beginning.  Imagine the white stringy stuff an orange has.  This web surrounds every aspect of your body, from a single cell, blood vessels, nerves, organs, muscle, bone.... everything.  This web, therefore, supports, protects, connects, and separates these structures.  When healthy, your fascia glides over these structures like an ice skater on ice, smooth and uninterrupted, but when restrictions are formed from trauma, poor posture, inflammation, surgery, etc. the fascia binds to the surrounding structures putting increased pressure on them causing pain or malfunction.  The pressure generated by restrictions can be as much as 2000lbs/sq.in.!!! 

So how do we get rid of these restrictions?  Many therapists go to the symptoms and forcefully break apart the restrictions giving the client temporary relief.  I say temporary for two reasons, 1) In the majority of cases the symptoms are not the problem but signs of the problem and treating only the symptoms may not affect the problem.  Thinking that the body is segmented (if the knee hurts treat the knee) is where most therapists get it wrong.  It's when you look at the body as a whole that you will find the cause.  Maybe the client with the knee problem has a rotated pelvis changing how her femur sits in the knee joint straining the ligaments and tendons around the joint.  You can relieve the structures around the knee (symptomatic pain) all you want but if you don't treat the rotated pelvis (cause of pain) her relief will be short lived.  2) "Force is all conquering but it's victories are short lived" Abraham Lincoln.  Anything done with force is always temporary.  Modalities like deep tissue, Rolfing, soft tissue mobilization do offer relief but how often do you say, "Oh, that massage was great!  She really dug my knots out" and a few days later your pain is back.  This is because these techniques are forcing the restriction to release.  I like to relate it to a rubber band.  You can force it taut and it will stay there as long as you hold it but let go and it snaps right back.  Maybe it's a little stretched out for a while but it always returns to its form.  Another reason these techniques are temporary are because they are not held long enough.  To get a full and natural release the tissue must be held for a minimum of 3-5 minutes at a comfortable end range for the client so that their body does not go into protection mode.  With relief only being temporary the next step usually ends up being surgery just layering another issue on top of the old never getting rid of the first.  

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying these techniques do not offer benefits.  I love receiving a massage for its stress relieving and relaxation benefits, and using all techniques in conjunction with each other will only provide the best well-rounded treatment for the client.

Myofascial Release(MFR) relieves the client's symptoms by getting to the root cause of the issue by treating the body as a whole unit and incorporating patience into the session.  Once a therapist determines where a fascial restriction is they will lay their hands on the restriction, press gently into the body then pull the tissue taut.  The therapist then holds there for no less than 3-5 minutes allowing the release to reach the collagenous barrier where long term change and healing begins.  This barrier cannot be forced to release which is what the other techniques attempted to do.  They do release the elastic/muscular barrier (which is why you still feel relief afterwards) but if you don't release the collagenous barrier as well the relief is only temporary.

Many cool things can occur during a fascial hold including but not limited to build up of heat, fluttering sensations, emotional releases, sensations(releases) elsewhere in the body other than where the therapist is holding, etc.  Most importantly an overwhelming sense of calm and lightness after the treatment.

I have been trained by John F Barnes and truly believe in this modality.  Stay tuned for further articles on all things holistic.  

Namaste

Katie, LMT, RYT200, MFR1, SES, owner of ShaktiShiva