Joel had been training for more than half his life.
He knew his way around a gym. By the time we started working together, he’d worked with trainers and written his own programs.
But still:
If he pushed certain exercises harder, he knew his back would hurt for days afterward.
And before going for a long walk, he had to think about where he could lie down if his back pain became unbearable.
He’d tried physical therapy, massage, stretching, and different training approaches. Some things helped in the moment. But the same pain kept returning.
I know how difficult it can be to trust another approach when you’ve already spent so much time and money looking for answers.
Joel attended one of my posture workshops before started working with me and what caught his attention was an idea that challenged what he thought he knew about posture. I’m hosting the same workshop on Zoom at the end of this month, see below for more details.
Join me for the “How to actually ‘fix’ your posture” workshop on November 28 at 6 pm UK time and learn the foundations that shaped Joel’s journey: https://hedishah.com/how-to-actually-fix-your-posture/
We started working together, and instead of asking his body to do more of the same, we got curious about what was happening.
We explored his breathing and how his body was positioned.
We worked on helping him feel and use muscles he’d had trouble connecting with, including his hamstrings.
And we adapted his strength training to support his body, rather than asking his body to fit a standard exercise.
As Joel put it:
“I’ve met muscles that I’ve never met before in my own body.”
But one of the most surprising moments came when we explored his shoulder pain.
During a somatic exercise, Joel noticed that when he was bored at his desk, he’d settle into a position that put pressure through his elbow and shoulder. He’d spend hours like that without realizing it.
That awareness got him to look at the reason beneath his boredom instead of just fixing the shoulder pain with exercises.
Over time, the changes showed up outside the gym, too.
Joel shared that:
He can now go for walks of three or four hours with more confidence, roughly twice as long as before.
And in his strength training, he’s noticed progress without the same fear that pushing himself will mean days of back pain.
And you can listen to my entire conversation with Joel here:
Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,
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Hedi Shah
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👁️ Mindfulness Teacher & Bodyworker
🐉 Nervous system regulation, breathwork, and posture-focused strength training to target the cause of what keeps you stuck and in pain, not just symptoms.
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