A GLUTEN-Free Movement Practice

A few months ago, Wensy and I sat down over sushi to discuss our next CAPE workshop.

Wensy (RMT, yoga teacher, and my partner in CAPE crime) is one of the smartest ladies I know personally, and sometimes chooses to have intellectual conversations with me. Except for this one: GLUTEN-free movement. A genius frame work to discuss movement? Or were we high on soy sauce and “creativity”?

I’m going to go with genius.

Wensy and I founded CAPE (Create A Positive Experience) about a year ago. CAPE workshops are our biomechanically anal movement workshops, blending what we’ve learned of human motion from various sources together into what we feel to be a wholesome, healthy, “nutritious”, movement practice (as Katy Bowman would call it). Our aim is to help people learn how to establish their own daily movement practice to enhance their quality of life and physical performance.

We were inspired to start holding these workshops after attending our first Anatomy in Motion course in November 2015. The theme that shone through the biomechanical teachings were: Give the body an experience that it couldn’t have on it’s own and, given it is hardwired for perfection, the body will use that experience to heal.

Of course, we want to give the body a safe experience. A positive experience. And so, CAPE was born as a space to give people that experience to interact with their structure differently, move into dark zones and new air space, and reclaim what movements could be missing from their current vocabulary and holding them back or keeping them in pain.

Naturally, there are many ways to follow this philosophy, and, when it comes to giving the body a safe experience to create changes and move differently, we’re not only discussing the body, but the autonomic nervous system. Can the body self-regulate and allow itself to move into those scary dark zones?

There are only two things we can really be sure of:

Things will feel safe.

Things will feel unsafe.

Our role is to facilitate peoples’ moving into the unknown, unsafe spaces with a sufficient amount of support to create an experience that is nourishing, not scary. How can we provide an experience that, while physically challenging, doesn’t trigger an adverse response: hypervigilance, pain, or flat out refusal, and allows the individual to move boldly into the unknown?

Nobody wants to be so challenged that they can’t do what you’re asking them to do, but at the same time to make a change, the stimulus to one’s system must be new, challenging, and out of their habitual comfort zone.

Finding the sweet spot…

So anyway, Wensy and I got to talking about what to name our workshop. We needed something trendy and simple for what I have just described above, and without sounding technical (Dynamic Neuromuscular Facilitation), cliche (Animal Flow), or boring (Yoga…).

Nothing tops trendy and harmless quite like “gluten-free”. And as it turns out, GLUTEN creates quite a nice acronym for the kind of experience we are NOT hoping to create. So there you have it. Now, even a movement practice can be gluten-free.

As Wensy and I proceeded to lose at least 40% of our arterial CO2 and dehydrated ourselves crying, we knew we were onto something so cliche and idiotic, that it was actually brilliant.

So, more for my entertainment than yours, may I introduce, GLUTEN-free movement.

G: Gasping for air

Breathing. Its effects are immense, system-wide.

Dat core: Diaphragm being a primary spinal stabilizer as well as muscle of respiration, breathing issues affect our options and safety during movement.

ANS regulation: All it takes is a few deep, gaspy breaths, to produce a hypocapnic state and recruit the sympathetic nervous system, and just 5 minutes of quiet, calm breathing can recruit the parasympathetic.

Homeostasis: Breathing affects our inner chemistry, chronically over-breathing (breathing in excess of metabolic demands) leading to a rise in PH, and the body needing to work harder to maintain homeostasis.

Your poops: Due to the diaphragms role as a sphincter your ability to poop will be affected if you aren’t breathing well. Your shitty breathing will recruit the sympathetic nervous system and will affect your ability to relax enough to poop. Over-breathing and hypocapnia constricts smooth muscle and makes it difficult to push the shit out. Good breathing = good pooping.

Unfortunately, most people have issues with their breathing. Most commonly:

Breathing with upper chest and neck musculature primarily, rather than with the diaphragm.
Breathing through the mouth instead of the nose, reducing breathing efficiency as more and more CO2 is lost through breathing through mouth breathing, as well as negating the awesome benefits of nose breathing (nitric oxide production, purifying, warming, and humidifying the air, etc),
Breathing rate too high (should be about 10-12 breaths per minute)
Breathing too much air (volume) per breath (common for mouth breathers)
Poor diaphragm timing and strength, leading to poor abdominal and pelvic floor co-activation with breathing, which can lead to poor stabilization of the spine, and feed further into the first point- Not using the diaphragm effectively.

In a GLUTEN free movement practice:

Breathing rate and volume is not in excess of the metabolic demands.
Breathing is done with the diaphragm primarily, not pulled in through neck and chest muscles.
Breathing is done through the nose, unless it is maximum intensity exercise.
Breathing is coordinated with abdominal activity.

Let’s discuss the physiology in more depth, and what we can do to help with it in a movement practice.

(Wensy is a trained Buteyko method educator, and is my go-to for all things related to breathing, so we will look at breathing through the Buteyko lens for this section).

In the Buteyko method, the primary measure for efficiency of breathing is the control pause.

The control pause (CP) is a measure of how long you can comfortably hold your breath after a gentle exhalation before you start to feel muscle contractions and air hunger telling you to take a breath in (unfortunately, this is pretty subjective, but welcome to LIFE. Reliability intra-rater is still probably reasonably good, I reckon).

Duration of CP in seconds is said to measure our tolerance for arterial CO2 as it builds up after we stop breathing. Being able to tolerate higher levels of CO2 is beneficial, and is related to things like a higher VO2max, greater activity of parasympathetic nervous system, improved ability to self-regulate (homeostasis), enhanced immune function, increased release of erythropoietin (EPO- the stuff that Lance Armstrong used illegally to kick ass in the Tour de France), stronger splenic contractions increasing number of red blood cells, and greater ability for oxygen to be unloaded from hemoglobin and delivered to the muscles and organs (the Bohr effect).

Paradoxically, the less volume of air you breathe, the more oxygen you can use. This is due to the Bohr effect, which explains how CO2 is necessary for O2 to be unloaded from hemoglobin and delivered to the tissues. So, the higher our tolerance of CO2, indicated by the control pause number, the more oxygen will get to the places you need it- muscles, brain, organs, etc.

Crudely, CO2 is like the extroverted friend who encourages the anxious friend (O2) to come to the party: O2 would rather cozy up on the sofa (hemoglobin) and read a book.

So as per our G: Gasping for air- We do NOT want to see over-breathing habits in a movement practice. These include breathing through the mouth, panting to recover, yawning, even excessive talking leads you lose more CO2 (another reason not to be talking while you work out, jog, etc).

Performing breathing exercises daily at rest, during warm-up, and taking some prudent measures while exercising all help to improve your breathing efficiency and overall performance while ensuring you aren’t pushing past your physical limit, leading to potential injury.

In a movement practice, a few key things that can be done to ensure that you are getting the most oxygen through efficient breathing:

Make sure you are breathing through your nose. If your control pause is less that 20 seconds, some folks would suggest that you try to improve that before even starting an exercise program (a little conservative…). If the intensity is so much that you can’t breathe through your nose, lower the intensity so that you can, or use that as a cue to take a break.
Warm up with calm, light breathing, and practicing reduced breathing with breath holds. The book Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown, has many examples of reduced breathing exercises which are designed to create mild to strong air hunger. Check the book out for more on how to incorporate reduced breathing into your movement practice safely.
Check your CP before and then 30 minutes after exercising. If your after CP is lower 30 minutes after exercising than before you started, you were likely breathing in excess of metabolic demands for that session, and you will want to work on your breathing efficiency either by a. dedicating more time to developing a greater CO2 tolerance and higher CP (more on that in Oxygen Advantage or working with a Buteyko educator), and/or b. reducing the intensity of your exercise so that you can breathe through your nose helping you not to lose as much CO2.

In a movement practice, we can also manage the mechanics of our breathing.

Mechanically, gasping for air is going to recruit more of an upper chest/neck breathing pattern than one that is diaphragmatic. The tongue will sit on the floor of the mouth instead of the roof, narrowing the soft palate, and altering the shape of the cranial bones*. There is also some interesting evidence correlating tongue positioning affecting core activation patterns.

Being unconditioned, with a low respiratory capacity will lead to a “gaspier” breathing pattern, which can affect how someone will be able to use their abdominal muscles while training.

The diaphragm has both respiratory and stabilization functions, but as far as survival goes, breathing takes the priority. Your system will always choose to get you your precious air over such trivial things as stabilizing your spine and creating intra-abdominal pressure. For this reason, having sufficient respiratory capacity has an effect on spinal stabilization as, when the exercise intensity increases, your system may need to prioritize the diaphragm’s respiratory needs to keep you alive at the expense of its ability to stabilize the spine prior to limb movement.

So you may have set a personal best in that marathon, 1RM deadlift, or have danced the best you ever have, but sacrificed your joints in the process.

An indicator of diaphragmatic coordination and strength is how well the breath is controlled on inhalation (quiet nose-breath, maintaining a decent zone of apposition, expanding abdomen in 360 degree fashion, posterio-lateral rib movement, sternum and belly making similar size and rate anterior excursions), and how well one can access a full exhalation.

Exhalation is when the diaphragm relaxes, raises back up to a domed position, and abdominals (obliques, TVA) are able to contract. “Gasping for air” leads to the diaphragm being in a perpetual semi-contracted state, never fully letting go of excess air in the lungs (hyperinflation), and makes it difficult to use effectively to inhale and stabilize.

What is an interesting conundrum to me is knowing when to work more on mechanics or on reducing breathing. For example, let’s say that I am working with someone who is an inefficient mouth-breather with a low tolerance for CO2, but is also displaying a rigid, flared ribcage, unable to exhale to get their ribcage into an ideal zone of apposition(ZOA) from which we can train intra-abdominal pressure and dynamic stabilization. In this case, my first instinct is to work on full exhalations to achieve ZOA, diaphragm relaxation, and reduce hyperinflation, but I also know that excess loss of CO2 from complete exhalations will not be beneficial for their over-breathing situation and could make them lightheaded, head-achey, or produce some sort of sympathetic/hypocapnic response.

What to start with? I suppose it depends on the person. For me, structure and movement mechanics are a top priority and is where most of my training lies, so I will generally go for working on exhalations first to train ribcage movement and breathing with IAP (abs), before addressing reduced breathing. The long exhalation has the nice benefit of recruiting more the parasympathetic nervous system, which can help to reduce breathing in itself.

Too, breathing better diaphragmatically can help to ensure more efficient breaths and reduce breathing rate. From there, with an understanding of what diaphragmatic breathing and stabilization feels like, we can talk more about reduced breathing techniques a la Buteyko/Oxygen Advantage.

However, for someone with over-breathing symptoms that are more severe (asthma for example), or with a CP of 10 or under, it may be more beneficial to work first on reduced breathing just to ensure that the act of exhaling and abdominal work isn’t going to be a major stressor for them, which it certainly can be, and, in the spirit of Create A Positive Experience, we want to mitigate the stress of entering new territory.

*Mouth breathing makes your face less attractive. How’s that for incentive?

L: Lots of lactic acid

I’ll admit, when we came up with this one, we were both gasping for air trying to contain laughter. Our CPs must have dropped to 10 seconds from acute hyperventilation. Worth. It.

Lactic acid is produced when tissues experience a lack of oxygen during exercise, and results in muscles getting that fatigued, burny feeling. This indicates that, in the absence of oxygen, the cells have switched to an anaerobic energy system to continue to get ATP for the cells to have sufficient energy.

The capacity of the anaerobic metabolism is not nearly has high as the aerobic system and so, as you have likely experienced, the ability to exercise without oxygen does not last as long, and must be ceased for the lactic acid to be buffered from the system.

We don’t mean to say that lactic acid is bad. As with all things in nature, lactic acid has an important purpose, but having a low threshold to it (lots of lactic acid too soon) isn’t great. It is beneficial to exercise at intensities that produce lactic acid, as this is how we become harder, better, faster, and stronger.

It is also a mechanism that helps our bodies to maintain homeostasis by making us slow down so we don’t hurt ourselves and pass out. Thank you lactic acid!

The point we want to make is that many people have a poor ability to efficiently buffer lactic acid due to exercise intensities that are too high for their current physical state (cross-fitters that work to the point of peeing themselves, perhaps? See the next section U: Urinary Incontinence), mouth breathing their way through it. Mouth breathing is a method to buffer the lactic acid, but which loses way too much CO2 in the process, contributing to a feedback loop that stimulates further chronic over-breathing.

So, in a GLUTEN-free movement practice, we want to:

Monitor the intensity of the activity to make sure the individual can nose-breathe through it.
Ensure the individual has a decent CP measure and efficient breathing mechanics, which is also a good indicator of their tolerance for blood acidity and ability to buffer lactic acid.
Promote recovery methods at the end of a session, and throughout each day. Habits to focus on: Mindful breathing, sleep, nutrition, hydration, meditation, avoiding unnecessarily stressful situations and people when possible, light walking and movement daily.
Provide experiences that challenge the individual to improve their lactate threshold without over-stressing their system and excessively breathing (finding the sweet spot, and not being an idiot).

I’m not great with physiology, so I’m going to leave this point here before I say stuff that isn’t true.

U: Unidimensional Movement (or Urinary Incontinence)

I’ve added urinary incontinence in here as a bonus as I couldn’t remember what the U stood for when I sat down to write this. However, a movement practice should ideally be free from both unidimensional movement and urinary incontinence (contrary to what SOME people say).

Let’s focus on unidimensional movement though, because I’m no pelvic floor expert.

Unidimensional movement would be Dom Mazetti’s workout philosophy:

Movement that prefers one plane of motion, generally sagittal plane (forwards and back).

There are a lot of fitness people already delivering this message, “Get out of the sagittal plane!”. However, tri-planar movement is not quite as simple as throwing in some lateral lunges and Russian twists on arm day to balance the sagittal movement preference.

In our studies of the Anatomy in Motion model, Wensy and I are developing a unique appreciation for tri-planar movement, specifically, the when, why, and how within the gait cycle.

All movements are triplanar to a certain degree. As I sit here typing, my hips and knees are flexed, which are sagittal plane joint motions. However, in order for the hip to flex efficiently, they also need to be able to adduct (or abduct…) and, depending on whether I’m sitting in either a pelvic anterior or posterior tilt, my femurs will also need to either rotate internally or externally in the acetabulum. So, our ability to access our full hip flexion potential is in part determined by our ability to move in two other planes.

The knees, while we generally look at them as a unidimensional joint that only flexes and extends, must also be appreciated for their transverse plane capabilities: When the knee flexes, it must couple with external rotation of the tibia on the femur, and internal rotation when it extends. If transverse doesn’t happen, shit doesn’t feel so good.

When we know what joints should ideally be doing at what time in the gait cycle, we are able to see how all joint actions are, ideally, tri-planar to certain extent (depending on the joint).

We can look at the need for tri-planar motion beyond isolating one joint. For example, for the scapula to upwardly rotate in an open chain, the spine needs to be able to laterally flex towards it. If the spine doesn’t know frontal plane motion, then frontal plane at the scap will be compromised.

We rarely ever see “ideal”, because nobody will have perfect movement mechanics. Somewhere along our way we learned to move in particular way, became injured, became sedentary, or something came up that altered the joint mechanics we were born with.

A movement practice that ensures many opportunities to experience tri-planar motion can be nourishing to a body that has been denied these options. I can think of several people I’ve worked with who were unable to access frontal and transverse plane motions throughout major chunks of their bodies.

But, as I mentioned, it’s not as simple as adding lateral and rotational movements in an attempt to provide tri-planar experiences. Everyone is unique and no standardized, blanket approach will work for any given group of people, sometimes doing more harm than good (which is a major frustration we have with teaching group classes).

What if sagittal plane movement of the hip is being bypassed in favor of frontal and transverse?

What if transverse plane movement of the ribcage is being substituted for thoracic spine extension?

What if frontal plane movement at the rear-foot is being exchanged for frontal plane movement of the neck?

It’s not just a matter of, “humans move mostly in sagittal plane, let’s make them move side to side and twist”. That will simply provide more opportunities to move around their limitations, rather than addressing them head on.

Moreso, is is necessary to ask when, where, why, and how, on an individual basis. Appreciate the individual’s unique movement habits to provide and experience for them reclaim the particular movements they are missing. Our goal is to show each joint the tri-planar capabilities it was inherently created to perform, which can then be experienced in larger movement patterns.

When each joint is capable of experiencing it’s tri-planar potential, a squat, deadlift, push up, or any other sagitally dominant activity can be a lovely tri-planar experience. Who am I to pre-judge Dom Mazetti?

This is why in CAPE workshops we help give our participants a system to discover what their body is missing and how to reclaim these movements back.

T: Tons of tone

This acronym had us gasping for air, again. CP down another 5 seconds.

By tone we are referring to muscle tone. Like lactic acid, muscle tone isn’t a good or bad thing, but there is a sweet spot- Too much, or too little being detrimental.

Tonicity of a muscle refers to its continuous and passive partial contraction in a resting state. A certain degree of resting tone is necessary in order to maintain posture. Tone will decrease during sleep as the body relaxes and there is no postural demand from gravity. There is a sweet spot at which the muscles have not too much, nor too little tone (both of which can cause issues).

Healthy muscle tone is firm, not squishy, but is also able to relax when not needed, and is not excessively painful to press on.

Why do muscles become hypertonic?

Neurologically, hypertonicity can manifest due to a muscle being facilitated- asked to do too much work, or, inhibited in a movement pattern- straining itself to keep up with the demand for work.

Structurally, a muscle can carry high tonus when both locked long, or locked short, which is why the resting length of a muscle is useful to know before getting someone to stretch it out.

Holding high muscle tone globally is often an indicator of a dominance of the sympathetic nervous system, and/or an inability to breathe efficiently. In fact, a homeostatic response to over-breathing is to increase muscle tone, as increased activity of the muscles produces more CO2, an acidic molecule, to balance the loss of too much CO2 through excessive breathing volume- Chronic hypertonicity may be in part an attempt to regulate blood PH, a cycle that must be reversed through reduction of over-breathing habits and helping to restore the parasympathetic nervous system.

Stretching out muscle tone that is trying to help you regulate PH isn’t going to feel very good.

In either case, high tone is often indicative of poor ANS regulation (sympathetic vs. parasympathetic), poor joint mechanics (muscles or joints stuck long/open, or short/closed), poor motor control (muscles facilitated or inhibited), poor breathing habits, or a combination of all of the above, potentially limiting performance and leading to strain and injury over time.

In terms of a GLUTEN free movement practice “toning” the muscles is not a goal we encourage, however muscles may improve their tone with strengthening as a secondary effect. The goal is not to tone the muscles simply for the sake of tone. Unfortunately, this is often the primary goal many new exercisers have.

In a GLUTEN free movement practice, the aim is to encourage homeostasis of all systems:

Joints that were open learn to close
Joints that were closed learn to open
Muscles locked short learn to lengthen
Muscles locked long learn to shorten
Overactive muscles learn to relax and reduce resting tone
Flaccid muscles learn to load and increase resting tone
The chronics over-breathers learn to breathe less (see G: Gasping for Air)
The overactive sympathetic nervous system learns to regulate and match the demands of the activity.

Training for tons of tone? Not on my watch…

E: Extension based exercise

By extension I am referring primarily to spinal extension, but also to the extension of any joint- Locking it out to end range extension to find stability. This can happen at the spine, but also elbows and knees. In an effective movement practice, we make sure not to use bones for end range support, whether at the spine, or any joint.

Extension is not bad to do, but can become problematic if we get stuck in it. Extension is like robbing a bank, you want to get in and out of there, not get caught!

Our spine (and other joints) have a particular timing in the gait cycle during which they either extend or flex. What becomes an issue is when the spine extends, and stays extended through moments at which it should be flexing.

Being caught in extension has a few negative consequences:

Moving dominantly in an extended posture makes accessing frontal and transverse plane difficult and/or unsafe feeling.
An extended spinal position is reflective of a descended, contracted respiratory diaphragm, loss of zone of apposition, and lengthened abdominals (TVA and internal obliques), and inefficient breathing, leading to increased sympathetic dominance.
Most of the gait cycle happens with a flexed spine, only extending once per step we take for a fraction of a second.
If the spine is doing all the extending, other joints may choose not to extend- hips, ankles, knees, for example, limiting movement options.
Being stuck extended makes it very difficult to digest and eliminate food (you need a fine flexion and posterior tilt for that), and, coupled with increased sympathetic activity and ineffective diaphragm function, which slow down digestion further (yay, constipation!).
While I can’t find much to support this, I also suspect that chronic extension will increased sympathetic nervous system activity due to compression of vagus nerve blocking the vagal brake to the SNS.

Being stuck extended is a shit disturber for the nervous system, musculoskeletal system, digestive system, circulatory system, and more.

In a GLUTEN free movement practice, we don’t want to completely avoid extension. After all, extension is useful for many reasons:

In spinal extension, the cervical spine flexes and decompresses, and opens the airway
Spinal extension loads the abdominal tissues so that they can contract
Extension allows the scapulae to depress, adduct, and retract
Extension creates a sense of confidence and stability
Muscles at the front of the ribcage and shoulder- pecs, subclavius, intercostals, etc, get to stretch with spinal extension
Sympathetic nervous system activation isn’t bad, but it has to match the demands of the situation

What we aim to do is help people experience both ends of the spectrum, and use extension in a way that is appropriate for them- The right times, places, ratios, and quantities for a given activity.

N: Nociception

Nociception is the body’s internal danger sensor, but nociception is not necessarily sufficient for a pain response. Nociception is not pain itself, or a signal of pain, but a signal of potential threat internally or from the environment- Temperature change, chemical disruption, tissue damage, or pressure.

Take the example of tissue damage- It may or may not result in a feeling of pain. Some people have been shot through the chest without recollection of there being “pain” present at the moment, yet a tiny paper cut, much less dangerous to our survival, hurts like a bitch. Too, many people with chronic pain have no real tissue damage yet are still experiencing symptoms.

How could a movement or exercise practice be nociceptive?

Let’s say for example we are learning a simple quadruped rockback. In a rockback, one is required to anteriorally tilt the pelvis as the hips move into flexion and the pelvis shifts posteriorally (like a deadlift). However, let’s say that the individual performing this movement may have had a hard fall on the coccyx at age 6, and want to keep protecting that area by maintaining a posterior tilt. Exposing the area, lifting the coccyx up in the rockback, may not feel safe, especially if they had not received proper treatment for the injury. They may not even be aware that they are doing this, but it feels unsafe to do, and may feel uncomfortable or painful to do. Is this because of tissue damage? Shouldn’t be since the tissues would have time to heal by in that time, but it could be that the action of exposing the injured site and moving it out of a protective position could potentially be enough to send a warning to signal to the brain, producing pain in the area and preventing the individual from moving into “danger”.

Pain can be a lovely opportunity to explore “why?”. What is the body perceiving to be dangerous in this movement? And how do we make this experience less dangerous? A few potential strategies could be:

Use breathing and relaxation techniques to calm the system. Over breathing, and poor breathing mechanics can lead to a sympathetic response, causing the person to be more sensitive to pain.
Use a graded approach to introducing “unsafe” movements and ranges. Go one millimeter at a time into the dark zones. Pushing too far too soon can increase the warning alarm.
Manual therapy may be necessary. See a trusted professional.
Change positions. If being on hands and knees and anteriorally tilting is painful, what about lying supine? Is that less painful? If yes, work in this position where there is less demand on the body, allowing it to relax more.

Recall that nociception doesn’t necessarily result in pain. Sometimes a nociceptive movement practice doesn’t necessarily hurt in the moment, but paves the way for unhealthy thoughts, feelings, and ways of moving that could cause issues in the future.

I have so many stories from ballet class that fit that description…

Some ways to make a perfectly good movement practice nociceptive:

Being motivated with insults (pick up the pace, fatty!)
Being told to avoid movements (squats are bad for your knees)
Being encouraged to push through pain (or to the point of urinary incontinence…)
Being told the goal is to vomit by the end of the workout
Being told “no pain no gain”, and other such things

NOT a positive experience.

CONCLUSIONS?

Not really. This is pretty common sense stuff (we think) that applies to any form of movement, exercise, training, etc.

All we’re really advocating for is being kind to your body and moving with awareness- Keys for moving pain-free and getting strong AF.

Keep it GLUTEN free, folks.