You can try multiple exercises. And here’s one of my go-tos. I just prepared this new video short for strengthening – Bulgarian Split Squats. It’s one of the best functional exercises you can do to get ready for winter sports. PLUS,  you can do it from the comfort of your own living room (or wherever you have a steady surface like a chair). The movement pattern helps to steady walking, as well as helping improve strength for winter sports like snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, or snowboarding.

What are the benefits of the Bulgarian Split Squat exercise?

• Improves balance as the exercise is done one leg at a time
• Strengthens your hip and glute muscles, which will improve stability in the lower leg
• Strengthens quadriceps muscles that help keep proper alignment at the knee.
• Reduces back strain as the exercise puts less stress on the low back, and typically, is done with lower weights or with body weight alone.
• Improves core strength, as you are required to balance on one leg throughout the exercise

Remember – proper form is crucial! Watch the video here to set up properly and avoid injury.

Pro Tip: Start off Bulgarian Split Squats with bodyweight only. Progress toward working with dumbbells in your hands by your sides as the exercise gets easier.  

With Rolfing locations in Bellevue and Tacoma, Horan Holistic Health can help you with any lower body issue you have that might keep you from living your best life this winter – and anytime!

Tips for Teaching Your Nervous System New Range of Movement

I’m often asked if there are specific exercises to do after receiving a Rolfing session.  The answer is, “Yes, live your life…mindfully.”  That might sound non-specific, but what I mean is mindful movement.

Acupuncture, Massage, Chiropractic, Rolfing, or Osteopathy, while our treatment methods may vary, our overall goals are relatively simple. We are trying to get your physical tissues and nervous system closer towards its healthiest functional state: back to how it’s designed to move without restrictions, bad habits, or compensations.

Employ Mindful Movement

I believe the best actions you can take will be to follow up those sessions with mindful movement.  Continue to do movements that your body is used to doing, like walking, squatting, grabbing things out of drawers and cupboards, and using stairs.  But the key is to do them mindfully.  

Slow down. Do the movements slower, and make sure your body is in a good physical position to do the task. Mindful movement is about being conscious of how you’re moving. Rather than hurrying and making a sloppy move while picking up a load of laundry – like twisting and talking to your spouse or child at the same time. Stop and think about body position.

The key, at least for the first 24-36 hours after your session, is to “teach” your nervous system and tissues that they have different range of motion, and that the different range of motion is safe.  

The slower you move, the more time your nervous system gets to figure out whether something is safe or not. 

If you move too quickly, your nervous system doesn’t get the opportunity to assess, and subsequently, might not allow you to have that new range of motion or strength for fear of tissue being damaged.  So slow down, do movements that your body is used to, and think about your movements.

The First 24 Hours After-Care

Here are a few other items to consider for the first 24 hours after receiving a therapeutic session. The MORE of them you can do, the better! 

Reduce Inflammation

• Avoid processed carbs (bread, pasta, crackers, chips, basically anything that’s been packaged)
• Avoid dairy, unless its been fermented (kefir, yogurt). Obviously, don’t have any if you’re allergic or sensitive to dairy. 
• Avoid caffeine 
• Avoid alcohol
• Avoid all forms of sugar

Add These

• Water – Drink at least 20oz after your session (more is better)
• EPA/DHA – (fish oil) 2g 
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 1 – 2 Tbsp (raw) drizzle on anything you’re eating
• Curcumin – 500mg
• Turmeric – 1 tsp
• Magnesium Bisglycinate – 120mg
• Dark Berries – Blueberries, Blackberries, Boysenberries, Raspberries

Movement

• Walk – at least 15 minutes with nothing in your hands
• Yoga – gentle yoga is fine, it doesn’t have to be power yoga!
• Household tasks – perform slowly, being mindful about your body movement
• Workout – IF you are going to work out: 
  • Only do workouts that you’ve done before
  • Slow down your speed of movement
    • It gives your nervous system time to react to its new range of motion

Relax

• Soak – Take a 15 – 30-minute Epsom salt bath to relax your body. Home spa day!

Every issue and every person are different, please make sure and ask your practitioner if there are mindful movements, specific movements or other activities, that should be avoided for your specific case.

Easy does it. But do it.

January 2022. A brand-new year. Are you pressuring yourself to “change it all” in 2022? Get the mind-body health focus going? We tend to go a bit overboard – “I’m going to get fit, so I need to go to the gym (or do yoga, or run) every day for at least an hour.” If you’ve had a good habit of regular workouts and just want to increase your time, that’s probably less overwhelming than if you’ve had no exercise routine.

Starting something new that’s completely foreign to your mind and body can be challenging. Sometimes, we tire ourselves out early on, or go too strong, too quickly, and either a) injure ourselves, or b) get frustrated and quit. It’s almost like self-sabotage. So, what’s the answer?

The best way to avoid self-sabotage is to create “do-able for you” goals. Not the goals that your next-door neighbor, co-worker, or partner have, but the ones that work best for your personal mind-body health. So here are a few tips to creating good ones that we all can do, no matter our starting point.

Christopher’s “Easy 3” Mind-Body Health Tips

1. Try to move 7 days per week. Whether it’s walking 10 minutes per day, doing a few sun salutation cycles each morning, 50 bodyweight squats, jumping rope for 5 minutes, 10 sprints, 50 pushups, or a combination of all of them. Just move each day, consistently and mindfully.  Two keys for success are to 1) make the goal small to start with so that you don’t feel overwhelmed, and 2) build specific time slots in your calendar and make that time non-negotiable.
2. Hydrate – try to drink half your body weight in ounces per day. If you weigh 150lbs, then drink 75oz of water per day. (Not coffee, tea, sodas, or fruit juice.) Use a cup or bottle that helps track intake easily, so you know that you’ve hit your daily goal.
3. Improve your sleep hygiene.  Go to bed at the same time every day and expose yourself to the sun or bright lights immediately upon waking. After your evening meal, keep lights as dim as possible, with zero electronics or lights on in the bedroom while sleeping. Remember: No screen time within 1 hour of sleep, and no food within 3 hours of bedtime.

Keep in mind that consistency is the key to establishing a habit. Good or bad. Be true to you and your holistic health needs, not someone else’s.

Are you ready to explore holistic health? A Nutrition-Centered program that’s specific to your mind-body health? Let’s talk. 

Christopher Horan is a Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor (CFNC) through the Functional Nutrition Alliance, as well as a longtime Certified Rolfer (CR). His practice offices are in Tacoma and Bellevue, Washington.

“Health is Wealth.” I’ve always liked that quote because it’s true. As a Rolfer, and now as a certified Functional Nutrition Counselor, I’m really internalizing the concept. And a number of my Rolfing clients are asking a lot of questions about Functional Nutrition and want to dive in (thank you!). Let’s explore some of the essential framework, in hopes of driving more conversations with you – and potentially, counseling sessions in addition to our Rolfing work together.

First, know that your story is original. Unique. How you’ve come to feel the way you do, whether occasionally not-so-good or perpetually not-well, happened over time. As a different way of approaching healthcare, Functional Nutrition looks at the whole you. How you got where you are, and the way your body has responded. After all, we are not statistics – our thyroid number or blood count or cholesterol and so forth do not define our overall health. My job? To help uncover the source(s) of your dis-ease or illness. Of course, you have good ideas about that, but some things can hide from you, even in your own body. We’ll discover the root of the issue together.

Secondly, there is no magic pill. Would that there were! But only treating the symptom, or even an overarching symptom, dismisses the complexity of whatever health challenge you’re experiencing. Working with me as your Functional Nutrition Counselor will be a steady path, a process vs a cookie-cutter diagnosis. This goes back to #1: your story is original.

Thirdly, framework beats out formula every time. Again, because your story is unique, we need to understand the history and physiology that is yours alone. The functional nutrition framework hangs on a detailed intake form and associated tools that help draw the picture of your specific situation. We meet, discuss the answers, delve deeply into the why, where, when, and how, and then create an accurate representation.

Now, we examine the evidence. Not the typically touted evidence that’s based on what works for 80% of the population, but your evidence in your situation. For instance, almond butter upsets your stomach but every single dietary formula you’ve ever followed says it’s great. But it’s not for you. We’ll look at the evidence and its answers that help map your personal path to whole health.

Lastly, ideal health is not a fixed situation. You don’t reach it and just hang out there. (Although that would be way cool.) We’re all constantly responding to our situation. One day our life is cruising along, minimal bumps, feeling healthy, steady, and good. The day after, not so much. Health, like life, is dynamic. It changes all the time – and that’s a good thing! In Functional Medicine, this natural phenomena is known homeodynamics, our ongoing response to food, rest, and physiological changes (hormones, etc.).

Essentially, Functional Medicine is specific to you.

It’s a personalized, holistic approach. Unlike traditional Western medicine, it’s not an A-to-B quick fix, but a deeper dive into your needs. As your Functional Nutrition Counselor, I’ll uncover and help to resolve your chronic illness much like as your Rolfer, I uncover and resolve your pain source.

Christopher Horan is a Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor (CFNC) through the Functional Nutrition Alliance, as well as a longtime Certified Rolfer. His practice offices are in Tacoma and Bellevue, Washington.

Source: paraphrased from Functional Nutrition 101 by Andrea Nakayama, FNLP, MSN, CNC, CNE, CHHC, founder of the Functional Nutrition Alliance.

Functional Nutrition: It’s the next big thing for my practice. If you’re a Horan Rolfing client, over time we’ve probably talked about the right way to exercise (especially when trying to recover from an injury) and gut health. Hang out with me enough and you’ll quickly realize that overall health and healing is my passion. Building our natural immunity, understanding the power of our gut, the microbiome; these types of topics got me interested in functional nutrition.

What do you know about functional nutrition?

If you’ve been listening to buzz about the science behind functional nutrition, you may be familiar with the concept. The idea that to change your health for the better, you have to understand why you don’t feel your best today. It’s not all that different an approach than the one I take in Rolfing, that the symptom may not be the source of the problem, but it can help us find it.

Full body systems health is invaluable.

Functional nutrition’s goal is to not only help others get healthy, but also to teach them how to stay healthy. The idea is that you work directly with a Functional Nutrition Counselor – that’s me by year end – to determine what’s going on with your body, and how together, we can bring you to optimal health.

Why am I pursuing certification as a Functional Nutrition Counselor through the Functional Nutrition Alliance?

If 2020 convinced me of nothing else, it’s that overall health – mind and body – is the greatest gift we can give ourselves. Full body systems health is invaluable. Combine systems health and pain-free movement? We have a winner!

Rolfing Structural Integration helped me heal from injury and inspired me to become a Certified Rolfer. I believe melding Rolfing with the practical health approach of Functional Nutrition will give my clients a clear path to whole-body health and pain-free living. In the meantime, Rolfing remains center stage, with Full Body Systems waiting in the wings.

Helping your body function at its level best is a goal worth working toward. It’s the whole reason I’m committed to the program.

Christopher Horan is a Certified Rolfer passionate about his clients’ overall health and wellness. You can schedule your pain-relieving Rolfing session at either his Tacoma and Bellevue, WA practice locations using the website scheduling calendar. 

Think you have CTS? (Carpal Tunnel)

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) tends to be the go-to self-diagnosis for anyone who’s feeling persistent pain, tingling, or numbness in their fingers. That’s unsurprising when you consider all of the attention on ergonomics, pain from bad computing habits, and so on. A true carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis is a little more specific because it has to do with the median nerve.

Your median nerve is also called the “laborer’s nerve.” While it’s only one of three main nerves that send and receive information up and down your arms, it’s the main nerve for the front of your forearm. You may assume that because you do a lot of repetitive motion at work, you’re suffering from CTS. While that can be the case, CTS can stem from many causes: oral contraceptives, hypothyroidism, arthritis, diabetes, trauma, obesity, and lipomas.

Median Nerve Compression

What’s happening is that that median nerve is being compressed right at the wrist, causing disease or damage. Think about all the nerves that have to get down to your fingers – all go through the “tunnel” of your wrist (carpal) bones. You’ll notice numbness, pain, and tingling in your fingers and thumbs and think,

“Oh, I must have carpal tunnel syndrome.”

Oddly enough, when I go through the diagnostic process before we dive into a Rolfing treatment program, I discover that all the issues are actually happening in areas not fed by the median nerve, but others.

They’re surprised to learn that the nerve entrapment most people believe to be CTS is actually coming from much further up the arm. It can even be from nerves weaving their way through the collarbone on the way to our necks, the most common place nerves get entrapped.

Right now, so many people have been in unusual work-from-home setups that I’m seeing more nerve compression and muscle issues than I have in a while. Carpal tunnel is a really familiar term to most people, so when I get a call saying, “My CTS is acting up” I’m not immediately going to suggest anything that’s specific to CTS. Because it may or may not be carpal tunnel.

Are you wondering now just what that pins-and-needles or numbness is? Let’s schedule a Rolfing appointment either in Tacoma or Bellevue so we can find the real culprit and get you moving freely again.

It’s true – you’d be surprised at the number of Rolfing clients who walk in and point to their butt, complaining of sciatica. My first step is to determine through diagnostics which nerves are causing problems, like if the visceral system is even involved.

Here’s what happens with sciatica. The sciatic nerve (root of sciatica) begins in L4 – S3 (L meaning Lumbar vertebra and S meaning Sacral segments) and goes down the back of your leg, continuing into your feet. If that nerve is “pinched” anywhere along the line, you’ll feel pain. It can cause issues walking, standing, lying down – in fact, sciatic nerve inflammation can be a pretty miserable situation.

Nerves can be tricky.  They talk a lot amongst themselves, sharing irritation. They’re reliable in that you know when something hurts. Yet getting specifics on where the hurt begins isn’t always as obvious. One compressed nerve tells all the connected nerves, then the brain, that things aren’t right. Well, then the brain gets involved and suddenly you feel like lots of areas are inflamed. Say, for instance, your toe hurts. That doesn’t necessarily mean your toe is injured, just that the nerves in your toe feel pain. The origination point could be somewhere way up the line.

I’m 2/3 the way through the series with Mr. Horan and it’s been incredible to see my posture improve and my long-time sciatica go away completely. – M. Fish, Horan Rolfing Client

What happens when you tell me, “I think I have sciatica.”

I’m going to look at the potential sciatic nerve compression points – spinal, muscular and organ. This is why the ability to discover the start of your discomfort is so important to resolving it. Every potential cause needs assessment. If you have damage to an intervertebral disc in the spine, protrusion into the nerve area can irritate the sciatic nerve. Or say the nerve is perfectly fine in the spine, but then the rectum or the sigmoid colon (both organs that sit right in front of it) compress the nerve causing pain. Then there’s the deeply seated piriformis muscle, a common source of sciatic nerve pain, tingling, or even numbness that runs down the leg or into the foot, as in piriformis syndrome.

As a Certified Rolfer, my aim is to 1) diagnose the actual pain source, and 2) free up the affected structures. Here’s also where balance is so important to the surrounding areas. It may call for evaluation of your movement patterns. It’s common for habits in gait, stance, or sitting to affect our bodies. Exercise routines could be exacerbating an issue. We’ll look at how retraining those habits or adjusting routines could help.

Christopher Horan’s Rolfing therapies help alleviate issues from sciatica. His mission is to help restore freedom of movement without pain. You can schedule a Rolfing appointment with him in Horan Rolfing’s Tacoma or Bellevue office. Sciatic nerve pain relief is only a call away!

No, Rolfing does not hurt you, at least it doesn’t when I do it.  You may have heard that Rolfing® Structural Integration is painful. It doesn’t need to be. Yes, I’m pushing your system so we can help your body change, but the more you relax, focus on what the sensations tell you, the more receptive to change your body will be.

In my experience, results come more productively when I work with your nervous system. I believe that positive body change is more likely to happen that way than if I work tissue while completely disregarding your comfort level.

Rolfing executed too deeply, too fast can cause your system to tense up.

That’s your body’s natural response as it tries to protect itself.  I don’t want to fight against bodily instincts, but to work at a level that keeps you relaxed on the table, working with me.

My clients typically report Rolfing as feeling like a satisfying deep pressure or a really nice deep stretch.

Every session is a little different. There’s a broad spectrum of what you can expect or will feel. For instance, if the pain source is an organ or entrapped nerves, the work feels incredibly gentle. Resistance usually surfaces when we’re trying to change entrenched patterns, like compensating from longtime pain or an injury. Or even correcting bad posture. Tissue “pushes back” vs simply accepting change.

That’s why I encourage communication throughout every Rolfing session.

Everyone has a different level of sensitivity. Is the manipulation too intense? Let me know. I do not take offense at your feedback about your body. Persistence is necessary, but not at the cost of progress or comfort.

It’s true that there are practitioners who tend to work from a “no pain, no gain” perspective. That works for some. Personalities and beliefs differ. All Rolfers go through essentially the same training yet each of us develops our own approach to Rolfing. You’ll want to choose the Certified Rolfer who most aligns with your needs and personality.

At Horan Rolfing, my sole aim is to restore your body’s ease, balance, and strength. To help you move pain-free again. You can schedule a Rolfing appointment with me in the Tacoma location of Horan Rolfing or in the Bellevue office.

Did you know that the NIH says ~80% of us experience back pain? In fact, it’s the top reason that people contact my Tacoma Rolfing® practice. The good news for you is that whether it’s debilitating or an ongoing discomfort, generally back pain is fixable, and often without surgery.

The trick to treating back pain effectively is in knowing how to find the pain before just diving in. Knowing “Where’s does it hurt?” doesn’t necessarily mean knowing the source, but it’s always a clue. Did you know that even a simple stubbed toe can throw off your gait enough to cause your lower back to hurt? That’s why it’s important to know where the back pain originates, and there are lots of possibilities. To name a few:

• Sedentary lifestyle, aka sitting too much
• Pinched nerves from a herniated disk
• Lack of core strength
• Off-balance gait or walk, a limp
• Injury from a workplace or car accident

Luckily, all of the above (and more) causes of back pain typically respond really well to Rolfing.

What’s different about how I, as a Certified Rolfer©, treat back pain?

To begin with, I look at the whole you. Like I mention above, the thing that’s making your back hurt may not originate where you think it does. That’s where the initial assessment comes in. I’ll take you through a short process that lets me examine your alignment, how you move and how you stand.

Each client is unique, so how we move forward will be unique, too. Say that I determine part of your back pain comes from lack of core strength. Part of your treatment regimen may include simple core exercises. But if it looks like your case is more complex or severe, you may need to see a physical therapist, too. I know several practitioners in the greater Tacoma area (Seattle metro, too) and can refer you.

Back pain doesn’t just hurt, which is bad enough, it also limits your movement. That’s packs a double whammy to any lifestyle. Because I’ve been a Certified Rolfer for more than a decade, I know just how all the muscles, fascia tissue and nerves need to work together.

Using Rolfing and corresponding deep touch body work, I can help free spasming nerves, loosening the tissue that locks you up movement-wise. I’ll get to the root of the pain and help correct what’s causing it. Because ultimately, the goal is to get you moving well again, free from back pain.  

Christopher Horan is a Certified Rolfer practicing in the greater Tacoma, Washington area. His Puget Sound Rolfing clients come from Tacoma, Puyallup, Newcastle, Gig Harbor, Fircrest and University Place, as well as the Seattle metropolitan and Bellevue areas. You can schedule your appointment here.

Nerves can be tricky little suckers.  They’re really good when telling you that something is wrong, but very frequently can be a bit misleading as to the where something is wrong.  Often the symptoms will show up further down the line of the nerve.  And to make things even more confusing, nerves communicate with one another, so if one nerve is compressed and irritated often one or multiple nerves around it will try to communicate to the brain that something is wrong.  The brain then interprets the info and tells you that those nerves should “hurt” as well and bingo you have multiple areas that seem inflamed.  For a really good explanation on how pain works, you should check this This Blog out.

Compression points (spinal, organ, muscular).  There are a few areas that are common compression points for the sciatic nerve.  One is right at the spine; if you have damage to one of the intervertebral discs, it can protrude into the nerve area and irritate it.  You can have a narrowing of the opening at the vertebra.  The nerve can be completely healthy coming out of the spine and then get compressed by one of the organs that is sitting in front of it (ie. the Sigmoid colon, Rectum, etc).   One other common compression point is when your piriformis (a deep lateral rotator of the femur) is too tight and compresses in on the space where your sciatic nerve comes out of the pelvic bowl and heads down into the back of your leg.

At My Rolfing Practice in Bellevue, WA I see clients quite often with sciatica type symptoms.  Using a few diagnostic tests, I discern which nerves are involved and if the visceral system is involved or not.  I then free up the affected structures.  We might then need to balance some of the other surrounding structures.  We might also need to take a look at your movement patterns to see if we need to retrain how you are moving.  I also often have to talk to people about how they are using their body that might have gotten them here in the 1^st place and see how we might be able to alter some of the habits and/or patterns.

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