Heart of Motion
The Heart of Motion Podcast is an exploration of the heart, soul and science of movement - and what it means in our lives.
Movement connects us more deeply to ourselves, to our bodies and to the things and people that are most important to us. Beyond a fitness routine, why do you move? And what moves you? When we can look past the hamster wheel of ''fitness" - we start to realize that when we really live the lives of our bodies - life can be a whole lot more fulfilling, and a whole lot more fun!
Host Susannah Steers is your guide on a quest to understand how we can move better, feel better in our bodies and connect more deeply to our people and the world around us. Join her for some conversation, interviews with experts, and conversations with everyday people about what movement means to them. You might just find movement feels a little different on the other side...
Heart of Motion
Balancing the Beast: Stress, Movement, and Health
Could understanding the body's reaction to stress be key to unlocking better health? This week we unpack the nuanced relationship between stress, movement, and health. You'll learn how stress, in measured doses, can actually bolster strength and resilience, yet when unchecked, it can detrimentally impact our well-being.
Stress and movement are more intertwined than you might think, particularly when it comes to chronic stress and physical activity. This episode shines a light on how stress can disrupt our motor control and stability in unexpected ways. Discover how mindful movement, breath work, and other stress management techniques can counteract these effects and lead to improved stability and coordination.
Embracing a holistic approach to stress management, we'll explore a comprehensive roadmap to building resilience against stress. Movement is a powerful ally in this journey, and by listening to your body and acting with compassion, you can effectively navigate stress's challenges.
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References:
“Sympathetic-induced changes in discharge rate and spike-triggered average twitch torque of low-threshold motor units in humans.” The Journal of Physiology, 586.22, pp 5561-5574, 2008(2) Silvestro Roatta, Dept. of Neuroscience, Physiology Section, University of Torino, Torino, Italy(3) Lars Arendt-Nielsen and Dario Farina, Centre for Sensory-Motor Interaction, Dept. of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Not referenced specifically here, but interesting and relevant research:
A 2015 review by Macefield and Henderson in the Journal of Applied Physiology reinforced the idea that sympathetic activation can influence muscle function. They noted that sympathetic activation can affect both blood flow to muscles and the contractile properties of muscle fibers.
A 2018 study by Hellyer et al. in the Journal of Neurophysiology found that sympathetic activation can modulate motor unit behavior, supporting Roatta, Arendt-Nielsen & Farina's findings about sympathetic effects on muscle activation.
Research by Passatore and Roatta (2019) in the European Journal of Applied Physiology further explored how stress-related sympathetic activation affects skeletal muscle function, largely supporting the 2008 findings.
A 2020 review by Boulton and Grubb in Experimental Physiology discussed how sympathetic activation can influence muscle afferent feedback, which indirectly supports the referenced study's conclusions about sympathetic effects on motor control.
Heart of Motion Podcast host Susannah Steers is a Pilates & Integrated Movement Specialist and owner of Moving Spirit Pilates in North Vancouver, BC. She is passionate about movement, about connections and about life.
Through movement teaching, speaking, and facilitating workshops, she supports people in creating movement practices that promote fitness from the inside out. She loves building community, and participating in multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Along with her friend and colleague Gillian McCormick, Susannah also co-hosts The Small Conversations for a Better World podcast – an interview based podcast dedicated to promoting the kind of conversations about health that can spark positive change in individuals, families, communities and across the globe.
Social Media Links:
Moving Spirit Pilates Instagram
Moving Spirit Pilates Facebook
Susannah Steers Instagram
Welcome to the Heart of Motion podcast. I'm Susannah Steers and I'll be your host as we explore the heart, soul and science of movement as a pathway to more active, vibrant and connected living. Nothing happens until something moves, so let's get started.
Susannah Steers:Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. This week we're talking all about stress. I am continually awed by the human body, especially its capacity to adapt to whatever the heck it is you throw at it. Despite whatever misuse or neglect you subject it to. Year after year, somehow it finds a way to keep you moving. You likely experience different kinds of aches and pains along the way when the compensations you construct don't quite work out the way you'd planned. But for the most part, no matter what crazy things you do, the body finds a way to keep on trucking. That is until the adaptive mechanisms inside you simply can't adapt any further to the demands on your system and your body begins to talk to you about it. Conversations and complaints might show up as injury or illness or simply as difficulty recovering from your various activities, and typically we don't pay attention until that shutting down reaches critical levels.
Susannah Steers:Stress has a dramatic influence on the function of the human body, which consequently has an effect on the movement of the human body. But, other than breathe deeply and relax, we don't often talk about it in terms of our physical conditioning. Today, we're going to explore stress, what it does to our bodies and how we can work with it so it serves to promote health rather than just drive us toward illness.
Susannah Steers:First, let's talk about what stress actually is and what it does to the body. Broken down to its simplest dictionary definition, stress is basically just any force or tension exerted or applied to an object, in this case the human body. In appropriate doses, stress is actually good for the body. It takes you outside your comfort zone and requires you to tax yourself in ways that make you stronger. You learn new skills, you develop new strength, new resilience, you let go of stuff you no longer need. The whole fitness industry is based on the idea of increasing stress on the body in measured increments to increase capacity, but in really large doses or in a long, uninterrupted run, stress can dramatically erode your health and well-being.
Susannah Steers:To understand what that means, we need to understand what happens in your body when you're stressed. We're going to talk a lot about the autonomic nervous system here, which is the part of the body that regulates involuntary actions like breathing, heartbeat, circulation and digestion, among other things, and this system is typically divided up into two parts the sympathetic nervous system, which we often hear about as the fight, flight or freeze part, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which is commonly referred to as the rest and digest part. Now, there's more to that, but I think we can work with that definition. I think the best way that I can illustrate the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in action is to tell you a little story.
Susannah Steers:Imagine for a moment that you are a lion on the savannah. There you are laid out on the grass, strong, powerful, relaxed, ready for anything. It's hot and you've been enjoying the shade of a big tree. You haven't eaten in a while and you're kind of hungry. You look off to the horizon, surveying your domain, and then in the corner of your eye, you see movement. You're not sure what it is, but it's enough that you're paying attention. Your heart beats a little faster, your breath speeds up, your focus narrows. What is it? You're still. As you figure it out, the blood is already coursing through your veins. The movement gets a little closer and you realize it's a gazelle. If you play your cards right, this could be dinner.
Susannah Steers:The gazelle, unaware of your presence, bounds closer. Your eyes are trained on its every move. Your tail and your muscles twitch, ready to make your move. You explode into the savannah, running toward the gazelle as it registers its own danger and zigs and zags to try to escape this. For each of you, a dance of life and death. After an intense few minutes, you catch your prey as you bring it back to the pride. Few minutes, you catch your prey as you bring it back to the pride. Your breathing slows down, your heart rate recovers and your muscles relax. The fire hose of hormones in your body has been largely expended in the chase. You have food to stay alive. For a while longer. Your attention begins to widen to include everything around you. After eating your fill, you relax, you nap a while and play with your cubs, resting up. For the next time you need to feed yourself and your family.
Susannah Steers:Now maybe we haven't experienced the intensity of a hunt in the way that a lion has, but I'll bet most of us have had some kind of immediate, elevated action survival experience, the kind of thing where you have to act and act fast. No thinking, just survival. I can think of a couple of experiences in my life like this, but not too many. We humans only have this kind of physical experience in response to a threat Fight the tiger or flee the tiger kind of thing. When you experience what your body perceives to be a threat, your autonomic nervous system responds by firing up the sympathetic or the fight-flight response. This is a critical part of the body's survival mechanism. When the brain detects a serious threat, it floods the body with adrenaline, a powerful hormone which accelerates your heart rate, increasing circulation to the muscles. Your respiration speeds up, making oxygen quickly available to your tissues, so you have the power to face your threat head-on or run away from it as fast as you can. The pupils in your eyes dilate to improve your vision. Fats and sugars in the body are made quickly available to supply your muscles with the energy to do whatever you have to do to survive. The parasympathetic, rest and digest branch of the autonomic nervous system is inhibited to the point where digestive, reproductive and immune functions slow right down.
Susannah Steers:Now I think that's pretty cool right. Sometimes I picture this whole process like mild-mannered fictional character Bruce Banner's dramatic transformation into the Incredible Hulk, except it's accessible to each and every one of us in our own way.
Susannah Steers:Here's the thing, though the body's fight-or-flight mechanism doesn't only turn on in response to real and present physical danger. It can be activated in response to mental and emotional stress as well, the kind of stress that the experts call psychosocial stress. This kind of stress is pretty much the currency of Western society. We're subjected to it every single day. We work in environments where efficiency and productivity are paramount. People work hard to get more done in less time for work, for family, for the various organizations to which we give our time.
Susannah Steers:Even in terms of physical fitness, the trendy workouts these days are often more More intensity, more power, more endurance, better results, better fat burning and more general badassery in less time. People want to get in and get it done so they can move on to the next thing. There's stress at work. People jockeying for position for the next promotion are just trying to hold on to the job. There's the daily maze of traffic. We have endless communication by phone, email and text and whatever other technologies are making us available 24 hours a day. There's financial stress. There are kids and families, marriages and divorce. There are societal and political worries, and and and and, unlike facing the tiger of fight-or-flight fame. This is the kind of stress that we face most often.
Susannah Steers:Surviving the relentless complexities of life in the modern world is a daily event. The problem is that the body doesn't recognize the difference in the types of threat it responds to. It just perceives a threat or something it has to do to survive and it creates a powerful physiological response to survive. And it creates a powerful physiological response. Hormones flood, circulation changes, the body's high action functions are turned on and the restorative sustaining functions are dim. And if we are not in fact reacting to a physical threat, our bodies are not moving in the ways we need them to move to release or metabolize the effects of that stress on our bodies properly, and that upsets the balance of things. So what do we do? Focusing on breathing, meditation, yoga and similar restorative practices is a great way to begin to change the brain and its response to stress. Changing the brain is the first step to changing some of those physiological responses, but the body still needs to move to allow all those physiological changes to move through us and allow us to shift to a more balanced state once again, where our restorative functions can come back online and integrate.
Susannah Steers:Well for our best health, changing our mental and emotional habits, taking time to breathe and reflect. All of those are powerful tools that everyone can benefit from, but they're not the whole story. Some folks go whole hog into their type 2 fun as a way to get their yayas out and process some of that stress. Intense physical activity can be an amazing way to blow off steam and metabolize some of those very things we've been talking about. But if you're constantly going hard and that's your one strategy, pushing the limit and not allowing yourself to rest you may push yourself into a chronic state of what we call sympathetic drive, where all that activity begins to have a cost to the health of your whole system.
Susannah Steers:Now don't get me wrong. I am not saying that intense physical activity is bad for you. Not at all. What I am saying is that it's probably a good idea to look at your life, evaluate the level of intensity at which you typically operate and figure out whether or not that feels sustainable in the long term. From a physiological perspective, stress creates an action-packed, sympathetic environment in your body. It helps you to focus and get tons done, and from experience I can tell you that feeling is addictive. But if your sympathetic nervous system is like your primary operating system, the long-term physiological and health costs can be significant.
Susannah Steers:Are you sleeping well? Do you get sick a lot? Do you get injured frequently? Do your joints feel really stiff all the time? Are you irritable and patient and generally grumpy? Do you have large mood swings? Are you experiencing inflammatory health issues like high blood pressure or high cortisol levels, elevated blood sugars, weakened immune response? Well, there may be all kinds of reasons. These things are present in your life that have nothing to do with stress. These are all things that could indicate that you're simply going too hard for too long, that your stress is not as well managed as it might be.
Susannah Steers:Many years ago, I ran across a fascinating study that got me thinking a lot more about stress and movement. In a study published in the Journal of Physiology in 2008, authors Silvestro Roata, lars Arendt Nielsen and Dario Farina researched the effects of sympathetic-induced changes in the activation of slow twitch muscles in the human body. As a Pilates teacher who deals a lot with posture and stability, all day their research caught my attention. Posture and stability all day their research caught my attention.
Susannah Steers:Slow twitch muscles, or type one, are typically those that provide a measure of stability for the body and are important in sustaining posture, stability and endurance. Fast twitch muscles, or type two, are powerful muscles that provide quick bursts of energy. They contract quickly and powerfully, but they tire out faster than their type 1 counterparts. In simple terms, slow twitch muscles help you go the distance, while fast twitch muscles help you go fast and strong for short periods. Most people have a mix of both types in their bodies, with the ratio varying based on genetics and the kind of training that you do.
Susannah Steers:What this study illustrated is that sympathetic activity, that fight-or-flight response activity, can inhibit the activation of the slow twitch muscles in your body, so it slows it down or dims the activation of those stability endurance muscles. In the presence of a real threat, this might be super useful, but in the environment of psychosocial stress, the study's authors came to the following conclusion the faster relaxation of slow twitch muscles could allow for more rapid switching between the agonist-antagonist activations in flexion-extension movements in a fight-or-flight reaction. So let me just do a little sidebar here. Muscles work around a joint in pairs one side contracting while the other side extends Kind of makes sense, right? Being able to rapidly switch from flexion to extension in fight or flight situations would likely make you more agile and able to react more quickly to changing circumstances. So definitely a good thing when your back's against the wall.
Susannah Steers:However, the effect of this twitch shortening, this sort of turning off of the type 1 fibers, is not beneficial when sympathetic activation occurs independently of prominent motor activity, so like the prominent motor activity being the big run around the fight or flight thing. When we don't have that in the presence of psychosocial stress, then this is not such an ideal scenario. In this case, sympathetically mediated muscle weakening would increase the neural drive to the muscle and energetic cost of the contraction. So this change in muscle contractility would interfere with motor control and require the adoption of suboptimal motor control strategies. Now you know I'm all about movement patterning, so this piqued my attention. The researchers concluded that both the increased metabolic activity and the altered motor control could be cofactors in the development of chronic muscle pain syndromes.
Susannah Steers:My brain exploded. What did this mean? Too much sympathetic drive could actually influence motor control and a body's ability to stabilize itself and contribute to pain syndromes. I work with a lot of people who have varying degrees of function and varying degrees of comfort in their bodies, and one of the many things we work on is learning to stabilize their bodies so they can move better. Part of that learning is about the body's core and the deep system stabilizers. These muscles are often type 1 muscles muscles. So chronic stress, which many people experience as a status quo in their lives, can create unexpected challenges for the activation and the integration of core musculature and for balance, for coordination and the sustainability of efficient motor control strategies and postural strategies too. Suddenly, I had a completely different element to consider for people who are experiencing challenges accessing their deep support. If I could help them become aware of their stress and the way it affects them and offer some strategies for balancing it differently, maybe we could create the conditions to shift into a state where we could improve access to those deep system structures. Beyond just exercise, we could start to affect the physiology of the body for more optimal function.
Susannah Steers:And, by the way, if you're at this point thinking "2008 study Kind of old, don't you think? I'm happy to note here that there are multiple more recent studies which largely support and expand on the findings of this research. So I'll include some of the references in the show notes if you're interested.
Susannah Steers:If you've ever been to my studio, you'll notice that there's a lot of focus on breath, on releasing tensions, even the ones we're not consciously aware of, and on bringing awareness to our movement patterns as we move through various exercises. It's all part of the plan Breath, mindful movement, intentional choices around motor control, consistent practice. I've seen some pretty powerful results over the years. And if you're finding that your workout is more effortful than you think it should be, if you keep hitting a wall that you can't seem to get beyond, if your sleep patterns are continually interrupted, if you're having trouble with balance, if your movement doesn't feel interrupted, if you're having trouble with balance, if your movement doesn't feel fluid, if you have beautiful core muscles but no stability, you may be someone who could use some strategies for calming the sympathetic nervous system and then playing with that in your overall movement patterning.
Susannah Steers:We've talked about the physiological effects of stress and how it impacts our bodies, particularly our muscles and our movement. Let's talk about how we can use physical activity and a whole body health approach to make conscious choices about balancing stress in our lives. First, it's really important to recognize that not all stress is bad. In fact, some stress is necessary for growth and adaptation. The key is finding the right balance. We need that sweet spot, and you know what? I'll be honest, a lot of the time you're not going to find perfect balance. Sometimes the stress is going to be too high. Sometimes you'll have periods where you can be a slug, and it's fine. But let's look for a way that we can put all those pieces together and get sort of a nice wave. Here are some strategies to help you do just that:
Susannah Steers:Diversify your movement. If you're someone who loves high intensity workouts, mix it up with activities that promote relaxation and body awareness, like yoga, pilates or tai chi. These practices can help activate your parasympathetic nervous system, promoting rest and recovery. If you're somebody who only does yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation, then maybe it's time to kick it up a notch and get outside and push yourself a little bit. Try something that taxes your body, that moves your muscles in a big way. Now, I'm not saying Pilates can't be hard, but I'm just saying it's not the same thing as a high-intensity bike ride or, you know, lifting heavy weights. Let's find a balance in all of the things that we're doing.
Susannah Steers:Practice mindful movement. Whatever activity you choose, bring your full attention to it, notice how your body feels, how you're breathing and the sensations in your muscles. This mindfulness can help you shift your nervous system out of a fight or flight mode. I find it's like a presence practice you know you're here in the moment in your body, and it changes a lot of things. Explore nature this is one of my favorites. Take your workouts outdoors when possible or just be outside. Studies show that being in nature can reduce stress hormones and promote a sense of well-being. Try hiking, trail running or even just walking in a local park.
Susannah Steers:Prioritize recovery. Remember it's not just about how hard you work out, but how well you recover. In fact, when you look at the science, the strength gains actually happen in the recovery after you've done a hard workout. So if you don't get the rest, you're not getting the strength gains that you could be. Incorporate activities like gentle stretching, foam rolling or even professional massage to bump up your routine and help your body bounce back. Listen to your body. Let's not wait until our systems are screaming. Learn to recognize the signs that you might be overtraining or overstressed. Fatigue, irritability, persistent soreness are all signs that you might need to dial things back and focus on recovery.
Susannah Steers:Recovery doesn't mean sitting in front of the television and doing nothing. It might be a gentle walk instead of a hardcore workout. It might mean just taking things a little more slowly. It might mean fewer repetitions, lighter weight. There are all kinds of ways to play with it. Use breath work, incorporate breathing exercises into your day, not just during workouts. Techniques like box breathing or diaphragmatic breathing can be powerful tools for managing stress on the spot, and you can find a million and one different videos on YouTube and Instagram and meditation techniques to play with that kind of breath practice. Play with it. It's powerful stuff.
Susannah Steers:Stay hydrated and nourished. Proper nutrition and hydration play a crucial role in how our bodies handle stress. Make sure you're fueling your body appropriately for your activity level. Prioritize sleep Right now. This is my golden nugget. Quality sleep is crucial for stress management and recovery. Do everything you can to create a consistent sleep routine and aim for seven to nine hours a night. Now, that's different for everybody, and if you're a menopausal woman, this might be a little more challenging, but I I'm going to just say do what you can to create the conditions where you can possibly get the best sleep possible, because it is a magic bullet for stress.
Susannah Steers:Connect with others. Don't underestimate the power of social connection in managing stress. You know if you've got a group of friends or one friend, whoever you have around you. Connect with them. Consider joining a sports team or a fitness class or a walking group to combine some physical activity with social interaction so you get some positive social things going on conversations, laughter, joy.
Susannah Steers:Remember, the goal is not to eliminate stress entirely, way. Remember, the goal is not to eliminate stress entirely. That's neither possible or desirable. Instead, we're aiming to create a lifestyle that allows us to respond to stress in healthy ways, using physical activity and whole body health practices as our tools. When we make conscious choices about how we move and we can cover and care for our bodies, we can build resilience to stress and improve our overall well-being. It's about creating a sustainable approach to fitness and health that supports us in all aspects of life.
Susannah Steers:So the next time you're feeling overwhelmed by stress, remember that you have the power to shift your state through movement and mindful choices. Now you might not shift it all in one go. This is a case of a little bit. Very often, it's not all going to happen in one big swoop. Your body is an incredible tool for managing stress. All you need to do is learn to listen to it and respond with kindness, compassion and intention.
Susannah Steers:That's all for today's episode. Until next time, keep moving, stay mindful and remember your health is in your hands.
Susannah Steers:I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Subscribe and, if you love what you heard, leave a five-star review and tell people what you enjoyed most. Join me here again in a couple of weeks. For now, let's get moving.
