There’s such a rich conversation in the debate between the Strength World and the Rehab/Functional Training World, and that it is, “How do you actually train Core Strength"?” and “Do you need to even do targeted Core Stability when Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, etc., use the core and strengthen it along the way?” The disagreement stems from a few things, though at first glance, I think it tends to just speak more to preference: Some find “bigger” movement patterns more meaningful, while others find “root cause” to be more meaningful. I’d say the answer lies somewhere in the middle (as usual!) and of course, depends on your goals/baseline level of health.

The Human Body moves. I’ve introduced many of you to a concept I call the Full Spectrum of Movement. This spectrum considers all the movement the Human Body makes. On one end, there are the very small, unnoticeable movements of your cells, neurons, synapses, microbiome of your gut, thinking/feeling/making choices…the other end includes the larger functional movements we know well like squat, hinge, push, pull press, jump, walk, rotate, etc.

We can consider breath somewhere near the beginning of the spectrum. As I stated in the last part, breathing is an involuntary motor response, that can be made conscious, either using it to down-regulate (calm), up-regulate (increase energy) or restore your energy to homeostasis. When we use the Stamina app (Bridget), we are attempting to bring homeostasis, while assessing our energy + breathing muscles.

The nervous system is involved in receiving information about the environment around us (sensation) and generating responses to that information (motor responses/movement). The nervous system can be divided into regions that are responsible for sensation (sensory functions) and for the response (motor functions).

The nervous system has two main parts:

• The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord.

• The peripheral nervous system is made up of nerves that branch off from the spinal cord and extend to all parts of the body.

Your breathing usually does not require any thought, because it is controlled by the autonomic nervous system (ANS), also called the involuntary nervous system. The parasympathetic and sympathetic systems are two parts of the ANS. The parasympathetic system slows breathing, while the sympathetic system speeds it up. 

e hear a lot about Breathing these days. Using it to regulate your Nervous System is having a moment. Postural Restoration begins with the Intrinsic Core Muscles (breathing muscles). Breathing is also a big topic in Pelvic Floor Health. Do we fully understand how to use it? Moreover, do we fully understand why we would begin with breathing as a mechanism for training strength in the many varying scenarios it is warranted?

Let’s dive in, without getting too complicated!

• Part I: The Structure

• Part II: Breathing for Nervous System Regulation

• Part III: Breathing for Mobility

• Part IV: Breathing for Core Stability + Strength

Patience + Prioritizing

Building Strength is a long-haul game. It’s not ever done in the time we’ve been conditioned to think (6-Week Challenge, anyone? <<<eye roll>>>).

Deprogram, Please

There is literally NO (zero, none) complex skill that can be fully mastered in 6 weeks. You can lay some really great foundations (simple skills/concepts) in that amount of time, but those need to be methodically practiced, nonetheless, to be acquired and used to build the next layer. Most of us have a kind of amnesia, brought on by the rapid information loops in our Age of Media, around reality and the passage of time. Everything seems to move much faster than it actually does and it makes us forget that time has a spatial component. IMHO!

How to Build/Maintain Muscle

• Consistency

• Adequate Stimulus

• Nutrient Density

Scratching the surface of How + Why Having a Muscled Body Impacts our Emotional + Mental Health

Pillar Strength exists to build strong bodies, with the use of a PHYSICAL modality to enter the space for growth. Many of us come to ‘weight training’ or ‘physical fitness’ with a need/desire to get stronger, correct a movement dysfunction or lose weight. My niche was, for many clients, to target chronic pain by building strength and to help bridge the gap between formal PT into the general strength space. That takes a certain set of skills, though I found that what it really takes is a certain lens, or understanding, of how people get to a place of pain, postural dysfunction, carrying extra weight or just generally in-need of global strength. This understanding has everything to do with a framework of seeing how certain behaviors + functionings work together to build a condition for strength or weaknesses in the system.

We consider Energy from the logical perspective: Food. And we dig into the rhythms of your Daily Energy Cycles to gather a full picture of your behaviors with Food. 

We also consider energy from the less-obvious, though more consequential perspective, of your emotional + mental setpoints: What is your relationship to stress? How do you handle it? What subconscious hunger is presenting itself in your habits? What choices are you making to harmonize, or sabotage, your Energy Balance? (yes, choices are movements, too) 

Interoception is the collection of senses providing information to you about the internal state of your body. This can be both conscious and subconscious. These sensory networks happen at the neural level and are what call “the tiny movements” your body makes.

There are 2 key ways you can invest your attention via Strength Training:

Proprioception and interoception are two sensory systems that help us understand our bodies and the world around us.