In this week's newsletter (6 min read):

• Cat-interrupted online training sparks unexpected breakthroughs
• Free mini-workout : 8-minute neck release with bath towel
• Free Core Breathwork & movement class this Thursday (10-11:30PST)

Key takeaway: Working within limitations reveals surprising solutions...

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Recently a client of mine (we'll call her Lynn) was involved in a serious car accident that left her with a broken sternum. After some consideration we decided to try moving her sessions to Zoom, with some considerable modifications in the scope of our practice.

The ability to drive is crucial where we live, and losing that means not only a loss of freedom, but also a loss of community. There are a number of reasons why people choose to have a long term relationship with any trainer, and creating time for your body to be witnessed, heard, and acknowledged as an equal partner in the life you live within it is a big one. So maintaining that weekly commitment had an importance that was far beyond the expectation of what we could realistically expect to accomplish in our sessions, given Lynn's physical situation.

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Many of us ( myself included) maintain a robust online teaching practice.

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Between the livestream group classes and my one on one clients, I spend approximately 40% of my teaching hours facing a screen. But since 2020 (when we all were thrust into a pixellated reality) the nature of our online training environments has changed. My students have access to specific equipment, which might mean they're using a professional studio, and over time, my online clients have built out full gyms in their home to support their workout needs. So the scrappy, DIY attitude that we ALL were forced to adopt four years ago had faded from my reality… until Lynn and I were forced back into it through circumstances that were fundamentally out of our control.

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Without any type of equipment, and also facing severe physical limitations, we started simply with breath. Training Lynn in her bed, using pillows as props, I was rocketed back into 2020, where we used whatever we had available at home to create the experience our bodies needed. I hadn't realized how much I missed not only the renegade innovation, but also the unfiltered inclusion into their lives in that incredibly unique moment in time. Meeting everyone's pets, absorbing the background of their entire life over the duration of our session - that intimacy was a brief and precious chapter that faded as we adapted to a new reality where online training became a "thing" and if we chose to continue using this window to the world, we leveled up our options, created necessary boundaries, and made it a functional component of our lives.

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Now, when I start working with an online client, our first conversation is about what they have in their home gym (or in the studio they're using for our sessions). We enter into this training relationship equipped with the assumption that they are already equipped with a dedicated space for movement including an assortment of tools, and a definitive separation between that, and the rest of their personal lives. And I didn't realize until I was staring at a massive cat butthole on my zoom screen what that really meant.

Pets, especially, have their own relationship with our screens. Cats will walk all over your keyboard, dogs will perform their tricks in front of your laptop whenever they note that your focus has changed. I try to resist the desire to anthromorphize, but the hilarious ways in which they steal the show is impossible to overlook. Lynn has two cats who clearly were not going to relinquish the opportunity to use this training session as a platform to show their absolute distain for any human who had the audacity to initiate a prolonged encounter with their owner (or however cats see that relationship).

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Lynn and I have now developed an entire repertoire of breathing exercises and mindful physical interventions that are supporting her healing process. Just as her cats remind us that the most meaningful moments often come unscripted, our most effective solutions often emerge from working within limitations. This week, I noticed that her head was decidedly forward, as a result of her inability to breathe into her sternum as the bones mend. A simple bath towel, when used as a spacer along the neck, creates just enough internal resistance to build strength without risking collapse. Our necks are a narrow surface area in the context of the weight of our heads, and the requirements we place on them as far as positioning goes are both specific and constant. Muscles need to contract in order to feel their own strength, but with that long bridge of the cervical spine, spanning a 7 vertebrae long trajectory between the skull and our torso, we often wind up compromising our skeletal integrity as we try to equalize tension around the neck area.

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So here's an 8 minute sequence for you ALL to enjoy (injured or not) that requires only a bath towel and will restore both the length of your neck, and the agency of the muscles that support it.

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When you find the sweet spot with this exercise, you'll recognize it immediately - it's that deeply satisfying sensation of finally accessing exactly what your body has been asking for. You know that moment when you've been trying to crack your neck all day and finally find the release? It's like that, but instead of a quick fix, you're creating a lasting reset for your neck's natural alignment. As you work with the towel's resistance, tune into that feeling of "yes, this is exactly what I needed" and allow yourself to lean into it, exploring how your body wants to respond.

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If you want to learn more simple tools to create space in your body, join me for a free livestream class this Thursday.

From 10-11:30 AM PST, I'll be blending Core Breathwork techniques with simple, targeted movement exercises that you can do anywhere to create space in your body. We'll explore how working within our limitations - whether they're time, space, or equipment - can lead us to surprisingly powerful solutions for body awareness and release. Can't make the livestream? No worries - everyone registered gets a free 3-day replay.

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I hope you enjoy this last week of November as we prepare to enter the holiday season. Whatever this means to you, the inevitable frenzy of the end of the year is always an opportunity to create your own personal homeostasis, balancing your external world with an internal reality of your own creation.

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Have a wonderful week.

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Domini Anne

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