DailyOM: What is your fitness background and how did you get to where you are now?
Bonnie Crotzer: My mom put on Mikhail Baryshnikov's Nutcracker when I was 3 and a half years old, and I haven't stopped moving since. I've always been fascinated with the body. I think we're walking miracles! By 15, I was taking Pilates and yoga to support my dancing, and it opened another layer of integrated awareness. I went deep into my yoga practice, got certified, and began teaching in my early twenties. I loved it and still love it, but over time, I recognized that I was stressing my body both dancing in ballet companies and in my yoga practice -- the exact practice that I had thought would save me and sustain me through my dance career.
That's when I was introduced to Bob Cooley's work, resistance flexibility and strength training. I studied under and worked with Bob for many years. This practice opened up a whole new world, a way to heal myself, and beyond that, to feel incredible. In the years since, I synthesized all that I learned, including more personal research into fascia and Eastern medicines, and created a movement practice that is accessible to a wider audience. Which brought me here to DailyOM.
DailyOM: How do you explain fascia to someone who has never heard the term before?
BC: The simplest definition is that fascia is the connective tissue that connects all other tissues. Fascia is the webbing of the body. We have been taught muscles and bones hold us up; actually, if it wasn't for the fascia's webbing causing compression, suspension, and tension, all of our parts would slosh to the floor. Fascia is the body's scaffolding, a matrix of hydrated, semi-crystalline collagen fibers in varying tensile strengths and interweaving patterns that wraps around our organs, bones, tendons, ligaments, brain matter, etc. Fascia takes on the form of whatever it's wrapping while maintaining separation (for example between organs) and creating continuous connectivity throughout the body.
Recent research has shown that all past traumas, both physical and mental, are stored within the fascia, causing its natural form to be disrupted and hardened, holding the body in a distressed state. And with repetitive movements and trauma, the density and mass of the fascia can impair movement, circulation, and the flow of lymph throughout the body. So when we feel a knot in any muscle, it's actually a buildup of fluid, toxins, adhesions, and scar tissue within the fascia that's unable to move within the lymphatic system of the body. Fascia is a huge deal, even though it was discarded by classical anatomists for centuries as if it were packing material. Clinicians, acupuncturists, and body workers have known for a long time that impacting the fascia can impact our health in a major way because it is the great connector, and now science is looking at it in detail.
DailyOM: You're such a fan of fascia stretching. Tell us more about the benefits.
BC: When I started doing fascia stretching practices (if we can even call this stretching, because it's quite different than traditional stretching), my immune system and digestive health improved and the major injuries from my dance career were alleviated. This made me an immediate fan and, soon after, a teacher. How can you not share that? With everyone! It also started to show me how it felt to be truly flexible. True flexibility means your tissue is pliable, elastic, hydrated, and ready to spring into action. So many studies show us that overstretching tears our tissue; the body responds by repairing itself overnight by laying down scar tissue fibers to re-create stability, which causes you feel tight again. Beyond that, wherever you are super mobile, the body will try to find balance by creating restrictions, which means scar tissue: that's the nagging neck pain or achy hip. Once tissues around the joints are overstretched, they act more like a dried-up, overused rubber band.
The kind of stretching we do stays out of the joints (where we generally become hypermobile); we work with shorter ranges of motion and we work with active effort and resistance. We get into the belly of the tissue (think the depths of your hamstring, quads, or traps, and imagine them strong and elastic, springy) and we don't hang out in the end range of motion where micro-tearing usually occurs. If you're not hypermobile and instead feel tight or even super tight, this work applies to you in the same way: resistance and elongation will make your tissue elastic. Everyone will gain a range that is functional, sustainable, and makes them feel comfortable in their body by harmonizing imbalances. And most importantly, if you follow the practice, this is safe and effective. This method alleviates scar tissue, densified fascia, and systemic stagnation for an almost immediate sense of improved mobility, tension relief, and nearly symmetrical posture. As a practitioner feels more open and spacious in their body, it impacts the health of the nervous system, relieving daily stress and eventually helping to resolve past traumas.
DailyOM: You integrate yoga and traditional Chinese medicine into this course. How does Chinese medicine come into play with our fascia?
BC: We use the Chinese medicine road map of the body to guide us along the fascial chains. Many folks postulate that it could be the fascial planes that form the channels in which the qi flows, also known as meridians. In other words, as we stretch, we are cleaning up the fascial pathways so the qi flow is more efficient, like taking the kinks out of the garden hose. From an observational standpoint, I find this to be true. Often if someone has scar tissue where the small intestine channel runs (along the back of the shoulder), they most often are having gut issues as well. If they get UTIs or have to urinate a lot, usually the fascia running along the bladder channel is dense and restrictive. If they're a mega worrier (me!), they might have tough tissue along their spleen channel. So we use the meridian road map to give us clues, like we are on a treasure hunt for healing. Applying the Chinese medicine road map can be a fun lens for more self-discovery along the road to wellness.
DailyOM: How have you laid out this course? What can students expect from the routines?
BC: I've laid out the course in 10 easy-to-follow videos, beginning with the basics and adding new routines as we go along, while reinforcing the basics and building a tool kit. By the end of 10 days, students will know how to address all the common problem areas of the body, as well as understanding the principles that will help their bodies going forward in life. I give people a plan to address posture, digestive health, stress, neck pain, and other common issues we all face daily. Students can expect that those stubborn areas of tightness that they have tried to change in the past without results will become less hard and dense, and they will begin to feel lighter, like weight was removed from the body, and like there is more space to breathe, which means they can relax more.
Students will start to feel more ease in their movements and more functional in day-to-day activities, like getting in and out of bed and the car, or picking up things off the floor; it's going to feel easier, and they will feel more graceful. After regular practice for a period of time, we often see improvements in organ function, like digestive health, lymph flow, and circulation. And students may find as they resolve the hard knots and dense fascia in their body that old memories may come up and old stresses and tension may fall away, which means they get to be more present in their bodies and in their lives, with less of the past literally dragging them down.
DailyOM: What kind of feedback have you had from students taking this course and working with their fascia?
BC: Many students tell me it has changed their life. For some, that can mean they don't get stomach aches, or they can move their shoulder again, or begin running or hiking, or not have lower back pain. Others get to feel less depressed or stressed. Some say they feel stronger, calmer, and more in balance. Some students have told me it helped them recover from illnesses. And they often say they have fun. They find it educational to finally understand the difference between being hyper flexible (not healthy) and truly flexible (healthy). I remember one person with pelvic floor dysfunction told me she finally gets to sleep through the night without waking up in pain. The list goes on!
Life is hard, internally and externally, and it throws us off balance, and we feel pain. We feel stuck. We feel tense. Our light goes out a little sometimes, but my students get to come home to their bodies, so the feedback is great. It keeps me teaching! After 10 days they stand taller, bend over easier, feel more relaxed, turn their head farther, touch their toes, or sleep better. It's all a blessing. Maybe the most fun piece of feedback is that many people after a class feel as though they've had a massage and workout in one.
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