Pain & Performance Solutions: Julian Corwin, CSCS, CMT

Beliefs are stored in our brain, much like memories - but different in important ways. Think of this portion of your brain like a walled garden - intruders are not welcome. Furthermore it’s defended by a guard dog (your amygdala, the central governor of negative emotions). If you have gone through life disregarding religious ideas, but find yourself angry, resentful, anxious, or afraid - consider that you haven’t adequately tended to your garden. The walls are falling apar...t, weeds are growing within, and the guard dog is exhausted yet barking constantly. Examine the beliefs you guard by investigating their opposites. The beliefs that serve you best will serve you now, tomorrow, and next year - and be good for you, your family, and your community. Removing the weeds is hard work and will give you an empty feeling - but it’s your best option. See more

Fatherhood is an incredible gift. Before having my son I used to think of it as a sort of duty. Some kind of egalitarian transaction where I give my effort and time so someone else can have a life. Now I understand it to be a gift to me, more so than a gift to my son. He loves me unconditionally, is excited to be with me and wants to hear what I can teach him. He forgives me my mistakes and rewards me for being honest and transparent. He looks to me for guidance and protectio...n, and knows that I accept him for what he is but that it is my duty to encourage and discipline him to fulfill his potential, whatever it may be. My deepest fear is losing him, but simultaneously I know that losing him I would never regret having and knowing him. I don’t mean to make it seem like sunshine and roses, it is difficult - and being a disciplinarian is challenging. Striving to be the best father you can be means facing the broken parts of yourself and fixing them....or to paraphrase Jung: That which you most need to know is hiding where you least want to look See more

Life is a journey, and one that sometimes requires a leap of faith into the unknown - as depicted in the fool. He/she gazes upwards towards the heavens (ultimate ideal) while stepping into the abyss (deepest fear). A client of mine struggled with one of her at-home assignments as it caused discomfort. Discomfort can sometimes lead to pain, but not always. But when most of your experiences of discomfort lead to pain, it’s no wonder the two can be confused . I asked her to trust in the process and courageously do them despite what she felt. She reported the next week no numbness, no pain while standing, and able to walk farther before experiencing pain

11 each side . Downward slope on this playground provided a little help, but not as much as the driveway - lost balance a couple times. Also the video gets cut to 1minute so you’ll just have to trust me #pistolsquat #quarantinelife

Dude knows how to chill. #otter

10 each side, at rep 9 I was ready to call it. Guess social media can be performance enhancing . Cameo from #pistolsquat #quarantinelife

Latest gem found while reading. Your amygdala (primitive survival part of the brain) writes implicit (unconscious) memories into the brain about traumatic or stressful situations. A different part of the brain (hippocampus) writes your explicit memories. Explicit memories are the ones you can voluntarily recall, and are always being rewritten as you process the event. The rewriting helps you learn and create a coherent narrative (hopefully) around the event so you can avoid t...he situation in the future - but it also means we suck at accurate recollection. this also means you can claim something doesn’t stress you out or affect you anymore (explicit memories have evolved to create a tenable story) while your amygdala-written memories have an entirely different story to tell. The first mammalian instinct is not just fight or flight, but also to freeze. Chronic muscle tension is an artifact of this freeze response. #bodywork #neurology #worksmarternotharder See more

After some spinal compression injuries I struggled to find a go-to exercise. Something that doesn’t take a lot of willpower to do, is short, but challenging and satisfying. Think I may have found it . 9 on each side...gonna see how many I can get up to by the time social distancing is over.

Probably the only sure fire way to get me to hold a plank #tbt #4yearsago #3yearolds

When you’re bored, want to workout, yet feel unmotivated...you can always commit to sharing a short video of a max rep effort to instagram . 7 pistols each side at the end of the driveway to make them a little less about balance and dorsiflexion and more about the work. Hope all of you are safe and using this time to make things better for yourself - by learning or reading or getting in shape or cleaning your food choices or cooking more or all the other myriad of ways we can better ourselves. The financial hit we face is a relative certainty, what is uncertain is -as Gandalf would say- is what you do with the time that is given to you

Emotion circuits in the mammalian brain as identified in Jaak Panksepp’s book Affective Neuroscience. To understand pain, we need to begin to understand the place where it is experienced - the brain. Pain originating from one of these circuits is often referred to as #biopsychosocial. This might make you think a problem here needs psychotherapy or physical therapy, but a simple 2minute cognitive exercise coupled with the right area of the body will suffice.

Despite the power outage, most of my clients wanted to continue with their appointments today. Plenty of natural light. And while the fancy tech like the force plate and #vasper are offline - all healing the body is capable of remains safe within.

We are told that the mind and the body are connected - but we are not told how deeply they are connected. On the surface level, we can control our body and feel things that happen to it this connection is obvious and everyone knows it to be true. At the next level, we know that our stress response affects our body. We might get an email from our boss and have a stress response, which leads to poor health. Most people know this to be true, but might not know what to do about... it. The next level is the emotional-physical level. Most have never heard of it, nor would the immediately believe it. Our stream of thoughts carries with it emotional themes, themes which can have a profound effect on the physical body. Compartmentalization of emotions creates a compensation pattern that recruits our organs, which in turn recruits the musculotskeletal system. Ever hear of someone with ulcers who suffers from anxiety? The stomach’s VRP’s are being recruited to help deal with the anxiety. How does this effect us physically? Ever had a stomach ache and notice how it’s difficult to breathe into your stomach or extend your spine? This client’s only treatment was for the emotion dread and she experienced a profound shift in how her body manages her center of mass. I have dozens of examples of shifts like this, where the only intervening treatments were cognitive/emotional in nature. My purpose in writing this is to impart the importance of our mental health, and its profound connections to the physical body. #meditation #mindfulness #physicaltherapy #sonoma #health

Sometimes you get these messages, and they are awesome and uplifting. But one thing I have learned is to not ride the ups and not ride the downs. People will heal, it is my job to try and facilitate that in the best possible way. Whether it takes one session or dozens, I always ask myself what I could’ve done better. What other pathways to healing did I not show? What possibilities am I missing because I have not personally experienced them? I am thankful for the injuries I have experienced as they have helped me learn so much.