The Influence Health

Should i make this a series?
I’ve been a personal trainer and chronic illness movement coach for over 10 years. Here are 5 important things I’ve learned about exercising with chronic health issues:

1. Pain & fatigue will stop you in your tracks & make you fear attempting any mvmt. But movement is vital to decreasing pain, fatigue, & helping you become more functional

2. Exercise can look like anything. Movement is relative to YOU. The smallest of movements count (including just wiggling fingers in bed)

3. Never neglect the power of the mind! The mind-muscle connection! Can’t move? visualize muscles contracting or your body going through a movement. These visualizations can build neural connections & strength!

4. You know your body better than anyone else! LISTEN TO IT! Don’t let anyone push you beyond your limits, always tell your coach what is/isn’t working for you, & make sure to work with people who resonate with you. One of the big things I work on with my clients is helping them listen to their bodies & become more confident in doing so. I rarely provide super strict rules on programming, reps, rest etc because I want my clients to tune into their bodies & move in ways that feel appropriate for them within certain guidelines

5. There is no one size fits all. Different coaches & programs will try to convince you that they’ve figured it all out & are the magic bullet for everyone. Everyone is different & there is nuance to each situation. Yeah, you probably do need movement & nervous system work & pain management, but you probably need a little of each in a protocol for your condition. Something I never claim to do is be the end all, be all. I’m a piece of the puzzle that can help you feel better!

Do you have hyper mobility? Feel like your anxiety levels are higher than the norm? They might be
At this point, it’s been well documented that those with hyper mobility disorders tend to have higher anxiety levels. Those with EDS etc have been found to have higher levels of interoceptive awareness. This means higher levels of being in tune with & sensing what is going on INSIDE your body. Your proprioceptive system is like “what is happening with my joints?!” This means a couple of things:

First of all, you are better at sensing stability discrepancies due to lax ligaments, so your body will send more concerning signals up to your brain if it feels like you aren’t stabilizing well. These more fear-based signals will in turn trigger an anxiety response
Second, many with connective tissue disorders struggle with POTS. Lax connective tissue in the blood vessels means a lesser ability of blood vessels to constrict upon standing (to pump blood up to the head), leading to an increased heart rate to manage that drop in blood pressure. This can trigger some anxiety in itself, but this racing heart response can also be misinterpreted as anxiety by the brain since there isn’t necessarily an obvious external trigger
Your body kind of tricks you into anxiety in one sense, but the anxiety can also be coming from a very legitimate place in another sense, given what we know about biology & our body wanting to feel safe internally AND externally!
Mindful exercise can help b/c physically strengthening the body to stabilize will let the body know it is stable & okay. Plus, working on core & lower body strength can help pump the blood back up to the heart to regulate BP & HR. We also want to work on learning to tune in to proper bodily signals & understand why we may be feeling a certain interoceptive signal so we can consciously let the brain know what’s going on & that it’s okay
Found this intriguing? Not sure where to start? My TIH Basic Strength program is EDS & POTS friendly & will help you build that foundational strength + stability to feel healthier & more capable in your body! Click the link in my bio for more info to get started
Citations in comments

Skeletal muscle affects the function of other organs in the body and optimizes health! But skeletal muscle has to be activated in order to do that
The contraction of skeletal muscle (via exercise!) helps regulate inflammation, metabolism, suppression of tumor growth, cognitive function, and more! As we age, we often become more at risk for many diseases like cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancers. One of the reasons for that is the natural age related decline in skeletal muscle tissue (called sarcopenia). That loss of muscle tissue, and increased inactivity, is part of what allows inflammation and fat gain to occur and increase our risk for disease, as described above
It’s pretty impressive the importance and impact of our actual muscle tissue, if you ask me. Movement and exercise are absolutely vital pieces of maintaining and improving our health, along with other healthy habits, of course. So, if you are stuck thinking exercise is only about aesthetics or you can’t exercise because you can’t do some crazy, intense workout you see online, I want to help you reframe those thoughts, let me help movement work for you so you can reap all the healing benefits necessary to improve and optimize health!
Want to read some research? Check out the studies I’ll have cited in the comments