Fitness
**Movement Logic: Strong Opinions, Loosely Held**

Welcome to the Movement Logic Podcast, with yoga teacher and strength coach Laurel Beversdorf, and physical therapist Dr. Sarah Court. With over 30 years combined experience in the yoga, movement and physical therapy worlds, we believe in strong ideas, loosely held – which means we’re not hyping outdated movement concepts. Instead, we’re here with up-to-date and cutting-edge tools, evidence and ideas to help you as a mover and a teacher. Music: Makani by Scandinavianz & AXM

Latest Episodes:

59: Are You Certain You Need Certifications? Oct 18, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to our supersized Episode 59 of the Movement Logic podcast and the final episode of Season 3! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah discuss certifications for movement professionals. Are they necessary? Are they useful? Do they help promote you, or just the brand? Should you be focusing on it so much?

You will learn:

Do certifications in the movement industry function to a means to ensure quality control and accountability the way that the equivalent does in a regulated industry
Do the tests measure meaningful and important qualities of a movement teacher or do they measure what is easy to measure
What are some drawbacks to certifications
What are some positive aspects of certifications
The differences between regulated and unregulated industries
Does promoting a course as ‘safe’ require any proof in an unregulated industry?
Can a certification course really claim to be a safer form of movement than any other?
Why are many teachers looking for certification in their continuing education classes?
The value of longer form, apprentice/student to teacher/mentor relationship versus a weekend training
That Yoga Alliance is not the evil overlord that so many seem to think it is
Does having letters after your name make you more credible or trustworthy?

Episode 48: Alignment Dogma - Pelvis

Episode 54: Alignment Dogma - Spine

Episode 58: Alignment Dogma - Shoulders

Visit our website www.movementlogictutorials.com for more paid and free education!

Get on our mailing list to be kept in the know about upcoming courses.

58: Alignment Dogma - Shoulders Oct 11, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Season 3 and Episode 59 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah discuss dogmatic beliefs and myths around the shoulders from the yoga, Pilates, and strength training worlds. We also discuss how given the fact that shoulder joint is a “complex” of many bones and joints, it’s much more useful that teachers keep their approach to teaching this area as simple as possible (and stop micro-managing their students shoulders!)

You will learn:

The bones and joints of the shoulder joint complex
Mant shoulder “fun facts”
The directions of movement of the shoulder
What horizontal abduction and adduction are
What scapular tilt/winging is and why it’s not a problem
How scapular movement often mirrors where we are reaching our hand to
What scapulohumeral rhythm is
That the shoulder blade’s path across the rib cage is curvilinear.
Simplifying how we talk about shoulder movement and function to either a push or a pull.
The relationship between shoulder posture and alignment and shoulder pain and injury
How it’s hard to think scientifically and very human to think un-scientifically
Why “shoulders back and down” is often (but not always!) an inefficient and counter-productive way to cue the shoulders
Why micromanaging shoulder posture doesn’t change posture long term.
Why “fixing” someone’s alignment in chaturanga doesn’t help them acquire the strength they’d need to build to be able to do chaturanga with optimal alignment
How scapular dyskinesis and scapular winging are different
The fine line between using movement to solve movement problems (which is inside of a movement teacher’s scope of practice) and then diagnosing problems for students and prescribing movement to fix it (which is outside of a yoga teacher’s scope of practice.)
How upper and lower cross syndrome is an outdated (but still very influential) model for explaining posture and offering solutions to that posture.

Visit our website www.movementlogictutorials.com for more paid and free education!

Get on our mailing list to be kept in the know about upcoming courses.

Check out our Movement Logic Shoulders Tutorial

Shoulder Girdle Video

Note: we cannot source the origin of this video. If you know the origin, please let us know!

Arthroscopic subacromial decompression for subacromial shoulder pain… randomised surgical trial

Subacromial decompression surgery for rotator cuff disease

Acromiohumeral distance and supraspinatus tendon thickness in people with shoulder impingement syndrome…

Scapular dyskinesis

57: Move Over Big Boys. We Lift Heavy Too. Oct 04, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Episode 57 of the Movement Logic podcast. In this episode, Laurel and Sarah discuss the fact that lifting heavy is not automatically a strength sport and that more people would feel invited to lift heavy if the media didn’t fixate so much on barbells as equipment for large, young, competitive male lifters and instead represented people that look more like everyone else and shared goals beyond competitive ones.

You will learn:

The difference between powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, body-building, and lifting heavy weights.
Why large, young men are over-represented in the media’s depiction of lifting heavy weights, and how this has been a deterrent to other groups of people (especially older women) who potentially have more to gain from lifting heavy weights than large, young men do.
How competitive athletes often have to take their training to extreme levels, but how everyone else who wants to see enormous benefits to their health can train with a far more moderate approach.
Sarah and Laurel’s first impression of lifting heavy weights growing up.
How being an elite athlete can often mean sacrificing non-insignificant aspects of health.
How when women start lifting weights they also start saying no to toxic bullshit in their lives.
Risk of injury is often higher amongst more experienced/elite lifters.
How women’s fear of getting “bulky” is understandable given that in our patriarchal society, women are often rewarded for a small and thin appearance.
Ironically lifting heavy, despite what conventional wisdom might have us believe, is not typically the best way to bulk up.
Everyone assumes that old age means getting frail, gaining weight, and becoming less capable, but it absolutely does not need to.
Standing up out of a chair becomes a non-issue if older people are regularly squatting heavy.

A 4-Year Analysis of the Incidence of Injuries Among CrossFit-Trained Participants

Episode 1: Movement vs Exercise vs Sport

Episode 16: Training the Non-Traditional Athlete with Rosalyn Mayse, AKA Roz the Diva

Episode 45: Injury and Safety in Strength and Yoga

Episode 11: Let's Stop Fragilifying Older People Already

Does Menopause Cause Weight Gain?

56: Does Hypermobility Cause Osteoporosis? Sep 27, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Episode 56 of the Movement Logic podcast. In this episode, Sarah is talking about hypermobility, and what if any connection exists between hypermobility and osteoporosis.

You will learn:

Hypermobility, EDS, and Marfan’s Syndrome, explained
Is there any agreement in the research around hypermobility and osteoporosis
Why research quality always matters when we’re trying to determine a connection between conditions
What does ‘statistically significant’ mean and why it matters for research
What criteria matter when we’re looking at research studies
Why hypermobile people should be lifting heavy weights, regardless of what the research shows

Alison Lloyd Instagram

Prevalence of generalized joint hypermobility, musculoskeletal injuries, and chronic musculoskeletal pain among American university students

Beighton Scale

Hospital Del Mar Scale

Ehlers-Danlos Society

The Marfan Foundation

Hypermobility syndrome increases the risk for low bone mass

The Relationship of Joint Hypermobility, Bone Mineral Density, and Osteoarthritis in the General Population:The Chingford Study

Ultrasonographic, axial, and peripheral measurements in female patients with benign hypermobility syndrome

Bone Disease in Patients with Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes

55: How to Start (and Teach) Strength Training Sep 20, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Episode 55 of the Movement Logic podcast. In this episode, Laurel answers two questions that she gets regularly from folks online. They are: How can I get started with strength training? And, how can I “learn more about” strength training? Spoiler: the best way to get started with strength training (the doing and the teaching) is by…wait for it…strength training!

In this episode you will learn:

The three most important elements of strength training—exercise technique, programming, and coaching.
Why yoga and Pilates teachers are already generally well-versed in exercise technique, but without the added component of external load and the goal of strength.
Yoga and Pilates teachers are typically not well-versed in programming, which is how we apply the principle of progressive overload to work toward building strength.
Coaching is key for deep understanding of both exercise technique and programming.
Laurel’s evolution from teaching yoga to becoming a strength coach.
The plusses, minuses and trade-offs of DIY program templates, group classes, one-on-ones, and more.
How yoga and Pilates teachers are accustomed to learning in a live, follow along format, and given then, how it can be a rude awakening to discover that programs in strength are often delivered in PDF format and personal trainer certifications mostly ask you to read a textbook and pass a test.
Why personal trainer certifications do not provide very much practical know-how for how to be a personal trainer.
How the Bone Density Course: Lift for Longevity delivers on the three most important elements of getting started with strength and learning about strength training—exercise technique, programming, and coaching.
How the CSCS is widely considered the gold standard of personal trainer certifications but that it almost exclusively caters to competitive athletes (who make up a fraction of people who resistance train.)
How being a dedicated student of the thing you eventually want to teach is the most valuable way to prepare yourself to actually teach something.
How strength is defined, the systems in the body involved, and what the main adaptations (or changes) to your body are when you build strength.
That we can be strong in many ways,so it’s helpful to have a specific performance goal.
Why specific, performance goals are the best way to reach health and aesthetic goals.

Sign up for our free info session all about our Bone Density Course: Lift for Longevity Thursday, Sep. 22nd 12 PT/ 3 ET

Sign up for our Bone Density Course: Lift for Longevity before the October 8th deadline! We won’t be offering this for another year.

The NSCA textbook is used to study for the CSCS - Essentials of Strength and Conditioning

Effect of Online Home-Based Resistance Exercise Training on Physical Fitness, Depression, Stress…

Association of Efficacy of Resistance Exercise Training With Depressive Symptoms…

54: Alignment Dogma - Spine Sep 13, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Season 3 and Episode 54 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah discuss dogmatic beliefs and myths around the lower back, upper back, and neck from the yoga, Pilates, and strength training worlds.

You will learn:

That the spine is made up of over 360 joints so maybe we should move it in all the ways (instead of keep it neutral all the time).
That people are really bad at determining what position the spine is in just by observing (says research).
That movement variety and movement preparation > “fixing” someone's alignment in a movement.
Most yoga teachers never learn how to help their students progressively overload the strength they'd need to actually do the poses they teach.
Pain causes people to adopt certain postures, but then what happens is people often flip this in their mind and say that it's the person's suboptimal posture that caused them the pain.
Posture neither causes nor predicts pain (says science.)
Lumbar flexion is demonized while sitting (don’t schlump) or bending forward (don’t round your back!) but research has been unable to connect flexing the lumbar spine in these scenarios with low back pain or injury.
Deadlifting and squatting have been fearmongered to people who flex their lumbar spines in these exercises, but laboratory equipment has shown that even when it looks like someone has a neutral spine in these exercises, their lumbar spine is actually quite flexed.
Any exercise is better than no exercise for low back pain, but no particular exercise is better than any other for low back pain.
Why thoracic/upper back “hyper” kyphosis (a rounded upper back) is not a pathology.
That back-bending is probably just flat bending in the thoracic spine.
That “tech neck” does not predict neck pain.
The neck is not a crane, and so we cannot apply the same physics to predict how a forward neck will respond to holding the load of the head forward of the body that we’d use to predict how a crane will respond to holding a load forward of its foundation.
People who force their necks to be neutral have more pain than people with tech neck posture.

Research mentioned in this episode:

Spinal Degeneration in Asymptomatic Populations

Intervertebral disc herniation: studies on a porcine model

To flex or not to flex? Is there a relationship between lumbar spine flexion during lifting and low back pain?

Arthrogenic neuromusculature inhibition: A foundational investigation of existence in the hip joint

Effects of load on good morning kinematics and EMG activity

Posture and time spent using a smartphone are not correlated with neck pain

Is neck posture subgroup in late adolescence a risk factor for persistent neck pain in young adults?

53: Your Bones Are Bored Sep 06, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Episode 53 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Sarah and Laurel dissect a few research papers that studied the effects of various rest periods between loading bone, and how these rest periods can impact the efficacy of our bone density building.

You will learn:

Osteoblasts and osteoclasts, defined
Why bone building reminds Sarah of Fraggle Rock
What does your bones’ mechanosensitivity have to do with its response to load
Why bone cells remind Laurel of herself (they’re easily bored)
What parameters create an osteogenic response in bone cells
Why yoga, Pilates, and other bodyweight exercise will never be enough to generate progressive bone building
What makes a good study (hint: having a control group matters)
What is cellular accommodation and why does it rely on path dependence
Where bones get the most input for the changes they make
How do we take advantage of periodization and programming for greatest effect
What is a training block and how should you use it for your workouts

Cellular accommodation and the response of bone to mechanical loading

Mechanosensitivity of the rat skeleton decreases after a long period of loading, but is improved with time off

Recovery periods restore mechanosensitivity to dynamically loaded bone

52: What Stopped You from Lifting - 7 Guests Share their Stories Aug 30, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 52 of the Movement Logic podcast. In this episode, Laurel and Sarah are joined by seven other guests for a panoramic, multi-perspective answer to the question “why don't more women lift weights?” Our seven guests (all of whom are movement professionals) weigh in on their previous objections to strength training. Of course they also share their impetus for starting to lift, and how it changed their lives.

Our guests on Instagram:

Maryann Thompson @maryannthomsonpilates

Diana Romero @insprana.yoga

Naomi Gottlieb-Miller @conscioushealthymama

Lisa Schwarcz Zlotnick @lisazlotnick

Kathy Dodd @kdnaturalyoga

Trina Altman @trinaaltman

Alex Ellis on Instagram @hollaformala on Tik Tok @aewellness

Episode 47: Our Oopsie Stories from the Teaching Trenches

Sarah’s barbell equipment Post 1 and Post 2 on Instagram

Books about fitness culture:

Deconstructing the Fitness-Industrial Complex: How to Resist, Disrupt, and Reclaim What It Means to Be Fit in American Culture

Butts: A Backstory

Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession

51: Persistent Myths About Osteoporosis Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Episode 51 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah discuss myths around osteoporosis and osteopenia, including why yoga and Pilates are poor choices for bone building (yes, we’ll talk about THAT study, again) and ultimately how weight training and impact training are both safe options when applied with the proper dosage and programming.

You will learn:

Osteoporosis and osteopenia, defined
Why so many people with osteoporosis are afraid of falling
What the fear-mongering messaging around osteoporosis is disempowering people with osteoporosis
Why strength training is not only tolerable for people with osteoporosis, it’s essential
How no progressive overload in weight training is like staying in kindergarten forever
Why the myth that yoga reverses osteoporosis from the Fishman study prevails to this day, and why this is proof that we need to keep a critical eye about research
Why the Fishman paper does not prove what it claims to prove
How yoga asana might help bone density for a very short time, but strength and impact training are your best bets overall
What is cellular accommodation and what does it mean for your bone density building
Types of movement classes for osteoporosis and their respective claims around their safety and efficacy
Is Osteosteong a good choice to build bone density?
Do Osteostrong’s claims match up with what research has found so far?

And more!

Episode 5 Does Yoga Asana Build Bone Density?

Episode 38 Got Bones? Yoga Asana Isn’t Enough

Twelve-Minute Daily Yoga Regimen Reverses Osteoporotic Bone Loss

https://osteostrongla.com/

BonES Lab at University of Waterloo Video Questions Efficacy of Osteostrong Program

Is OSTEOSTRONG Misleading Vulnerable People Regarding Claims of High Increases in Bone Density?

High-Intensity Resistance and Impact Training Improves Bone Mineral Density and Physical Function in Postmenopausal Women With Osteopenia and Osteoporosis: The LIFTMOR Randomized Controlled Trial

50: Bracing versus Breathing Aug 16, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Laurel and Sarah discuss bracing and breathing. Why are we all so confused about our breathing mechanics and convinced we’re doing it wrong, no matter what we’re doing? When is the right (and wrong) time to brace when lifting something? What’s the difference between bracing and bearing down? And is navel to spine even doing what we think it’s doing?

You will learn:

Is there a right and a wrong way to breathe
How social media influences our sense of right and wrong breathing
Breathing vs bracing in yoga, Pilates, and strength training
Common postural tension that can impact breathing
Sarah’s favorite injury
How Sarah teaches breathing in the clinic
Anatomy of breathing
What bracing for a heavy lift actually entails (hint: it’s not bearing down)
When to use bracing in strength training
The value of trunk stability and what navel to spine is actually doing
Whether pranayama techniques should be done all the time
How to cue diaphragmatic breathing
Whether pranayama is the most efficient way to challenge the cardiovascular system and increase breath capacity