This Thing Called Movement

Latest Episodes:

Syncing Movement & Nutrition with Women's Infradian Rhythm featuring Claudia Germuga Nov 27, 2020

Show notes

Claudia is a movement and breathwork facilitator based in Brooklyn, NY. She creates holistic movement programs designed to attend to our physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual levels of being, drawing from multiple certifications in health coaching, nutrition, meditation and breathwork combined with her expertise as a dancer and fitness instructor. Through her unique programming, Claudia encourages students to reclaim their individuality, honor their personal rhythms, and become mavericks of insight and creative power. Her experience includes a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts; Lagree Method Certification; Megaformer Pilates and SLT instructor; and Holistic Health Coach, Academy Healing Nutrition.

In this episode we discuss:

How women’s infradian rhythm (and, consequently, menstrual cycle) impact exercise and nutrition;
How the fitness and nutrition industry are centered on male studies and the 24-hour circadian clock;
Specific examples for how women can sync their movement and exercise routines with their menstrual cycle to improve health and vitality;
How Claudia’s experience with the eating disorder orthorexia and using fitness as a cathartic and emotional regulation outlet shaped her personal and professional approach to movement.

Connect with Claudia:

Connect with us:

Instagram: @evolna_

Marie's Instagram: @mariejanicek

Microdosing Movement to Improve our Longevity with Dan Tatton & John Sinclair from Seven Movements Nov 13, 2020

Show notes

Today’s guests are Dan Tatton and John Sinclair of Seven Movements, a health company utilizing the concept of microdosing movement as a long-term health intervention. Both Dan and John are elite performance and health coaches, authors and serial entrepreneurs.

They joined forces to found Seven Movements after Dan saw a problem in the fitness industry: it was leaving too many people behind. He was seeing a "successful" new exercise program or studio opening every week, yet, long-term population health indicators were all on the decline. He wanted to create a program that would help make it more convenient and simple for people to reach their exercise targets and focus on their long term health while creating healthy exercise behaviors. Dan connected with the best mind in exercise he knew, John Sinclair, and together they created Seven Movements.

John Sinclair is a Canadian health coach with over 20 years of experience, currently based in Florida. He is a performance coach for professional athletes and teams; international consultant for companies like Nike, VIPR PRO, HyperIce, IoM, SKLZ, 24HR Fitness, and Zumba; consultant for the Government of Singapore in the Health and Sport ministries; and performance coach for professional athletes and teams.

Dan Tatton is also a Canadian health coach with over 16 years of experience, who has co-founded multiple companies including Seven Movements, GRIT Performance, and Seven Days Healthy. He is a graduate of the University of Alberta with a Bachelor’s Degree in both Education and Physical Education. Dan puts a focus on long term health outcomes and introducing fitness and health to those who are struggling most. He is obsessed with making healthy behaviors, simple, long-lasting, and effective.

In this episode we discuss:

What microdosing movement means and why it matters;
How popularized fitness and exercise are actually reducing our lifespan and longevity;
The gaps between health, fitness, and medicine, debunking many of our assumptions and beliefs around exercise;
Relevant scientific evidence and practical advice to help steer our choices in healthier directions.

Resources:

Seven Movements Website

Seven Movements Facebook

Seven Movements Instagram

Scientific study citing long-term health outcome of sitting time vs exercising once per day

Connect with us:

Evolna's website

Instagram: @evolna_

Facebook

Marie's Instagram: @mariejanicek

Power of Music on Mental Health with Jamie Pabst, Founder & CEO of Spiritune Oct 23, 2020

Show notes

Jamie Pabst is the Founder & CEO of Spiritune, a music-based app that utilizes principles of neuroscience and music therapy to reimagine music for health outcomes such as stress reduction, emotional regulation, productivity and performance. Jamie has always been fascinated by sound’s healing potential and devotes herself to helping others receive its many benefits. She also DJs and produces events to highlight the powerful connections between music and health.

What we discussed in today's interview:

How noise pollution affects us and how music functions as an antidote to restore balance to our brains and bodies
Jamie’s personal self-care journey in motherhood and quarantine
Mental health, debunking its stigma and the changing landscape on becoming more accessible for all

Jamie is a brilliant visionary, a curious intellectual, and deeply thoughtful and warm human being. I’m honored to have her as a guest sharing her insights with you all!

Connect with Jamie & Spiritune:

Connect with us:

Evolna's Instagram: @evolna_

Evolna's Facebook

Marie's Instagram: @mariejanicek

Cultivating Compassion, Resilience & Connection with Shweta Bhatt Oct 09, 2020

Show notes

Shweta Bhatt is a personal transitions coach helping others navigate significant life changes. After 6 years of working in finance with Fortune 100 executives and billion dollar budgets, Shweta realized her true calling was in helping people find more compassion, connection, and resilience within themselves as they navigate significant life changes. She uses her innate magic of storytelling alongside the personality science of human design to help others find clarity within chaos, and it was such a pleasure to connect with her in our conversation here.

We discussed her pillars of compassion, resilience, and connection- her discovery of them and how she utilizes them in her day to day life, along with how discomfort functions as internal alchemy to help us forge our inner power, and finally, we focussed on the potency of the phrase “i’m here”, and how this gentle reminder can quickly help us connect to ourselves, our bodies, and the present moment as is. You can deeply feel Shweta’s love of the process of transformation in every word, and we are so fortunate to share her soothing guidance with you all!

Connect with Shweta:

Instagram: @beadsofshwet

Connect with us:

Instagram: @evolna_

Marie's Instagram: @mariejanicek

Balancing Masculine vs Feminine Energy in Movement with Paul Newell Sep 25, 2020

Show notes

Paul Newell is a Life Movement Practitioner, Guide and Mentor, as well as a Men’s Wellness Facilitator. By combining his experience in Corporate America with the fitness/wellness industry and energetic awareness, Paul works with individuals and communities to enhance fulfillment and connection. As he practices presence, he applies multiple disciplines to engage learners to tap into their unique greatness and passion. His guidance and encouragement has others transcend their stories and traumas to align to their purpose and contribution.

He’s incredibly passionate about paying attention to the details of how we relate to everything in life. Much like me, Paul spends a lot of time researching energy, practices and philosophy around spirituality, making his own inner work a consistent priority.

We talked about how his recent double hip replacement surgery reshaped his awareness of movement basics (like walking and breathing); the dynamic interplay between masculine and feminine energy and how to explore both within our movement practices; and the powerful importance of slowing down. This episode is rich with Paul’s integrated wisdom and we are thrilled to be able to share his insights with you all!

References:

Animal Flow

Yirser Ra Hotep- Kemetic Yoga

King Warrior Magician Lover (Book Reference)

Connect with Paul:

Instagram

Facebook

Juice Dreams Instagram

Connect with us:

Instagram: @evolna_

Join our Private Community Group

Marie's Instagram: @mariejanicek

Building Community through Movement & Vulnerability with Echoed Voices Sep 11, 2020

Show notes

Echoed Voices is a Greenpoint, Brooklyn-based community organization that began with a simple idea to clean the neighborhood. It has quickly grown into a large community with a greater mission to inspire and connect individuals to themselves and their communities at large.

I sat down with its co-founders, Christina Émilie and Cristhian Chaparro, to discuss how Echoed Voices began during quarantine and quickly gained momentum, the importance of vulnerability and self-compassion to grow and come together as a community, and how movement plays a role in the process.

Christina Émilie considered New York home before moving from her hometown in Pittsburgh, PA. For her, the city called her in a non-negotiable way, to discover deeper meaning in her purpose. During a commissioned photo shoot in Africa for a mission-based brand, she was exposed to an environment that provoked her perspective and impact as a fashion photographer. This experience was the seed and start of the desire to move into humanitarian work. With the values and beliefs Echoed Voices has been created on, its goal is to impact and provide meaningful ways to connect to each other.

Cristhian Chaparro was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. He came to New York 10 years ago with the purpose to make a change, spent his time studying business and working in the service industry. Now he's invested in working on his organization, Echoed Voices. He sees this as an opportunity to connect people to themselves and to their communities.

Resources:

Connect with us:

Instagram: @evolna_

Marie's Instagram: @mariejanicek

Power of Simplicity & Service with Gary Stockdale Aug 28, 2020

Show notes

Gary Stockdale is a kinesiologist, functional movement and aquatic specialist based in Thousand Oaks, California, who devotes his practice to changing the relationships people have with their bodies. Gary has developed a strong understanding of movement foundations, joint mobility, functional gait and running mechanics. I'm thrilled to be able to bring Gary back on here with us for a second conversation! We have linked his first episode below in case you haven’t tuned in.

We discussed the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on us as humans, as fitness professionals and on the world at large, and the heightened awareness we are all experiencing in body, mind and society as a result of the virus. We also dug into the power of simplicity, and the important distinction between self-sacrifice and service. Gary is wise, introspective and thoughtful with his words and practice, and we are excited to share this conversation with you!

Connect with Gary

Instagram: @gfunctional

Youtube Channel

Gary's Season 1 Interview on This Thing Called Movement

Connect with us

Evolna's website

Newsletter

Instagram: @evolna_

Facebook

Join our Private Community Group

Marie's Instagram: @mariejanicek

Moving through Energy & Black Creativity with Candace Tabbs Aug 14, 2020

Show notes

Candace Tabbs is a dancer and fitness professional whom Marie met studying Dance at Barnard College, Columbia University. Marie later got to know her work more deeply teaching together at Liberated Movement in NYC. Candace is soulful, wise, and has a beautiful way of helping people feel safe and supported in her presence.

Given their similar backgrounds, Marie and Candace explore how the coronavirus pandemic has shifted their relationship to movement both personally and for the people they work with. The strong surge of the Black Lives Movement is examined in-depth, considering the tough questions on how to eradicate the insidious threads of racism through education, kind listening, and celebration of black ingenuity and creativity. Above all, the interview explores just how interwoven self-care, rest, and joy are into resisting oppression and creating positive change.

Connect with Candace

Personal Instagram: @i_candance

Fitness Instagram: @candacet_fitness

Connect with us

Instagram: @evolna_

Join our Private Community Group

Marie's Instagram: @mariejanicek

Interview References

Liberated Movement dance classes

Robert Battle, Choreographer:

https://www.alvinailey.org/alvin-ailey-american-dance-theater/robert-battle

https://youtu.be/e7pEV9eyYyE

On Rest as Resistance, The Nap Ministry

Black Joy Video, Bbygrl by Thomeography

JK Rowling’s Harvard Commencement Speech

Preparing for the Unpredictable with Annie Vo Jul 12, 2019

Show notes

Annie Vo is a highly accredited fitness professional and a true veteran in the field. She has taken on many leadership roles during her career, including business founder and owner, Senior Instructor of RKC and Team Leader for PCC, and also services clients through her private personal training business in NYC. She is also studying for a master’s degree in Experimental Psychology. I have the deepest respect for Annie; she is such a devout professional in her work and is so authentically committed to honing her craft in as many facets and possible, and I am honored that she devoted her time to record with me and share her story here.

In this episode we discussed Annie’s induction into fitness, her relationships with different fitness modalities, specifically weight lifting and kettlebells, and most uniquely a recent unexpected and unfortunate attack she suffered this past year in NYC. This gave us both a very different lens to explore and unpack her movement history, how movement has influenced her life, and got us talking about the complexities of confrontation and aggression in social situations. One of my favorite takeaways was Annie’s explanation of how to manage our time, focus, and effort, and how these resources are always being shifted into different parts of our lives depending on the choices we make in allocating them.

To connect further with Annie and to learn more her work, you can contact her through her website or Dragon Door, both of which are listed below:

www.annievo.com

www.dragondoor.com

Lastly- be sure to share this episode with friends if you enjoyed listening, and of course please leave us a review if you liked what you heard!

Unsustainable Nature of the Fitness Industry with Jason Hamera May 24, 2019

Show notes

Jason Hamera is the Director of Education for Procedos, a training system based on increasing variability within movement patterns. He is highly intelligent, studiously thoughtful in all the choices he makes, and takes on his role as a leader in the fitness industry with great integrity and humility. His passion regarding the value of education and understanding how to improve the ways we share, teach, and expand knowledge is contagious, and I am thrilled to share Jason’s brilliance with you all in the conversation we created here.

We discussed the importance of honoring both sides of the spectrum of movement and exercise, understanding the relevance of both, and developing the sensitivity to shift along the scale between the two to reinforce one another. We also spoke of the distinction between the subjective experience of the professional/practitioner, versus objective observables within movement and exercise. And finally, my favorite point Jason honed in on is the difference between instruction and education, and how education is the self-sustaining model that the fitness industry is currently missing. These are just a few of the many topics covered here, and I hope you all enjoy tuning into this episode as much as I did recording it.

To connect further with Jason and to learn more his work, you can check out his Instagram or contact him directly through the email addresses listed below:

Instagram:

@jason_hamera

Email:

jason@procedos.com

Jason.hamera@gmail.com

Lastly- be sure to share this episode with friends if you enjoyed listening, and of course please leave us a review if you liked what you heard!