Your Pelvic Floor "Power Source": The Hidden Key to Ignite Your Core, Empower Your Body, Release Stress, and Realign Your Life.

On this episode of the Ben Greenfield.

Fitness Podcast, the key is to really become more in tune with what our bodies are telling us. I always think of pain as, like, a way to reframe. It's communication. It's our body asking for awareness, attention, and communication. How are we going to have really powerful strength from the inside out unless we can learn how to let go and then we can contract and so much more powerful strength comes. They cannot even squeeze their pelvic floor. They can't really even feel their psoas. It's incredible how disconnected people are.

Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show. Well, howdy, howdy ho. I had the immense pleasure today to be able to interview a woman. Shocker. I know, like, 90% of my guests on this show seem to be dudes. I don't know why that is. It's not on purpose. It just seems like a lot of the guys I interview are dudes. It's kind of a sausage fest around here. But not today. My guest today is Lauren Roxburgh, and she. Roxburgh? Roxburgh. I don't know. But anyways, we talked about this new book that she wrote called the Power Source. And if you have issues with pelvic floor alignment, maybe constipation or. Or prolapse or bowel issues, or psoas tightness or abdominal activation, or you feel like your Kegels could use a little upgrade, this show's for you. You're going to dig it. All right, folks, I recently read a book that I thought was really good and that delves into something I haven't had a chance to explore in quite some time on the podcast. It was probably way back when I interviewed biomechanist Katie Bowman up in Seattle and about the biomechanics of not just the entire body, but specifically the pelvic floor and kind of her take on Kegel exercises. And, you know, we had a great discussion, but really didn't get into a thorough treatise of the pelvic floor. And the fact that that is such an issue for so many people, it's the root of so many people's issues. Obviously, when you look at functional medicine, the gut is the root of all issues. When you look at holistic dentistry, they'll. The mouth is the root of all issues. But a lot of biomechanists, and myself included, think that the pelvic floor is at least pretty damn high up on the totem pole as far as something that you should be addressing and taking care of. But it's like this mysterious area that massage therapists don't like to touch or go near and that we often see anatomical posters of on the wall while we scratch our heads and try to figure out which ligament is connecting to which pelvic bone. And so what I decided to do was get the author of this brand new book on my show. So the book is called the Power Source, and the power source is, of course, your pelvic floor. The power source, the hidden key to ignite your core, empower your body, release stress, and realign your life. Now, before we jump in, I want to let you guys know I've mentioned this briefly in the past on podcasts, but I raced Ironman triathlon for, like 10 years. I did a ton of chronic, repetitive endurance activities without addressing my pelvic floor, my deep core, attention to the tightness of my psoas, my iliacus muscles, etc. And as a result of that, I have had to deal with over the past four years or so, everything from extreme psoas, tightness and the need to learn how to release all of that, and a bunch of hip flexor and glute issues related to that. I have had to deal with prolapse issues. I've had to deal with chest, breathing issues, a host of problems that I probably would never had countered had I not, or had I read this book at some point a lot earlier in my life. So the author is Lauren Roxburgh. Is it Roxburgh or Roxburgh Lauren?

It's actually. It's a Scottish name. It's Roxburgh, like Edinburgh. My husband's a Kiwi. Scottish Kiwi.

Lauren Roxburgh.

That's right.

Amazing. All right, cool. I'll quit talking like fat bastard and get back to the intro. So the book gets in the pelvic floor, the deep core, the upper core, and even some things you might not think are related to that, like the heart, the shoulders, the head, the neck, neck, the jaw. And so Mrs. Raxbarra is going to basically walk us through that and even how things like nutrition and vitamins and minerals and even your mind, your mantras, your visualizations result, or if I can talk today, corresponds to the pelvic floor. I didn't have my coffee this morning. Yeah, Corresponds decent. That's multisyllabatic. I forewent my morning cup of coffee and had cacao tea, which I like, and I mix it Chaga. So it's an amazing immune system tonic. And you get kind of this dopaminergic release. I use this stuff called my cacao. They're like raw cacao nibs and shells that you steep in hot water. And I put, you know, I put like ginger and cayenne and cinnamon and sea salt in there and then I pour that over the. The Four Sigmatic Chaga is almost like an immune and dopamine tonic, but it still doesn't spin the dials in your head like a nice big coffee. So.

So yeah, seriously.

So I'm stupid this morning, but we're gonna do this anyways.

It's all good.

I'm stupid, but I've got lots of good dopamine in my system and my immune system is boosted. So the pelvic floor, Lauren. Yes, you know, it's important, but. And this is obviously going to be a question that will rabbit hole a little bit in terms of its importance. I would a like for you to describe for people, understand what exactly the pelvic floor is and then why it has such an impact on the rest of our body. Because you get into like how it impacts everything from a flat tummy and digestion, which is kind of intuitive, but then you also talk about things like jaw and head tightness, skin beauty, et cetera. So can you, can you do an explanation for us?

Yeah, I mean, I think really what it's come down to for me is there's not really been a great sort of, you know, certification or schooling around this. So I've sort of had to figure it out on my own and spending, you know, 20 years being a Pilates instructor and then a body worker and working with some of the top athletes on the planet and realizing that, wow, this is such an area that's barely talked about or even touched like you mentioned. So I guess for me I just started, I started actually doing the hands on body work and going into that area and realizing how connected it was to every other area in our body. So for me, the pelvic floor, basically what it is, it's a hammock of muscles, right? It connects our pubic bone, our tailbone and our sits bones. So I like to call it the pelvic core. It's the base of the core, the deep core, whatever you want to call it. Essentially it's an area that becomes very locked down and tight and clutched because of too much like subconscious stress energy that gets blocked in our base, which, you know, many people in the holistic world or in the spiritual world would call it the root chakra.

Okay, so that's, that's the root. That's what is a. The fourth is the root chakra.

The root chakra is actually it's the first one at the base. So it's the one we want to address. I mean, depends on who you talk to. Because some people say we have chakras in our feet. So I'm like. Or in our hands. But in the traditional, like, you know, chakra system, you know, that's out there right now that you can read about. Yeah, the root chakra is the first one and it's the one that we want to address from the beginning because it really does affect all the other ones. It's the foundation. So if it's not, you know, having good clean energy and having the ability to contract and expand and create space and heal, then it will lock down and become scarred up. And then that energy will just get stuck in the tissues. And it also will block the qi. It will block the ability to, you know, cleanse the system in a healthy way as well.

So it's both digestive function from like a, almost like a rectal colonic standpoint, but then it's also sexual function in terms of, of like prostate, orgasm, libido, erections, blood flow, et cetera. So it's kind of two different energy systems that would be affected if your pelvic floor is kind of either out of alignment or not cared for 100%.

And also it can even affect our guts, right, Our ability to digest food and even absorb nutrients. Because when it's stuck in clutch, it will then compress the organs as well. And it's directly connected to the diaphragm muscle, which is that dome shaped muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. And when those two are pulling together because of a contracted energy or collapsed energy and a stuck energy, then the organs are getting smushed as well. So then your body isn't going to be able to squeeze everything out of the food that we eat and even the emotional energy that we're trying to move through our guts to feel our gut instincts. And so when the pelvic floor is tight, it pulls the diaphragm down. And this can go both ways. And it essentially goes up into tightness in the shoulders and then a tightness in the jaw. And there's a fascial line. I mean, you guys know what fascia is? The connective tissue that wraps around our entire body like a full body wetsuit. It's kind of like a Saran Wrap, but it's also this matrix, this kind of living tapestry that sends energy through us. The nerves lie in the fascia, so do the lymph nodes, and so does the qi, the life force. So when the fascia is compressed in these areas, it becomes thick and dense. It loses, you know, blood flow, circulation, obviously, life force and qi. And then it creates that collapsing, contracted energy. And so that's why the jaw is directly connected. A lot of dentists will actually send their TMJ patients to pelvic floor therapists when they are realizing, like, it's actually coming from a totally different place in the body. So, but those. Those structures within the body, the pelvic floor, the diaphragm, the shoulders and the jaw and, you know, the cranium are directly connected and create such a. An impact on your overall health and vitality and also just energy.

Okay, so one thing I wanted to touch on that I thought was fascinating was I recently interviewed David Rabin, who does some work with the Maps foundation, and we talked about epigenetic trauma. And you actually touch on this in your book. You actually cite a study at McGill University where they showed that the children of women who were pregnant during a massive ice storm in Quebec showed some pretty distinctive DNA patterns based on their mother's exposure to stre. He talked about, like, the Dutch winter hunger. And then now we're seeing, especially with the emergence of plant medicine being used for trauma release, particularly epigenetic trauma, that people are almost like, reliving and releasing traumatic experiences that they may not have had, but that their mothers or fathers or their ancestors may have had. Now, that actually is directly related to the pelvic floor in this weird way. Can you explain?

Well, yeah, because whenever we have trauma, whether it's, you know, because trauma lives in our tissues. So if we have trauma that's stored in our bodies or our minds, then we have the ability to change it with our awareness. So I think that's what this is all about. I mean, epigenetics, to me, is the way of becoming empowered to know that we are not a victim of our genetics, but that they do influence us and make us more predisposed for certain issues, ailments, you know, tensions, or even diseases. So I believe that whole epigenetic philosophy, well, it's actually not a philosophy, it's a science, is going to have a huge impact on, you know, the evolution of humanity right now and how we can actually become less of a victim of our circumstances and environments and actually become more empowered to. With that awareness and that consciousness to shift It.

Okay, so. So we're all adults here, so let me be even more specific. Let's say, like your. Let's say your grandmother raped or had some kind of sexual trauma or perhaps your mother. Could you then say that, let's say, like a male has prostate issues or constipation or prolapse or hip tightness or pelvic floor issues that they can't seem to figure out. Could that theoretically. And let me know if any research has been done on this, too, be related to epigenetic trauma.

I mean, gosh, of course it could. And I think that it's good to look at those possibilities, but also sometimes it can be a little bit. What's the word? Like, we don't want to go down the rabbit hole too far. You know what I mean? Like, if. I think the key is to really become more in tune with what our bodies are telling us too. Like, if there is an issue like that, it means that something is asking for attention and pain. To me, I always think of pain as like a way to reframe. It's communication. It's our body asking for awareness, attention and communication. But I mean, as far as. If we can say that something that happened to one of our, you know, like you said, grandmother, grandfather, that kind of trauma that happened, that could definitely be living in our cells and our DNA. But I don't think. I don't want to be saying that we are going to be a victim to that. Do you know what I'm saying? So I think it's important to honor it and know that stress is going to make us. Make us more susceptible, it's going to make us more inflamed, it's going to lower our immune system, all of those things. But I think it's more important to even focus on the fact that, yes, we have a certain DNA and certain genetics, but we are not those genetics necessarily. And those things only turn on when that immune system lowers, that vibration lowers. So I think that's where this whole thing with the pelvic floor for me and all the power centers really is about awakening this deep awareness and this consciousness inside the body. Understanding your nervous system, understanding how your physiology works, and learning how to position a new mindset around what are our bodies telling us. Like getting into the sensation again, feeling again, having pleasure. Like we are meant to have these sensory systems and these sensory experiences, and that's a beautiful part and a healing part of life.

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. And I didn't really plan on going there too Deeply. Because you and I are kind of more biomechanists than we are yogi, shaman, you know, plant medicine. Plant medicine. What do you call them? People who, who sit in on. On medicine sessions. Not thera. Where we're not psychiatrists, we're not psychologists, but anyway.

Right, right, right, exactly. Anyways.

Facilitators. We're not facilitators. At least I don't think you are. But anyways. Yet another grasping for words. So that being said, I would love to get back into some of the biomechanics, some of the nerve function issues, and some of these five power centers that you talk about. But before we do, you were starting to go down the route of this tightness in the pelvic floor, almost like clutching of the pelvic floor. Very similar to how we might clutch or tighten our jar jaw subconsciously throughout the day.

Yes.

Now you talk in the book about this state of hypertonicity and some of the issues that that creates. Can you describe a little bit, kind of what happens when we. When we clutch or tighten that pelvic floor?

Yeah. So what, what happens is, you know, I mean, kind of what the common theme is these days is everyone's talking about, you know, we're living in fight or flight. We're living in the doing, you know, the yang, the pushing through, making it happen, control kind of energy. That's the masculine energy that we're. Most of us are living in and sort of probably in too much. Right. And too extreme. And so what's happened is our bodies have really just. Everything has tightened up. So we haven't had the ability, we're sitting too much. We're not getting up to do our movement medicine. We're not freeing up the emotional energy. And so our systems are locking down and they're creating this compression and this clutching. And then, you know, like I was saying earlier, the breathing is so important for pelvic floor too. And so people are not breathing deep like they should. They're not moving their bodies in all the different ranges of motion. Twisting, inverting, you know, all of those different things. Side bending. That's supposed to help the body unwind and rebalance on a daily basis. And so what happens is this stuck energy starts happening in our pelvic floor, especially because we're sitting on our ass all day. So all that energy is sort of pooling down there. And then we're also just pretending like that part of our body doesn't exist. No one talks about pooping or sex very much unless it's porn. So it's this very extreme sort of. It's either all or nothing. And so there is no in between. And I think what our world is calling for and asking for is more of that yin energy, more of that calming. The feminine energy in all of us is rising, or we want it to be, because that is the balance, right? We want to have the yin and the yang. We want to have both the doing and the being. And we want to be able to be in more flow instead of so much force and pushing through. And so that's where to me, the pelvic floor is the physical connection to that energy, to awakening that energy and knowing, because you can. I mean, you know, people have been talking about Kegels forever, but Kegels is only the squeeze, right? It's only the control. It's only the clutching and bearing down and what's missing in that. And a man did, you know, describe that. And of course, men do have pelvic floors. Actually, I get asked that a lot. Do men have pelvic floors? I'm like, I know you and your.

Audience know that, but we have a pelvis and it has a floor.

I'm like, yes. But anyway, so, you know, essentially the idea of learning how to expand the pelvic floor, create the space will actually create. When you do that, you're eccentrically lengthening. Then we have more ability to have more strength. When we can eccentrically elongate and then concentrically contract, you're going to be able to always use the bicep as the example. If you're going to fully contract and have the most strength you can get out of your bicep curl, then you need to fully extend and expand and lengthen to get the full strength. So that's my whole message, is like, how are we going to have real strength, like really powerful strength from the inside out, unless we can learn how to let go, fully surrender, expand and elongate and open, and then we can contract and so much more powerful strength comes, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of what, what, what, Paul Check another podcast guest who I've had on talks about specifically with men. And he talked to me about this issue because he did kind biomechanical analysis on me. This is probably stemming from both my bodybuilding days as well as my parents telling me to kind of like suck your stomach in, tighten your abs, stand up tall, stand up straight. And I think men and women, of course, will develop this issue as well, sometimes depending on how they were raised and what they were taught. But men can be very subconscious about just kind of letting their tummy hang out and releasing some of that pelvic tightness and tension that might somehow detract from their six pack or their V shape in their waist. And for me, for the longest time, that created an issue. Like I mentioned, I went through some pretty serious biomechanical issues related to my pelvis and my psoas. And a big light bulb moment for me occurred when I was taught how to inhale diaphragmatically and at the same time, relax the entire pelvic floor, which is, of course, what you do or should be doing during a bowel movement. And then during the exhale, lightly tighten and allow for some tonicity in the pelvic floor. And just learn how to loosen and tighten the pelvic floor in correspondence to the breath. And that actually helped me a lot, particularly during bowel movements. And also that same practice, as you've already alluded to, related to the importance of the root chakra and sex, seems to really enhance sexual function, erectile function, orgasm quality as well. And learn to breathe into your pelvic floor and control some of that function with your breath. But a big part of it for me came down to the realization that I didn't have to hold my tummy in all the time.

I know, right? It's so true. I went through the same thing with all the years doing pilates, teaching Pilates. And then I went to school for structural integration, which is another form of braalfing. And my teacher was like, you gotta let your belly go. Like, you are just holding that thing in so tight. And it's amazing how that really did open up my hamstrings. It gave me so much more flexibility in my hips. Hips. My hamstring mobility was like. I mean, I must have doubled from letting go of that. I mean, because that was directly connected to the pelvic floor, like you were saying. So it's. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty massive. I love that you brought up the sex thing, because I have worked with a lot of male athletes in my career, and many of them have said they have seen huge. I've actually gotten text messages from the wives or girlfriends, and they're like, oh, my God, what have you done? Because he is so much better in bed. Because what it does is actually the awareness, the connection. When you get to know this part of your body and you start to kind of understand it a little more, it takes you out of your head and into your body when you're in those moments of intimacy and pleasure. So you're not overthinking too much in your cerebral mind. You're actually feeling in your. More of your emotional body. Right. So you have this ability to feel and kind of slow down. But another thing they've all mentioned was that they have a much better time of kind of controlling when the orgasms come. They last a lot longer, they have more stamina, and they even have the ability to go multiple times as well when they have this sort of awareness. So it's not always just such a tightening. It's really sort of allowing more of that sensuality and more pleasure as well.

Yeah. There's a book called the Multiorgasmic Male, which I read. It's really good as far as walking you through how to do some of that with your breath. But it's kind of funny because a lot of this can be related to sexual pressure societally, meaning that, you know, I think from an evolutionary standpoint, a male with strong abs or a visible psoas or, you know, kind of like a tight core, and this. This is. This. This might be considered kind of crude or uncouth, but. But would be, you know, possibly regarded as better capable of. Of not only being biomechanically functional, but maybe being able to, like, thrust better during sex or be a better sexual partner or something like that. And, you know, we associate, you know, even in Instagram photos, that trail going down the groin when guys are standing there with a tight stomach as being associated with, you know, kind of like this alpha male dominant sexual status, when in fact, it's creating, as you get into, in the book, that extreme state of hypertonicity in the pelvic floor which creates all these other issues. And what I like in the book is how you get into each of these different power centers that we can focus on, not just the pelvic floor, but the other four, the deep core, the upper core, the heart and shoulders, and the head, neck, and jaw, to actually kind of reverse a lot of those issues. And so what I would love to get into are these five primary power centers that you've identified, because I really like how you chunked these into specific sections and then how we can. How we can kind of optimize each of them. So again, a question that I think will probably rabbit hole a little bit as we discuss, but can you get into what the five primary power centers are?

Yeah, of course. So the reason why I came up with this theory or theme was because you Know, working on multiple people for so long, I started seeing these patterns. So I started seeing these areas where I like to call it, like, where the stress was being contained. You know, like this energy was being held and sort of of becoming thicker and denser and, you know, creating less range of motion and flexibility and less neuromuscular connection. So that was what I just saw. It was like a plaque building up. I like to talk about fascia connective tissue, like, as this residue that builds up in certain areas. You know, fascia that's blocked or congested or, you know, brittle or thick. It just has lost the oxygenated blood. I think of it almost like plaque inside the system. Like, you need to floss your teeth, you need to exfoliate your skin. It's the same thing. You need to move that tissue around in order to hydrate it, in order to bring circulation, blood flow, movement, energy, qi, whatever it is. So what I was seeing is these areas were all getting congested. And so I realized that the pelvic floor was the first one we had to get to. And the pelvic floor is connected to the feet, by the way. You have that medial line, right, that starts from the inner arch of your feet and goes all the way up through your inner leg, up through your inner thigh, and then up into your pelvic floor as well. So.

And if I could jump in just. Just real quick and comment on. One of the things that was very useful for me as I began to address my own pelvic floor issues was a keeping a golf ball underneath my standing desk and doing medial work on the inside of my foot, like, releasing the medial side of the foot and then also using a roller. And I had to actually get a roller that was able to come off the floor. I gotta remember the name of it, but it's like one of those rollers that's on a stand. And so you're actually able to throw your leg over the roller and get into the adductor. Because anybody who's tried to foam roll the adductor knows that it's a very difficult place to, like, leverage your body over and actually get a good, good kind of roll on. And I think it's called the high trainer. I want to say I'll hunt it down and put a link in the show. Or the high roller. It's the high roller. I'll link to it in the show notes. But essentially, it's a full foam roller that's on stands. And so it's because it's off the Ground, you can really target your upper inner adductors with it. So that and the golf ball were really useful for me. Sorry to interrupt you, but when you talk about the foot and the adductors being kinda like where the pelvic floor is gonna be affected from the ground up, those two sections really helped me.

Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing I use too is the rebounder, because the. When you gently bounce on the rebounder, it's a phenomenal way to. Actually, there's doing research in Germany now that they actually have seen tone regenerate from using the rebounder in a gentle way. Even like for. Especially for women that have had prolapse or a lot of damage from post, you know, or, you know, inability to basically incontinence.

It's so funny how a lot of the things that you're talking about I kind of intuitively stumbled upon. So I have a rebounder. Good people make fun of me sometimes, especially like some of my friends who are athletes who think I'm bouncing up and down to the rebounder to get fit. I'm not. I'm doing it for the lymph and for some of the pelvic floor issues that you've just described. But my rebounder is in. I stole this term, actually, from my friend Luke story in what I call the Zen den of my house, where I've got a sauna and a hyperbaric chamber and this thing called a biocharger. And what I actually do is I stand in front of the biocharger, which is. It's like a rife frequency PEMF generator that has a little bit of ozone. Stand in front of that, and I just. Just at some point during the day, for 15 minutes, I'll put on an audiobook or a podcast and go and bounce up and down on the trampoline, doing different breath holds and alternating right foot, left foot. But I just do it during a biocharger session because I'm all about stacking modalities so I'm not wasting my whole day. I love it with body care. But yeah, I'm literally on a rebounder for 15 minutes every day for about the past year and a half.

Oh, you are speaking my language. So this is what I have every client get, like you said, a sauna, a rebounder, my rolling tools, and then they have like their own in home spa, slash gym. It's incredible. So it's a great. It's a great way. Anyway, the rebounder is phenomenal for regenerating tone in the pelvic floor. And also, if you think about it, when you're going up and down with the G force, you're, you know, you're opening up, up the organs. Right. So that really helps free up some of that stagnant blocked energy or that plaque, like I called it a few minutes ago. And it's opening up the diaphragm, just. And also, you don't really even have to think about it because it's just happening, you know, like, it's not like you have to force it to happen. You just get on there and bounce. And like you said, the lymph thing obviously is super important as well. I mean, in the environment we live in, the world we live in, we've got to be more mindful of flushing our lymph too. And that's just clear, I believe too. It does help clear blocked energy as well. It's like shaking things out, you know, like that idea, idea of kind of flushing it out through the shake and the bounce. So that really helps free up those power centers that get congested. For sure.

Yeah. And related to the pelvic floor, this first power center that you're talking about in the book, you have what you call movement medicine. For each of these different power centers, each of these five power centers, and for the movement medicine part of the pelvic floor, you actually utilize, in addition to recommending things like the rebounder, adductor work, attention to feet, et cetera, the use of a squishy ball. And I had not done much with a squishy ball until I visited my friend Tracy Dues down in San Diego who's got a wellness facility down there. And she showed me, she took me through like an hour long session with this squishy ball. And I had no clue how much tension you could release when with just like a wimpy little ball. So get, get into the squishy ball and how that works and why you recommend it, particularly for the pelvic floor section of the book.

Yeah, well, I think again, you know, I was working with people hands on and going, gosh, you know, this is such a shame that only people that I put my hands on can have access to this information. So I'm like, I gotta figure this out. So I went on my own journey and became my own guinea pig and tried it with my clients and realized that using this ball was gonna give people, first of all, that neuromuscular connection. You know, that idea of if we get touched in an area, it wakes it up basically. So by using the Sphere to sit on it and then move your body around in different areas. So you're freeing up how the things are attached. So a lot of the issues that are happening, you know, in our body from, you know, biomechanical standpoint are from rotations, right torque in the body. Things are being pulled in certain directions and then the connective tissue glues into that position, locks us in, compresses the joint. So, so what happens when you use a sphere is it allows you to get into where the muscles attach the joints. So it's freeing up those areas that you can't get to with any other kind of rolling tool. You can use different size balls. I mean, personally, I like a firmer ball for the pelvic floor. When you do the pelvic floor section in the book or in my video courses online, I use it to sit on it and then we unwind it through doing certain stretches or breath work to really awaken that connection. And then also we do we take a little bit of the air out to roll the belly, the guts. Because as you know, I mean, again, the pelvic floor, the psoas and the guts are like a really hard area to roll to do it yourself. So I was like, I've got to design a tool that's going to get into the connective tissue and unwind things without using your traditional roller. So this sphere, because it's squishy, it kind of forms to your body and it goes into the areas to clear out the cobwebs and free up, like I said, where the muscles attach to the joint points and frees up some of those deeper areas that you can get to when you get hands on body work. But if you want to do it yourself at home and you want to do it on a daily basis, like you would brush your teeth or, you know, floss or exfoliate, which is what I recommend, then it's, you know, five or ten minutes on that body sphere or a squishy ball, you're going to feel like a new person because you're getting into those deeper areas and then the energy is flowing better and you have more connection and you have the ability to strengthen those muscles more efficiently and to feel yourself a little more to do.

Yeah, in the, in the past I had tried to do some, some pelvic and psoas work and it actually does work for the psoas, but not for the pelvis. The very kind of firm vibrating balls that like the hyper ice, hypersphere balls that vibrate and they're super form. And those are amazing for like a pelvic or, or a, a psoas release or kind of working like an iliac crest maybe too. Yeah. I also like to work them along the iliac crest and also the gluten meat and glute minimus. You can kind of get into that tissue with those. But then when you, when you kind of get down around the perennial areas and the pelvic floor, not only does that firmness kind of put you at increased risk for causing some damage, but it's very difficult to get them to mold around some of those organs and some of those softer tissues. And the squishy balls just work fantastically for that. And they're literally like a few bucks on Amazon. These just like miniature squishy yoga ball.

Yep. I mean, I designed my own because I wanted it to. I'm really picky with, you know, the material that. And I wanted it to be a more eco friendly material. And also they're made in Italy actually, but they're also. It's more of like a. We call it hook. A hook. You want to hook it into your connective tissue so it has a little more of a stickiness to it. Some of the balls you can more easily slide off of. This one particularly has a little more of a hook into the connective tissue. So I prefer that one.

Is your ball on, is your ball on Amazon, the one that you do?

It is, yeah. Amazon and pretty much anywhere you can buy physical therapy products.

What's it called?

It's called the Body Sphere.

The Body Sphere. Okay. I'll hunt it down and put a link for folks. The body Sphere ball. Okay, so we use that. And you've got some great illustrations in the book. And what I will do, by the way, for all of you listening in, I'm going to link to the book and the show notes for everything that we discuss over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com PowerSource. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.comPowerSource. so you walk people through how to use that book or how to use that ball and then you get into some of these other parts of the power center. Because it doesn't just stop with your pelvic floor. Obviously, as you've just noted, you gotta start there. But then where do you move from there?

So the next one where, of course I saw. I've seen so much kind of holding and stuckness is obviously the guts, the belly. It's amazing how many gut issues are coming up in our younger generation. And that has a lot to do with, as you know, the vagus nerve lives in our guts. And it's really because we're always in this sort of. Even if it's lower level stress mode, we're always like, oh, we're getting that email or we're getting cut off in the car. There's always just that sense of feeling like something is, I got to keep going. There's what's on, going next, what's next. So it's like this, this. There's a lot of these stomach issues, gut issues coming up in the, in, I mean, in all of our, not just the younger generation, but in everyone. It seems like a lot of people have digestive issues, constipation, you know, pain in their stomach, and it's a lot. And also people are overeating and they're stress eating and they're, you know, like not even eating because they're hungry. They're just eating because they're stressed and they're, you know, I find a lot of people and, or my clients and people that have done my online programs, they've reduced their sugar cravings by working with their connective tissue, especially though getting into their guts and their stomach area. And of course that has a lot to do with lower back as well. And like, having that pooched belly has a lot to do with the tension and build up that occurs in the stomach area too. So by working the connective tissue around and then also doing the breath work and visualizing kind of understanding how your body works better again, you become more empowered and you become more in tune and then you can actually learn like, how to relax your system. And so doing the belly rolling is phenomenal though, because it does, it actually addresses that vagus nerve which is connecting to the brain. And calm puts you into the more calm state of the nervous system, the parasympathetic state. So it's a great tool if you're feeling really overwhelmed or stressed. It also helps you breathe deeper and more efficiently. And it just helps you get more in tune with your gut instinct and also just a more of a better sensation of if you really are hungry. Does that make sense? Like if you're always so stressed and holding your stomach the whole time, you don't even, you can't even feel if you're hungry because it's like, numb.

Yep, exactly. And this stuff all comes full circle. Obviously, if you're pulling pelvic floor tension and sucking your abs in all the time, it does influence feelings of hunger. Appetite, release of digestive enzymes, et cetera. And one thing to note for people is that when Lauren's talking about the deep core, that's really that entire part that's located around your belly button area. And the. Probably the most important muscle there is the psoas, which is kind of a hip flexor. But it's so interesting. If you actually look at the psoas, it attaches right behind the organs, right in front of your. Your spine, if you can visualize that. And then it runs under your diaphragm and it goes into your hips or through your hips into your groin. And so if the psoas is tight, this is something that can affect your organ function and your pelvic function farther down. And as I'm sure we'll get into as we move up to the higher power centers, Lauren, what's going on with the shoulders and the head, the neck and the jaw? And that was another one. Like I mentioned, that was a big light bulb moment for me when I realized. Realized how tight my psoas was and how much that was affecting probably three things. Hip flexor, tightness that was causing low back pain, deactivation of glutes that was affecting my power and my push off when I was running or squatting or lunging and then bowel function. And when I learned about this idea of releasing the psoas, it was amazing. And, you know, one thing that I do two or three times a week, like I mentioned mentioned, is I'll use that vibrating round hyperice foam roller or sphere roller to start on the outside of the hips, work my way all the way around, kind of like tracing the entire path of the psoas, stopping right around the belly button, placing my whole body weight over that for a minute and then tracing back around. And I'll do about three to five times on the right side and three to five times on the left side. And by doing that just, just a few times a week, it's a total game changer for my psoas and then the other one. And I want to ask you about this one because it's a new device and they've been advertising on a bunch of podcasts. They sent me one, and I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this, because prior to this device coming out, I would just use kind of like if I wasn't using that roller like a kettlebell handle to just dig into the psoas. But there's this new device called the Sorite, and it's like this plastic shaped Device that's designed for a psoas release. Have you seen this?

How do you spell it?

P, S, O, R, I, T, E.

I'm trying to remember. I know. I feel like I get dmed about these things so much. I think I have. Is it like two little pointy things up, like rubbery?

Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, all of these tools are phenomenal. I think you just have to be careful, like you said, because we're getting into these areas that if you don't know what you're doing, like, it can be, you know, I mean, you just want to be careful is what I want to say. That's why I like the squishier ball. Because for people just to start, if they've never even done anything like this before, to start getting in there and, and then get to know it a little more and start understanding a little more. Maybe learning, looking at, you know, a graphic of the organs and understanding that. Because the psoas is, like you said, it's behind the organ, so. So there's only certain areas where you can actually get to it and expose it. You can't get the whole thing, you know. So I feel like those tools can be helpful if you know what you're doing. And maybe it's good to just go and have like a session of a hands on body session or a physical therapy session and have someone really introduce you to that part of your body and then do the stuff at home on your own. But I think, you know, especially when you're dealing with these softer areas in our body and more of the viscera, then it is important to be, be a little more educated and aware instead of just like jamming things into your stomach.

It is important, and I think you're right, like starting with the softer and squishier options until you're really intimately familiar with, with how it feels to trigger your psoas. It is important because it is around some of your organs. I don't want to irresponsibly recommend people start shoving a kettlebell handle into their psoas. But typically, I mean, you.

Of course, yeah.

Just so people know, you know, you're lying face down, you know, on your belly. Typically when you're doing psoas work, unless a massage therapist is working manually on you. And a big, big part of it, and I think you mentioned this in the book, is that you want to kind of, and correct me if I'm wrong, breathe into whatever device that you're using to release the psoas. I think that's a big part of it is you have to kind of pause over the psoas, find the tight spot, then take a deep belly breath, breath into that area and hold it and then release it. And that seems to do a really good job with a psoas release.

Yeah. And also doing a little, I mean, like I do with hands on too. You can do it with any of the tools. But doing the contract first and then the relax is a really powerful tool because that also sends a message to the nervous system to start realizing, okay, I feel this and now I feel safe to let go and let, let whatever you're putting in there go in deeper. So it's important to again to go into that. Like I even do that with the pelvic floor when I do hands on with people. Like, I ask them to contract it so that they can neuromuscularly connect to what it is or where is it. And then some people, like, literally they cannot even squeeze their pelvic floor. They can't really even feel their psoas. It's incredible how disconnected people are. And so the beginning is that, I mean, we have to, we have to like, like be able to visualize it, we be able to see it, then connect to it, then breathe into it, then start understanding a little more, then maybe feel it when we're doing a workout or, you know, going for a walk or taking a class or dance class or lifting weights or whatever it is, doing whatever sport. You start realizing, oh my gosh, I can't believe how much more how much I use my pelvic floor when I'm, you know, squatting, when I'm doing squats, or how much I use my pelvic floor or my psoas when I'm doing any kind of activity, whether it's a race or, you know, it's. I think it's really important to just. You got to turn it on first before you just start jamming things in there. I think that's an. And you know, that's part of the feminine energy. That's me. I mean, that's totally my whole thing. It's like we really need to slow down, connect, really find the awareness first because that's where the power is. And that's what I talk a lot about is like, that's why I called it the power source. Because these more fine tuning nuances is really where the foundational power comes from. And especially with wanting to all of us want to reach Our highest potential, especially, I'm sure you and your audience, like, how are we going to do that? It's not going to be just forcing more. It's really about going the other way because we're so extreme that way. Now we need to harness the energy in the other way. Does that make sense to create more of that balance?

Yep, it makes perfect sense. So don't go. Don't go straight to the kettlebell, fellas. Okay, so soso, the next, like, the third power center. So we got thewe got the pelvic floor, we've got that deep core, which includes, of course, the psoas, which we just discussed. And then what's the third?

Wait, before we go to the third, I have to say, because, you know, have you ever heard the psoas be called the muscle of the soul? No, because it's our deepest muscle. So it'. Syeah. It's a thing in ancient Taoist tradition. And it's basically because that part of our body is so directly connected to, like, sort of our reptilian days, like in, you know, evolution. So that does have some of that epigenetic DNA. So it's really important for people, if they want to understand themselves more, to get into that psoas because it's such a foundational, I think of it as the pill, such pillars of our bodies, right? It's whole, it's connecting our body, our upper body to our lower body, too. So I love that you're so into the psoas. A lot of people don't even know what do to. So it's brilliant that you're shedding light on that. It's so massively important for overall, you know, functionality.

You're so, so ass.

You are so, so ass. So then we move up to the upper core. Now this area to me is, I mean, gosh, they're all so amazing to me. But the upper core, because it's where it's directly connected to our lungs, right? So I've found that a lot of people store emotional energy in the diaphragm. This is the. We call it the personal power center in or personal power chakra in the yogic tradition. And I'm not sure why the emotional energy gets stuck there. It's probably because maybe we're not stepping. People would say that we're not stepping on to our true path, right? So we're not stepping into our true power, or we're maybe trying to control people's too much, or we're holding energy in. So the diaphragm obviously is the muscle that that's responsible for taking in oxygen and also flushing CO2 out of our body. And most people don't realize that they can take in about 2 gallons of oxygen into their lungs. They're not using that much. Most humans are using about 20 to 30% of that capacity. And that's going to slow all of our systems down, including our metabolism and obviously our ability to deal with stress. So to me, the diaphragm is incredibly important as well, connecting it to the pelvic floor. When we learn how to breathe more expansively, more three dimensionally then we actually, as we breathe in, our diaphragm pushes down into our organs, our organs drop down into our pelvic floor and our pelvic floor opens and expands. And that's just a natural thing that happens in our system subconsciously. But when we bring awareness to it and become conscious of it, we can make it even more enhanced. So as we exhale, everything is going to contract naturally. Squeezing up, the organs will push up into the diaphragm and the diaphragm will push up into the lungs and squeeze and wring out the CO2. So it's really important that we breathe efficiently in order to live our best life and have our bodies be the best that they can possibly be. Because breath is everything, right? Especially when we're in a time of stress, we need to be able to ground ourselves and take a few deep breaths. It changes everything. It changes your energy, it changes your state, and also just it's our tool as human beings.

What do you think to push back a little bit on that? While I do agree that breathing is almost like massage for your deep core, and especially for things like bowel movements or sex, like we discussed, is incredibly powerful at moving energy through those organs. But then there are folks like Patrick McCown, for example, the author of the book the Oxygen Advantage, and and several others in kind of the breathwork sector of late who have identified this problem of over breathing, focusing too much on these deep long breaths and essentially breathing off carbon dioxide. And so a lot of these folks are now recommending things like the control pause technique, where you do a full exhale, not a forced exhale, but a relaxed exhale, and then see how long you can last on that exhale, with typically 40 to 60 seconds being a really good score, and then training yourself how to breathe almost very lightly and silently through your nose. Like they claim that this over breathing issue is actually causing people to blow off CO2. Have you come across much of that.

Yeah. I mean, I think what they're doing is they're kind of stretching the capacity of. Of how far you can take the body. And then when you're in your normal state, it's like what we would. I was an athlete, and we'd train in the altitude, and, you know, then we come down to, you know, to compete, not in the altitude. And it's amazing how your body just is way more efficient. So I think it's. It's really kind of that idea. So it's like, it's not really that we're supposed to be like, deep breathing all day long. It's just more like that's the tool that we have when stress arises, and that's how our system releases it. I think all of those ways of pushing the capacity of a human and making them go beyond their boundaries and kind of pushing that. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, stretching that nervous system or that resilience, I think that's what they're talking about, and I think that's phenomenal, and I think it's super important. And I think you're right. The nose breathing, because it's a natural filter, is phenomenal way. I do teach sometimes the exhale through the mouth just to connect to the deep core. I find that can be helpful. But as. As far as, like, walking around in our daily day or sleeping at night, you know, inhaling and exhaling through the nose is a really amazing way to obviously stay clean. And also our systems just work better that way, too.

My take on this is that those guys are onto something and that carbon dioxide retention is actually something that is significantly helpful due to the Bora fake. Because if you're doing a good job oxygenating and taking those deep diaphragmatic breaths, if you're exhaling a little bit more lightly or over a longer period of time, oxygen will more readily dissociate into things like muscle tissue or heart tissue if carbon dioxide levels are elevated. And because of that, I think you can have the best of both worlds because you can do deep diaphragmatic belly breathing, breathing through your nose. And then you can exhale through your nose or through slightly pursed lips. And this is just a basic breathing habit you would use all day, focusing on exhaling for a slightly longer and more relaxed period of time than you inhale. And that would be just like your basic breathwork pattern during the day, rather than focusing on, okay, I'm gonna do my deep, you know, doing like a Darth Vader Thing during the day, I think is where a lot of people make the mistake.

They're forcing it. And that's the same thing. It's like the idea of just letting it always use the visual of like think of taking, you know, you have a full bathtub and you're taking the plug out and then you're going to let the water just go down, down the drain. And essentially that is exactly what you're saying. It's like taking your time, letting it gently, you know, come out. I think that's brilliant. I definitely agree with that.

And then there's a time and a place to perhaps pull out. Let's say during a pre cold soak or a workout, pull out like the WIM HOF breathwork where you're really doing a lot more deep, focused breathing. Or you know, if you're gonna go do like a holotropic breathwork session or something like that, that's where you get into more, the more rigorous breathing where you're actually breathing off a lot of CO2. And so there's a time and a place for that. But as far as your basic breathwork pattern during the day, what I've settled on are those deep nasal inhales through the belly and then nasal or purse lift, lips relaxed, long exhale. And that, that seems to work really well.

The other thing I would say really quick along these lines is, you know, when you're doing these rolling techniques, the ones I have in the book or whoever you can see stuff I do online is, you know, when you, if you're, let's say you're rolling your ribs out, you want to actually like free visualize the ribs and visualize breathing in and expanding the intercostals, stretching the rib cage, opening the lungs in the front and the back body three dimensionally. And then that's just more of sort of using your breath to give you that traction. So that's like another way. So like you were saying with the WIM hof, like there are times when it's good because you're basically stretching the tissues, the connective tissues to open up and expand and clear that density, thickness, compression and like contraction. So in those instances what you're doing is you're creating the capacity that's there for you and available for you when you need it or when you want to use it for, or like even having sex or doing some sort of athletic thing or something. So you have that there, that capacity of expansion and resilience and that sort of stretchy, eccentric space and that's super important. So when you're doing the rolling, you want to really be aware. And not watching tv, you want to be thinking about yourself, breathing into it, expanding it. And then, of course, the breath work while you're doing it is going to also purify your system as well. But I think, again, it just helps people tune into that neuromuscular connection and then create that smoothness in the connective tissue and the webbing.

Yep. Makes perfect sense. What's the fourth power center?

Oh, so now we're making our way after being in the. This is that personal power center. Now we're making our way up to the heart. To the heart, shoulders, you know, the front and back body here in the upper body. I feel like this is the area where most. Most people can say, oh, yeah, I have tension in my shoulders. Like, who doesn't have the weight of the world on their shoulders? I've not met one person on the planet that doesn't have some sort of a knot in their shoulders. Even the best athletes on the planet have, like some sort of, you know, scar tissue or knots in their shoulders. So I think it's just the way we're designed and gravity part of it, but also it's an area where we tend to, you know, our shoulders start to go to our ears and then everything becomes compressed. And so then we obviously are sitting too much. As people have been saying, sitting is a new smoking. Hunching over is obviously going to also compress the diaphragm and lungs as well. So it's a really important area, energetically keeping your heart open and clear, but also structurally to have front to back balance. So you're not having those shoulders rolling forward that you're actually. Because the shoulders rolling forward will pull on the connective tissue, and then that connective tissue will build up the knots to try to hold you up in gravity.

Yeah, and what I like are some of the moves, and this is one that I do, where you're really kind of like opening up the shoulders and realigning what tends to be, as you've just alluded to, hunched over during a day of sitting, computer work, phone work, et cetera. And you've got a lot in there. But the two that I found to be key for me are a chest release, which you can do again with one of those squishy balls, literally, just like laying face down and doing exactly what we just described describe for the psoas, except for doing it on the right side of the chest and then the left Side of the chest. And then the other one that I really like that's super simple, is you just get on a foam roller, roll it all the way up to the shoulders, and then flip those arms up in, like, a Superman pose above the head. And what I do when I do that is just push my elbows and the back of my hands into the floor behind me as hard as I can, and it just opens up the entire chest, which is amazing if I've been working on my computer for a long period of time or I've been hunched over sitting on an airplane for a long time. And if I don't have a foam roller and I can't get down on the floor, let's say I'm waiting for a plane to depart at the airport. I can just go back against the wall, flip the arms up. And what I like to do is put the. If people can visualize this. Back of the elbows, back of the hands against the wall. So you're almost like, doing a Superman pose against the back of the. Of the wall. And then you just slide the hands up and down while trying to maintain contact with the backs of your hands, the back of your elbows in the back of your shoulder against the wall. And that I'll get, like, popping in my shoulders. I'll get this amazing release in the chest. And so, yeah, I mean, if you do that and at the same time, can kind of keep the pelvis in alignment, it's a total game changer from a postural standpoint.

I actually designed a tool for that for all the. All my clients that were traveling so much in planes and all of that. It's actually called the infinity roll. And you put it right between us, like two tennis balls together. You know, it's like a little. Kind of almost like a little. They call it the peanut. So you put it right there between your shoulder blades. You could be at the airport, wherever you are, up against the wall, and you do that exact move. Or you can do, like, where you take the arms in the snow, angel arms, and then you can do, like, the scissor arms, and then you start mobilizing that tissue around the upper back. That sort of. You know, when you see an older, like, man or woman walking down the street, and they're super hunched over, and they have kyphosis, that's actually connective tissue that's become thick, hard, and dense, and it's actually glued that person into that position. So it truly is preventable. Yeah, some people might be more genetically predisposed for that. Posture. But it doesn't have to happen because it's actually from gravity. It's that gravitational force that's pushing us down, that's making us figure out a way to hold ourselves up in gravity. So the human body is amazing that way. But then if we don't have awareness and we can't, we can't release some of those postural things that we have done all day long. I mean, the body is so amazing, it's a miracle. It will unwind. All you need is five minutes to undo the day. You can sit at your computer all day hunched over. As long as you do a few things to undo that shit, you are good. You'll sleep better, you'll wake up better. You won't lose that inch or inch and a half in height that most humans do these days, at least in our western culture.

And by the way, one other thing I want to throw in before we get into the fifth power center, the fifth and final power center. And then I've got a few kind of fun closing questions for you as well. And that is that I don't think sitting is the new smoking. I think sitting is an amazing way to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and is like my preferred posture. Either sitting on the floor, preferably, or sitting in a chair for things like eating, praying, meditating, like I like sometimes. And I've even run into a couple of clients who have been like, I'm now meditating in a standing position to up regulate my fat enzymes and my glucose burning. Because I heard say I'm like, no, like there's a time and a place when you want to be parasympathetically activated. So it's not that sitting is the new smoking. It's that sitting as a preferred position for eight hours a day is not a biomechanically favorable position. But I think if you want to be parasympathetic, sympathetically driven, then sitting or some form of sitting is one of the best positions to be in.

Yeah, but like in a comfortable position with good, you know, good mechanics and you know, the ability to not be so hunched over, I think that's really good call.

Yeah. Even if you're gonna stand all day and do your 20,000 frickin steps a day, myopically, as you're focusing on your, your aura or your Fitbit or whatever, at least sit to eat people. So don't, don't worry, you don't have to, you don't have to stand all the time.

No, the standing creates Other issues in the feet too, that's like, becomes terrible.

Hence the golf ball that is underneath my right foot literally right now, while we're talking, both my feet, they just get rolled the whole time I'm podcasting. Okay, so then you have the final power center, which, if I recall properly, is the head, right?

Yeah, we call it the head, head, neck, jaw, essentially. You know, again, here we are talking about the cranial sacral connection. And within the cranial sacral connection is, you know, our nervous system inside the spinal cord. And, you know, whatever is happening up top is going to be connected to the base. And so the head to me, obviously, like so many of us are living in that sort of cerebral, like, overthinking mind, over processing, over worrying all of those things. So. So I think a lot of times I've even said this before, like, people are like walking, talking heads, and they like, literally have lost their connection to their body. And it's a really important part because, you know, our emotions live in our body and we want to connect to those things in our thoughts or in our mind. So we want to integrate the two. And so I love to be able to help people understand how connected the jaw and the pelvic floor. So it's a very, you know, sort of of physical connection of this over processing tension, energy, subconscious clutching, bearing down, locking the jaw head forward is also going to obviously compress and contract all the other areas. So whatever is going on in one is going to affect the other. Like a domino effect. Who knows which way it comes from. But a lot of times people are sitting at their computer with not necessarily good posture. Their heads are forward. And so with the weight of the head forward, then the base of the, the skull, the neck muscles there, where the neck attaches to the base of the skull, those muscles or tissues start to get really thick and dense and then lock you into that kind of chin jutting forward, really unattractive posture. You know what I'm talking about? And then what holds your head up in that position is your jaw. So you're like, oh, well, what else is going to hold me up? So you kind of clutch your teeth and bear down on your locking your jaw. And then a lot of people would say that, you know, the jaw tension or tightness or, you know, holding is also us holding, swallowing our emotions, not saying we want to, not saying what we want to say. So that can obviously cause a lot of neck issues, tension in the neck. And a lot of people that over the years of my practice, I've seen so many people with neck issues and so many of the neck issues have become, has come from the shoulder tension or the jaw tension. So it's usually also a weakened neck muscle. So as the head's forward, then the front of the neck muscles start to weaken. The back of the neck, neck muscles start to shorten and tighten into that chin jutting forward with the head kind of up, really, like I said, unattractive. And so you're getting all of these muscular and structural imbalances happening. So that's why I feel it's super important to talk about the jaw. Because when we can get our head back on our spine in a more aligned way, which again only takes a few minutes a day, every day, at the end of the day, clearing out that, you know, plaque, flossing your fascia or, or just becoming aware of that forward posture, it can have a massive impact on your overall health. I mean, your overall vitality again, bringing in that nervous system energy from moving that cerebral spinal fluid. I mean every time we breathe, that's how our body pumps that cerebral spinal fluid from, you know, up to our brain to basically feed our brain nutrients and then also flush our brain of toxins. So if your head is all wonky forward and it weighs about 20 pounds to 30, 35 pounds like that, your energy is in your chi and your fluids are not going to be working very well. So that's why I always recommend doing inversions. You know, doing your own self body work on your neck, whether it's on the roller or the mat, or just stretching or breathing or doing physical therapy kind of stretches to create that space and keep the alignment. Laying on your long roller, long way is phenomenal.

Yeah. And what I, what I like in the, in the book is because again like I love to do multiple things at length. And so you've got exercises where you can be sitting on one of these soft balls so you get a little bit of a pelvic floor release, but then at the same time you have some photos and images of how to do a jaw release, how you sit there while you sit there, how to do ear pulls, like pulling on the tops of your ears as close to your head as possible and almost doing like a self ear massage, how to do a temporalis release on the side of your head. I think a lot of people think that they have to go see a craniosacral therapist. Not that I'm against that because you can get amazing work done with a craniosacral therapist, but there's a lot you can do yourself. And there's so many times when we're just like sitting, whatever, again, like on an airplane as it's taxiing, or perhaps while we are closing our eyes and meditating, or while we're doing some of this ball work on the pelvic floor that you can use both hands and do some amazing jaw relief. Release, ear release, temporalis release. Like, a lot of people just don't. I guessi guess we should say just like play with their head enough. Right. Like, therethere's a lot of cool stuff you can do.

And there's so much lymph around the ears. There's a bunch of lymph ducts there as well, so that can help. That's why if you ever feel like you're getting sick, to give yourself a little massage around the scalp and around the ears. It's phenomenal. Way to boost the immune system too. So. Yeah, I mean, taking away. You know, they call the fascia of the skull the galilea aponeurotica because of all the nerves. That's why we all love getting a scalp massage. So doing that on daily basis, that's an ancient ayurvedic thing that you give yourself a scalp massage or a face massage. I mean, that's also clearing energy. It's also going to anti age us, help us have more glowing skin. I mean, it's all connected. So, yeah, we got to work on the head, too, and the jaw, even if it's with our own hands.

So those are the five power centers. I'm going to see if I can recite from memory. We got the pelvic floor, the deep core, the upper core, the. The head, neck, shoulders. I'm missing one. Which one did I.

So that's right. Heart, head. Yeah. And shoulders.

No, because. Because I said pelvic floor, deep core, heart, head, neck, shoulders, and upper core.

No, no, you had it. You totally had it. Yeah. Pelvic floor, deep core, upper core, heart and shoulders, and then head, neck, jaw.

Okay, got it. I was.

I was a couple of them.

Okay, cool, cool. So wewe didn't have time to get into some of the things that you talk about in the book, like different minerals and vitamins and herbs and protocols that you like to combine with pelvic floor therapy. But I'm gonna ask you a few kind of like, lightning roundish questions regarding that and a couple of other things because I know we're running a little bit tight on time, but the first is sage. You talk about sage in the book. And why is that one of, like, the first kind of herbs that you discuss to utilize in something like pelvic floor therapy?

Well, I think it's also just another thing, another tool or resource that we have a ritual we can kind of indulge ourselves in for clearing our energy. So sage has been known to purify and cleanse energy in our space. And so it also is great to. You can sage your own body, you can sage your own space. You want to. If you do your body, you want to do it outside. But it's really, really. It's really believed to essentially enhance our intuition and clear out any of. I mean, if you believe in energy, that's really what this is about. It's about using a nature. Something from nature to clear negative energy in your space or around you. Because we do pick that stuff up, you know, in our aura, in our energy field, in our quantum field. So it can be a very powerful thing. And I like sage for the pelvic floor because. Or the root because it's such an area of. You know, the pelvic floor is the area of primal instincts, survival instincts, you know, so if you're feeling like you're not gonna be able to pay your rent or someone's sick in your life, like, a lot of that energy just clutches and bears down there. So. Or if you're picking up someone else's energy. So using sage to clear the energy is a really powerful tool in order to enhance that awareness and then just have more of a deeper connection to, I think, the base of our core. That's why I like. I mean, sage you can use for any of them. But I do believe that I chose one because I think it's great to smudge every day anyway. Because you want to clear especially that part of our body.

Yeah. After I read your book, I added, because I always keep palo Santo sticks in my sauna, I grabbed some sage. And so now I kind of alternate between sage and palo santo. Like, I can't even go in my sauna now without putting some kind of. Some kind of woo woo scent in there. So it's. It's amazing.

That's awesome.

So thank you for the recommendation on stage because I love it, especially if I. I'm meditating in there. I like it better than the palo Santo. Next question. Is pelvic floor specialist or pelvic floor therapists? If someone was going to go and actually have a therapist teach them or. I know some of these therapists, like, you know, jamming their Fingers into your rectum and you know, working around all the perennial areas and you know, kind of getting in there deep into some of the areas of tension some people have or training them in proper breath, work itself, etc. Is there a way to know that you're going to somebody safe if you're going to go see a pelvic floor specialist to actually do some hands on work with you?

Yeah, I mean I, you know, and what I've studied, Heller work, structural integration, Rolfing, Ida Ralph's work, all of those people that have been through the training. It's a rigorous training, it's a two year program and there is a network that we can give you, I can send you the link for it, but it's a network where you can find someone that's trained in that modality, you know, all over the world. And so that is part of her philosophy. She was, you know, developed this work in the 1960s and you know, she basically taught everyone about the pelvic floor. I mean, when I was in training to learn this, I was like, are you kidding me? Like we're gonna, we have to put our hand. And there was 10 people in the class and we had to each put our hand in each other's pelvic floor, men and women. And it was so intimidating at first. And then after I got off the table and I felt the results, I'm like, everybody needs to know about this. It's so massive. So I would highly recommend someone in the world of structural integration because they are trained in it from the energetic but also physical biomechanical standpoint. And then also you could find a physical therapist. They are starting to do programs now where people are trained in this work. I mean, it is a newer modality in the physical therapy world as well. So. But there are people obviously great to go to recommendation. Check out the website where you can find, find a true structural integrative practitioner. And yeah, that's what I would recommend to, to go for it.

Okay. So yeah, in the past, because I've been to a pelvic floor specialist before, I went with someone who was actually a physical therapist. And that, that, that seemed to me because physical therapists go through pretty rigorous education and they, they were really well versed in biomechanics and I trusted them versus, you know, I guess going to like a yoga teacher or something like that, which, you know, I did. You know, not that yoga teachers are bad, but go with somebody who has been well, well versed in biomechanics. And if if you do have a link to any other directories or practitioners you recommend, if you email it to me, I'll put a link in the show Notes for people over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com power source. It's BenGreenfieldFitness.com PowerSource. There are a ton of other things that we didn't even scratch the surface on that are in your book, like how to do mantras and visualizations in correspondence with your pelvic floor work, a whole bunch of moves that I think people should get the book to go through. And books like this I keep in places where I stretch. So I've got like, you know, Becoming a Supple Leopard this book, a couple of yoga books, and Resistance stretching book. And I don't, I don't, I don't shelf them. I actually keep them in the same place. I keep all my foam rollers and my sauna and everything. So you guys, if you get the book, any book like this, like any kind of therapy book, don't just read it and shelf it. Keep it top of mind. Because what's really great is anytime you're going to do like, you know, I always spend 15 minutes every morning doing some kind of self care. And so I've got all these different books to choose from that I can return to over and over again. So that's my recommendation, recommendation for y'. All. If you get this book, just keep it where you stretch or keep it where you do therapy. So when it's top of mind like that, you know, you can use this stuff just like you keep cookbooks in your kitchen, you keep books like this wherever you're going to do bodywork. So I love that.

It's a good call.

The other thing is if you have a personal trainer or a body worker or somebody like that, when you buy the book, just like grab an extra one and give it to them so they can start to incorporate some of this stuff in, in your training program. That's another thing I love to do is, you know, like for my massage therapist or anyone I'm working with who, who's a therapist, I try to keep them. I'll send them links to podcasts and the books and so you can kind of educate the people that you're working with and it, it comes back around to you and then they spread that around to a bunch of other people as well. So it's a great way to get some good karma going. So I'll put links to all this stuff over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com Lauren, if people wanted to come do a session with you, you're, you're in la, right?

Yeah, actually I don't really see clients anymore because I have my whole online platform, so. And then I teach at retreats and I teach workshops and stuff like that. So, yeah, you know how it is. It just gets so busy. We can only do so many things. But I have a ton of resources online as well and I do have a free power center visualization. I sent you the link on that too. If people want to just sort of get in tune with these areas by having. It's like a meditation, but it's also kind of a visualization talking about the anatomy and what's happening in those areas. So it's a great way to like learn about your body in those areas and deepen your awareness. So and then we also have, you know, I have my online studio, we have a seven day free trial for anyone that wants to try any of my stuff, you know, in a video. Because I believe, you know, obviously that always happens, like with these recipes in the books. It's like they want to see it in video as well. So it's a really powerful way. And there's tons of different modalities. There's rebounding, there's foam rolling, there's mat work, there's breath work, there's body rolling on all the different tools that I've created with in partnership with optp. So, yeah, that's a great, great place to start. And then also we have right now we just created a new program to boost the immune system called Immunity Movement Medicine. So that's a free course as well.

I love it. I'll link to all that over@Benvenfield Fitness.com PowerSource and if any of you guys have questions, feel free to jump into the comments section over there. Ask Lauren or I your questions. And remember to take care of your pelvic floor people, because when you're young and it's allit's all toned and it hasn't had a chance to develop hypertonicity or nerve dysfunction, you might feel great, but don't neglect it. Take care of it while you have the chance.

It's worth the investment.

Yup. Read, read the book. So. All right, well, thank you so much, Lauren, for coming on the show.

Absolutely.

Thank you, you, and for writing this book.

Love your curiosity. It's amazing.

And until next time, I'm Ben Greenfield along with Lauren Ruxbarrow signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com have an amazing week. Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the show notes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com along with plenty of of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful Ben Recommends page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormones, sleep digestion, fat loss, performance, and plenty more. Please also know that all the links, all the promo codes that I mentioned during this and every episode help to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. So when you listen in, be sure to use the links in the show notes. Use the promo codes that I generate because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.