Unlocking Vitality: The Power of Essentrics - A Personal Journey

Episode 12: In this episode, I delve into the world of Essentrics, a dynamic fitness program developed by Miranda and Sahra Esmond-White, known for its transformative impact on flexibility, strength, and overall well-being. Join me as we embark on a personal journey of discovery, where you'll hear firsthand about my experience with Essentrics.

Learn how Essentrics, with its unique blend of stretching and strengthening exercises, has played a pivotal role in reshaping not only the body but also the mindset. Dive into the science behind the method and the holistic approach it takes towards fitness, promoting balance and longevity.

Through personal anecdotes and insights, uncover the joys, challenges, and transformative moments that come with embracing Essentrics as a part of a wellness journey. Whether you're an Essentrics enthusiast or new to the practice, this episode will inspire you to explore the world of movement, vitality, and a more balanced, harmonious life.

Links:
Essentrics: Dynamic Stretch Workout - Essentrics
Essentrics Streaming: https://www.essentricstv.com/

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Find my World Groove movement zoom class on Thursdays, under my name, at: https://theworldgroovemovement.com/virtual-search/

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Transcript

Lisa: 0:10

Welcome to the Happy Sweat Life Podcast. My name is Lisa Rung and today I wanted to talk about Eccentrics. That's E S S E N T R I C S. So I learned about Eccentrics through a YouTube video and I followed along and I thought it was good but I didn't feel particularly compelled to Look forward to do it again, but then a number of months later I did see another video and I was looking for something to help me stretch out and so I gave it another shot and they did an exercise where it was stretching the back in a way that I had never ever stretched my back and And I was just like, oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever. It felt so good, and it really loosened up my back in a way that I'd never been able to do before, and I just fell in love. I thought, I want to do this. So, I signed up for their 14 day trial. They do have a 14 day trial for their streaming service. then I did continue on to the monthly plan, which with taxes in September of 2023 is about 16 a month. So not too bad. And I started doing it every day, and I did that for about five or six months daily practice of this type of exercise. Now I'm about two to three times a week but I still absolutely love it. It is the only exercise where I actually thank the instructor at the end of the video, even though... he or she can't see me. I just feel so grateful for how my body feels after doing eccentrics that I just feel compelled to say thank you. It is really silly, but it's just how much it means to me to be able to move my body and stretch it in the ways that they do. So what is Eccentrics? I'm going to read a little bit off of their website and paraphrase a little bit, but you can find this information on their website as well. So it was founded by a mother and daughter team, Miranda and Sahra Esmond White. Miranda is the mom and she was a professional ballerina. she realized that fitness really should be measured in mobility, to move free, and to live actively without pain. And definitely as I've aged, I can see the importance of this and so I think it's a really worthwhile mission. So their goal is to create a balanced body such that the strength in your muscles doesn't inhibit movement. And if you've ever seen any muscle bound weightlifters, you can kind of understand what that means. Like sometimes when the muscles are so big, they don't have the same mobility that you would want to have.

3:26

And then the other part of it is that your mobility is enhanced by your strength. So if you need to get off of the floor, you have enough strength and you have enough mobility to do that. So it is a functional fitness class, which works the whole body. And it really does. They do from head to toe so that you can maintain healthy joints, healthy, connective tissue, healthy muscle. And as mentioned before, an equal balance of strength and mobility. And just to, mention a few of the key points that they talk about. For the joints they really work on unlocking and decompressing the joints by stretching and strengthening the muscles that surround each while also lubricating and working the connective tissue. And just a little example for myself, I used to run. I had stopped running. The idea of running I felt too stiff, actually, to do it. And after doing eccentrics for a while, I decided to try running again. Because it was something I really actually enjoyed. And It wasn't fun at first, but I felt like I had enough mobility in my ankle joints that my feet were healthy enough to try it again. And I'm proud to say that I've actually run two 5K races and I'm training for a 10k which is big for me considering I've also gained some weight. So that was something that I was worried about, but the strength and mobility that I've gotten from Eccentrics have allowed me to get back to running. Which has been wonderful. The other thing that I want to touch on is just how they work with connective tissue. So connective tissue is your fascia, your tendons, and your ligaments. And when you don't stretch it out, you don't work on that then on any regular basis, that's when you start to feel really stiff. So they use safe, large, three dimensional, full body movements that exercise. the design of the living matrix in its entirety. And this is kind of what I meant when I talked about how they stretched my back in a way because there's a lot of fascia, a lot of connective tissue in the back. And just the way that they've designed these movements it stretches that connective tissue in ways that a lot of exercise programs don't touch. Now, what equipment do you need? Fortunately, you don't need much. Probably just like a yoga mat, or if you have a carpet, that's fine. Just someplace soft to lay on. A lot of the exercises are standing. They do do some with a chair, and on the floor ones, if you have like a stretchy band, that's great, or you could use a towel. And any of the side lying ones, if you have any hip discomfort with those, you could buy a donut at any drugstore like Walgreens or CVS. So very low investment in terms of... In terms of equipment, which I love. So if you're interested in trying out Eccentrics, they have a number of different options. As I mentioned, they do have an online website where twice a week, usually, they have live classes. And they started this something recently, which I really like, which is you can log on, say that you're looking for classes and that you're a beginner, And it will display videos for the week that they suggest if you're a beginner. And if you're intermediate or advanced, then you also will get the same seven for the week suggestions of different videos, including the live classes. Now the live classes basically they have a time when they're going to be streamed. You can just log in and connect and the instructor will lead you through it. You... Don't have any opportunity to interact with the instructor and they don't see you But it's kind of nice to follow along live and know that other people are doing it at the same time as you are if you can't make that time then they will actually record it and Upload it to the website and it's usually available fairly quickly after it's ended So you can go back and watch it or do it on your own time And I think they keep those up for a couple weeks Now the other option as I mentioned they do have a lot of videos that are just stored. They have a search function so if you have a particular Part of your body that you want to work on you've got pain in or you just want to strengthen You can type that in the search function and they have various options you can kind of choose from. Or if you want like a 15 minute workout or a 30 minute workout you can specify that. And then you'll get a list of videos that are suggested for you. They do also have DVDs that you can purchase, and those, you can see a list of those on the website. And then the final thing is that Miranda has just recently released a book. it's called The Miracle of Flexibility. And that also has a number. Different routines and programs that you can follow along with and also, of course, more in depth explanation of her philosophy and how the body works. So if you're a beginner, this is what they recommend. They recommend that you start off slow. That you be very gentle with yourself and if anything hurts you back off to the point where it doesn't hurt anymore. And definitely don't push too hard and keep your body nice and relaxed. The recommended number of times per week is three times per week. So it's pretty reasonable I think most of the videos range About 30 minutes. That's kind of an average time One other thing I like about Eccentrics is I love the way they do the warm up. It reminds me of when I was back in massage school the founder of the massage school. His name is Ben Benjamin and he wrote a book called Exercise Without Injury, which is still available and he was also a proponent of this dynamic movement of bringing fluid into the joints and blood into the muscles with nice easy like swinging motions of the legs and the arms not stretching at this point to warm up that's done after you've finished a workout and that is really a great way to prevent injury. Now, the other thing as I was talking before about the options that you have on the website, is sometimes they'll run challenges or programs. They did one last year, which I really enjoyed, which was an age related workout. And so they had every decade. from the 20s all the way up to the 70s, and you would just choose the age range you were in, and then each day there would be a new video released that you could do and that was really great. They had one recently that they released that was focused on for swimmers. I know they've done ones for runners that's still up there The other thing I really like that I talked to you a little bit about before is that they really do take the joints through all planes of motions I had a Broken shoulder a couple of years ago. I don't have any pain I feel like I have pretty good range of motion, but because they take you through all ranges. I actually found one area of range of motion that was really difficult for me and it was kind of enlightening to discover that and now I know that that's something I want to work on and improve and get better because I'm sure in some ways or in some circumstances when I want to move in that way, it would be beneficial for me to have that all loose and functioning correctly. Now The other options too, so I mentioned that they have the streaming service, they have the DVDs, they have the book. You can also search for classes that are presented in person. Or through Zoom. And the great thing about doing that is that then you do have a connection with the instructor. You can get feedback. And I would say this is great for somebody who might need some modifications when they first start out. Because there are... The standing moves, especially when they're working the lower body, you are standing in a sort of modified plie with the legs turned out and the knees bent. So if you have trouble standing like that, you have some knee issues you don't feel very stable in that position it would be great to have somebody help you Modify the movements in that because they don't really in the videos talk too much about modifications I would say that's the really the only Thing that I find not Not too helpful just just in terms of how to modify if you're having trouble So who is Essentrics centrics for I would say it's for somebody who feels Tight overall or tight in one particular spot. If you want a more balanced body, you want to increase your strength and your range of motion. And definitely if you're looking to improve your posture, this is absolutely fantastic for opening up the chest area, for lifting your neck, you know, all the things that you need in order to improve your posture in a really nice gentle way. Nothing is ever forced. It's, I just can't even tell you how nice and easy the movements are but how effective they are. Not that they're not challenging at times I've certain certain ones where I'm kind of weak or have or don't have the right range of motion You know, they're challenging and you kind of have to keep working at it to get better. But all in all I do love how gentle the movement is. And the other thing I really like is they don't repeat and repeat and repeat like you're not doing like sets of 30. They do maybe like 8, 12 and then you're on to the next thing. So just when you start to feel like you can't handle it anymore, they're changing it up. So you, you feel successful. You feel like you can get through the workout and you know, you might need to rest once in a while, but that definitely improves as you do it more. Especially if you commit yourself to doing it, like they said, like at least three times a week. So, eccentrics is also great if you want to improve your balance. They do work on that quite a bit. If you want to maintain your strength and your flexibility of your body as you age, or if you want to increase that because maybe that's some area that you're lacking. It is absolutely fantastic if you were looking for a low impact workout. They don't have any jumping involved, although they, as I say, they do do a lot of work on the feet and the ankles because they believe that that's the foundation for the health and the stability of your whole body and I couldn't agree more. And it's a great supportive exercise if you want to avoid injury in some other sport that you're doing. If you need that strength and flexibility because you're playing pickleball, or as I said, you know, I've started running. Any of those things, it's so supportive for activities that you might be involved with. So the other opportunities to participate in Eccentrics, and I'm not sure if they're still up there, but Miranda did do two PBS shows. One was called Forever Painless, and the other was called Aging Backwards. So those are listed on her website and might still be available if you search for those. So all in all, I think Eccentrics is just an amazing. Dance based exercise for the whole body. For maintaining the health or increasing the health of your body, the strength, the mobility. I've seen a huge difference in my own body and I would just absolutely highly recommend it. That you try it out and see how it feels for you. I will have the link to the website in my show notes. thank you again so much for listening And definitely if you have any questions. Comments anything you'd like to talk about, please feel free to email me. It's HappySweatLife at gmail. com. I will have that noted in the show notes as well and I look forward to bringing you another interview next week. I will be talking again with somebody who's figure skated throughout their whole life and is still figure skating.