Tales from a life of battling pain—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. I’ve faced it all. Now, my purpose is to turn my experience into a roadmap to healing for others.
Good morning, cadre. How's everybody doing on this? Uh, mighty fine Wednesday. Last week, we started with a special visit from Roger and it looks like we. Have one from Louie now. Say hi, Louie. He's a good stretchy kitty, and we're gonna get our. Stretch on again here today. Uh, last week we started with the, the gallbladder. So that's the first. Stretch of the energy series. And, uh, what kind of remind you of what that looks like a little bit? So, if you're looking at, uh, this little diagram right here, you'll notice that.
The green line is the gallbladder Meridian that we stretched. Last week under the resistance, flexibility, modality. And today we're gonna stretch the liver. So, um, whenever we do these stretches, you know, they're kind of in pairs. Pairs and they're balancing each other. So you'll notice that this Meridian. Runs through the interior, whereas. Uh, the gallbladder is the opposite of that running on the outside of the body. So we're stretching, balancing muscle group. Uh, and being that this one is delivered.
This one is something that everybody needs to. Stretch cuz the liver is one of the most important organs in the body with hundreds of. Functions. And, uh, one of the benefits of this particular stretch that we're gonna do, which. Is the lateral bend is that this stretch can improve the health of your liver and tendons. Tendons help to detoxify your body. And improve your overall appearance. Psychologically the stretch increases your awareness of what you truly desire. Helps you become more helpful and less repressed.
Helps you to develop deeper independence and can help dismantle co-dependence. So this is powerful stretch. And, uh, not only am I able to channel these psychological benefits with a solid stretch. Uh, with this one really helps. My low back, believe it or not. Uh, and as someone that's had a broken back and spondylolisthesis, this is one of my favorite. Stretches. I find myself doing it just randomly throughout the day. It's a little more D. Difficult to just pop into that gallbladder stretch, cuz you gotta be on the ground.
And. Uh, ground is not totally accessible, but if I'm sitting around. Having a standard just conversation with somebody. I don't have a problem just popping into this. Stretch. So I'm gonna have to back up from the camera a little bit here so that you guys. Can see what I am doing. Um, so, yeah, we're gonna explain this right now. I don't like to use. A matte for this stretch, cuz I like to feel the ground and be as sturdy. As possible. So I'm gonna find, might not be totally centered on the. Camera here, but I'm gonna find two wooden planks.
Planks and I'm going to basically make my feet. About hip with a part I'm actually gonna. I'm actually gonna stand a little bit on some gaps here, cuz that's. That's how it's gonna work today and how. The, for the proper width of executing this stretch. So when I'm standing with my feet planted. I wanna make sure that I'm essentially squeezing. The internal part of my legs, the medial part of my legs. So almost like you're pulling in. So, you know, squeeze pull in. Give it a little tap, make sure that these muscles are engaged.
And then I also wanna make sure that my core is engaged as well. Especially that those transverse abdominal. So it's kind of like, uh, um, pulling your butt up inside. Yeah. (laugh) for a lack of a better word, but that's sort of what you're. Doing to engage. Uh, those transverse abdominals. So I've got my. My my inside of my thighs engaged. I've got my core engaged. And now I like to bring my arms up and like a perfect motion. Almost ball. Ballerina style. I'm gonna clasp my. Right hand over my left hand.
And then as I engage my, the inside of my quads. Quads engage my core. I'm gonna start to engage the muscles in my back. The muscle. Muscles in both of my arms. And we're gonna have a battle up here. We're gonna fight. And essentially try to just pull apart. But as we're in this fight mode here with my arms straight up, over. My head, I'm going to yield. On my left arm a little bit. And I'm gonna pull down to the right. And as I'm pulling down to the right. I'm turning my head. Up to the left and kind of into the crux of my arm.
I like to exhale at the end of the motion. Take another deep breath. Maybe go a little further. As I'm feeling this, you know, I'm feeling it along. By tricep the outside of my shoulder, down into my LA. Down into my low back. So that whole. Outside body part, even though, you know, the Meridian is kind of coming through the. Inside. Right. So we're, but we are still stretching that Meridian we're stretching that liver. While also benefiting of a whole body stretch. Right. So I'm gonna go up to that exact same motion.
We're gonna pull down to the right. Oh, I can really feel that. Above my left. Butt cheek feels amazing. And now when I end this. I'm gonna start letting my left hand win. And now we are strengthening. So at first we were stretching these muscles properly. And on the reverse side of things. Were strengthening. So that's kind of why this modality is called resistance flexibility. And. Strength training cuz we're, we're strengthening the muscles in addition to stretching them. So I'm gonna come up now.
I'm gonna do the opposite. I'm gonna have my. Left hand clasped over my right hand. I'm gonna keep this nice shape. Engage my internal thighs my core. And then I'm gonna start pulling down to the left. Letting that left side win. As I turn my head up to the right. Into the crux of my arm. I'm a little tighter in my right shoulder. On this side, I noticed. That's a really feeling that all over my shoulder. But also down into the low part of my back, just above my right butt. Butt. All right now we're gonna win.
With that right side win. Really felt that and might tricep there. Oh, yeah, that was that was nice. I'll take you guys to that motion. Just one more time, cuz. This is something I like to do every day. You know, I might like, as I showed earlier, just find myself in convers. Conversation, maybe I'm waiting for something. And I'll just kind of quick. Pop up into this and. Oh man. Get that shoulder and there's, I'm really feeling it in my shoulders right now. And I, I mean, I always feel it. In my back.
So this is just. One of those. Stretches that for me. It's a, it's a win. Every single time. And sometimes when you're doing stretches, might not feel it as much. And that's because you're doing a good job of maintaining it. So. Never hurts to continue to stretch, but sometimes you don't need to spend as. Much time on it, whereas. Other parts. You might find yourself having to spend significantly amount more time. It all depends on what's your body needs. At that specific time. I'm gonna give you a little explanation here.
As I kind of continue to learn. About the function of organs. Organs. So I've got my trusty notebook here. I like to write things down. I have these great textbooks from, uh, when I went through the certification. Program at the genius of flexibility in Santa Barbara. Uh, but I try to treat it as. Work as homework, write this stuff down so that I can process it. My. My own language and my own way and my own time. So you know, if you didn't know. What the liver does it, uh, it filters your bloods.
So it removes toxins. Toxins drugs, alcohol waste products helps break down substances so your body can get rid of. Them it processes nutrients. So it converts food into energy. And. Nutrients your body can use restores extra glucose as glycogen and release. Releases it, when you need energy. It makes important proteins. So it produces proteins that help your blood clot when you're injured. It makes proteins that transport substances through your bloodstream. It produces bile. Which helps your body digest and absorb fats from food.
Uh, it's supports immunity, so it helps remove bacteria and other. Harmful substances from the blood and it stores vitamins and minerals, which is vitamin a. D E K B12, iron and copper. So it's really important to keep this. Critical organ functioning properly. And it's really important to keep our body functioning properly. And we. Do that through movement. In order to be psychologically at our best, we need to be physiologically sound. So we need to. Treat the body we need to move. And um, and that's one of the main reasons why.
I'm putting on this event. This called refresh wellness and movement festival. That, uh, cadre is the event sponsor of, so we're gonna be tackling this together. And we're gonna be creating community. We're gonna be. Focusing on movement, focusing on mental health, there's gonna be a ton of cadre. Contributors involved in this event. Um, spreading their knowledge, spreading their good energy. Uh, and so many people. Just involved in the wellness community that are doing the right things from a, from a modality standpoint.
So we're gonna. Have some of the best. At breathwork sound healing. Yoga, Matt Pilates, high intensity interval training. So it really is gonna be this. All-encompassing event where you can kind of plug and play where you want to be, how you want to participate. Uh, based on what you're feeling, right. And it'll, it'll provide this opportunity for. Conversations with uh, specialists that you might not have the ability to have a conversation with. Such as the Minnesota twins acupuncturist. Uh, or the guys that started game day men's health.
Uh, or my friend Colt who operates arc wave, which. Is, uh, just this machine that I've utilized for the last 15 years to stay strong and. And also fight injuries. So it's gonna be a collection of amazing humans. And I highly recommend uh, grab a ticket and go check it out. Um, if you were to go to my Instagram page, which is. Letty Josh. I have a link to those tickets and I'm putting out. Continuous information about it. You could also follow the event page itself, which is refresh. MPLS. L S and yeah, we're getting close to it.
Pretty much, two and a half weeks away already. So, um, and at my area, where I will have my sauna and cold plunge and some of my wellness, uh, um, supporting things such as our supplements and. I'm gonna bring my mats. I'm gonna have Richard out from the genius of flexibility in Santa Barbara. Doing. Assisted demo stretches. So, uh, an assisted stretch is. Is significantly more effective than, than a solo stretch because of the. Uh, additional force, uh, applied by not only yourself, but the person assist.
Assisting you. So take advantage of this unique opportunity for. A free demo for this resistance flexibility, modality, cuz. It's uh, it's pretty special. And it's it's helped improve my life. Like you wouldn't believe. Uh, since I had been introduced to the assisted component. Uh, last April, April of, uh, 2025. So. Yeah. The lateral bend. That is the stretch that we did. I'll take you through it one more time, just in case, uh, you wanna, you wanna pop one off wherever you're at? So I've got, uh, my feet.
About hip width and engaging the inside of my thighs. I'm engaging my core. I'm. I'm bringing my hands up, classing my right hand, over my left. Pulling through my back and arms getting a full body. Muscle contraction. And now pull down to the right side as I turn my left. Head towards the left side of my. Body and into the crux of my arms. Oh, and notice how I'm able to go much further. This time around. Just like with any stretch. The more (affirmative) well, just like with any good stretch. The more you do it, the more range of motion that your body is gonna have.
And we'd all like a little more range of motion. Oh, we don't want our fascia to. Tighten up like a like a small sized sized skin, suitor onesie. And. Prevent our range of motion from flourishing. And that's essentially what happens to our. Body over time through complacency through stagnancy, you can't remain stagnant. We need to move this thing. So that everything is functioning properly. Or our fascia is gonna tighten up on us. And then that's what happens when you get really old. It's not like your bones are falling apart, your fat, their.
They're fascia is just tightened up like a. Like a small sized body suit on a large human. And I can, I'll do a little example of fascia and my shirt here. So say this is I've got a fascist suit on. And say I hurt myself. I, I dig myself up. Well, if there's, this is the main part of the injury, like, look at what this happened. Look what happens when I twist. That fascia up there's lines. Lions everywhere coming around my body. So I might feel this pain up here. And treat the end result of an injury.
But avoid the origin of the injury. That's down here. That has created a host of problems elsewhere. So that's why it's important to target. Fascia and remove scar tissue and dense fascia. So that's your body. Can return to its normal state. And not get all twisted up. And affect other parts of your body. So that's kind of my little demonstration. Of fascia and I'm continuing to learn more and more about how to speak about it. So I welcome you on this journey. Of, uh, learning about our bodies, learning about how to be physiologically sound so that.
We can psychologically perform at our best. And, uh, and I wouldn't have it any other way than to be able to be out here on a glorious. Morning sun is shining. Birds are chirping and, uh, I'm about to go and start plugging away on my. Event. So to all of you in the cadres sphere. I hope you have a great Wednesday. And, uh, you can expect. To see me soon. Cheers.
