Healthy Movement with Kristin Williams

In this episode, I am joined by Physical Therapist and COO/Senior Teacher of the LYT Method, Kristin Williams.  Kristin is a mentor of mine and I have had so many 'aha' moments in learning from her over the years.  She has both a wealth of knowledge and experience.  Tune in to learn more about how the way we teach and work with clients makes the biomechanics of movement FUN.

you can find Kristin here:

practice.lytyoga.com
kristin@lytyoga.com

@kbwilliams99

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome to Centered the Podcast. I'm your host, Leslie Braverman, and I'm sharing holistic content to reconnect you to your most centered self, that place within you that is energized, knowing, and uplifted despite the chaos and demands of life. It's that place within you where you can become a portal of possibility. Today we're welcoming Kristen Williams, affectionately known as KB. Kristen KB is a physical therapist. She's COO of the Lit Method and a senior instructor. And I am so excited. She's been a mentor of mine for many years now. We met in 2020, during the hard part of 2020, and had the most wonderful time together online with movement, mindset, and lots of lit method magic. Welcome, Kristen.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Oh, thank you so much, Leslie. I'm just thrilled to be here. I'm just so excited for you and having watched your growth since 2020. Your journey has been a gift, especially the time we spent together in person in Mexico a couple of years ago was just fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

That was so much fun. We had so much fun in we were in Mexico doing a lit retreat, and we just were living the life. Lots of whales jumping out of the water. I remember.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

You were educating us all about the stars, and that's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, my celestial navigation love. That was so fun. Yeah. Well, hey, Kristen, tell us a little bit about what you're loving about your movement right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Oh, so you know, it's interesting. And I've definitely had a movement journey of my own, you know, as a physical therapist. And I definitely consider myself like a biomechanist where I look at things very much like a puzzle and very much like a machine. And and I've aged with this movement practice too. So, you know, I'm I'm relatively newly into my 50s. And, you know, I love, I've always been a mover and it's always been important to me, but I've been a mostly a runner my whole life until I found, you know, yoga initially. Yoga, I got into it because I started seeing patience from it. I started getting all these people. Yoga was really hot back in the this, you know, like the early 20s, what did they call them, the knots, 2005 to 2010. And I started getting patients around like 2008. And I just said, what the heck are these people doing in this yoga? You know, I knew what it was, but I'd never been to a class. And but I went and I fell in love with the movement. I I'm a dancer, I was a cheerleader, so it really spoke to my choreography side. And then I found, you know, lit. And that tapped into my physical therapy side. And I started, you know, using this movement method in in my practice with patients and referring my patients to it because, you know, what I love about my movement practice, which is mainly I still run, I run three times a week. And by run, I say run walk. I am no longer a running the whole way. I have found, I've let go of the ego, and my body really appreciates a four-minute on, one minute off. Actually, we just lost Jeff Galloway, who created this running style. And I've actually been running this way for 10 plus years.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

It's almost intuitive, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 3:32

It is well, and especially as a physical therapist, you'd be like, why didn't I think of this? But it's like, give those muscles a break.

unknown 3:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Use all their other muscles to walk. You know, you do, you use other muscles to walk. So yeah, my my main movement methods are running and lit. And unfortunately, I'm not a student of lit as much anymore. I'm mostly teaching, but I'm teaching online and in person. So, you know, my movement practice makes my body feel better, but the joy of teaching and educating others, I think, is really what inspires me to keep doing it day in and day out. And then, yes, if I don't do it for a while, I'm like, oh, and it feels good too.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Nice. Yeah. And it's a joy to do, and it's a joy to watch, and it's a joy to teach. It's there's a lot of joy and lit for at least for me. And I know that I've spoken to so many other teachers and they feel the same way. It's just such an amazing method and so beautiful for balancing any sport.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yes. That's what we've kind of come to, you know, see over the last few years is back when yoga was in its prime, people would just do lit because it really does a lot of it. You know, you get the balance, you get the ply, you know, we have plyo in there, we have the joy, we have the fun, with there, there's a dance component, there's a strength component. But now we're seeing people are using it as their and. And like you just said, Leslie, it's a great adjunct, even to traditional yoga. That's I see a lot of people coming to my in-person class. I teach at a gym now, and so they've got all sorts of yoga to choose from, and then they come to mine to you know, serve their body in addition to their more traditional practice that tends to be more flexible or you know, end range. But yes, a lot of a lot of runners, a lot of weightlifters, a lot, and a lot of men, which is great too. So it's definitely, you know, serving both male and female, I think, bodies and then also mindsets, which is nice.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit more about biomechanics, because I know for me, like my mind was blown when you taught me biomechanics and it changed everything. If I could name one single, well, I I don't think I could name one single because you have to have core in there as well. But biomechanics was like the definite, it was, it was the thing that came out of Left Field that I couldn't believe how much positively changed my life in every way.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

You know, and I I agree with you. And I think the mechanics is what the biomechanics is what's always made me a good physical therapist, is my wanting to educate my patients about the biomechanics of their body. I don't know diddly squat about my car. All I know is like, oh, if I've got a low tire, I better fill it up because it's going to imbalance the everything, right? Or if it's low on gas, I better put gas in if it's low on oil. And people don't think about their bodies that way. And they should, because it's this very beautifully adaptable machine, meaning, unlike a car, a car really can adapt to its changes, but the body can. Unfortunately, because we have this brain-body connection, the brain will develop what it thinks is a new normal of biomechanics, which is why we see a lot of people who sit all day or who repeatedly bend over using their back, they begin to lose almost that awareness of how to move through the hips, of where the pelvis is in space. And when you start to educate people about how to move better, to me, it's like giving them agency over healing. And it's because as a physical therapist, you can quickly become, oh, I gotta go get fixed by Kristen. And I even before I found lit, I was like, I don't want you to, I'm happy to fix you, but I really want to show you how to fix yourself. And it starts with balance, balance by way of on one leg, but also balance in the body and balance in your movement. And so, yeah, I think it's fun to watch yoga teachers coming in and learning about biomechanics and geeking out on it, because I think for the first time, they're able to better help their clients if they're teacher, they're able to better help themselves when they're injured. And it helps people not to freak out because what does our body feel? Pain. And what does our brain do? Red alert, red alert. But if we can really stop to think, okay, let's peel it back to the biomechanics, why does my back hurt? Why is my back the victim of how I'm moving, maybe less optimally? And it all boils down to biomechanics. And speaking of when you and I met in the COVID crisis, you know, I went from being all hands-on in the clinic to suddenly doing stuff online and really being forced to analyze movement way more particularly, and then educating people, having them analyze themselves. And I was amazed by in many cases, people got better quicker because they weren't relying on me to fix them. They were able to look inward because they start to understand the movement.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah, to your point, as so I'm a healer and I know the difference between being fixed, right, and actual healing is that personal responsibility and embodiment. And as if the education is that thing that bridges the gap between being fixed by someone else and being able to heal yourself through knowledge, through movement, through awareness. And I love what you said about how much better the results have been working online because we've had to have such a keen eye and such powerful language that translates across a screen to someone on possibly even on the other side of the world, being able to, you know, just instantly see. That's what I love about the training that I've had, is I can just instantly see. And some of it's intuitive, but a lot of it is that education piece that I learned from you and from Lara, the woman who created the lip method, and just being able to clean up movement enough that the body starts to rebalance, like the idea of the tire pressure, and it all starts coming back together into a homeostasis where you are in a space of optimal healing. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Yeah. And I think the other thing being online does is it starts the conversation because I have to constantly say, how does that feel? And the patient, the client has to go, oh, how does that feel? Because a lot of people don't pick up signs and signals that their body is giving them. And when you start to have that conversation of, well, how does this side feel versus this side? Well, I don't know. Let me do it again. And it's like, oh, you know what? I feel this. And I'm seeing it, but I don't want to feed that to them. I'm looking and going, oh, I know that side feels blah, blah, blah. But I want to hear them say it because I want them to recognize it. And that is also a key component of movement intelligence is knowing what your body's interoception, you know, it's knowing what's happening and being like, hmm, that doesn't feel right. And we also can use other methods, you know, visual cues, like using a mirror. I have people record themselves. You know, we send the recording, like when you go back and watch this, look at that. And it's like, I mean, I learned a lot about my own movement by watching the videos of me practicing online. Some of the early stuff, I'm like, oh my God, you know, because I couldn't I know that was so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah, I couldn't feel it until I saw it. Yeah, it was so much fun for me to learn that too.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yep, exactly. And we're we as teachers too, we end up being focused on others. And then it's right there on the video, like, oh, I can see I have some bend in that left elbow when I do plank. No wonder my shoulders soar later or whatever. Yeah, it's it's a powerful tool and a powerful time that we've walked into. And I think that this method translates so well across screen. And just that knowledge of self-awareness, like you're talking about, and starting to ask the questions oh, well, when does stuff feel better? When does stuff feel worse? Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Probably the hardest thing, you know, with the online movement is that it's harder to follow somebody online, right? Like you're looking at the screen, you're like, is that the right leg, the left leg? And, you know, so like there, it definitely challenges the movement method in and of itself challenges the brain. We are not asking people, like running, you just throw on your shoes and go straight, right? Maybe you go up and down. But the other thing I love about the movement that you and I do with lit is just the variety in the directions.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

And that requires Yeah, let's talk about that neuroadaptability. Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit. Can you just give us a little summary?

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Yeah. So about that. Yeah. I I have this, she's unbelievable. She's 84, comes to my Monday morning classes. She's been brut doing yoga for 40 years. Really beautiful practice. And yoga has been her thing. And she loves my class because she calls it her brain yoga. And, you know, she recognizes that like she could do the other stuff in her sleep, but she has to follow my commands and that movement, and we're facing all different directions. And I'm constantly feeling like I'm having to sell that side of it, like to someone who's new. I always ask, is there anybody new in the class? Because I I see them and I know they're new, but I don't want to point them out. And then they're like, Me. And I say, Hey, you know, expect to be confused and know that everyone you see around you was once in your spot, and that's actually good for you. You know, what we see with this neural plasticity, this is really, even though it's been around for this idea for decades, it's now more out in the world as the benefits of challenging the brain to keep it, even thinking of it as like a big muscle, because we're seeing, you know, a shrink of the brain with age. But as we keep moving in a variety of ways, the brain gets excited. I mean, that's part of Lara's genius with this blueprint, is the stream. You know, we we we teach one, two, three sequences and then we stream it together, but we tweak it a little bit. We mix it up, we mix it up so you know what's coming, but you're like, ooh, and your brain goes, ah, you know, and so it's all about these connections that are firing, and uh, that's exciting for the brain, that's exciting for the body, and it helps. That's what we do with stroke patients. You know, we we know if someone's got a stroke, it's like a roadblock in their brain, and that's okay because the brain can form new pathways to get to the same endpoint. It might take a little longer, it might look a little different, but that's what Lara, you know, coming from that neuro background. I actually started in neuro before I switched to ortho. You know, she recognized, like, hey, I'm getting neuropatients on the floor to help them motor plan. Everybody should be doing that. Everybody should be following these sequences to help that that brain mapping. And I think once you feel you almost have to feel it in your body to get it, but it's really special to see. And what clients love about it, practitioners love, is you really feel the growth. You know, you can you can feel the growth from the beginning at the end of the class where you're like, man, that was hard. Absolutely. But now in the stream, I'm crushing it.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

It's very absolutely, and it's so positive. It's such a positive feedback because it is possible for everybody to do. I remember when I first started training with you guys, I always caught stuff with my right hand. I'm right hand dominant. And I had kids who are pretty young at that age. And as we were saying before, it was, you know, the pandemic time period, everyone was home. My kids were home playing ball in the house all the time. And sometimes a ball would just fly at me and I would cat cross my body to catch it if it were coming on that left side. Well, after practicing lit for a little while, I don't even think it was that long, the left hand suddenly woke up. And when a ball was unexpectedly flying at me, I caught it with my left hand without thinking. And that's the kind of stuff that we're really changing. So this isn't there's a huge neuropiece. And I have other podcast episodes, you know, the importance of novelty in your life and your movement and on some neuroscience. But this is kind of this is the thing that brought it all together for me, you guys, was learning from KB and Lara, as we've mentioned. It's been awesome.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

And I love that you talk about it as an awakening, because that's exactly what what it is, right? And that's the beauty of yoga in general, I think, is you do everything on one side and then the other. So you can really, I think of it as a constant assessment, you know, uh, and and and I encourage people to, because I mean, let's be honest, physical therapy is boring. I mean, I got you know, I got bored, I felt bad giving home exercises, but man, you get on the mat and you turn that into your therapy and you really look inward throughout and you do like mini assessments, it's a it's just a great way to keep tabs on your body. And then yes, because you'll recognize oh, for me, girl, in the same way. My left side, I'm so right side dominant, it's shameful. But I am constantly reminded like if this side starts talking to me and my right side's unhappy, I gotta be like, okay, left side, are you are are you awake? And do I need to do my due diligence of waking you up? And a lot of times I do have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

As we all do, for sure. And now everyone listening is like, oh, wait a second, I'm right hand dominated dominant. What do I need to do here? Yeah, it's it's great. And I've I've even played with it in other times in my life in my 20s when I was working on boats. As you know, we so boats, you always have chores, kind of like classroom chores or whatever. And one of the chores was like cleaning the floors, cleaning the toilets, and I used to hate it. So, what I would do, and this is long before we knew about neuroplasticity in this way, is I would clean with my left hand just to make it different, make me get through it somehow. And then I'd switch to my right and be able to go so much faster. And I just had always noticed the difference in the speeds. And I have to say, after I think I've been practicing lit now for six years, that it's yeah, I can I can clean left-handed, I can clean right-handed. Stuff is working together, it's pretty great.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

You know, I had I have one child who is what I would call ambidextrous. And that to me, as a just a physical therapist, at you know, looking, it was fascinating to me to watch him when he really truly did not have a hand dominance, he would color with his left hand, and then you just see him go, like this hand got tired and color with the right. And then he would he would eat right, left. And it when he was little, he didn't even think about it. He had no dominance. But once he got into school and started, he ended up being left hand writing, but he still eats with both hands. He started playing basketball and started shooting with the right because he was taught by righties, you know, and like yeah, that was interesting to watch that happen. But I was always kind of jealous of him. Like, wow, what a gift to know it's a huge gift. So dominant.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Yeah, to have that brain balance. It's so great. And then the rest of us now we just get to apply all of our tools to work toward that, which I also think is beautiful. One of the other things I wanted to mention too, just in the teaching of this stuff and watching people progress, is the power of transformation that we get to see, like you said, in one session and let alone over years. And I think it really does give me a lot of confidence that those neuropathways are solid and they're still growing.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

That's so true, and it's rewarding, you know. I think that is, you know, that was always what made me love PT, is I love watching people improve. Um, and there's no better feeling than helping anybody, I think. But there's I think the best feeling of all is when somebody says to you, you know, after you've taught them, let's say five or six times, and they say, Wow, you know, I've had pain for four years in my hip, and I've done six classes with you, and I no longer have pain.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

That and did I t dress the hip at all? No. But it's just I said, you know what, that's because you now are moving, like you're moving better. And to know that they take the practice off the Matt. And they hear your voice. Like they hear, like, oh, yeah, Leslie said something about, you know, and then you're just like, yes, because that's what we want it to be. We want it to be fun. We want it to be relatable. We want it to be, you know, something that they can apply. And not, it's not a chore. And then that makes it more sustainable. More sustainable by way of in the body, but also by way of, I want to keep doing this because it makes me feel a certain way.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

So we keep coming, you know. That's it. That's it's all about the fun. It's all about the fun. I love it. And it's amazing that we, you know, we get into the space of having a good time and the injuries start healing. And it happens every time. I'm working with a client now who had back surgery in his 20s and just never really felt right, even after it. We hear this story all the time, right? KB and I have heard so many of these stories. And, you know, within two, well, within one session, his eyes, you know, popped open, like, oh my God, I feel better already. How is this possible that in 60 minutes together I already feel better after so many years? And then, you know, we progress and progress and progress, and I'm just like living the dream, having to be able to do all the things he's always wanted to do. And so, and that's possible for everybody, I think.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

And that brings me such joy to hear stories like yours, you know, because yeah, I went to school for this, and I'm thrilled I did. I've I'm so grateful that I became a physical therapist, but I have the greatest joy teaching someone like you who just has this hungry mind. You know, there are a few people who stand out in our teacher trainings, and you're one of them that I love it. A thirst for knowledge and a real desire to to help others, to better yourself and to just absorb it and be it, and then to see and to hear makes me hap that like the most happy when you something like this. Like, hey, I'm helping somebody, and you're not a physical therapist, and you don't, we don't need a master's degree, you know, to to to be or a doctorate, you know, to be in control of your own body, let alone help others. So kudos to you. That just thrills me every time I hear a story like that because man, it's almost like spreading the good word, you know, like it is, yeah, absolutely. As many people and help people help others.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Absolutely. And that's what we're all here to do in the end. Absolutely. Yeah, the I remember you once said to me, the more, the more we share, the better we all are. And so true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

I still have my week, my uh monthly calls with teachers all over the world, and we still show up and just share, you know, because I still learn from them. We learn from each other, and what a gift, you know. I look forward to it every month.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Well, give us a couple of, or maybe just one, one tip, a movement tip that will, you know, that we can take into life.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Probably my biggest tip for people would be mobility. So while strength, stability, and adaptability are hugely important, I find, in my personal opinion, my my personal experience, the more mobile you are by way of joint range of motion, so hips, spine, foot and ankle, if you can restore mobility, the sky's the limit. So, you know, keep tabs on that. Pay attention, whether it's, you know, doing your little routine, if you have a routine in the morning or like during your lit practice, whatever it is, you know, stretch afterwards just as a way to check in on your mobility. Do a dynamic warm-up before to check in on your mobility. Because if you listen to that, a lot of times you're gonna notice a change in your mobility long before you have pain or weakness. And it can be, to me, the biggest indicator that, hmm, I need to do something. So I think that's my takeaway.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Beautiful. Yeah. So just that self-inquiry, always noticing what's going on. Yeah, so powerful. Good. Well, do you want to let us know where people can find you?

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Absolutely. So I teach online at practice.lityoga.com for the lityoga method. You can also email me at any time. It's Kristen at lityoga.com. And then I live in Milwaukee, so I practice here in person at a gym called Elite. So I would love to, any any elite members out there come to my classes because they are different. And yeah, on Instagram, it's KB Williams99. You can find me there as well.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being with us, Kristen. We're excited to try out some insights into mobility and all the things. And everybody just keep being that portal of possibility. We're here for you.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

I love that. Thank you, Leslie.