Kate Strozak Education

Some guiding thoughts of mine when it comes to working with clients and students. The list could go on but these are a few of the core ones.

Now more than ever I really appreciate the concepts of time and investment. Just throwing that out there.

Any core beliefs that you have when it comes to your life or work?

Hello, I’m Kate! There’s been a surge of new people here and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself over the next few days. Here’s a little info on my professional background and interests. Would love to learn more about you all, drop a line about your passions and interests!

2nd in the series of daily things you can do to optimize your nervous system - options for breathing.

Respiration is controlled by the medulla oblongata in the brain stem. Fortunately, it is an autonomic process - one we don’t have to plan, control, or coordinate.

The state of our nervous system (parasympathetic vs sympathetic/rest and digest vs fight or flight) can determine our breath. Our breath can also help us return to a parasympathetic state or enter into a sympathetic state. (Why would you want to enter into the sympathetic state? Another cool topic for another thoughtful day).

Optimal breathing has huge impact on our pelvic floor function, visceral health, stimulation to our vagus nerve, spine mobility, speech, and more. It really pays huge dividends to address this.

We adapt and respond to the tasks and events in our lives which means we can form various preferred breath patterns. There’s no such thing as a bad breather, and there’s no need for judgement. It is imperative for survival that we options for mouth breathing and secondary muscles of respiration.

Simply, can we help make sure somebody has more options for breath? This way, in any position, any task, any situation, we have more options for optimal breathing?

Integrating into a mindfulness practice is a great way to go about it but it’s helpful to work on breath in a variety of positions and movements - lateral, rotation, posterior, anterior etc.

Here’s some pictures but I’ll try to get around to some videos one of these days!

Love the Oov and buteyko breathing for respiratory work. MFR and cranial sacral therapy can also be hugely helpful. Pelvic floor physical therapy as well - we’re accustomed to addressing joints above and below an injured site to promote healing - consider the pelvic floor. Lots of other great references and options out there.

Research and experience suggest that mindfulness has a significant impact on our mental health and brain function. I have a full 3 hour workshop covering the science and application of this and it’s a workshop that is very near and dear to my heart.

Mindfulness doesn’t have to be sitting still and not thinking - that’s a very narrow, rigid, and inaccessible way to approach this. Mindfulness comes in the form of meditation (whether still or moving), gratitude, breath work, bodywork, being immersed in joyful hobbies, etc.

It can be incorporated into our work as movement or bodywork professionals and something we can facilitate for our clients and ourselves.

Incorporating mindfulness into your daily life can help decrease cortisol levels, shrink the amygdala (region associated with anxiety, fear and negative/chronic stress), improve focus, memory, learning, feelings of self-worth, and much more. The list is extensive.

Something worth considering if you haven’t already been considering it! Since prioritizing this in my life, I’ve noticed profound impacts. I experience more joy and focus. I’m better able to draw boundaries and have self-respect. I’m less reactive and more present. I experience higher highs and higher lows.

Is this something you practice yourself or incorporate into your sessions that you’re delivering?

I disappeared! Needed some time to focus on family, vacations, and some exciting work projects. Along with fermenting, old home improvements, and last but not least our lovable pups. Going to continue sharing my musings here on nervous system focused information for movement and bodywork professionals so here we go!

Kicking off a new series of posts on optimizing the nervous system with ideas that are evidence and experience supported along with applicable. Going to post the first of six tomorrow so stay tuned.

Love to hear from you all, reach out with questions or requests! Also welcome disagreements.

I make sure to assess and reassess these (along with some other items) with clients and in my own body. Gives valuable insight on function and helps me make informed decisions.

Included with these are: ability to get on and off of the ground and ability to put pants/socks/shoes on while standing. Along with scar tissue assessment, upper body hanging, pushing and pulling.

Do you have favorite assessments you do in your movement sessions?

There’s a lot of jargon that’s thrown out there and you might wonder what some of it means. Here’s a cheat-sheet with a few prominent ones. Keep in mind that I am simplifying things here to give a basic understanding but that certainly these terms are more complex and there’s a lot more that could be said about any of them.

• upregulate: increase activity
• downregulage: decrease activity
• “heightened state” can be used to indicate the sympathetic nervous system/SNS. Also “fight or flight”. Also sometimes indicates being “upregulated”
• parasympathetic nervous system/PNS = “rest and digest”
• afferent = sensory nerves = info traveling from the periphery to the central nervous system
• efferent = motor nerve activity = info being conveyed from central nervous system to the body
• central nervous system/CNS = 🧠 and spinal cord
• peripheral nervous system/PNS = and neuron extending out or existing out of the spinal cord and brain

Are there any others you run into that have you stumped or stymied?

You can’t truly work any system in isolation. If you’re effecting muscles, you’re involving the nervous system via motor control and sensory information along with fascial tissue and the skeletal system. If you’re working with the breath, you’re effecting the musculoskeletal, nervous, and fascial systems. And so on and so forth.

But I believe there’s great potential in considering the nervous system when impacting the fascial system and considering the fascial system when effecting the nervous system.

We continue to rapidly learn more about the fuzzy white stuff which got in the way of anatomy studies and was dismissively tossed into discard bins (fascia). And we continue to learn more applications supported by evidence when working with the nervous system.

Fascia encases and often runs throughout all of our tissues. This being the case, of course it could have impact on our nerves. If fascia is compressed/restricted/not gliding, it’s reasonable to see how it could impact the efficiency of nervous system communication.

Scar tissue is a great example of this. Address the scar tissue and fascia of the area and along with the healing of the soft tissue you’ll likely decrease the nerve sensitivity and increase the nerve communication. (Often times this isn’t as simple as just addressing the specific scar but addressing the fascial tissues system wide).

Working with respects to the nervous system (incorporating multi senses, considering parasympathetic state, etc), I’ve been finding you can make longer lasting and more impactful, work involving the fascial system.

It’s easy to get swept away with muscles, bones, and fascia. For some reason they’re easier to wrap our heads around. To a degree they’re more predictable, seem more concrete, and can seem more user friendly. And in my biased opinion, they’re easier concepts to understand. We can’t see or feel our brains and nerves. But we can feel and see changes of shape of soft tissue and touch and see bony landmarks.

With excitement about the nervous system, there’s also a lot of misinformation, misinterpretations of research, and quick-fixes out there that end up leaving people feeling more confused about the topic. It’s from enthusiasm and good intention, I think, but helpful to consider your sources.

When you understand the basics of the nervous system, you realize it’s not as complex as it might seem and that there’s so much we can do on a daily basis to optimize its function and achieve the goals we want to achieve which involve other systems of the body. These things supported by both evidence and application.

Working with respect to the nervous system means you’ll get more impactful, longer lasting results for the muscular, skeletal, and fascial systems. It’s worth considering! Don’t ignore the other systems by any means, but consider learning more about the nervous system!

I have a Neuro Principles workshop launching later this year along with other neuro based workshops coming for movement and bodywork work professionals and enthusiasts. Would love to have you join me and I’ll be announcing its launch here!

Your questions and feedback help sculpt my content so keep them coming!

Excited to dive into neural tension here! Have you run into this personally or professionally?

Have you or your client been working on flexibility and not seen improvement?

Do you experience range of motion limitations that feels not like a soft tissue stretch but rather a wall, tingling, or numbness?

Does stretching make you feel worse after?

If yes to any of these, you might be experiencing or seeing neural tension. Sciatica and thoracic outlet syndrome are examples of neural tension but neural tension can occur with various nerves and regions of the body.

Our nerves do not stretch. If you ever go to a dissection course and feel a nerve, regardless the preservation method, you’ll notice a nerve feels cord-like in nature. No real give to it. It moves and such but it doesn’t change in length. A nerve will not stretch but it does need to glide within the tissues it runs through to allow for human movement.

Neural tension can result from soft tissues surrounding the nerve, adhering to the nerve. Or structural restrictions that can impact a nerve. For example, sciatica stemming from compression from vertebrae on the nerve root at the spine versus excessive stiffness surrounding the nerve in your butt/glute region. Or inflammation of tissues surrounding or adhering to the nerve somewhere along it’s length.

I talk about neural tension any chance I get because if you’re not aware of it, you could unintentionally cause yourself or your client great disservice. Putting soft tissue “stretch” type forces on a nerve can cause or exacerbate symptoms or at best, result in frustration from no progress.

In future posts I’ll share more information on identifying this and working with it. For personal assistance in diving deeper on this topic, I’ll be covering it in future continuing education workshops or I’m happy to help via zoom sessions.

Second in our neuromyth series.

FALSE! There has been a lot of talk about how somebody could be left brain dominant (logical, analytical) versus right brained (creative, artistic).

We established last week how we use our entire brain. While yes, certain functions are housed in certain areas, different regions of the brain work together in order to have various functions. The halves of the brain are connected by the corpus callosum and information relays across the halves of the brain.

If you believe you are more creative than analytical, it is suggested that it’s not because you’re dominant in using one side of your brain rather that you enjoy being creative or spend time doing so. Perhaps through use you’ve developed the connectivity of this region of the brain but to call it dominance doesn’t appear to be supported by evidence.

Happy Pilates today to all of my friends and colleagues and fellow enthusiasts!

Pilates has been a part of my life and movement practice for 19 years. It has seen me through adolescence, through various feats and injuries, through pregnancy and postpartum, and will continue to be with me as I delightfully continuing aging.

My practice has greatly shifted from something that I was trying to perfect, perform and master to more so something that serves me in the manner in which I most need. Perfect, perform, and master was too reliant on external eyes and opinions. It didn’t serve me, it didn’t honor my body/mind/spirit, and in my opinion, it also doesn’t best showcase the value of Pilates.

These days, Pilates is the undercurrent to my movement exploration as I try to be a beginner, as I try to be more playful, and as my perspective on human movement and health shifts. Pilates is like visiting home as I journey out into the unknown, exploring new potential of my body kind and spirit.

If you’ve made it this far through my ramblings 🤪, I’d love to hear how your Pilates practice has evolved for you!

Getting geared up for another teaching year. Exciting virtual/pre-recorded opportunities are coming soon. In addition to client sessions, I’ll be running the Polestar comprehensive/transition course, teaching Polestar mat courses and relaunching Oov education opportunities in Chicagoland. Reach out with any questions or requests!
Hope to see you soon!

I disappeared for the last many months to birth, snuggle, and nurture the owner of these beautiful feet (and her adoring big sister).

Along with swooning over these precious toes, I’ve had time to create new content and material and I can’t wait to share it. Feeling excited to share my voice on the topic of neuro-enhancing, fascial respecting, biotensegrity focused movement. Excited to be back and reconnect with you all!

There’s a deep soulfulness to the fascial, myofascial, and biotensegrity communities that continues to resonate with me and draw me. A profound wonderment of the human body and experience and respect for the journey of life. Loved that this quote was the first thing I read this morning, hope it sparks some joy for others out there!

Group Pilates class starting up on Tuesdays at 7am! Small size, limited spots. Leave class feeling revitalized, recalibrated, and productive. DM for details and registration info.

Launching now and available for replay! Honored to be apart of this event. Thank you Jan for facilitating this great experience!

Very excited to be presenting a movement class titled “An Integrated Experience of the NeuroFascial System” at the British Fascia Symposium in May. For information on the full incredible event, check out this link

https://thefasciahub.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5976842d2254dc68b0c5d276f&id=b7e234283e&e=a93c6b4619.

Coming off of a great weekend in Cleveland starting off another Polestar Comprehensive course! Excited to be working with to run these in Cleveland (my hometown ❤️)

Oov courses are scheduled for 2022! Link in bio for details and registration.
Oov Fundamentals: Jan 29/30, July & Nov dates tba
Oov Apparatus: Mar 27 & Sept date tba

If you have an Oov at home, I offer virtual Oov training (not continuing education but sessions). DM for details.

Covid protocols are consistent with the city of Chicago’s current mandates. Info regarding this will be provided to registrants prior to meeting.

Happy m-Oov-ing!

Virtual and live group classes starting up in Jan 2022. Can’t wait!

Thinking of starting a weekly or bi-weekly Pilates class here at RNPT for 2022! Let us know at your next session if you’d be interested in participating in a small, intimate group Pilates class taught by none other than our very own !

Donald Hebb was a psychologist who was pivotal in influencing the notion of synaptic networks, how the brain functions through interconnection rather than isolation. This catchy phrase is often used in support of neuroplasticity but perhaps oversimplifies what occurs in adult neuroplasticity (it is appropriate in describing youth neuroplasticity but the learning processes of adults and children have some key differences).

In integrating this notion into a movement practice, it helps support the idea of practice making permanence rather than perfection. I don’t think of that phrase as being negative - what good is perfection and how does it possibly align with humanity? Rather we need to be beginners, we need to move, experience, be curious, and motivated.

Scenes from our last Oov Fundamentals course. Next one in Chicago is Jan 29th! It’s a course that will add incredible insight to your thinking of movement, thoughtfully integrating the nervous system, and restoring movement efficiency. For many it’s the piece that connects the dots. For others it answers the questions that they didn’t know to ask yet. On top of all of that, the Oov facilitates profound moments of mindfulness. It continues to be an accessible game changer that I can’t get enough of!

This is a time of year when I tend to get a lot of inquiries from people considering becoming a Pilates instructor. There’s much to be said but these are a few thoughts I have on it. Feel free to chime in if you have anything you’d like to add!

Aspects I love:
• sharing my passion for movement, healing, and development
• empowering people to feel better in their bodies on a daily basis
• problem solving on the fly. I think it keeps me sharp, present, and curious
• continuously learning or finding new things I want to learn more about - never feeling stagnant, bored, or repetitive
• controlling my schedule, my income, how I structure my days
• there’s no such thing as a “Pilates emergency” -> relatively a stress free occupation

Aspects I find challenging:
• managing clients and scheduling (some people hire assistance in this)
• keeping up with communication (texts, emails, social media, etc)
• Building a clientele - takes time and patience