5-Minute Fix for Text Neck: Easy Mobility w/ Alex Ellis | Ep 67
I've had blue balls for years — therapy balls, that is. If your back sounds like bubble wrap by the time you finish a writing session, here's the 5-minute mobility trick I got from Alex Ellis:
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00:00 Your Text Neck is Saved — Alex is Here!
Sophia Chang (00:00)
Welcome back to The Sophia Chang Show. Have I got a treat for you? I am here to save everyone from text neck and writer's wrist. So join me right now in welcoming Alex Ellis, the creator of Movement Maven's Therapy Balls, which I use every single day, and host of The Body Nerd Show. Alexandra Ellis is a mobility coach and wellness expert who helps active people move smarter, maintain their bodies, and maximize strength with customized wellness plans so they can enjoy life without pain. I need that. Her teaching and studies focus on injury prevention, rehabilitation, and wellness — inspired by her studies at UC Davis, where she earned a BS in exercise biology. Her programs have helped people worldwide, including me, get stronger and out of pain so they can step into their greatest potential. Alex, thank you so much for coming on today.
Alex:
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to chat with you today.
Sophia:
I am too. I have known you for a very long time — I think I first attended your yoga therapy class well over a decade ago, and I still use some of the techniques we learned. You've sent me videos for sleep health too — I still use those as well. Basically, we need you.
Alex:
No, I don't.
Sophia:
Tell us how you got into this, because I know you are no stranger to the pain and the injury yourself.
Alex:
Yeah, you know, actually — I was looking at pictures today as I was writing an email, and I was like, let me find an old yoga picture of myself. So I went back into the archives, back to the Yoga at the Village days, which is where you went, right? You probably... I've been here, I've been there, I've—
Sophia:
You did a couple of places. You've been at CrossFit places that I've seen you at as well. I've kind of been following you. Yeah.
Alex:
—been everywhere.
01:55 It Begins Where it Always Does — with Injury
So how did I get into this? I mean, injuries — I think that's kind of, you know, when people are injured, this sucks, how do I do something different? And that was really my initiation into the world of movement and mobility and wellness.
I would say the biggest injury was in college, actually. I injured my back and then started to have sciatica symptoms a couple of weeks later. I was like 20 at the time. So when I went to physical therapy, they gave me very boilerplate exercises — you know, do this little back arch, put a heat pack on. And I'm like, I'm not 90. Can I have something a little bit more aggressive? Because I want to ride my bike and go to the gym and just live my life as a 20-year-old without also being in pain, or having to think about pain, or having the mental load of, I don't think I can do all of that today because it's going to be worse later.
At the time I was studying exercise biology. So we're looking at injury pathology and biomechanics and kinesiology and how all those pieces fit together. And I was working as a student athletic trainer, traveling with teams at UC Davis. So it's not like I wasn't exposed to this kind of stuff.
And the thing for me was — well, how do we go from, you know, I'm reading about it in a book about back injuries and sciatica, and it's all cheat-sheet, right? It's all about what's happening here — but how do I translate what's happening here to what's happening to me, when I don't have access to athletic trainers and physical therapists the way the athletes did?
So after physical therapy, I felt better. It did require a complaint, which — anybody who's navigated chronic injury, you understand having to advocate for yourself, which, again, as a 20-year-old, was horrible. I had to pick up the phone. It was terrible. Okay.
03:55 Core Strength? What Even is That?
But I finished physical therapy, felt okay, and the physical therapist said, great, you need to work on core strength. And I was like, what does that mean? Right? That could mean 9 million different things.
As you alluded to, from my background in yoga — I had started working at a yoga studio when I was in high school, doing their database management, working the front desk, things like that. So I was familiar enough with yoga to think, wait, this is a thing. I feel like people talked about core strength in this, but I hadn't really done much practice of it. But in college, I was like, okay, if I need to do core strength, I should go do this thing. And that really started me into a regular movement practice.
And the benefit — and really, I mean, dramatic shift, you could say — that moving your body on a regular basis does for your mental health and your physical health and all of that. That year in college, we were living in a five-bedroom house with six women — no living room space, but it was downtown, so it was primo real estate. But going to exercise was an opportunity to get out of the house. It was to breathe, to do something for myself. And that really was, I'd say, the initiation of my relationship with movement.
05:11 Why Yoga Didn't Work
Over the years, I've also realized, in hindsight, that I'm hypermobile — those of us who have chronic injuries, who stretch and it doesn't really help. So, yeah, I was doing a ton of yoga, and then I'd also roll over in bed and throw my back out. And I was like, I don't understand what's happening.
So one thing led to another. I was interested in blending yoga teaching with my anatomical background and my exercise biology background, which led me to yoga therapy conferences and things like that. And my mission has always been to bridge that gap between anatomy and your body, because I believe that we all deserve to know about ourselves and how to take excellent care of our bodies — the way we take care of our vehicles. Hopefully some better than others, right? You take it to get your tires rotated, you change your oil — but just a few minutes a day for your body can also make a dramatic difference, not only in longevity and how you feel, but also in how you're able to experience life in the body that you have.
06:17 Writer's Q: What if I get into the flow of writing and can't stop?
Sophia:
I'm glad you said a few minutes a day, because a lot of us writers are like, no, I don't have that time. And one of the biggest problems is that when you get into a flow, you don't want to stop. So you're typing and typing and typing, and you're just like, this is great, I'm on a roll, I'm finally on a roll. And you finish the chapter and, like, two, three hours later, you're like, oh my gosh, my eyelids are stuck open, my whole body hurts. So what can we do — I don't know, is it that we need to learn to stop? What would you say to those of us who just sit there for hours without moving?
Alex:
Yeah, I feel like there's the creative process, whatever that might be for you — there's being in your body, and then there's being in your head. And to do both at the same time, even for myself, I haven't figured out. I'll see photos or videos of me teaching, and in that moment I'm watching people move, but I'm also thinking about where we're going with the next step. And I look at how I'm standing or how I'm carrying myself, and I'm like, I'm not in my body at all — I'm 100% in my head. So it just happens.
That being said, that's where having a consistent practice — in the sense of, you brush your teeth every day, right? You wash your face, hopefully you shower occasionally, whatever that thing is — just as you do those things every day to maintain the health of your body, spending a few minutes each day maintaining the health of your tissues is just as beneficial.
07:28 Answer: the end of writing stretch or roll
So what that might look like is at the end of that writing stretch, right — you're like, I need to take a break, I'm out of the tunnel, I've reached a natural ending point. Maybe that's when you get up and walk around, or get down onto the floor and roll on your therapy balls like you talked about, or maybe it's just part of your wind-down routine at the end of the day, where you incorporate some of these self-care moves. Again, I'm going to say sitting on the floor, because that's just the easiest way to stretch your hips — not sitting in a chair, not sitting on the couch. I like to watch TV — although now I'm like, do I YouTube on the TV at the end of the day? And if I can do that sitting on the floor, then I'm already stretching my hips, getting a little bit of strength trying to get back up off the floor. You can bring your therapy balls down there with you, do some rolling.
So as far as how to incorporate body maintenance, I would say as needed — triage — or work it into your regular routine, whether you're a morning person or an evening person or something like that.
08:54 Q: How consistent does it have to be?
Sophia:
So I get the sense that it's okay that sometimes we're sitting for quite some time, that it doesn't have to be some regimented thing. It's almost like you're giving us permission to just do it when we can.
09:06 A: 5 Mins Can Be Enough!
Alex:
Absolutely. I mean, even for myself — as somebody who is in the fitness industry and talks about fitness all the time — I spend 80% of my day on a computer, right? Writing, podcasting, speaking on podcasts, doing the administrative work of running an online business. So, me too, right? I'm absolutely in the same boat. And so I think it's more about being intentional about where movement happens, about prioritizing movement and self-care for yourself, because you know it's going to make such a big difference.
So, for example, I do my workouts three times a week — that's my commitment to myself, because I just know I feel so much better. Any of the instability that comes along with hypermobility isn't a big deal as long as I continue to work out and build strength. But I was also skipping my rollouts — you might be like, what? But I was like, I gotta go to work, I gotta get to my computer, I have a meeting, I don't have time. But then that not having time is like — cool, now for three days you sit down in a chair and you're like, oh, because everything is just so tired.
The only shift I made was, Alex, listen, you know better than this, we can do this. Just spend five minutes with your therapy balls in the garage — it's where I have my gym — before you go into the house. Because I know once I go into the house, I'm going to feed the dog breakfast, I'm going to make my own breakfast, I'm going to shower, I'm going to get ready — the day gets away from me. So if I can spend that five minutes stacking it onto a habit I already have, then it'll actually happen. Is that the ideal scenario I would like to do for my mobility? No. But it happens, and getting it done and being able to yield the benefit is a lot better than wishing you were doing it, or beating yourself up because you're not doing it. So every little bit counts. Even if it's just rolling your feet out while you're on a phone call or something like that — all of that adds up to being... I don't know, mindful isn't really the word, but just being in your body and taking care of the body that you have at present, you know?
11:17 The Whole, Human Writer
Sophia:
I think that's why you are such a good fit for coming on this show, because we are very much about the whole writer. A lot of writing podcasts talk about the craft and the mindset and they ignore the fact that this vehicle — without it, none of it would be possible. And another thing that I love about your newsletters is that you are always so honest about your own human foibles. You're always like, I am no different than you, I make mistakes too, I forget to roll out and I'm a fitness person, you know?
Alex:
Yes.
Sophia:
Good. It doesn't feel like, oh, we have to be like Alex and be on it every day. It's like, life gets in the way. And so — everybody, when you're watching this video, try to do a little mobility. Do it while you're watching us.
12:18 Offsetting your non-motion moments
Alex:
Yeah, well — even as I'm talking to you, I'm standing here, because I know this is an opportunity to be on my feet for the day. It also helps me be more present in a conversation. But when I'm writing, I like to sit. And sometimes I even like to sit on the couch, and I go, this is my creative writing time — for those newsletters, I try to batch it all at once. So even that is a way to incorporate movement into what you're doing, and give yourself permission: I can slouch, I can do whatever right now, because I know I'm also going to do this other thing later that's going to offset that, so to speak.
12:42 Live Demo: Do this now!
Sophia:
If we could do something really quick right now — what would be just one easy, low-lift thing for people to start with mobility?
Alex:
One of my favorite things — because again, it's not just the one thing, the one day, but what's the one thing you can do a couple of days a week that you're going to keep doing. So I like to designate a doorway in the house that's the doorway you're going to try to touch. Every time you walk through that doorway, you reach up — and I'm five-one, so I'm never actually going to touch it, but it's the thought that counts. So you walk under the doorway, you try to reach up, because what that gives you is overhead range of motion for your shoulders. Because the rest of the day, right, our hands are in front of us — we're typing on the computer, we're on our phones, we're driving, we're reading books, whatever — your hands are down in front of you. So if every time you walk through that doorway — I picked my office doorway — and every time I walked out of the office to go get a glass of water or go use the restroom or whatever, hands go overhead. And that's just another opportunity to build that range of motion, to explore that range of motion, to let the joints move in a way they otherwise wouldn't.
So really, your whole body and your ability to move is sort of under the use-it-or-lose-it principle, because our bodies are so efficient — your body goes, well, I'm not using that, so I don't need to keep energy for that, I'm going to divert energy into things we're actually using.
14:09 What mobility is really about: doing something different
So when you think about movement and mobility, I just want you to think about doing something different from your normal day-to-day. If we think of it in a food analogy — eat all different kinds of colored vegetables, fruits, meat, carbs, you want a well-balanced diet. Similarly with your movement — I want to move in all the ways that I can, knowing full well that my work self is not a whole lot of movement, right? It's a whole lot of sitting and thinking and being in my head. So then, outside of that, how could I move? It's reaching overhead, touching the doorway. Maybe it's sitting on the floor, right? And I know a lot of people might be like, oh my gosh, that's so much work to get up and down off the floor. So maybe you don't start with that — but again, getting up and down off the floor is hip, knee, ankle flexibility work, you're working on strength. It's like a whole exercise to get up and down off the floor. And then once you're down there, you can work on hip flexibility. So I'd say touching the doorway and sitting on the floor — they check a lot of boxes.
Sophia:
I love that. See how easy that was, everyone? And yeah, I do remember you saying, just make sure you're in different positions throughout the day. It's okay if you're working in different positions. And I think after I heard that, I was like, you know what, sometimes I'll use a laptop at the kitchen table, then I'll go to the desk — the desktop. So it's like, yeah, as long as I'm in different positions and moving — sitting weird, even if you're sitting weird, just shift and sit weird in a different way.
15:41 Variety is the key
Alex:
The other way, yeah. I think variety really is the key. So much of our repetitive stress and discomfort comes from doing so much of the same. And already, just think of how often you're sitting, right — we sit to drive, you sit at the kitchen table, you sit on the couch, you sit for work. So if in your movement you could do something that's not sitting... I say that as somebody who loves to ride my stationary bike. I have just a generic bike and I do the Peloton app — I call it my "Felaton," because it's a fake Peloton — but I'm like, this is sitting, and I already sit all day long, so let me also do some standing before I lead into this. So again, just think of variety. How can I change up my work position? So again, I'm standing here talking to you — there was a time, many years ago, where I could stand all day and it was fine. That's not the case anymore. So I stand for podcasts. I know, right? I stand at the beginning of the day for like 30 minutes, and then I sit back down, and I go, that box is checked, right?
I think, too, when it comes to new habits and movement especially, you want to set the bar very low as to what counts to give you that check mark. I'm someone who loves a check mark — I will write things down at the end of the day just so I could check them off that I did them. I love a gold star sticker, whatever it is. So if I can set the bar super low, right — it's move my body today — then whatever I do counts. It's stand for some amount of time, and even that five minutes, it counts, because we can't discount the psychology that happens when you win, right? Our brain loves to win.
17:01 Treat your inner chocolate labrador
And, like, we're not — we think we're so special, so complicated. No, you're like a four-year-old in a big body, or like a chocolate lab in a human-sized body — do good thing, get treat, continue on, right? It can be that simple. So if you set the bar super low for yourself to be successful, and then you do it, you go, yeah, I did it. And your brain goes, ooh, I like that, let's do that again. And then it's easier to get into the habit of something, versus beating yourself up that you didn't do it, or that whatever you did wasn't good enough. Who wants to stay in that kind of feeling, you know?
17:57 Hacking Your Phone Addicted Brain for Good
Sophia:
I don't think people realize how brilliant what you just said is, because you are basically hacking our phone-addicted, social-media-addicted dopamine rush. Like you were saying — fine, if that's what's going on, let's use it. Let's use it for our benefit.
Alex:
Yeah — and I can't take full credit for this, because, actually, you mentioned the phone apps — there's a book called Tiny Habits by a man named BJ Fogg. He teaches at Stanford, he's a professor at Stanford, does research at Stanford on habits. And the same people who created Facebook, Twitter, all of those apps that I, too, am incredibly addicted to, took his class at Stanford. So it's just using the reverse psychology.
But also, acknowledging: this is how my brain works, right, this is what I like to do, I know that I thrive in this kind of setup, so let me lean more into that so I can keep doing the things I want to do. You know, another thing — I know this isn't for everyone — I like to eat the same thing for breakfast every day, because that's one less decision I have to make. And then I can go to work and make 9 million decisions about all kinds of different stuff.
So however you like to do things, I'd say lean into that. But also know, at the end of the day, that dopamine hit you're talking about is a hundred percent real, and we can use it for good or we can use it for evil.
Sophia:
Please use it for good. I talk a lot about digital minimalism on this podcast, so you guys know where I stand on that.
Alex:
Me too — like, I know I'm fully addicted to my phone. So it's like, how can I— I put it to bed at night, there's very strict rules about it, I have timers, I mean, it's—
19:30 Which one of us gets our electronics taken away like a toddler?
Sophia:
Do you tuck it in?
Alex:
—in another room, because I also know I'm fully addicted, I don't have willpower. So why am I going to set myself up in situations where I have to pretend like I have willpower and then feel guilty that I didn't do it? We're not going to play that game. If there was a way to put it in a locked box, not just for specific periods of time, but with a little bit more flexibility, I would a hundred percent do that. 'Cause I know the locked boxes exist, but it's like for one day or 30 minutes, and I'm like, no, I need it a little bit more sophisticated than that. Just take it away, please.
Sophia:
No joke, I get my laptop taken from me every single night, as if I am a five-year-old, because I have no self-control whatsoever. And so I'm like—
Alex:
You have to.
Sophia:
—nope, if it's there, I will not be sleeping.
Alex:
The other thing too is like, the laptop also — I'm like, it closes, and after six o'clock, work-me is gone. There's no work to be done. I'm not a brain surgeon, nothing is life or death, I can deal with it tomorrow. Yeah. The other one too is like, I can't—
Sophia:
I love it!
Alex:
—open the social media. If those open after 10pm, I'm done for, just done for. Actually, it's another kind of— it's not even a hack, it's a habit I just created for myself because I wanted to get up earlier to do my workouts. Like I said, it's about making the intention for it to happen. What was happening is, at 10 o'clock, let me just check one last post on Reddit — and then it's 11. And it was also the thought of having to get up off the couch, or up from the kitchen table, and go get ready for bed, and what that entails — brushing your teeth, washing your face, putting your serum on, taking a shower — it was overwhelming us too much.
21:23 Tiny Habits
So using the science of tiny habits, I was like, well, what's the one thing I could do that's the lowest common denominator, but I can be successful with? I have an alarm on my watch that goes off at 9:30 every single night. So at 9:30, I just stand up from the couch. That's it — there's no obligation of what I have to do from there. But if at 9:30 I can get my butt up off of my very comfortable couch, I'm like, well, I'm already up, I guess I should go do this stuff I need to do in the kitchen to clean up and close up, or I should go get ready for bed. It seems stupid simple, and yet I'm 37 and I'm finally going to bed at the same time every night and getting really, really quality sleep, and I couldn't be happier. Treat yourself like a toddler, because, again, we're just little people in big bodies — that's it. Well, yeah, but I'm like—
22:12 Not the short jokes again
Sophia:
Well, you and I are also in little bodies, but...
Alex:
You know, my friends with kids — the four-year-old needs a normal bedtime, otherwise they're a terror. I'm no different, I'm just a little bit better at masking it, you know, but—
Sophia:
I don't think I'm good at masking.
Alex:
I'm just so much happier. I also get my reading time in — that was the other thing, I was going to bed so late that I felt guilty about reading, and I was like, I want to do that. So now I'm in bed, lights out, with my Kindle at 10:30, I get to read and fall asleep, and it's amazing.
22:49 Love is Blind v. Sleep: which is more important?
Sophia:
But you actually listen to it. I also have an alarm that says "take melatonin," and I'll be watching Love Is Blind and I will get up and turn that alarm off and keep watching.
Alex:
So, see, this is the trigger, right — the trigger doesn't work for you. And that's fine, because part of it too is figuring out what's going to work for you, right?
Sophia:
There you go.
Alex:
So maybe it's moving it somewhere else, so it becomes part of another habit — so it's next to your toothpaste or something like that. That's the other thing too that I always try to convey in all of my teaching, all my writing, all of that: it doesn't have to be perfect. It's not going to be perfect the first time.
23:28 Being a Body Detective
And if you can approach it with — I call it a body detective mindset — of looking for more of the clues, like, what comes next? That didn't work for me, what about this? That doesn't work for me, what about this? Okay, this works. But what if I tried this instead — rather than, well, I failed, this sucks, I should just give up and go home.
There's so many times, so many habits that have failed. I mean, same thing — I ignored this timer, I'm not even lying, I've had a timer on my watch for, I don't know, like 10 years, and I've just been ignoring it. I put it up for time blindness, to just have an idea of what time it was, you know?
Sophia:
Yes.
Alex:
And this is the first time it's clicked, and I'm like, cool. And then I'm seeing the benefit of it from a data standpoint, like my sleep quality, and I'm like, you don't have to convince me. I'm in — I'm all in, bedtime, off the couch at 9:30, and then go get ready for bed. It could be — but it could be that simple, right? It could be that simple.
24:29 How Alex works with clients — it's not giving you handouts of exercises!
Sophia:
See, and this is the stuff you do — you do body detective work, right, with your programs. How do you actually work with people to deal with this?
Alex:
Well, I used to think that if I gave you all the exercises and all of the things, it was a matter of, you just didn't know what to do. So I created so many programs and so many things and gave them to people. And then that motivation and excitement, in about two weeks, burns off. And I was like, wait a minute — so it's not about the exercises at all. So actually, I would say 83% of what I do is figuring out where the habit's going to happen, right — what that lowest common denominator looks like for you, what would success look like for you to be enough to keep going. And then the rest is the exercises — that's the easy part. I know what to tell you to do about your back hurting or your wrist hurting or whatever, but if you're not actually going to do it, it doesn't matter.
So that's also why I had to figure out this habit thing, even for myself. But a habit, too, is like riding a bike, in that even if it's been a long time since you've done it, you can get back on that bike, and it may be a little shaky at first, but then you're back in it — you don't forget how. I trained in classical piano for eight years as a kid — practiced an hour every day, did competitions, all of that. Even though I don't practice anymore, I can still sit down at the piano and play. That's a skill that I have. And movement, if you can find what works for you, get into the rhythm of it, it too can become like riding a bike that you don't forget.
So for me, over the last couple of years, there's been a lot of stops and starts, as life is lifing, and it was always a thing I was able to come back to, right? Movement and my body are a place for me, personally, that feel like home — and that's because I've cultivated that feeling and that experience from all of this work. But also, as you've already touched upon, as a creative, as a writer, whatever it is that you do in this world — regardless of how your body might feel or present in this moment — what a privilege it is to be here, in this moment, in this body. And so if I can keep doing things to celebrate that also, then that's a win in my book.
So even if — I think last week maybe I did two workouts, and I was like, that's okay, there's always next week, there's always tomorrow. Think of it as the long game — how can I set myself up for success, for a habit, for a routine that's going to last a lifetime, and not just go all-in super hard right now and be burnt out in two weeks and never do it again? Because I do that too.
Sophia:
This is great — this is in tandem with the writing profession. A lot of us are like, oh yeah, we're going to sell this one book, that book didn't sell, okay, we're going to sell this one. So it becomes a long haul. I think if we can psychologically get into that mindset for both movement and writing, this will really serve us a lot of success. So thank you for bringing that up.
27:48 DO YOU EVEN LIFT, SIS?
Now, there is something I ask all of my guests here on The Sophia Chang Show, and that is: do you even lift, sis? That's what I like to hear. Yes, tell us about it.
Alex:
Hell yeah. Hell yeah, brother.
Yeah. I mean, as I've already kind of mentioned, I like to work out three days a week — that's enough for me. I walk my dog also, so that's another way I get movement. My favorite ways to lift now are, obviously, strength training with dumbbells — I have a gym in my garage, and I have "garage parties," I call them, and you can do a lot with just some dumbbells. Sometimes the workout plans, if I'm following something on the Peloton app or something like that, I'm like, you know what, that's a great suggestion, I'm not going to do that — so there's a lot of modification happening. But again, the bar was move your body today, so I still checked that box.
The other thing I've been really enjoying recently is Pilates on a reformer. Depending on where your listeners are — I don't know if this app is everywhere, but here in LA we have an app called ClassPass, and studios partner with ClassPass, so I can go take a reformer class at this studio or that studio, depending on the instructor or the time of day. And I've really been loving that, because it's so unlike the strength training and the bike riding I'm doing, but it's really helping to build stability in my hypermobile and very unstable body.
Sophia:
Okay, so how often would you say — so you're still doing, you do three times a week for lifting, and then the Pilates is in between that, or?
Alex:
No, I ride my bike one day, I do a strength training workout one day, and then I do Pilates once a week. Now, if I were an athlete, would it make more sense to do my sport-specific thing five days a week? Sure. I'm not an athlete, right? I'm just trying to move better and feel better, and I find that that feels good for me and is stimulating enough for my squirrel brain to keep it interesting.
The cardio, actually — I was like, I need to be doing more cardio, which is why I'm riding my bicycle more regularly. I went to a Dodger game like two weeks ago, and we were walking up the stairs to the top — it's like seven stories — and I was just dying, and I was like, this is embarrassing, I need to improve that cardiovascular capacity, because my husband was like, I thought you work out, and I was like, I don't do this kind of workout, okay, leave me alone.
Sophia:
He was like, do you even live, sis?
Alex:
I was like, I don't do cardio, God. But that's the other thing, too, right — you move your body, and what that actually looks like can mean a lot of different things based on what you want to do. And for me, in this moment, I'm like, I'd like to improve my cardiovascular capacity, so we will ride our bike more.
Sophia:
You just freed me up, because I would love to lift consistently three days a week — I'm on a push-pull-legs split — but life has been getting in the way for me. Also, because I lift heavy, and because of my autoimmune disease, I need more recovery time. I've only been getting two lifts in a week, and I'm like — but now that I'm hearing that, hey, you know what, you do one a week, you do the other stuff the other days — it's not that big of a deal what I'm doing.
Alex:
No, no. Yeah — we're not athletes. I don't need to be prepared for the Summer Olympics next year. It's okay.
31:03 Fitness media influencers and sustainability
But I feel like so much of what we get from media about fitness is from people who are training like an athlete. And I love that for them, but for your general person who has a life and a career and a family, that's just not always sustainable. Also, too, I'm at every turn trying to build resiliency so I don't get injured, and that does mean there needs to be more recovery time in between workouts. But also, if you're doing it — whatever your reasons are, if you're like, no, I need it for the mental health — okay, so then maybe it's harder and more intense one day, and then the next day maybe it's just a gentle... even a Mat Pilates class or something. I'm obsessed with Pilates right now. Or going out on a walk, and you go a little bit further if that's something you can tolerate, or riding your bike. Again, if the bar is just, I moved my body — what you actually do doesn't have to be the same, or the same intensity, every single day.
Sophia:
Oh my god, thank you. I'm going to say—
Alex:
You're welcome.
Sophia:
—Alex said it was okay.
Alex:
Yeah, of course, I give you permission.
Sophia:
I love it so much.
32:15 Where to find Alex
Now, you know all of you listening want your own guidance from Alex — where can we find you and your programs?
Alex:
Yeah, at AEwellness.com. On the homepage — it's one of the things that took me like four hours to do, but I was in it, and I had to finish it all in one sitting — there is a whole page on the homepage of what hurts and where to go. So whether it's upper body, lower body, core, low back, feet — every program within that is all there on the homepage at AEwellness.com.
Also, if your listeners are interested in getting started with therapy ball work and massage, I do have a body work starter guide, so I'll share that link with you so you can share it with them. It's the six places to get started with, and how to roll them with therapy balls — which is also a great way to get into movement, because it feels really nice. So I'll share that with you all as well.
Sophia:
No, I can't live without therapy balls. Really can't.
Alex:
Same.
Sophia:
I travel with them — I know you do as well.
Sophia:
We all do. All of us who get into it, it's in our suitcase.
Alex:
Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah — I mean, literally, I was driving over to my office, it's five miles, and I was like, man, do I have therapy balls in the car? And I was like, ah, they're not in here, I was so disappointed. But yeah, there's something to be said for just feeling so much more — not just in control, but almost liberated — from having to rely on somebody else to help you with your body. When you have a tool where, anytime something feels off or weird or overly tired or aggravated, you're just like, oh, I can do something about that right now. And it might not be a hundred percent the fix, but I can do something, and that something can be very, very helpful.
Sophia:
Yes, oh my gosh, thank you so much for coming here and teaching us how to raise our arms — literally, we forget even simple things like that. Just move your arms in a different way, you know, like that. And that's the kind of really practical stuff that I love that you teach. So everyone, go check it out — there's going to be links below here. Subscribe for more. As you can see, I take care of you as a writer, all around, mind and body. So, stick around, everybody, and thank you again, Alex, for coming onto the show.
Alex:
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Sophia Chang (34:28)
Bye, everyone.
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Sophia Chang is a Reese's Book Club LitUp fellow, disabled dancer, and extroverted writer. She hosts The Sophia Chang Show podcast where she shares No B.S. publishing stories and advice she wishes she'd known. Subscribe if you don't want to cry alone.
