STOP Stretching. Do This instead: Fascia Exercises for Writers in Pain w/ Erin Tietz
Your body is a gummy worm. No, I haven’t gone John Mayer on you. I've been working with fascia expert Erin Tietz for years, and she's the only one whose exercises provided any relief during my bedridden years.
Read Full Transcript
Erin Tietz:
Think of like an old gummy worm that gets stretched, overstretched and then let go. It doesn't just bounce back, right? So think of the muscles in the back of your spine. If they're rounded forward like a C, if you're typing or writing or sitting in car all day, when we get up, they don't just go bounce back really nice. We have to train them to do it.
Sophia Chang:
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Sophia Chang Show. I'm not gonna lie, I've been waiting for this particular interview. This is with one of my most favorite, favorite people, Erin Tietz. I have been working with Erin for years now. And you guys remember if you listened to my episode about how deadlifts saved my writing career, nothing helped.
Except when I found Erin, this was the only time that somebody gave me exercises that actually had traction. So thank you so much, Erin, for coming onto the show.
Erin Tietz:
Thank you so much for having me, Sophia. I'm so happy to be here.
Sophia Chang:
I am not the only writer who is in pain pretty much all the time. Even my guests who come on who are writers are like, I'm sitting all day long. So please save us, save us from —
Erin Tietz:
I'll do my best.
Sophia Chang:
— from ourselves. I know people are saying, wait, what is this fascia thing that is doing so much heavy duty? So tell us in five year old terms. When I started, I didn't even care. I was just like, I'm just going to do the exercises she's teaching. And when I did them, my life changed. I know this sounds crazy. It sounds like some kind of weird thing, but it's totally not. So tell us what fascia is.
Erin Tietz:
No, that's totally what happened to me too. That's why I teach this, because I'm like, what just happened to my body? I'm like, oh my God. And I felt amazing after 10 minutes where I had done 10 years of physical therapy to deal with a hamstring tear. And I couldn't believe it. And I worked in outpatient rehab. So I'm like, wait, what just happened?
So yeah, fascia. Fascia is connective tissue, and it's everywhere in our body. A long time ago, people used to think of it as just packaging material for our body. So surgeons would go in and they would get the fascia out of the way to get to quote the good stuff, the muscles, the tendons, the bones. But in doing that, we are missing the biggest piece of the puzzle because fascia is not just inert. It is not passive. Basically it's our structure. It's our form. It supports us.
It wraps around muscles, but it wraps around every muscle fiber, every fiber bundle, every single nerve. Our lymphatic system lives in our superficial fascia, our eyes, our cells, everything. So I used to say, if you take away muscles, skin, bones, organs, you still have the same shape because our fascia is that integrated into every part, every system of our body. It has a different role or different function depending on the body's needs in that particular area.
Sophia Chang:
Why do you think people don't even know what it is or even talk about it when it's so effective?
Erin Tietz:
I think it's still so new. We've seen these honestly miracles happen or they've happened to us and so the science is now like, okay, well why is this happening?
I stepped into it luckily at a time where I had a little bit of knowledge of what it was from my undergrad and my studies. I worked in a hospital for 10 years in New York. And then I stepped into the training and had a massive healing experience. And it was so profound and it was so opposite of everything I'd ever learned, especially as a dancer. You know, it's kind of like the opposite of stretching.
Sophia Chang:
I love that you said that it's the opposite of stretching because a lot of the exercises externally may appear to look like stretching, but it is very not. And we've talked about hypermobility a lot, especially this is a problem with dancers, former dancers and with people who do yoga a lot. They get a lot of those almost stretching injuries, which I also have when I do yoga. Yes, we all do.
I literally do not stretch anymore. I only do the exercises that we go over, to protect myself. I know people are sitting here going, OK, you two whack jobs. Like, what are you actually talking about? Right. Yeah. I'm already weird. This is like me on another level. So what I would love is for you to do a really quick, easy demo.
Erin Tietz:
I've heard it before. That's okay.
Sophia Chang:
And I do them throughout the day. I do the little wrist thing.
Erin Tietz:
Which one? I could do the arm swivel or we could do the trap activation because trap's really good for writers.
Sophia Chang:
Writing and shoulder — yes! Yes, please, please.
Erin Tietz:
Okay. So just to talk through a traditional stretch, you lengthen a muscle. Well, once you hit that end range where your body says, I feel the stretch, that's it. That's as far as a tissue has to give. So when you go past that point, fascia adapts to the demand. So when we overstretch, it adapts to protect us. And in that instance, it can get more dense and actually can backfire on us. That's why if so many people have back pain and if we all did the same back pain stretches, then why do we still have back pain, right?
And so we need the tissue to change. If the tissue doesn't change or reorganize, those patterns stay in our body. So instead of lengthening to an end range stretch, fascia activation is to shorten. I'm gonna show you the bicep really quick and then we'll do the trap. Instead of lengthening, you shorten the area you're targeting. Fascia needs tension and compression and movement to change.
So then you push against your arm or if you're working with someone when I'm with a client, and then you add resistance but it doesn't have to be a lot. People have this idea they have to break up fascia, roll it out. Science is kind of showing that it prefers a gentler approach. So we engage the tissue and then we wait for the nervous system to make that connection with the brain. And it's like this aha moment, okay, I feel it where I need it. And then you create length in the opposite direction.
All the while you're engaging. So I use the acronym SEE — shorten, engage, elongate — just to keep it super simple. So we'll do the SEE fascia activation first for our traps. And if you want me to do the muscle swivel for the hands and wrists, we'll do that next.
Sophia Chang:
You guys, you guys gotta do this. Do this right now.
Erin Tietz:
Your body is set up nice and tall. Activate the abdominals just enough to give you some spinal stabilization. You'll take your left hand and cross it over your shoulder on the right. Just rest the hand on top. Now we're going to work on the trap on the left side. So to shorten it, bring the elbow up. Now we just shortened the left trap. Now we have to add tension and compression. So we're going to take the right hand and we're going to reach underneath so the fingertips are on top of the elbow.
So you don't wanna palm it, cause that will tell the brain to push down. And we wanna push up. So just your fingertips. Now your elbow is gonna push up into your fingertips and hold it and wait and just notice what you feel first. Take that first impression. You'll feel that left trap turning on. It might feel good, it might not. You might need to wiggle your shoulders and settle into a slightly different orientation. And then let's say on a scale of zero to 10, 10 being that you're pushing as hard as you can, we're only at about a four or five.
And then in a moment, we're gonna go down to about a one as we start to bring that elbow down towards the chest. It's still gently resisting up towards the ceiling, but you're gonna let the right hand win and guide it down to the chest. Nice and easy. Then relax all the way and bring the elbow back up. And you might have noticed it went a little bit higher.
So we'll do it again. So you're pressing the elbow up into the fingertips. Wait for a few seconds so the nervous system can get there. Then you're gonna guide that elbow down very gently. It's almost like the elbow is a magnet to your fingertips versus they're not pushing hard against each other. They're together in that direction. And then relax.
We'll do one more variation here. Lift the hand up so it's just hovering above the shoulder now. Yeah, we got a lot of wiggles in between which is kinda good. It's the same thing here, the elbow's gonna push up, but now because that hand is free, you can choose any pathway you want. You might come across the body as you bring the elbow down, you might go straight down, you might bring the hand further back, and you're searching for what the tissue is saying, what it's doing, and then you relax. So it's repetitious, it's super slow, it's very gentle, but it's all about engaged movement.
Sophia Chang:
There's so much conversation right now. Like, I know we've worked together for a while. There's always a lot of conversation because your body stores a lot of stuff. And so it talks to me when I'm doing things. It's like, oh no, no, no, not safe — is the first thought because I have in the past hurt this elbow. And then I have to be like, it's okay. I'm very gentle. It's okay. I'm not doing anything. So as you guys are doing this, pay attention to what messages you're also hearing.
Erin Tietz:
Such a good point. And the way it feels in each body is different because of our past histories, our traumas, injuries, postures. It just settles in our body and when you're doing it, what I love about this is it's a closed chain. So the brain is always registering what's happening. So all the control is in your hands. You can go less with resistance. You can go shorter with your movement. You can just hold it.
And move somewhere else in your body and not move the arms. So really, you said it perfectly, the tissue's talking to you. That's the communication of the fascia, because it's highly innervated with sensory nerve endings for sensation, for pain. So it is really literally talking to you. It's saying, this is what I feel, this feels great, or this doesn't feel so good. And you can micro adjust and control it to fit your body.
Sophia Chang:
Oh, I love this. You see how amazing this is? Every time we work together, I'm like, oh, my life has changed again. So I just felt something come up, Erin, where I did kind of feel that nervousness, but then afterwards, my whole nervous system seemed to be shifting and adjusting. I do feel calmer, and yet it's also like a release of the stress. I didn't even realize I was holding my jaw.
Can you speak about what's going on with the nervous system? Why I'm feeling that kind of stuff or why people might feel that kind of stuff?
Erin Tietz:
Definitely. So the nervous system and the fascial system and the muscular system, really like the neuro myofascial system, works so closely together. And like I said in the beginning, fascia wraps around every nerve. And so when we're addressing the fascia or conditioning the fascia, the nerves are a big part of it because they're living in there, right?
And so when we are adjusting the fascial environment of the trap on the left shoulder, like we just did, the nerves that are coming out of the neck through that tissue and then traveling to wherever their destination is are being affected. And that sends messages back to the brain, again, for the sensation of what's happening. But at the same time, when we live in overwhelm or if we feel that we are burnt out, our fascia then kind of constricts and it does that withholding type of thing too. So when we get in and do stuff like this, that nervous system then has opportunity to respond. And a lot of times it's like, oh, thank you. Because it has more spaciousness for those nerves to live in that tissue now.
And it's this overall system change, even though we're in one area of the body. The vagus nerve — there's a lot of talk about the vagus nerve, the wandering nerve. And that particular nerve too, it's wrapped in fascia. So that's why things like humming, vibration — fascia loves those too. So does the vagus nerve.
So it's the idea of everything being connected. And my idea of the fascia work in relationship to the nervous system is that it allows you to be embodied. And I think that's one of the biggest things that I've experienced, and a lot of the people I work with do too, because we feel so separate from our bodies, especially if we're in chronic pain, especially if we're recovering, if we're in trauma.
And busy lives, the world we live in is stressful, all of that plays a role into how we feel. And when we do this fascia work, you just even said, I felt this, I felt that. That's you feeling yourself. And that's bringing you back into your body, which is such a magical thing and something that's hard to do, but this is definitely a way that we can do that.
Sophia Chang:
Yeah, you guys, I may look like I'm melting right now because my whole body just reset itself. And I love that you use the word embodied.
Writers are not just good craft, good mindset. This is our vehicle. And if our vehicle is feeling wrong or feeling bad or in pain, that's gonna affect our writing. And so this work is so important.
Let's do a real quick wrist one because I know that's a big one.
Erin Tietz:
Yes, yes. All right, pull those sleeves up here. So you're gonna take, we'll just stay with the left arm here just because keep it the same theme. You're gonna bend at your elbow and bring your arm up kind of like a little bit of a karate chop here. So you wanna rest your shoulders and neck just where they feel most spacious and safe in your body. I have a whole technique called the sternum up and it's essentially just shifting, not extending the spine, but just shifting the sternum up to let the organs breathe a little bit. Good for writers. Yay.
So you're gonna take your other hand and you're gonna come into your forearm with your other hand and just grip your forearm like this. Now it's a light grip. So think of like a baby bird. You're not gonna squish it. Just a light grip. You're grabbing the skin and you're gonna swivel without rotating the arm, the left arm. You're gonna swivel the skin out and away from you. Then the hand is gonna rotate in the opposite direction towards you.
Sophia Chang:
I do that every night. Already feels so good.
Erin Tietz:
And you'll resist it a little bit. So you're essentially, it's kind of like giving yourself a snake bite. That's what we called them in elementary school. You're taking two hands and you're doing it, but we're doing it very gently, a very nice snake bite. So you're rotating the skin out and you're rotating the palm in until you feel the stop point. And you're not going past it, you're just going to it. And then you can flex and extend the wrist.
Up and down and you're essentially just creating this exfoliation of the fascial fibers in your forearm as they go up into the wrist, into the fingers and the hand. So for writers this is a good one to do just to kind of get some flow in here. And then you can go back to center, go the opposite way. So you grab on the outside, rotate the skin inward, rotate the hand outward. So you just get to that point where you feel like the end point and then you start to move the wrist.
And of course you can do other things if you're feeling uncomfortable or tensing in the shoulders, wiggle it out. You can even do circles with the wrist. So it's just essentially creating a different orientation of the fibers with a little bit of tension and a little movement. You can do it closer to the elbow for those who might have elbow pain. You can do it closer to the wrist for those that have wrist pain. You can do it at the biceps, triceps.
And that helps with like shoulder and carpal tunnel, things like that. So you can kind of troubleshoot it. Again, if you listen to the tissues, they're talking to you and they'll say, what if I move my hand down a little bit and try it there? And you're like, that's the spot. So again, it's all in your power. It's just trial and error.
Sophia Chang:
I was trying not to moan and groan because I was feeling so good. We're recording on separate tracks. Oh goodness. I hope you all did this at home. If you do have a chance to watch the video, I really recommend — this is the podcast you want to watch the video on because these demos are really priceless. It was so generous of you to demo this for us.
Erin Tietz:
You know, even when we first started talking, we realized we were both dancers. I have one leg a little bit longer than the other. I would push myself past my limits. I would overstretch. And then eventually I developed chronic pain on my ischiotuberosity, or my sitz bones, or your butt bone. And it got to the point where I'm like, OK, it's just butt pain. So like everyone has something going on, I should just deal with this.
But I did 10 years of physical therapy to deal with it. Novocaine injections, cortisone injections. But in that time of trying, my embodiment slowly dissipated and I wasn't connected to myself and my body because I was in chronic pain, even if I felt like it was smaller than what someone else was dealing with. It was still pain. I needed to honor that as well. But at the same time, my personality changed so much. I just started losing a little bit of who I was because I was frustrated for always being in pain.
I knew that if I went to yoga with my friends, I'd pay the price for that. So I stopped biking. I stopped doing things because of the pain. So anyone who deals with that, it changes not only our sense of what we feel in our body, but who we are sometimes ultimately too.
Sophia Chang:
You are singing the song of the chronically ill, the chronic pain. Yeah, this is a familiar tune, sadly a familiar tune. And I'm trying to make that connection here — it's not only just, oh, it feels good, it's good for our body, it's good for our craft. But it's a necessity even in our identity. Like you're saying, we don't feel like ourselves. And this is an actual path, scientifically substantiated, evidence-based path out.
I literally do the exercises you've taught me every single night as part of my wind down. Tell us, how can we work with you?
Erin Tietz:
Well, there's a couple ways. So my website is dailyfascia.com. Little daily five minute here, five minute there. Most of my fascia work I do now is like when I'm sitting at a desk. Honestly, I'll do like the muscle swivel or I'll work with my hands or I'll do a little resistance and side to side. So just a little bit goes a long way because one part affects the whole system. It's everywhere.
So dailyfascia.com is my website and I have online courses. An intro course would be the Five Day Fascia Fix and it's just five lessons, each 10 minutes, and I teach a different fascia activation for every area of the body. I have stuff for the shoulders. One of my favorite ones is for neck pain and the only place you can get it is on my website.
And then I work with dailyom.com. I just completed my sixth course with them. And my last course was Reverse the Damage from Sitting, a fascia approach to find relief in the body. So it's a course literally just to help heal from sitting, and it's very strategic. So it's not like let's stretch your piriformis. Let's stretch your lower back, bring your knees to your chest. It's none of that.
Sophia Chang:
The possessive side of me doesn't want to share Erin, my secret weapon, with you guys. But the part of me that's like, no, I need to share this, is really, really glad that I had you on.
Erin Tietz:
The beauty of it is that's why there's online courses so that people can dabble in the work, kind of get an idea of it. And then I do virtual sessions and in-person in Minnesota. I have stuff on YouTube and Instagram too, but I also have a Patreon community. I know a lot of writers on Patreon. That's where I hold my monthly membership and it's like 20 bucks a month, but I have programs just for the shoulders, programs just for the lower back, 30 minute classes, 45 minute classes, and then a bunch of two minute classes. So that's just another way for people trying to dabble into the work a little bit.
Sophia Chang:
I myself started in several of the courses, but then very quickly wrote to Erin and was like, we need to work together. Thank you so much for coming on today. I really hope somebody walked away from this video and was like, what? My body feels different. Cause I know mine did just from having this interview. So this was such a treat for me and for all of us.
Erin Tietz:
Me too. Thank you so much. I'm here for questions and to help in any way I can, but I love your podcast and you have a great community and I'm just happy to be a part of it today.
Sophia Chang:
You heard it from the Daily Fascia expert herself. So you better subscribe because there's going to be more good stuff like this. Thank you so much, everyone. See you next time.
