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Join Christina and Allison as they chat about opening a studio and how to make the Pilates environment inclusive of larger bodies. Alison shares her experience living in and doing and teaching Pilates. She began teaching out of a need to learn how to move better for herself, because she was struggling in group classes. As a new teacher, she experienced bias for being in a larger body and she frequently would get once overs when she met new clients. Later she began doing equipment maintenance at one of the studios and became proficient in machine safety and the ins and outs of the Pilates equipment. Allison is an advocate for fair and equitable pay for Pilates teachers, after having experienced unfair treatment herself. She describes how some teacher’s pay structures are set-up and how such structures penalize the teachers who teach at unpopular times. Opening a Pilates Studio After having subpar experiences working at other studios Allison, has decided to open her own space. The thought of opening a studio and working for herself gave her comfort. There are weight limits on the equipment and this impacts people’s movement experience. She is making special considerations to ensure that her space is comfortable for all people. This includes knowing weight limits for all the furniture in the studio as well as making sure that this furniture can make someone’s life easier when it comes to removing shoes etc.... Other considerations she included were natural light, main floor access or elevator, a restroom. Teacher Training All teacher training programs seem to ignore larger sized bodies and how to teach effectively.  Despite Pilates allowing Allison to connect so deeply with her, she saw a gap in her learning. She quickly saw the issues when she had larger bodies on the reformer and they didn’t fit. So she had to change spring weights to accommodate her clients. She began doing the research to run a workshop called Making Pilates Accessible for Larger Bodies and she took a sociocultural perspective. Allison shares about the challenges of running a workshop and the growing pains. She did eventually run it and will be doing it again when her studio is up and running, with friends in larger bodies so that she can show different things. Allison shares how some cueing is ineffective for larger bodies. Negative space is the idea that the low back will be lifted away from the floor, so eliminating that all together. Change the motivation, so eliminate the idea of the ‘summer body’, which is not accessible for everyone. Fat bodies are not a monolith, which means that all fat bodies are different and should be treated as such. Larger breasted women and smaller breasted women have different needs. Many people are not proportional. REACH OUT TO ALLISON IG: www.instagram.com/allison_skewes REACH OUT TO CHRISTINA www.instagram.com/mattersofmovement www.facebook.com/mattersofmovement christina@mattersofmovement.com www.mattersofmovement.com ONLINE STUDIO www.mattersofmovement.com/membership

Join Christina and Robin for an amazing discussion.  Body politics Robin described how being in a racialized body comes with the baggage of trauma inherited or accumulated over time and how it impacts how she feels in spaces, in life and interactions with other people. Being in Yoga studios and hearing spiritual bypassing rhetoric like “good vibes only” and instead of being uplifted and strengthened by it, it was starting to drain Robin. She felt more fragmented and without ease. A comment from Christina, when you can’t show up as your whole self due to fear or oppression, you manufacture a version of yourself that is acceptable. You can see how a person can become fragmented. We can’t separate people from politics. It is how systems of oppression maintained their power by categorizing bodies in certain ways and judging bodies in certain ways. How society sees my body is out of my control. We need to understand that white people,  brown people, black people, indigenous people, queer people, disabled people all have unique experiences. Access to resources and access to belonging differ greatly and that is political. Actively empower and equip more folks in marginalized bodies to be in leadership roles. It is important to decenter whiteness so more people can see themselves in their leaders. Robin worked at many different studios and had not had any POC teachers. She started to embark on a journey to open her own studio but doubted herself along the way and kept wanting to turn to established white ‘experts’ but found she was doing this because there was no one who looked like her to model this for her. She didn’t think it was ok for her to occupy those roles. Why are there no people in these roles? When you look at the Fitness Industrial Complex it is inaccessibly priced, there are no images of people of colour in marketing which acts as gatekeeping and in a way a barrier to access. It signals that POC don’t belong there. Centering Trauma One of the uniting threads for human beings is trauma. If you haven’t experienced a lot of trauma, that is a sign of your privilege. If we make space for the most vulnerable, then everybody wins. Trauma lives in your body and when you move your body, we had better be prepared to support a person who has been triggered by something in our class. It is negligent to be unaware of trauma. Have to be able to hold space for triggered emotions. Give people back to their power and learn to listen to your body. Social Change People see movement professional than than any other professional. We have the microphone. We get to tell them what to pay attention to and what to feel. Our sphere of influence is large and rich. You can do hard things, now go do hard things that contribute to collective liberation. Set up your response or sequence of actions for when you mess up in this area. Building a Studio for All It is not easy. Being a POC Robin still struggled to get a diverse crowd in her classes. The work has to come from the inside. When you invite a friend over, you ask about allergies, you make the house presentable. Trying to diversify in a hurry, people may not have done everything they should do. Get a roundtable with people who have different experiences. The research has to be done first. It is a slow process and the learning does not stop. REACH OUT TO ROBIN www.instagram.com/royolaroyola www.instagram.com/goodbodyfeel www.goodbodyfeel.com REACH OUT TO CHRISTINA www.instagram.com/mattersofmovement www.facebook.com/mattersofmovement christina@mattersofmovement.com www.mattersofmovement.com ONLINE STUDIO www.mattersofmovement.com/membership

Debbie started her young life as an athlete and reached national level in fast pitch baseball and volleyball. Debbie went on to serve 28 years in the military and since become a civilian officer. During her service she received a commendation and coin for service over and above her expected duties by a Chief Commander. She also received 1988 athlete of the year by PM Brian Mulroney. Debbie shares about her deployments to Egypt, Bosnia and Haiti and what it was like to prepare for and experience these deployments. We dive into the physical, emotional and spiritual preparations at that time and how they differ for the military personnel today. Spending months at a time in war-torn countries on peace keeping missions inevitably leads to seeing and doing things that could be defined as difficult. In Bosnia, there was a great deal of ethnic cleansing that took place, which laid heavily on Debbie’s heart. Debbie shares about how she has developed mental health challenges as a result of her work in the military. She suffers from generalized anxiety and complex PTSD. With the support of her therapist and loving wife, she is getting the support that she needs to get by. Being an athlete in her younger years prepared Debbie for the physical demands of being in the military, which included doing physical training on a daily basis. As the troupe prepared to go overseas, the physical expectations were significantly increased, where the soldiers were expected to be able to run for 13kms with full equipment. Debbie has had several injuries from her days as an athlete and in the military that has resulted in her needing hip replacement surgery. We learn about her recovery and the challenges she has faced transitioning out of a physical career, into a sedentary lifestyle. She still turns to movement, but in a way that is very different than before. She visits physiotherapists, chiropractors and massage therapists frequently to be able to maintain her physical health. She mourns the loss of the movement, but has found other ways to give meaning to her life as is a proud member of the Order of the Eastern Star where she contributes to fundraising in her community. Debbie has been looking to contribute to the ‘Serving with Pride’ organization, which aims to make a difference for the LGTBQ2S+ community who serve in the military and police. REACH OUT TO DEBBIE https://www.facebook.com/debbie.wiken REACH OUT TO CHRISTINA www.instagram.com/mattersofmovement www.facebook.com/mattersofmovement christina@mattersofmovement.com www.mattersofmovement.com ONLINE STUDIO www.mattersofmovement.com/membership

Sarah works as a mental performance consultant with athletes at all levels. The majority of her practice is on body image and disordered eating. Athletes can face quite a lot of barriers to seeking help for their mental health. . HOW DISORDERED EATING MANIFESTS IN SPORT We talk about the normalization of disordered eating in athletes. With many athletes it can look like a preoccupation with food that causes stress and impacts social relationships. It is not just a question of body size. STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE DISORDERED It is mostly an individual approach. One of the first things that Sarah does is have the individual connect to their body as there is often a disconnection between the body’s cues and how the athlete responds to them. This can happen because of the ‘push harder’ culture in the world of sport. HOW RESTRICTED EATING IS LINKED TO PSYCHOLOGY & HORMONES Restricted eating can lead to overcompensation (bingeing and overeating), it can be physiologically and emotionally difficult. Hormones will signal to the body that it wants food. For example, you might have a piece of cake and eat way more than you need to because your body is so dissociated from what it really needs. If we were in tune with our bodies and what it needs, we would eat far less. TRAUMA, RELATIONSHIPS AND FOOD In terms of trauma, people who have had experience with difficult situations can often feel out of control and food and exercise can be the place where they can control. When it comes to the intimate relationships between the athlete and coach, it can get quite complicated when it comes to body image and food recommendations. Considerations need to be taken with family, coach, friendships. TRANSITIONING OUT OF SPORT Developing a wide variety of interests outside of sport can help prevent a narrowed sense of self when and can also translate into a smoother transition outside of sport. Sarah enlightens us to the difficulty athletes have with that transition and how they can get into trouble if it isn’t done well. EMBODIMENT OF MOVEMENT AND EATING The sensation of feeling your body in movement and before, during and after eating are crucial to being able to self-monitor and be able to listen to the cues in their bodies. Athletes can often become disembodied due to the nature of sports training and during disordered eating causes a similar. REACH OUT TO SARAH Twitter @saragairdner IG @sarahgairdner www.sarahgairdner.com REACH OUT TO CHRISTINA www.instagram.com/mattersofmovement www.facebook.com/mattersofmovement christina@mattersofmovement.com www.mattersofmovement.com ONLINE STUDIO www.mattersofmovement.com/membership

Trigger warning: Self-harm Join Jeanette and Christina as they talk about Jeanette and the amazing work she is doing. Jeanette has had her own experience with mental illness and has now turned her experience into an amazing program to help other black women and women of colour thrive on the other side of mental illness and health challenges. We discuss why a program like this is needed, and much of it lies in the lack of resources, love and support for black women who are the pillars of strength for their families and communities. Often it is the strongest that appear to be well and ok and who in turn need the additional help and support. We discuss how movement plays a role in recovery from mental illness and how movement played a crucial role in Jeanette’s life while suffering from mental illness. Often it was the only thing that kept her afloat. In the end, a holistic approach to wellness was the answer for her. Knowing that movement was a source of strength for her, is comforting, but it was not the whole picture, community, meditation and a variety of other tools were key to helping her get to the other side. https://www.facebook.com/InnerJCoachingConsulting https://www.instagram.com/jeanetteoduro/ Reach out to Christina www.instagram.com/mattersofmovement www.facebook.com/mattersofmovement christina@mattersofmovement.com Online Studio www.mattersofmovement.com/membership

Join Christina and Malinda in a deep dive into the biomechanics of cueing and how the vertical jump has become an excellent tool to assess performance in varsity athletes. Malinda is a PhD Candidate studying biomechanics at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. Her research primarily focuses on studying vertical jumps in athletic populations to 1) better understand the movement mechanics as they relate to performance and 2) support practitioners in their training design and program implementation praxis. While an undergraduate student at UofT, Malinda competed for the women’s varsity field hockey team. She has served as an Assistant Coach with the Varsity Field Hockey team at UofT since 2012 What exactly is biomechanics? We discuss what biomechanics means in the world of movement. It is essentially the physics of movement. She is really interested in vertical jump and the aspects of movement that get the athlete at their highest jump and how taking a holistic approach to the athlete is really key to understanding outcomes. The difference between internal and external cues We look at how certain cues impact performance in the vertical jump and how the effectiveness of cues will differ for each person Evaluating vertical jump assessments and how we can effectively use them to evaluate athletic performance and assist with the reduction of injuries. This includes evaluating the process all the way from data collection and analysis procedures to inform practitioners about these strengths and limitations of these assessment tools, to best inform their training and injury prevention praxis. Misinformation spread through social media Much of what we do in our research is to teach others to be critical thinkers. We want fellow researchers and practitioners to be mindful of the misinformation that is sometimes pervasive in the strength and conditioning discipline, particularly because of access to social media platforms. Research opportunity with Sports Information Research Centre (SIRC) We will work in collaboration with Field Hockey Canada and Field Hockey Ontario to identify benchmark characteristics related to athletic performance between the various age cohorts involved in the female development pathway towards the national team. Malinda: m.hapuarachchi@mail.utoronto.ca IG: www.instagram.com/mattersofmovement FB: www.facebook.com/mattersofmovement Online Studio: www.mattersofmovement.com/membership

Join Christina and Lori as they discuss movement, women’s empowerment and what it means to look beyond the scale. Lori Mork is an expert in the field of health and wellness, mindset, women’s empowerment, and body positivity. She is a fierce and dynamic author, speaker, former fitness champion, reformed dieting junkie, and kick ass coach to thousands of women worldwide. Children and movement: Do what is fun and that makes you happy. We have seen COVID-19 completely change the landscape of children’s movement experiences. In some cases, the movement practices they were doing before just aren’t fun anymore. It is also important to allow the kids flexibility to let them find what brings them joy. Moving our bodies for the purpose of weight loss. Aside from having an understanding of beginning and end weight, the scale can often play games with women’s psyche’s as they feel chained to it while looking for validation. Body composition plays a big role in a woman’s weight. Lori shares about her experience with the scale. Empowering women. There is so much happening in the world right and Lori has positioned herself as the empowering and real voice of reason for all the women out there. www.lorimork.com FB Lori Mork wellness IG lori.mork Learn more about the Matters of Movement Wellness and Movement Membership: www.mattersofmovement.ca christina@mattersofmovement.com IG @mattersofmovement FB @mattersofmovement

Join Christina and Janet as they chat about dance, empowerment and bringing a movement business online during the pandemic. Janet shares how she started dance as a shy little girl and went on to become a professional dancer, working in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and London, England. After about ten years she started craving stability and decided to get married and start a family but found herself missing something. So, she had the courage to come back into the studio and that is just when everything came rushing back, in terms of feeling alive, feeling great in her body and her skin and she knew in that moment that she wanted to share this feeling with as many women as she can. The role dance has played during the pandemic. Janet moved her dance teaching to the online space. She didn't let fear get in the way., mainly because she knew that people needed this right now. We need to move, we need to feel inspired, there needs to be a light in this sort of darkness that's happening. She decided that she wanted to be that person that that's going to show up for everyone. She’s had proven results with so many women that have just stepped out of their comfort zone and who are now so confident and empowered in their life, and continuing to dance with me to this day. Her concern was about how to make an in-person experience, the same as online. She found that by doing mindset work, she was able to go further and deeper with her clients. Many of us have the inner critic that tells us all kinds of stories and Janet works with women to see beyond those words. She also makes it a safe space so that women feel free to make mistakes and move away from perfectionistic tendencies. Go make mistakes, feel silly, feel crazy, because we're so conditioned to not be that way. Dance allows you that freedom. Dance combats stress and burnout Janet feels that the reason why we're burned out, stressed and overwhelmed is because we are living in the past or the future. We’re thinking about all the things that have to happen tomorrow. We're thinking about all the fears and the doubts and everything from the past. Dance is so powerful because it just brings you back to the present and that's where our true confidence and power lies. Process of building an online business. It has been very rewarding but also very challenging. You've got to really believe in your service and that you can provide a transformation. You have to show up to do the work. Be transparent with others so you can show them that you’ve been there and that you understand. It’s ok to own what you do even if so many others are doing it too because, there is only one of you. Building a business takes time and you’ve got to be patient with yourself. You have to trust and know and have faith and hope that you are making an impact. The more you do things that are a success, the more confidence you build in it, and the more risk you're going to take for the next one. When it comes to creating a product, you need to go to your community and ask what are you struggling with? How can I help? And then create it. Building confidence Ask the women in my course to envision their greatest selves. Doing that work really opens up the imagination and gives them something to visually see for themselves, which then helps their brain to wake up to that sort of energy. It takes awareness and you showing up doing some work. I love seeing women just become confident and empowered and feeling good and who they are and in their skin. Just going for it is so magical because if they can feel that way then there is a ripple effect to other parts of their lives. IG: www.instagram.com/workitjanet FB: www.facebook.com/janet.l.castillo.90 Website: http://janetco.live/

Raising our kids on the language of food and movement Parents are influenced by the how they were raised, especially around the restrictive diet and exercise culture back when we were children. Many of viewed exercise as a means of changing how we look. We have seen a shift away from that, especially when it comes to their children. But, diet culture is still around and is so pervasive that the way we talk about our bodies, just comes out over and over and over again. Jay focuses on language swaps and mindset shifts around food and exercise to uncouple them. One of the effective ways she has done this is to use language we use for our own bodies/diets, as parents, with our children. Communication and play around food Children around the age of 5 start developing a tendency to prefer slimmer body types for women and muscular body types for men. Jay talks about using curiosity to explore ideas around food. Asking questions like “how do you feel after eating _____” and this teaches children to start paying closer attention to their own personal cues for hunger, how food makes them feel and they get to decide how much to eat. Using play, can help parents gain an understanding of how kids feel about food and remove stress about actually having to eat it. When parents are concerned about too little activity and too much food, getting them to move and eat a certain way by telling them what to do is not generally going to work. She promotes the division of responsibility around food. The parents decide when, what and where and the kids decide how much. Stress, food and bringing joy to the table We’ve been experiencing greater than normal amounts of stress and children may turn to food for comfort, which is totally normal and ok, but if that their only coping mechanism, then a shift may be needed. Much of the time, feeding our children can feel stressful and frankly a negative experience. Considering how much our children eat a day, that can be a lot negative experiences. Jay recommends avoiding talk about food and taking the time to enjoy our food when we eat. Good and bad foods Placing moral restrictions on food can be an issue and Jay wants to work toward food neutrality, where kids can have the same excitement or energetic pull around strawberries as their birthday cake. Teaching kids intuitively how to build a complete snack, might look like consistently pairing a cookie with apples and peanut butter, without ever having to teach them about proteins and carbs. Doing things differently Many of us were raised to sit at the dinner table until everything was eaten and how its ok to look beyond these strategies to feed our children. It’s ok to allow them to develop an intuitive eating approach. As long as they are eating at other meals, they are likely not going to go hungry or go without a balanced diet. Ensuring that there is at least one thing on the plate that they would eat, it a good way of meeting the kids half way without catering to them. Overall, Jay just really loves to change and shift the language around food and movement to make things more joyful. Making food less about fuel and molding our bodies, but as a source of fun, family, friendship, celebration and connection. Jay Baum, RD www.pommetta.com https://facebook.com/pomettanutrition https:///www.instagram.com/feeding.kids_intuitive.eating/ Christina Whelan Chabot IG: www.instagram.com/mattersofmovement FB: www.facebook.com/mattersofmovement christina@mattersofmovement.ca

Join Kris and .Christina as they talk about how yoga can play a big role in changing the landscape of leadership Strategic Leadership Before COVID, strategic leadership was a lot of planning, a lot of digging in deep into performance indicators, and finding ways to solve all the world's problems. Now, we have all learned how to consecutively, in healthcare at least, learn how to build and fly the plane at the same time. So strategic leadership means being able to pivot on a dime, adjust your plan, and really rise to the occasion. Kris feels that the health care systems is been rocked in raw, challenging and difficult ways. But we've also seen incredible resiliency. Stress, the Pandemic and Yoga A lot of people are functioning from a state of fight or flight and they're in this chronic crisis overload. What I can do is bring people down to calming breath work. Meditation has an enormous impact on how we do work. If we are in a creative mindset, we're more open, and we're able to strategize a bit more creatively and focus on what's going to work for the patients In health care, wellness has taken a front seat, especially given the stressful conditions people are under. At my workplace, we have many meditations every morning, it's voluntary but there are yoga classes available virtually throughout the day. Some of the challenges with yoga were financial or flexibility barriers. When we bring yoga into a home environment, people are a bit more inclined to try something new in the comfort space. There is research that says that about 5% of our population in Canada does yoga and I'm hoping we’ll see an increase. We learn about how Kris began her Yoga practice and how she became a Yoga teacher in the midst of COVID. She had two traumatic losses in her life and felt that it was time for her to look beyond her negative self talk and share her gifts and talents. Yoga has been a place of solace for her and a time for her to develop her philanthropic journey. We discuss the marathon of COVID and how we are going to keep up this momentum. Finding our internal resiliency that we can channel and bring forward can give us hope and allow us to create and for a lot of people it is giving back in different ways to our community. So I think we are seeing kindness on an epic level. There's a kindness revolution. Toxic workplace cultures and leveraging yoga? When people are engaged in high meaning work, where they are making a difference. They may have a degree of tolerance for behavior that otherwise may not make a lot of sense on the outside. There are a lot of factors that can create or cultivate a toxic workplace. Getting support from other co-workers or a third party is important. Learn to trust your gut instincts. You know what is right and wrong. There is always a solution. It is possible to create a culture where people do become more comfortable speaking up, but it's power in numbers. Seeking leadership roles When looking to become a leader it is important to decide how you want to lead, are you leading from a place of power-with your team or are you leading from a place of power-over. There are ways to cultivate a leadership style that is both fair and tough, that empowers your team to fully commit to their role. Yoga can play an important role in allowing a leader to lead creatively and from the heart. www.krisbannermanyoga.com FB @krisbannermanyoga IG @krisbannerman

Zongwe Binesikwe (Zee) bravely shares her struggles with getting diagnosed with complex PTSD and the symptoms that she copes with. She educates us on how it can differ from regular PTSD and how it can manifest as a really harsh inner critic with toxic self-shame that can lead to having difficulty with self-love. She shares her concern that many indigenous people have complex PTSD and have been misdiagnosed and aren't receiving the right treatment. She acknowledges that it takes a lot of work, but that everyone is worth the work and that it doesn’t have to be solved overnight. She has found healing in movement and intentionally slowing down. Pow wows and connecting to nature has played an important role in Zee’s healing. Pow wows, are used to come together and for healing. They can happen in the spring, or summer or fall feast. Zee is a jingle dress dancer. Music is Zee’s medicine and she believes it goes back to her oral traditions, which is why she enjoys speaking on podcasts and on the radio. The jingle dress traditionally is made with 365 little jingles for every day of the year and are made out of tobacco tin lids, bent into jingles. Hearing the jingles, connects to the spiritual realm. Dancing allows you to connected to Mother Earth with your feet on the ground. You’re connecting with your ancestors, higher self, creator, everyone around you and all of your relations that came before you and all those coming after you. It can be so overwhelming, healing, energizing and a place to grieve. The drum is the heartbeat of Mother Earth and a connection to the spiritual realm. So, all together, it is physical, spiritual, emotional and truly magical. During COVID, it has been hard to have access to ceremony and many are struggling because we are looking for ceremony. Many people have been doing virtual pow wows throughout the year. But, internet isn’t accessible to all, so radio has been a main source of communication.. We discuss the role of regalia, which is the clothing worn in ceremony at the pow wows. We want to be clear that they are not costumes. Wearing them is part of ceremony, but creating that that piece of regalia is also ceremony. It takes a lot of time and energy and each piece is unique. Zee’s colors are green, pink and blue, which are significant to her spirit. Then she would have something to do with the Thunderbird or the bear clan. When the regalia is not being used, they get feasted. She offers tobacco, she puts out food for her ancestors and for that piece of regalia because it has its own spirit. The whole ceremony of it helps bring Zee back into her body and connect with spirit, which has been essential to healing from her complex PTSD. We dive into bare feet on ground because it reminds Zee that Mother Earth is here to support her. Mother Earth goes through cycles and seasons and she knows everything and she's not worried about all the stuff that we're worried about. She knows that everything is going to work out. Walking as a form of meditation has also played a huge role in Zee’s healing. Meditation doesn’t have to be when you are seated, it could be when you're doing the dishes, it could be when you're baking bread, gardening. As long as you are connecting to yourself. So walking for Zee doesn't take a lot of energy like. She will intentionally look around at the animals and the sun and the sky, and then try to feel like the wind and smell the odours. During our talk, Zee was wearing a beautiful piece of regalia, created by Diana Lidemark with Healing Journey Beadwork. A photo can be found on IG @mattersofmovement FB @zongwebinesikwe IG @zongwebinesikwe Twitter: @zongwebinesikwe Website: www.zongwebinesikwe.com

Join Fiona and Christina in discussing movement in children in disabilities Fiona first shares how her work became a lifelong passion. CHALLENGES CHILDREN FACE WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS The ignorance and lack of understanding or misunderstanding are barriers. The biggest impact for children from a developmental perspective is their exposure to peers. Not going to school, or having a lot of disruption or not being able to play in the same way as their peers. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY RESEARCH IN CHILDREN AND BENEFITS In 2002 there was no information on physical activity for children with disabilities. There was a fear discourse, the notion that children were too fragile, sick, weak, susceptible, vulnerable. A population that's faced a lot of paternalism and overprotection. Our research has really started to shift the narrative, away from these kids being too weak and vulnerable, and injury prone. There's a range of gross motor and fine motor skills and enhancements. There's functional improvements in activities of daily living, and participation and inclusion, through physical activity. From the psycho social side, it enhances perceptions of social inclusion, wellness, friendship, quality, quality of life, mental health, intra personal issues, like self efficacy and self confidence. There's a range of benefits and additive benefits that kids with disabilities do get through physical activity. It's safe and normal and good and advisable. BARRIERS TO MOVEMENT There are many barriers that can include: physical activity barriers in the school system are really really common. Parents just don't know about the benefits. Some parental overprotection with fears to allow their child to engage, they might not have the economic resources to find their child and opportunity. Internal psychological barriers. Children with disabilities are never seeing themselves represented, that critical social modeling and role modeling. BULLYING Bullying and exclusion and stigma are such formidable barriers for children with disabilities. We do have deeply ingrained normative ideas of what bodies look like and how they move. Disabled bodies might move in ways that we consider not normal, that can also invite bullying and exclusion. It can damage self efficacy and cause children to shift their interest. Bodies move in many different ways and there are many ways to be physically successful at a skill. There are many ways to move, to play and to move your body with freedom. All of that's okay. THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH IN CHILDHOOD DISABILITIES 10 years ago, there was more of a hierarchy in research design, with a lot more emphasis and prestige, placed on quantitative research. Qualitative research has been so much more embraced by the community, and regarded to have the same degree of social scientific merit. Qualitative research diminishes the hierarchy between the researcher and the participant and works to empower patient’s voices and experiences. CONCEPT OF TIME WITH CHILDREN WITH LIFE SHORTENING ILLNESSES For children with life shortening illnesses, or life threatening illnesses it's complicated. Most people with cystic fibrosis can expect to live into their mid 40s. Time is an ideological construct, like we won't question it, unless it's taken. We take it for granted unless it's threatened. Children, teenagers, young adults living with life shortening conditions, do really grapple with this concept of time and how to use it in the best way. LinkedIn: Dr. Fiona Moola Holland Bloorview: https://www.hollandbloorview.ca/people/fiona-moola

Join Christina and Lisa as they talk about the value of dance during COVID and stressful times. Lisa’s days with dance and music started very early when her Argentinian mother would blast music every morning and her uncle taught her how to dance when she was three or four years old. She did a stint on Broadway and then became a backup dancer. So performance and being on stage was the permission for her to completely express herself. It was my outlet. The beauty of music is that it allows you to adopt a persona for those three to five minutes that the song plays. It's like you escape into your own world. It's like acting in some ways. DANCE AND CONFIDENCE Dance teaches confidence, the more you practice it. It teaches you how to take up space powerfully. Whether you are standing there, speaking and communicating your body language and emotions or the way you actually physically move your body. I think what dance allows you to just try different ways of taking up space and being able to move your body and get lost in the present moment. I think that's the beauty of movement and it doesn't even necessarily have to be dance, for some, it’s running. It gives you a platform to experiment and see what feels good for you. Once I became a mom, I had to rediscover myself in movement. because my body was not feeling the same way. Becoming a mom. LISA REDISCOVERY THROUGH DANCE When she was home with her infants she would listen to reggaeton music in the background. She was never into exercise, but if you throw on some music, she could dance for two hours not realizing the time going by. It was a way for me to do something that lifts my spirits. She recalls her first break-up in University and how she turned to dance to cope. She danced for the full four years in university and did classes as a way to stay active and to keep herself happy. It was also a way to socialize So, after that experience it’s become the thing she goes to. COVID was a disaster for her as a mom. She was drinking a lot and so she just started dancing. She went live at 10 o'clock every morning and would dance for 10-15 minutes. That's all she needed to get a boost of energy. She’d get the kids involved and so it was memory building activity together. DANCE AS A FORM OF MEDITATION Lisa shares how she uses dance as a form of meditation because it is a way for her to stay in the present moment. One of the powerful things that meditation can give you is it teaches you to focus being present in the moment and getting rid of all the noise and chatter that happens in your mind, that we don't say out loud. Lisa feels this way when she dances. There's literally nothing else that she thinks of. Walking meditations can play a similar role. DANCE AND COPING WITH MOTHERHODD Lisa shares that one of the biggest struggles with motherhood, was not anticipating her identity crisis. Part of it came from the pressures of wanting to be a good mom. She didn't know who she was anymore. The only thing that I had that I knew was dance. It was something that made her feel good, even if it was 10 minutes. Dance gave her an outlet to rediscover herself, her body and to learn to love herself again. We discuss postpartum depression and the work that has been done to normalize it and reduce the stigma attached to it. LISA’s INSTAGRAM She felt that if she didn’t laugh, she’s going to cry. Motherhood felt very challenging, so the creative and comedic work she did was a relief from the pressure of it all. Lisa turned to social media as a way to meet other moms. Creating content was her way to feel like she had access to the real world. Http://www.lisainthecity.ca Http://www.Instagram.com/lisainthecity Tik Tok @lisainthecity

Join Christina and Deanna as we explore her book feminine warrior, feminine and masculine energies, energy healing, intuition and how they tie into movement. ENERGIES (FEM AND MASC) Every living being has masculine and feminine energy. It has nothing to do with gender. It is what creates the friction and the creation parts of the earth including human beings. Masculine shows up in our life as drive and goals, purpose and clarity, getting things done. Feminine is in the moments of presence, the stop and smell the roses, deep breaths, presence with where you are or who you are with, enjoying the food you are tasting, being with what is. Flow with life. In order to feel balanced, we need both to be at a balanced level. Most of us have been taught to suppress our feminine because it has been seen as silly. It’s been seen that following your intuition or trusting your innate wisdom isn’t valid. BALANCING THE ENERGIES Deanna wants to empower women through the lens of releasing external societal pressure and balancing their feminine & masculine energy centres. When you balance your masculine and feminine, it isn’t about not working. It’s about doing what you want to do and having it light you up. Masculine and feminine energy in movement. Masculine energy is present in consciousness and would be there during meditation or even in some individuals it can look like sitting and resting, zoned out without any yearning to be in movement.Or be in movement such as a hard-core Yoga class and power through it like a warrior. Feminine energy in dancing and flow and movement. Dancing around the house while you are baking and cleaning. It’s also the act of calling a friend up and making plans for the weekend. It is a multifaceted multi-layered aspect of beauty and connection and bliss. INTUITION Intuition is the most sacred language of our soul, sharing wisdom, guidance and always supporting us to our highest evolution, and the greatest good for all. Intuition is your gut feeling, inkling or knowing. The sensation that you just know. Even though we have suppressed our feminine, we can still feel it but we often ignore it. It is constantly speaking to you. When you want to start tapping into it, you need to be more quiet and listen to your body. Your ego can take over. The intuition is a whisper of wisdom. ENERGY HEALING We are all energy and energetic molecules and in dynamic movement as our energy is constantly moving. In every moment we are changing our bodies, our thoughts, what we are, what our physical make up is and beliefs. Energy healing, using the energy of universal life to allow energy to flow through and bring balance and harmony to our energy molecules in our physical and mental and emotional selves. BODY IMAGE It is not up to anyone else to gauge our value based on our intelligence, appearance, income levels. When we start getting this, we are teaching the next generation that we don’t have to rely on anyone else to determine our value. ENERGY IN MOVEMENT Feminine energy movement can look like spirals and is cyclical. Want to do movements that feel expansive. Like shaking your hips side to side with the aim of getting fluid. We are shaking up stagnant energy in our spine and fascial tissue and muscle and ligaments. Breaking it up and it allows us to feel good with a sense of vitality and excitement and flexibility. Deanna has a special movement experience to offer as a gift. It is a 90 minute class, with 30 minutes of belly fit, 30 minutes of barre, and 30 minutes of Yoga. Link is here: bit.ly/goddessmovement Quantum Physics reference: Breathing the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza www.deannadeacon.com FB|IG @deannadeaconcoaching https://www.youtube.

Join Christina and Sam, chat about core health and how this impacts our quality of life in the short and long term. WHAT IS THE TRUE CORE Definitely is more than the abs and back. It is composed of the core four, which is the diaphragm (your breathing muscle), pelvic floor (foundation), transverse abdominals (deepest abdominal muscles) and multifidus (deepest back muscles). If your pelvic floor isn’t working well, this impacts the whole core. Idea to have synergy of all COMPONENTS OF CORE TRAINING Understand what the core is. Alignment is key. Without proper alignment, each component can’t work at it’s best. Want to avoid breathing into the chest, or holding the belly, or gripping the pelvic floor (if leaking). This call causes a disruption in the core. Breathing is the most important factor. Encourage women to slow down and breathe can be a big challenge. This society is based on instant gratification which can prevent us from building our foundation. THE SIGNS OF CORE DYSFUNCTION Signs are pelvic organ prolapse, which is when the pelvic organs start to fall in and out of your vagina or anus. Leaking urine, back pain and hip pain. Diastasis Recti, which is the separation of the abdominal muscles, creating a weakening of the core breathing system. CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORING LEAKING AND CORE DYSFUNCTION IN THE LONG TERM 50% of women by age 50 will have some degree of pelvic organ prolapse. They aren’t even aware of it. It is possible to reverse prolapse without surgery. Don’t want to be ignoring the symptoms. It is not normal to leak anytime. We have to think about the consequences of ignoring these symptoms, like not being able to run after your kids, or take part in a class, or having to wear adult diapers. When you get to menopause, things don’t get better. Muscle atrophies and hormones take a nosedive. You lose muscle faster than you can create it. Your pelvic floor is like all the other muscles in your body, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Many women will delay taking care of things until something drastic takes place. Samantha talks to her clients about the bare minimum requirements and that even if they get out for a ten minute walk everyday, that has to be it. Incontinence is the second leading cause of being placed in a nursing home. There are no excuses for ignoring your symptoms. BARRIERS TO GETTING HELP There are so many barriers to getting help, especially when you have advertisements normalizing it with young women wearing. Light bladder leakage - actually called incontinence, so not a real term. One of the reasons why they don’t get help is because they don’t want to embarrass their doctors. The doctors aren’t asking either. There is also a disconnect between doctors and pelvic physiotherapists because there is a misconception that it doesn’t work. Surgical bladder lifts fail 50% of the time in the first 5 years. The big reason is that there is no education, post-op or rehab or pre-hab. It is a bandaid. It is not getting to the root cause of the problem. DIASTASIS RECTI This is the separation of the connective tissue called the linea alba. Alignment has to be taken into consideration the way you stand, avoid exercises that result in abdominal coning. The need to close the gap has gone and now the aim is to have tone across the connective tissue. You can have a three finger wide diastasis but bounce a quarter off of the linea alba, there are no concerns about it, but if there is a narrower gap and can touch your organs. If you have a dysfunctional diastasis, you may see doming with an ab curl. It is about managing intra abdominal pressure. There is pressure day to day and the aim is to get alignment. If you have weak connective tissue, you can have chronic back pain.

SOMATIC BODYWORK Following the birth of her first child, Riikka realized that all of the physiology, biology, anatomy, biomechanics that she learned about the body wasn’t going to fully help her heal from the birth of her first child. She was going to have to look deeper at her emotional well-being before going any further. It was the somatic, emotional and trauma work that opened her eyes. We talk about how grief can be held in the body and how it can manifest as physical pain. HOW STRESS AFFECTS OUR BODIES Riikka likes to look at daily living and stress. If daily movements that uphold our standard of living are painful, what is that doing to our psyche? When we are experiencing pain on a regular basis, it makes us less likely to make an effort. For stress, it is important to know what it is, and how it can look in the body. We dive into the nervous system and its role in stress. TRAUMA IN THE BODY Dr. Gabor Mate calls trauma an unhealed wound. Scar tissue is the armour around it, which is it’s protection. It is fascinating how differently we all respond to trauma. People in group exercise classes respond differently. The field is not trained well enough to handle all the people dealing with trauma. She shares a story about a client who had experienced trauma and couldn’t feel squats. Turns out she was sexually abused and was in that position while it was taking place. If a client tells you they can’t feel a body part, there is probably something else behind it. We need to be able to prescribe personalized programs and tune into each individual’s story. BECOMING ATTUNED TO OUR BODIES Being able to understand and hear our body’s language is so important. Knowing in your gut that we are making the right decisions can be trained and allow us to hear how our body is responding to the experiences we are exposing it to (food, people, movement…). THE TRUE MEANING OF MOVEMENT IS MEDICINE A simple practical example is the hip replacement. The person is barely walking and is stiff and robotic. If you can create movement in the socket years earlier, what would it be like later in life. Another example is in pelvic prolapse and incontinence, not only do you train the integrity of the body but you are also shifting your identity. Who am I wearing a diaper, who am I when I can’t enjoy sex. Movement is emotional medicine and is beneficial to all layers of our health. BIRTHING A MOTHER Birthing a mother is understanding that mothers are as raw as a newborn. The support, care, comfort, and tenderness a baby needs is also what the mother needs. And, as the baby grows, the mother grows. Allowing herself to feel her own birth as a mother has taught her so much compassion. She doesn’t have to have her shit together everyday. Bring the tenderness to the mother who is facing something new every day as they deal with an ever changing environment. POSTPARTUM AND BIRTH STORIES We don’t often think of postpartum beyond the first year but we are always postpartum. And, whether the birth story was a positive or negative experience, the imprint will stay with the mother forever. We need to give support to women who are birthing themselves for the rest of their lives. Right after a birth, there is a lot of help, but beyond that, there has to be mental and body work support given. Riikka sees women who are 60 years postpartum who still have their birth story imprinted in their bodies. MOVE BETTER FEEL BETTER Riikka feels like we all deserve to feel good. Connecting into the part of us that feels good is the life force within us. If we are clouded by pain or stress, it can disconnect us from our life. It is essential to connect to goodness every single day. It is not realistic to feel good all day,

NUTRITION Krystal and Christina explore the importance of eating well and listening to our bodies to find out how foods are affecting us. Many of us walk through life without really ever making the connection between how we feel and what we’ve been consuming. Learning to fuel your body correctly will provide you with the energy you need to meet the demands of your day. Krystal was motivated to learn more about nutrition because of her own journey to becoming a healthier. She had to introduce vegetables and determine what she liked and didn’t. Her body had to adjust in a big way after going through a lot of discomfort but she craves vegetables now, whereas before she craved the breads and carbs. Your body will crave the food you feed it, if you feed it the junk, it will crave the junk, if you feed it the good stuff, it will crave the good stuff. Fueling your body for movement. Everyone is different. She exercises on an empty stomach and has whole food proteins like eggs and sausages, as opposed to protein bars or protein powders after. She recommends using proteins as a supplement only, not as a regular food source. She is a big proponent of eating real and whole foods. Protein supplements can have an adverse effect on the kidneys. Short cuts, although convenient, aren’t always the best strategy Krystal shares some of the strategies she uses to make sure that her eating and movement is consistent. MINDSET Krystal shares what mindset means to her. It is the positive outlook and the avoidance of the negative stream of thought that can really impact us. If you have a positive mindset, see your experiences in a positive light. Mindset around movement is huge. If you go into any form of activity thinking it is a chore or a must do or get to do. I am blessed that my body will move. Gratitude to be able to focus on your health. I can do this, so I can’t. For those feeling like they don’t have the time to move, Krystal recommends taking stock of the ways that you spend your day. How much time do you spend scrolling through IG or FB or of the of the other activities you do on a daily basis? How much of that time could be spent on moving your body? Ask yourself, is my health more important than scrolling through IG or this episode of television The more you commit to movement, the more addictive it can get. Try adding a bit of activity for a week. Little by little, it can increase. ADENOMYOSIS At the age of 36, Krystal was experiencing severe cramping and heavy bleeding following the birth of her six children and was diagnosed with adenomyosis, which is similar to endometriosis, but the growth of the tissue is inside the uterus. After a lot of doctors visits and many attempts at treating the condition with alternative methods Krystal, with the support of her husband, chose to go the route of the hysterectomy. We talk about the difficulty that come with making a decision like this. This decision has completely improved her quality of life, she felt like a human and we explore her movement exploration in the aftermath. What it is like to move following a big surgery like this. Having to deal with stairs, bloating. Discovering what movements she is confident doing. Her movements today have to be slower and more mindful.. She has to avoid planks, modify her squats. She is doing a whole lot of listening to her body. She is exploring more exercise. TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH Krystal injured herself a few years ago and she got to the point where she couldn’t get out of bed. Her injuries involved the SI joint and bursitis. She spent so much money on getting help. They mentioned arthritis. After hitting a wall with medical doctors, she started looking at treatments for inflammation and realized her nutrition knowledge was part of the puzzle to getti...

In this episode April and Christina talk about her positivity agent status. April’s superpower is to support and make people feel amazing about themselves. She sees that many people get inundated in the negative and by helping others see the positive and nourish them with some love, this helps her stay focused. It also fills her to fill other people’s cups. She wants to share the gift that she has discovered. April also shares about how she decided at 54 that it was time to start moving and how this has completely transformed her physical, emotional and spiritual health. She began her journey into movement and wellness after sitting at her table feeling like she was aching everywhere and in that moment the words, you have to get moving flashed in front of her eyes. She brought Ryan De Winter on board and initially signed up for three months and thought she would be done after those three months. She stayed another three and another three after that. Looking back she realized how silly it was to think she would be done after three months. We talk a little about the emotional and mental transformation that she experienced. Her emotional and mental transformation has been miraculous. Confidence has gone up, her reaction is now a response. Her spiritual health has been impacted in a way that has allowed her to see that it is now time to serve others and to share what she has experienced. We owe it to ourselves with our physical and emotional health. We never arrive, as it's a work in progress. Sharing is how we bond with people. We discuss a recent news article about how people over fourty years of age are giving up on their health. April wants to show people it was possible to get healthy. In fact, she claims that 70 is the new 30! People need to know that they are not put on this earth to live to their 40s. Improvements in health and wellness can be made at any age, so no one, no matter what their age should be giving up on health. We dive into how the body compensates for pain. Poor fitted shoes can cause problems all the way up the chain to the hip and it can be a bit like a garbage can lid. You press on the pedal and the lid flips up. What can happen next is that we end up carrying more weight on the other side, which will cause pain and over-use on the other side of the body. Being in constant pain puts a stress on our emotional well-being. Will end up being reactive and less able to handle the stressors in life. It’s a dangerous walk when we don’t listen to what the body is telling us as we set ourselves up for injury. Many people have a hard time connecting with the messages the body gives and as women, we haven’t been trained or encouraged to put ourselves first. You can’t pour from an empty cup. The best thing a female will ever learn is NO! Creating healthy boundaries with consistency is one way to make sure you get the care you need in this life. We talk about the big challenge that April overcame by running up and climbing on top of a big boulder in her backyard. She posted about it on social media and it was such an exciting moment for many reasons. Mainly because of the work that went into accomplishing this feat. She had to overcome big fears to do this, but it is thanks to her trainers belief in her that she was able to do it. April wants you to know it is not that you can’t do something, it is that you haven’t. This is something that nobody should deny themselves, the ability and excitement of doing something you haven’t done. I still can’t do push-ups to this day, but I don’t deny myself the hope and excitement that I could one day. People who are looking to start moving, never deny yourself the potential and hope. We talk about what Move Better Feel Better means to April and for her is the connection between movement and how we feel and how we approach the day.

Join Alexa and Christina as they talk about movement, diversity and body positivity. Why Pilates is so important to Alexa. When she came to Pilates after have been in the Yoga and wellness space for so long, she felt like she got a re-education. Even after learning the mechanics through her personal training. And even after dedicating herself to Yoga where you really learn about your body. After going to Pilates, she realized there were places in her body that she didn’t know existed and they woke up. Who should be doing Pilates and how to start a practice. Everybody should be doing Pilates. She feels strongly the Pilates is an excellent tool for making other exercise modalities better. Other things do not necessarily make Pilates better. For example, Pilates makes her Yoga practice better, but not the other way around. Pilates has a way of targeting muscles and getting them working. So you don’t have to spend so long trying to activate them. There are certain exercises where if you aren’t using the right muscles, you won’t be able to do the exercise. Get to a Pilates studio as you get the full benefit of the practice if you have access to the some of the equipment. It might not be in everybody’s budget, but many studios will offer group classes that are comparable in price to a Yoga class. How Pilates can become less exclusive. The people running a studio have to want to have to have non-white people come in. Other people want to do this practice and if they opened their doors, they would be there. Studios that make an effort to offer services to people in other languages will bring those people in. What kind of language is important to avoid or alternatively what language is important to use to ensure that we are creating an inclusive environment. Anyone with a Pilates studio has to be intolerant of language that prejudice or stereotyping involved. I have worked at studios where teachers will say things about a client who looks a specific way and stereotypes it to that client when many other clients do the same things. If a studio is located in an area with many non-native speakers, it would be good to learn a few sentences to greet those people when they walk in the door. You may not say it perfectly, but the effort goes a long way. We get a peak into how Alexa put together her office chair video series. People kept requesting exercise for the office. She explored and played with the office chair. It was inspired by many different things including her own physical therapy, exploration and work on the Pilates equipment. All the things she does herself and that would be effective and not super weird to do in an office. We talk about how workplaces are bringing in more digital trainers We talk about a great post Alexa put up about aiming for health and not a specific dress size. This post was inspired by Alexa’s experience as a child surrounded by family who were very focused on dress size. She could never quite meet the expectations. Her mother sadly passed away at the young age of 46 from cancer, despite how small she was. This started Alexa’s health journey. She is a firm believer that you will get to the size you are meant to be by eating the most nutritious food and a healthy movement pattern. Alexa wants to encourage people to find a movement practice, it’s good for your mental health and physical health.  it will make you feel better or for the time that you are here, live better IG: @lowimpactfit TikTok: @alexapilates and @lowimpactfit Website: www.lowimpactfit.com

Welcome to the very first episode of the Matters of Movement podcast. In this introductory episode, I am going to share about how I got here and what you can expect to learn and hear during your time with me and my special guests. So, how did you get into Pilates?  After my undergrad, I completed a Masters in the Exercise Sciences department with a focus on the impact exercise had on down regulating the autonomic nervous system. When I had completed that, my hopes were to get work into exercise research, but life didn’t lead me where I had originally hoped. I ended up working in research in the area of gambling. An experience that brought me all over the country collecting information about safer gambling practices. It was so fun and at the time, the perfect fit. At the same time, in an effort to continue doing the health and wellness work that I so loved to do, I trained to become a Pilates instructor, which took me on a four year journey back and forth to Vancouver and across two Pilates studios here in Toronto. And I never looked back.  Why did you start Matters of Movement? Just before the birth of my third, Matters of Movement was born, a Pilates-based movement practice. Obviously, I didn’t get much teaching in the first year, but I built my website and did all the things. Although I have been teaching Pilates for 13 years I have been teaching officially as Matters of Movement since January 2019 and business was just picking up at my new location in 2020 when COVID happened.  How did this podcast come about?  I have learned that the foundation of this podcast was in its early gestation when we were at the University of Toronto doing our undergrad. During our time in this program, we were exposed to all facets of movement learning, whether it involved learning how to teach movement, society’s impact on sport and movement, the psychology of sport and movement, biomechanics, physiology, motor learning, anatomy, philosophy, sports medicine, sports research and media. I am so grateful today for the exposure we had at that time to all things related to movement. Today, 16 years later, I am still fascinated by both what impacts movement, but also what movement impacts in our lives. In the early stages of my business, I decided to participate in some business training and it was probably one of the best things I have ever done. It really let me open my mind up to all the possibilities. I never imagined doing a podcast, but here we are.  What do you hope to accomplish during the podcast? This podcast is going to act as a tool for my and my listeners continued learning about movement.  In the podcast, I want to tackle every aspect of life that can impact movement, so that would mean science, physical, spiritual and mental health, the arts, race, accessibility, societal pressures, and well everything in between. The options are basically endless, which is perfect for a podcast like this. Given everything going on with black lives matter and the anti-racist movement, how are you going to make sure that your work represents the BIPOC community? My plan is to make sure that this podcast has guests that represent the BIPOC community well. This includes ensuring that I invite people to come and share their stories in a raw and open and honest way so that we may all continue to learn in a way that will help us support the BIPOC in the best way possible.  IG/FB: @mattersofmovement www.mattersofmovement.com christina@mattersofmovement.com