Fascia focused training

She Taught Me to Swim: Fascia, Stress Relief, and the Weight Mothers Carry

A personal moment—and the message beneath it

She taught me to swim.

I was maybe two or three years old when this photo was taken.
My mom knelt beside me at the pool, smile wide, teaching me to float before I ever believed I could.

That memory has stayed with me—and it’s a powerful window into what fascia stress relief for mothers really means.

Because my mom wasn’t just helping me stay above water.
She was holding our entire family afloat—four kids, mostly on her own.

And like so many women, she carried the weight of care in her body.

What I didn’t realize then…
She wasn’t just helping me stay above water.
She was holding our entire family afloat.

She raised four of us—mostly on her own.

And like so many mothers, she carried the emotional and physical weight of the world without ever showing the strain.

Why Fascia Stress Relief for Mothers Matters

Your fascia—a web of connective tissue that surrounds every muscle, nerve, and organ—remembers everything. It responds to your environment, your posture, your stress… and your care.

When you’re constantly in output mode (like mothers and caregivers often are), that load shows up as:

  • Chronic stiffness or tension
  • Pain that shifts or lingers
  • A body that feels “stuck” or dehydrated from the inside out

Many mothers don’t realize that the stress they carry—physically, mentally, and emotionally—directly impacts their fascia system. This dense connective tissue doesn’t just wrap muscles—it helps manage fluid pressure, proprioception, and healing.

When fascia becomes overstressed or dehydrated, it loses its elasticity, its glide, and its ability to adapt. That’s why fascia stress relief for mothers isn’t just a luxury—it’s essential care.

The Causes of Fascia Stress in Mothers: Chronic Tension and Dehydration

1. Chronic stress
Fascia tightens under sustained emotional pressure, limiting circulation, mobility, and even breathing patterns. As described by researchers at Anatomy Trains, fascia forms an interconnected web that responds to everything from movement to mindset.

2. Dehydration
Fascia needs fluid movement to glide, adapt, and heal. Most people don’t drink enough water to support it.

✅ Hydration Guidelines:

  • Minimum: 1 liter/day
  • Ideal: Half your bodyweight in ounces
  • Best water sources: Artisan > Spring > Reverse Osmosis

Healing Is Possible. Care Starts With You.

Fascial health isn’t just about flexibility—it’s about freedom. The ability to move, feel, and live with less pain and more clarity.

With the right care, your fascia can:

  • Process emotional and physical tension more efficiently
  • Support better circulation and mobility
  • Help you feel grounded and strong again

This Mother’s Day, Consider This…

Instead of flowers or brunch, what would it look like to give or receive:

  • Movement that restores
  • Hydration that heals
  • Space to be supported

***On second though also bring flowers***😉

Want to feel more at home in your body?

Explore our approach to fascia, fitness, and real strength:

The Ultimate Guide For A Holistic Exercises And Fitness Program

Follow the Thread—Where Movement, Fascia, and Freedom Align

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Katy G – When All Else Failed, She Tried Again And Succeeded

The big smile that Katy comes in with is always a joy to see. But situations with her body were trying to take that smile away. You see, 10 years ago, she was injured at work. The pain and limited activity were constant companions. 

She tried PT, Cranial Sacral, and all types of bodywork massage, including Rolfing, Feldenkreis, acupuncture, chiropractic, ergonomic office assessments, and yoga classes, and bought various DVDs specific to back issues. In 2023, I had spine surgery for sciatica and stenosis. She suspected her back would have been worse sooner without these efforts, but they didn’t fix matters.

Activities like gardening, bending, walking, and sitting were severely limited and painful. She had sciatica every day and neuropathy in her shin and foot. The walking distance was short, and her speed was slow. Sitting down really locked up her back and glutes. Standing was more comfortable. Lying prone with ice offered some relief.

Medicare cut off her PT five months after surgery, but she was still not okay. To make matters worse, and her more frustrated, PT had not helped much anyway. She was praying for direction when she saw an ad for a free SolCore Fitness trial class on Facebook (this is our Monthly Free ELDOA class).

She signed up online and attended the free Saturday group class, and since she found it so beneficial, then signed up for the 2-week trial to give SolCore Fitness a fair test. Ekemba Sooh did an assessment of my issues so he knows what is safe to do. Ekemba is active in class, hands-on, adjusting student postures, and he is very aware of our abilities and injuries. She also signed up for some individual sessions to include the manual therapy techniques because “I was desperate to get better.”

After six months of classes, she continues to improve. She walks better, moves easier, can sit longer, has reduced duration, is less frequent, and travels more efficiently. Since she continues to make progress, she is motivated to keep going and continue to improve her body, health, and life. So, She is sticking with the program that got her there.

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Boost Immunity By Working Out Like This

Ever wondered how your body’s connective tissue—your fascia—could be playing a powerful role in your overall health and immune system?

We already know that exercise helps improve strength, posture, mobility, endurance, and even your mood. But what’s often overlooked is this: you can boost immunity by working out… if you do it the right way.

The key is specificity.

Click on the image to watch the full video

SolCore Therapy and Fitness

Why Random Movement Doesn’t Cut It

I call it “random acts of movement.” You go for a walk, take a class, do a few stretches, maybe see a practitioner when something hurts. You’re doing something—but there’s no strategy behind it.

And when there’s no strategy, your body doesn’t respond the way you want. In fact, it can start to fall apart because neglected areas accumulate dysfunction.

If you want better immunity, you need a focused program—just like you’d need one to build strength or endurance.

How Structure Affects Immune Function

Your body functions best when its structure supports its purpose. Muscles, bones, fascia, ligaments, and organs all work together. If you want your body to think better, digest better, move better—and yes, respond better to threats—you need to make sure your structure is aligned and functioning well.

Let’s look at the immune system specifically:

  • Your lymphatic system is a major player in immune defense.
  • It flows through key ganglion points: your clavicles, cysterna chyli (around T12), and cloquet ganglion (pelvic area).
  • These areas are surrounded by fascia, which influences how well everything moves and drains.

If your posture is misaligned—like in a typical forward head posture from sitting all day—you’re compressing areas like the clavicles, reducing lymph flow. That alone limits your immune system’s ability to function.

The Role of Fascia in Immune Health

Your fascia isn’t just “white stuff” between muscles. It’s alive and intelligent, involved in protection, communication, and healing.

But many mainstream techniques abuse it. Take foam rolling: people roll aggressively over their inner thighs where many lymph nodes live, crushing tissue that’s meant to protect you. That’s not recovery—it’s self-sabotage.

To boost immunity by working out, you need to:

  • Understand fascial chains
  • Train with posture and structural integrity in mind
  • Avoid overstimulating or damaging key immune zones
  • Keep fascia hydrated and responsive through motion and therapy—not abuse

It’s About Flow

Think of your immune system like a river. If it flows, it’s healthy. If it stagnates, it festers. Inflammation is your body’s first line of defense, not a bad word. But it needs a clear path.

Your fascia, posture, and muscular balance create—or block—that path.

Real Application: From Concept to Movement

Let’s take the glute medius. It has three fibers, and each is connected via fascia from the foot all the way to the skull. A random clamshell isn’t going to cut it. But if you train that muscle in the context of the full chain—foot to hip to spine to shoulder—you’re strengthening tissue and improving flow.

That’s the difference between isolated training and integrated immunity-supporting training.

Beyond Workouts: Food, Hydration, and Function

Of course, immune health isn’t just about movement. It’s also about:

  • Drinking enough water (half your body weight in ounces daily)
  • Eating clean, organic, pasture-raised, nutrient-dense food
  • Supporting your gut, not just feeding it

But none of this works well if your body can’t absorb it. If your GI tract is twisted from poor structure, your supplements turn into expensive urine. If your fascia is compressed, your organs can’t perform their jobs. That’s why structure dictates function—and why movement must support structure.

Final Thoughts

I’m not going to give you a quick fix or a miracle supplement. That’s not what I do. But I will give you the truth:

✅ You can boost immunity by working out
❌ But not with random activity
✅ It takes a specific, holistic program designed with fascia, posture, and organ function in mind

If you want to learn more, check out the free ebook below. Or book a free call with me—we’ll talk about what’s holding you back and what it would look like to train your body the way it was designed.

Drop any questions in the comments. Stay well—and keep your flow strong.

— Ekemba Sooh, SolCore Fitness & Therapy


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Mastering the Push Pattern: It’s Not Just For Your Pecs

Mastering the push-pattern. The bench press. The chest press. The push-up.

Whatever you call it, this push pattern is one of the seven primal movements—and it’s about a lot more than just building your pecs.

In this post (and video), we’ll explore how mastering the push pattern isn’t just a matter of technique, but of understanding the full-body biomechanics behind it. When you treat it as a holistic movement, you unlock strength, mobility, and injury resilience across your entire body.

Check out the full video by clicking on the image below.

The Push Pattern Is a Full-Body, Compound Movement

Yes, the push pattern trains your pecs—but it also demands the coordination of your:

  • Lats
  • Deltoids
  • Biceps & triceps
  • Forearms, wrists, and hands
  • Elbows, shoulders, and spine
  • Rib cage, sternum, and even your pelvis

When you perform a push correctly, these systems integrate through your fascia to create a strong, stable, and safe motion.

But when you lack strength or coordination in any of these areas, your body compensates. That’s where problems start.

Compensation = Cheating Your Body

Let’s say your pecs are underdeveloped. You can still bench press—but your body cheats by overusing the lats, delts, or even your spine.

Over time, this imbalance leads to:

  • Shoulder pain
  • Poor posture
  • Limited progress
  • Injury

To avoid this, you must train the push pattern segmentally first—then globally.

Segmental Training Before Full Patterns

Instead of jumping straight into compound movements, train the individual components:

  • Pec flies at diagonal angles to match muscle fiber lines
  • Serratus anterior strength (fan-shaped movement)
  • Rhomboid work in glenohumeral-friendly positions
  • Posterior chain and thoracic posture development
  • Psoriatic joint mobilization and therapy (behind shoulder blades)

This builds neuromuscular coordination, muscle mass, blood flow, and fascial integration—giving your body the tools to execute the push without compensation.

Choosing the Right Push Pattern Progression

Once you’ve built the foundation, you can progress the push pattern intelligently:

  • Open chain (free end movement): barbell bench press, dumbbell press
  • Closed chain (fixed end): push-ups from wall, bench, knees, or toes
  • Unilateral (one side): single-arm press
  • With rotation or combination: functional push + twist variations

Start with the basics. Don’t jump into complexity without preparation—your body will guess, and guessing equals injury.

Posture and Scapular Mechanics: Two Common Mistakes

Two things I see people get wrong constantly:

  1. Posture
    • Arching the back during a press
    • Leading with the head during push-ups
    • Lifting the head off the bench
    • Dropping the pelvis or changing spinal curves
    👉 Your posture is your training. What you teach your body under load is how it will behave.
  2. Scapular Mechanics (Shoulder Blade Movement)
    • On the way down (eccentric), scapulae must retract
    • On the way up (concentric), they must protract

If your scapulae can’t glide properly, your shoulders take the hit.

The Serratus Anterior: The Unsung Hero of Push Movements

The serratus anterior is critical for scapular protraction and stabilization. It fans out from the ribs to the shoulder blade and works alongside:

  • Rhomboids (between the scapulae)
  • Psoriatic joint (behind the scapula)

You must train it in multiple planes—not just with “push-ups plus,” but in diagonal and rotational movements to build full range and resilience.

We have a great guide to understanding holistic exercise and fitness

The Ultimate Guide To Holistic Exercise and Fitness

Why Mastering the Push Pattern Matters

This isn’t just about looking better in a t-shirt. The push pattern shows up in:

  • Daily movements (pushing open a door)
  • Sports performance
  • Fall prevention
  • Structural balance
  • Joint health

When you rush into it without preparing the body segmentally, you’re skipping steps—and your body will force you to pay attention later through pain or dysfunction.

Final Thoughts (and Your Next Steps)

Mastering the push pattern means respecting the complexity of your body.

✅ Train weak links first
✅ Stretch and mobilize where needed
✅ Build strength from the ground up
✅ Respect posture, control, and sequencing

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The Critical Link Between Therapy and Exercise for Peak Performance

Are you frustrated with not being able to perform at your best? Feel like you’re slowing down—even though you’re staying active and getting treatment?

Age might not be the issue.

In fact, one of the most overlooked reasons for stagnation or recurring pain is the lack of specific exercises following therapy. It’s the critical link between feeling better for a moment… and functioning better long term.

Let’s break it down.

Click on the image to watch the full video

Most Treatment Programs Miss This One Thing

I’m Ekemba Sooh, owner of SolCore Fitness and a Soma therapist and Soma trainer with over 30 years of experience. I’ve seen this pattern time and time again.

People receive treatment—massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, or even physical therapy—and then one of two things happens:

  1. They’re sent on their way with no follow-up.
  2. They’re handed a generic exercise sheet that’s not specific to them.

Sound familiar?

These routines might offer temporary relief, but they’re built on a symptom-based system. And that’s the problem. You’re more than your symptom. You’re a whole body.

Symptom-Free ≠ Problem Solved

When pain fades, most people assume the issue is gone. But unless the root cause is addressed, it’s still there—just quiet. And it will come back. It always does.

Worse, each recurrence makes the issue harder to treat. Your body adapts to dysfunction just like it does to training. Without correction, poor structure becomes your new baseline.

That’s why therapy and exercise for peak performance must go hand-in-hand—and both must be specific to you.

Why General Programs Fail (and Make You Worse)

Life brings wear and tear—whether you’re working at a desk, raising kids, or playing sports. That wear accumulates. If you don’t balance your body along the way, the result is:

  • Tight hips
  • Back pain
  • Forward head posture
  • Decreased mobility
  • Chronic injuries

And if you keep exercising on top of this dysfunction—without addressing the imbalance—you’re reinforcing bad patterns.

Example: My Own Injury and the Flawed System

In my 30s, I developed sciatic pain and disc compression at L4/L5, despite doing “everything right.” I was eating well, staying hydrated, and working out. But I wasn’t doing what my body needed.

I was given cookie-cutter solutions: press-ups, clamshells, stretches everyone gets. They didn’t help. In fact, they made it worse.

Only when I found Soma therapy and training—and began addressing my specific structure—did my body begin to change.

I wish I had this great page on OMT to help me see more on what therapy should be like. Check it out

OMT:Osteopathic Manual Therapy

Real Case: IT Band Pain and the Specific Fix

A client came in with IT band pain. The usual answer? Foam roll it. Maybe do clamshells. But that misses the point.

The IT band is part of a fascial network involving the glute med, glute max, TFL, and fascia lata. Each has different fibers and insertion points—and each needs to be treated differently depending on the cause.

Instead of loading an already inflamed area, we focused on:

  • Releasing tension with specific myofascial stretches
  • Avoiding overstimulation
  • Training fiber angles based on posture and tension patterns

That’s the level of specificity you need to actually heal.

A Preventive Approach That Works Long-Term

Imagine you’re 25, starting a desk job, and staying active. If you paired that lifestyle with monthly manual therapy and a 15-minute, personalized movement program 3x per week, you’d stay mostly balanced for years.

Compare that to the common story:

You work hard, never pause to rebalance, train through dysfunction, and wake up at 45 with chronic pain and poor posture. Now, reversing decades of adaptation is a long, frustrating road.

It didn’t have to be that way.

The Takeaway

You can’t train your body like a machine and expect peak performance without maintenance. Your body needs love, balance, and the right kind of input.

✅ Therapy without exercise is incomplete.
✅ Exercise without specificity is damaging.
✅ Together—and done right—they unlock your potential.

💬 What You Can Do Next

If you want a smarter, sustainable path forward, here are your options:

Let’s stop reacting and start building a body that works for the long haul.

Request A Free Consultation Here

it’s not just working out, it’s building a foundation for a better life.

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🌟 Unlock Your Full Potential: The Secret Link Between Stretching and Strength! 🌟

Stretching is often seen as a warmup, cooldown, or just something you do when your muscles feel tight. But what if stretching and strength weren’t opposites—but partners?

When done correctly, stretching not only improves mobility—it builds strength by enhancing posture, neuromuscular control, and the structural integrity of your body.

Let’s dive into how this works and why most people are doing it wrong.

Click on the image to watch the full video

Stretching Isn’t Just Passive Relaxation

The kind of stretching you see in most gyms—grabbing your foot, throwing a leg on a bench, or flinging your arm across your chest—is outdated and ineffective.

At best, it temporarily increases range of motion. At worst, it disrupts how your body generates strength.

But with the right approach, stretching can actually improve strength by working with the body’s connective tissue system—specifically, your fascia.

Stretching vs. Warming Up: Know the Difference

Let’s clear this up:

  • Warm-up: Prepares your body for activity
  • Stretching: Helps normalize tissues after activity
  • Foam rolling: Neither warming up nor stretching—and often harmful to fascia

Warm-ups increase your current potential. Stretching expands what’s possible over time. That’s why you should never stretch before intense activity—only after.

Why Fascia Matters for Strength

Fascia is the body’s connective tissue matrix. It wraps every muscle, nerve, and organ—creating structure, transmitting force, and supporting movement.

If your fascia is:

  • Dehydrated
  • Stressed
  • Tangled from poor posture or injury

…it will limit how your muscles function. Stretching properly hydrates, aligns, and restores fascia—giving your muscles a better “container” to generate force from.

The Science Behind It: Tensegrity + Hill’s Muscle Model

Your body works through tensegrity—a balance of tension and compression. When fascia is out of balance, your strength output suffers.

According to Hill’s Muscle Model, true strength depends on:

  1. Muscle fibers
  2. Tendons
  3. Fascia

Most programs only train the first two. The third component—fascia—is what holistic stretching trains directly.

Myofascial Stretching: What It Actually Does

Done correctly, myofascial stretching:

✅ Aligns fascial chains across the body
✅ Improves posture and neuromuscular communication
✅ Boosts coordination within strength movements
✅ Reduces injury risk by improving structural integrity

Think of it as strengthening from the inside out.

Why Most People Miss This

Stretching that leads to strength isn’t generic. You can’t Google a “hip flexor stretch” and expect it to improve your squat.

You need to:

  • Know which chain the muscle belongs to
  • Line up posture and joints correctly
  • Understand how it connects to your fascia and nervous system

That’s why working with someone who understands fascia is so important. I help clients do just that.

Take Care of Your Fascia Like This:

  1. Hydrate – Plain water, ½ your body weight in ounces daily, away from meals
  2. Manage stress – Nature, meditation, journaling, breathing
  3. Stretch with fascia in mind – Post-activity, aligned to your body’s specific needs

Want to Learn How to Do This Right?

If you’re just going through the motions or skipping stretching altogether, you’re missing a huge piece of the strength puzzle.

✅ Download my free guide: 4 Steps to a Strong, Pain-Free Body
✅ Book a free consult: Let’s assess your body, your routine, and see what’s really holding you back
✅ Keep learning: Explore my channel and blog—everything here is built around a holistic, fascia-first approach

Let me know in the comments: Are you using stretching to support your strength? Do you train with myofascial chains in mind?

See you next week.

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Gardening. The Unwanted Effects On Your Body.

🌱 Gardening Hurts? How to Protect Your Body While Doing What You Love

Gardening brings joy to so many people — the satisfaction of growing your own food or flowers, the quiet peace of working in the soil. But for many, it also brings back pain, neck stiffness, sore knees, or overall fatigue. It doesn’t have to be that way.

I’m Ekemba Sooh, owner of SolCore Fitness. I’ve been in the health and fitness field for over 30 years, working under the osteopathic model. And here’s what I want you to know:

Gardening is a sport. It’s physically demanding. And like any sport, if you don’t prepare your body for it, you’ll pay for it.

In this blog, I’ll break down:

Simple things you can do to avoid injury and feel better

Why gardening leads to pain

What’s really happening to your knees, back, and spine

Click on the image to watch the video

🌻 Gardening is More Demanding Than You Think

Here’s what most people miss: gardening places a huge load on the body.

You’re squatting, bending, twisting, lifting, and often holding these positions for long periods. That’s a combination of:

  • External load (heavy pots, rocks, plants)
  • Postural load (static crouching, awkward angles)
  • Repetitive strain (hours of weeding, digging)

One of my clients — an art teacher — came to me years ago with chronic pain. After months of work, she felt great and was living her life again… until one weekend she gardened for five hours straight. No warm-up. No cool-down. She undid months of progress in one afternoon.

This isn’t about fear — it’s about awareness.

🦵 Your Knees: Why Squatting Hurts Later

Gardening involves constant squatting, both dynamic and static. The knee joint is most stable at 90 degrees — but once you drop lower, things start to rub.

A law in biomechanics called Delpech’s Law tells us that high pressure on a surface leads to the body producing more tissue. In the knees, this can lead to roughened cartilage, causing pain, grinding, and inflammation — especially if you do it over and over without support.

🧍‍♂️ Your Lower Back: Lever Arms & Fascia Fatigue

Ever notice how heavy things feel when you’re bent forward? That’s the lever arm principle. The further out the weight (or your torso), the more strain on your lower back.

From your belly button to your pelvis, you don’t have bones to hold things together. Your fascia — soft tissue layers — does the job. But fascia needs to be hydrated, supple, and trained to support load.

If your fascia isn’t prepped, long hours in bent-over positions can overwhelm it. That leads to tightness, spasms, or worse.

🌀 Your Spine: Why Flexing and Twisting Are Dangerous

Most gardening tasks involve two risky combinations:

  • Flexion + Rotation (scooping dirt, weeding)
  • Extension + Rotation (reaching up and twisting)

Both compress the spine’s joints and increase the risk of disc issues like bulges, herniations, or pinched nerves — especially if your spine isn’t stabilized by surrounding muscles and fascia.

This isn’t about avoiding movement. It’s about training your body to handle those movements safely.

🏋️‍♀️ What You Can Do to Prevent Gardening Injuries

Here are the three keys to keeping your body pain-free while gardening:

1. Train Like It’s a Sport

You wouldn’t try to deadlift 500 pounds without a program, right? Gardening is no different. Your body needs a holistic strength and mobility plan based on what you’re asking it to do — not just general workouts, but targeted prep for your spine, knees, pelvis, and fascia.

2. Warm Up Before Gardening

Your body is like an old car — it needs a few minutes to “rev the engine.” A proper warm-up turns on your muscular and neurological systems, thins out the fluids in your joints and fascia, and helps prevent injury.

Here’s a short warm-up that targets the most stressed areas:

👣 Knees

  • Knee Circles (clockwise and counterclockwise)
  • Figure 8s (vertical and horizontal)
    These gentle movements lubricate the joint and prep ligaments for squatting.

🧘 Pelvis

  • Pelvic Rocks in a wide-stance position with knees bent and torso upright. Helps activate the hips and lumbar spine.

🌀 Spine

  • Torso Translations & Tilts with arms in external rotation. Warms the ribcage and mid-back while protecting from over-compression.

Just 5–7 minutes of this can drastically improve how your body handles the demands of gardening.

3. Recover After Gardening

You’ve loaded the system — now you have to unload it. Stretch the areas you used. Use fascia-specific movements or myofascial stretches to rebalance the body. Don’t just sit down and let it tighten up.

🌿 Want to Keep Gardening for Life?

If gardening brings you joy, it’s worth protecting. And if you want help, I’ve got 3 easy ways to start:

Let me help you garden smarter, not harder — and keep doing what you love for years to come.

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The Pelvic Floor: A Holistic Approach to Strength and Mobility

Whether you’re a man or a woman, your pelvic floor is essential for a strong, mobile body — yet it’s one of the most overlooked systems in human movement. Your pelvic floor isn’t just “down there” — it’s the foundation for your spine, hips, and core.

But here’s the truth: Most people don’t know how to train it. They rely on outdated approaches or ignore it completely… until something goes wrong.

So let’s take a look at what your pelvic floor really does — and how to support it through a truly holistic approach.

Click on the image to watch the full video

Your Pelvic Floor: A Dynamic Foundation

Think of your pelvic floor like the foundation of a house. It needs to be solid to support everything above — and adaptable to handle pressure from above and below.

Every day, your pelvic floor supports both:

  • Descending forces — gravity, body weight, internal organ pressure
  • Ascending forces — from walking, standing, lifting, and movement

If your pelvic floor isn’t strong and balanced, your whole body compensates.

Why Most Pelvic Floor Training Fails

Most people only hear about Kegels — and usually just for women. But men need pelvic floor training too. And even then, Kegels alone won’t fix dysfunction.

A true pelvic floor program:

  • Goes beyond isolated contraction
  • Addresses the muscles, fascia, and ligaments
  • Respects the nervous system and joint balance (especially the SI joint)

What Muscles Make Up the Pelvic Floor?

It’s more than just one muscle. Your pelvic floor includes:

  • Levator Ani group (puborectalis, pubococcygeus, iliococcygeus)
  • Coccygeus
  • Piriformis & Obturator Internus (side/posterior pelvic walls)
  • Glute max (deep fibers)
  • Iliopsoas (passing through the pelvis to your spine)

These all work together. But they don’t function in isolation. You must also consider the fascia and ligaments that interconnect everything.

Ligaments: The “Smart Tissue” That Guides Your Body

Ligaments do more than hold bones together. They’re the intelligent sensors that tell your body how to move — or how not to.

Key ligaments affecting your pelvic floor:

  • Cooper’s ligament (connects pelvic fascia to hip stabilizers)
  • Pubofemoral ligament
  • The sacro-recto-genital-vesicle-pubic ligament (yes, that’s one ligament!)
  • Anterior sacroiliac ligaments
  • Iliolumbar & pubic ligaments

These aren’t just structural — they’re sensory. If your ligaments aren’t healthy, your body loses its ability to move smartly.

Fascia: The Connective Highway

Fascia connects your pelvic floor to:

  • Your diaphragm
  • Your spine
  • Your abdominal wall
  • Your hips, legs, and shoulders

That’s why holistic pelvic floor care can’t stop at squeezing muscles. You must address how fascia tensions pull and support the whole structure.

Start Here: How to Rebuild Pelvic Floor Health

1. Begin With the Ligaments

Healthy ligaments guide healthy movement. In my osteopathic practice, I use manual therapy techniques like pumping and double TLS to:

  • Improve fluid flow
  • Activate proprioceptors
  • Reset the tissue’s baseline tone

This sets the stage for real, sustainable strength.

2. Use ELDOA to Reinforce & Integrate

ELDOA (a unique form of fascial tension exercise) is one of the best ways to train the joints, ligaments, and fascia together.

It helps:

  • Open restricted spaces
  • Activate deep stabilizers
  • Improve spinal and pelvic floor communication

3. Strengthen and Stretch the Muscles (Holistically)

Once the ligaments are awake, you can start training the key muscles:

  • Piriformis
  • Obturator internus
  • Glute max (medial fibers)
  • Iliopsoas

Use Hill’s Muscle Model: work the fibers, the fascia, and the ligament to train effectively.

4. Now Add Kegels — the Right Way

Only once you’ve built a strong base should you begin isolated Kegel contractions. And even then, you must avoid compensation patterns.

When doing Kegels:

  • Do not squeeze your glutes, abs, or adductors
  • Train your brain to activate just the pelvic floor
  • Separate contractions from surrounding muscle groups
  • Progress to coordination patterns using glutes, adductors, and diaphragm separately

This is crucial — especially for women during childbirth or anyone recovering from dysfunction.

Final Thoughts: The Pelvic Floor Is a Whole-Body System

Most people treat the pelvic floor like a switch — either it’s “on” or it’s “off.” But the truth is, your pelvic floor reflects your entire body’s condition.

If your SI joint is off, if your glutes are weak, if your diaphragm is tight — your pelvic floor will suffer. And if you ignore it? You’ll feel the effects in your strength, mobility, and long-term health.

Ready to Train Smarter?

If you’re ready to go deeper — not just with your pelvic floor, but your whole-body health and longevity — I’ve got 3 free ways to help:

Let’s stop isolating and start integrating.

See you next week.

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Do You Know the Truth About The Bend Pattern?

Bending is one of the most common movements we use in everyday life—picking up your kids, moving a box, swinging a golf club. But most people don’t do it well. That poor movement adds up, leading to tightness, pain, or injury over time.

So should you jump straight into Romanian deadlifts (RDLs) or kettlebell swings to “fix” it?

Not quite.

Let’s unpack what the bend pattern really is, which muscle chains are involved, and how to approach this movement holistically so your body gets stronger—not more worn down.

Click the image to watch the full video

What Is the Bend Pattern, Really?

In training, the bend pattern refers to a hip-dominant movement like an RDL or deadlift. You’ll see this pattern show up solo or combined with other movements during everyday life—lifting, twisting, walking, squatting.

But just “doing” the movement doesn’t mean you’re doing it well.

If your muscle chains are out of balance—some tight, some weak, some misfiring—practicing the bend pattern without addressing the root causes can reinforce dysfunction and eventually lead to pain or breakdown.

The Bend Pattern Is a Global Movement

Unlike isolated exercises, the bend pattern is what we call a “global” movement. It requires the whole body to coordinate and act as one. That’s why I don’t just teach the movement—I assess how your body is functioning within the movement.

We look at the full chain: the muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments, and how they interact.

The primary chain behind the bend pattern is your posterior chain—from your heel to your calves, hamstrings, glutes, deep back muscles, and even your neck and shoulders. But your anterior and lateral chains help stabilize that pattern too.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the key players:

  • Soleus
  • Gastrocnemius (calf muscles)
  • Hamstrings
  • Gluteus maximus
  • Four layers of spinal muscles
  • Trapezius
  • Rhomboids
  • Levator scapulae
  • Shoulder stabilizers

The Problem with Just “Doing” the Bend

Too often, people start loading up barbells without assessing the quality of their chain or how their fascia is functioning.

The bend pattern naturally places more mechanical load on the lower back than a squat—simply due to leverage. That’s not a bad thing. But it becomes a problem if:

  • You haven’t trained segmentally
  • Your fascia is out of balance
  • You’ve overloaded the system
  • You’re dealing with an acute back issue

Force isn’t the enemy. Misapplied force is.

How to Learn the Bend Pattern: Start Pure

To truly master this pattern, you must start with clean motor control. I teach the butt-back, bow-forward drill from a kneeling position. It’s the most stripped-down, brain-friendly way to teach your body how to move properly.

From there:

  1. Kneeling →
  2. Bodyweight standing RDL →
  3. Light weight →
  4. Full deadlift (hip + knee bend)

At each step, you’re grooving the right motor pattern—building a motor engram in your brain so you move properly without having to think about it.

Key pointers:

  • Keep a neutral spine (don’t over-arch or round)
  • Maintain all four natural curves in your back
  • Shift weight back into heels—but don’t lift your toes
  • Move as one unit—don’t break at the spine
  • Engage your abs and lats for support

Common Mistakes (That Will Wreck Your Back)

  • Rounding the spine
  • Overarching the lower back
  • Losing foot contact
  • Using too much weight too soon
  • Not progressing through proper training stages

Instagram might celebrate a rounded-back deadlift, but your body won’t. You want smooth, controlled, segmental movement—built over time with intention.

The Fascia Piece (Why It Matters)

Muscles don’t work in isolation. They’re wrapped in and connected by fascia—a living, communicative network that governs structure, neurology, and coordination.

If your fascia is dehydrated, compressed, or restricted, your body can’t move well—even if your muscles are “strong.”

Here’s what affects fascia health:

  • 🚰 Dehydration (aim for half your body weight in ounces of plain water daily)
  • 😰 Chronic stress
  • 🧍‍♂️ Not working the fascia directly (training in multiple planes and ranges)

Want a better bend pattern? Take care of your fascia first.

Deadlift vs. RDL

Once you master the RDL, you can layer in the deadlift by adding controlled knee flexion. The movement stays hip-dominant, but now you’re handling more force and range of motion.

Both movements are important—but only if you’ve earned the right to do them well.

Slow Is Smooth. Smooth Is Strong.

Building a bend pattern takes time. Don’t rush. Train your brain, train your chains, and train your fascia. It’s not about how much weight you lift. It’s about how well you move—now and for the rest of your life.

Want Help?

If you’re 40+ and looking to be strong, mobile, and pain-free for the long haul, I’ve got a few ways to support you:

All links are in the description below.

See you next week—take care.

— Ekemba Sooh
SolCore Fitness & Therapy

it’s not just working out, it’s building a foundation for a better life.

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Unlocking Sarcopenia: A Holistic Approach to Building Strength and Mobility

Sarcopenia doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s a progressive condition that weakens your muscles, damages your posture, and erodes your ability to move and live freely. While most people associate sarcopenia with aging, research shows it can begin as early as your 30s. And despite common advice, lifting weights, eating more protein, or taking hormone supplements won’t be enough to stop it.

So what’s the missing link? A holistic, fascia-based approach that addresses your body’s structure, balance, and communication systems — not just the muscles themselves.

Click on the image to watch the full video

What Is Sarcopenia, Really?

Sarcopenia is the gradual loss of muscle mass and neuromuscular connection. It leads to weakness, fatigue, poor balance, difficulty with stairs, and decreased mobility. Contributing factors can include:

  • Inactivity or lack of intentional movement
  • Hormonal imbalance
  • Ineffective protein synthesis
  • Inadequate nutrition

Most people respond with a linear strategy: eat more, move more, and take supplements. But the body doesn’t operate in straight lines — it’s a web of interdependent systems. If you don’t address your structure and internal communication, even the best supplements won’t get absorbed properly. That’s where a holistic model comes in.

The Fascia-Based Framework That Changes Everything

To build real strength and protect against sarcopenia, you need to train your fascia — the connective tissue network that holds your muscles and skeleton in place. Your muscles don’t operate alone. They rely on:

  • Contractile fibers (your muscle tissue)
  • Series and parallel elastic components (your fascia, ligaments, and periosteum)

This system is described in Hill’s Muscle Model and supported by osteopathic principles. When fascia is stiff, unbalanced, or misaligned, your muscles lose their efficiency — no matter how hard you train.

Balance Your Structure Before You Build Strength

Structure dictates function. If your posture is collapsing, your digestion, hormone production, and movement all suffer. That’s why people with sarcopenia often show signs like:

  • Kyphotic (hunched) posture
  • Decreased height
  • Poor digestion or hormonal imbalance
  • Limited strength despite working out

Building strength on top of dysfunction won’t work. You must first correct your structure through fascia-based methods — which brings us to the two most powerful tools for long-term change.

Myofascial Stretching and ELDOA: Your Secret Weapons

✅ Myofascial Stretching realigns your tensegrity structure — the interconnected web that holds your body together. It creates space and balance through precise tension in the fascia.

✅ ELDOA strengthens and decompresses your spine, restoring efficient communication between your brain and body. A healthy spine boosts hormonal signals and neuromuscular coordination — exactly what sarcopenia disrupts.

Together, these tools form the foundation of a fascia-centered program that not only restores strength but builds it intelligently, sustainably, and holistically.

Train the Whole Chain, Not Just the Muscle

Muscles have multiple fiber directions. For example, your glutes have anterior, middle, and posterior fibers — each needing a different position and movement pattern to train effectively.

By using fascia-informed postures and loading the full myofascial chain (not just isolated muscles), you teach your body to move better, not just harder.

Go Beyond 10 Reps — Challenge the System

To reverse sarcopenia, you must go beyond your comfort zone — not recklessly, but with purpose. That means pushing past 10 reps when appropriate, training to near-exhaustion in a safe way, and challenging your nervous system to adapt and grow.

This stimulates the exact responses you want:

  • Muscle growth (even without heavy weights)
  • Improved neuromuscular coordination
  • Greater hormonal efficiency
  • More connection, awareness, and control

Start Where You Are, Then Build Up

Yes, this may sound complex — fascia, hormones, structural balance, different muscle fibers — but it all starts in one place: where you are right now.

Find the tightest, weakest, or most disconnected part of your body and begin there. With the right strategy, your body will adapt faster than you expect. Overwhelm fades as progress builds. And each step unlocks a little more strength, confidence, and freedom from the grip of sarcopenia.

Want Help? I’ve Got You.


✅ Free Ebook – 4 Steps to Live the Life of Your Choosing: Get Stronger, More Mobile & Pain-Free.
✅ Book a Call – If you’re ready for a deeper transformation, I’ll assess where you are and where you want to go — and we’ll see if my program is a fit.

Building a foundation for a better life.

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