Engineer Your Body To Improve Your Mind - Aaron Alexander

1. 0:00 – 1:21

   Intro

   1. AAAaron Alexander0:00

      ... 100% of the time, you are under a state of construction, and all your body knows is environmental stimuli. And so you have this amazing opportunity to, through exposure therapy, you can start to make yourself be stronger or weaker. So if you don't expose your body to enough exposure in the form of heat, in the form of cold, in the form of some type of hermetic stressor, then the body will start to atrophy, because it's inherently incredibly lazy.

   2. CWChris Williamson0:27

      (wind blowing) Th- th- there won't be a single shot where I can put my hand in all of these, will there? (hands clapping)

   3. AAAaron Alexander0:33

      No, not really. I mean, I guess there's this kind of (overlapping) . Oh, d- d- do you need to see it? I thought it was just an audio thing.

   4. CWChris Williamson0:39

      Well, no, because what you're trying to do is you're syncing-

   5. AAAaron Alexander0:41

      So you're seeing a blip.

   6. CWChris Williamson0:41

      You're syncing the audio with the video.

   7. AAAaron Alexander0:44

      You can see it.

   8. CWChris Williamson0:44

      You can watch it.

   9. AAAaron Alexander0:46

      Oh. I thought it was just an audio blip, but yeah, you're right. God dang it.

   10. CWChris Williamson0:51

       What can I say, man?

   11. AAAaron Alexander0:52

       I'm not a videographer.

   12. CWChris Williamson0:53

       No, no, but that's-

   13. AAAaron Alexander0:54

       I just like clapping.

   14. CWChris Williamson0:56

       Y- just here to clap.

   15. AAAaron Alexander0:56

       Maybe we both clap. (hands clapping)

   16. CWChris Williamson0:58

       Yes.

   17. AAAaron Alexander0:58

       Boom!

   18. CWChris Williamson0:58

       Fucking-

   19. AAAaron Alexander0:59

       All angles!

   20. CWChris Williamson1:00

       Podcast time.

   21. AAAaron Alexander1:00

       We're in!

   22. CWChris Williamson1:01

       Podcast time.

   23. AAAaron Alexander1:02

       Yeah, we're locked in.

   24. CWChris Williamson1:03

       Aaron Alexander, welcome to the show.

   25. AAAaron Alexander1:05

       Christopher, thank you for making this happen. It's been a got-dang pleasure getting to know you over the last few weeks.

   26. CWChris Williamson1:10

       So good, man.

   27. AAAaron Alexander1:11

       Yeah?

   28. CWChris Williamson1:12

       Yeah. The bromance has happened quickly.

   29. AAAaron Alexander1:14

       Bromance is real.

   30. CWChris Williamson1:15

       It's got serious-
2. 1:21 – 7:17

   Aaron’s Approach to Fitness

   1. CWChris Williamson1:21

      approach to fitness? I've been very interested since I've been out here, we've trained a fair bit. We've done some sessions barefooted in, on it, doing sprint training, and contralateral movements, and all manner of different things that, as someone that's spent a lot of time training, I've seen online, but I'm n- not really been exposed to very much. And I'm quite interested to work out how you arrive at whatever view of health and fitness it is that you have.

   2. AAAaron Alexander1:47

      Yeah. Um, so my... First, thanks for doing this. I appreciate it. Uh, my background mostly was in manual therapy. Like, my main field of, of specialty is working with people from hands-on body work. Uh, and s- before that, it was, it was training. Uh, but my main interest really has been helping people come into alignment with their bodies, uh, so that we can get them to a point that when they move through their lives, uh, as they are breathing, as they're just living their lives, they can be almost self-organizing into a greater place of alignment, of balance, of homeostasis, just through their existence. And that sounds a little bit maybe like meta and out there, um, so specifically what that means is looking at what are the, the variables, the environmental conditions that are forming the body to fit into the positions that might create discomfort or dis-ease. And so my approach to fitness, um, isn't so much about what we're doing in a gym, it's more what we're doing for all the times that we're not in the gym, and I consider the, the gym to be... For me, the gym's like, uh, my buddy Kelly Starrett, who he did the, the forward for my, my book coming up, um, he calls it, like, classical ballet. You know, so when you're in the gym, you're working on these classical forms to bring your body into balance enough that you can go out and do modern dance, you know, modern dances the rest of your life. And so what I'm really interested with, with fitness predominantly is, uh, how do you start to integrate the concepts that you'd learn in a gym, in a yoga studio, um, in a martial arts studio, into the way that you show up in business, in, you know, when you're out on a date with somebody, when you're s- at your house watching Netflix? All of that is fitness, and your body doesn't know the difference between, "I'm in a yoga studio," or, "I'm just, you know, at my, my house in my underpants."

   3. CWChris Williamson3:53

      What would you say to someone that says, "Fitness and my training in the gym has nothing to do with how I show up in business. Fitness is for fitness, and movement is for movement. Why does it matter about how I train in the gym relates to how I show up for a date?"

   4. AAAaron Alexander4:06

      Yeah. (laughs) So, it's like the, the idea of, you know, being, uh, taking 20 years to be an overnight success. You know, we're cultivating, we're, we're grooving paths, you know, neuro- neuro- neurological paths, muscular paths, neuromuscular paths every day, throughout every moment, you know, so your body doesn't know an off and on. Right now, as we're sitting in this position, you are generating electrical stimuli in around your hips and any place that your body's coming in contact with the, with the chair. You know, so the, the term for that is mechanotransduction. You're squishing cells. You might be shearing cells. You might be twisting cells, and then there's gonna be a chemical response, a chemical translation to that. And within that, that pushing that's happening against your hips, there's electrical charge around that space. It's called piezoelectricity. That's gonna be sending a signal to the cells that would be building connective tissue, or bone tissue, or muscle tissue, or fascia. And what you're sending within these signals, you're, you're like the engineer of your body. You're saying, "Okay, we need to beef up in this space around maybe," you know, maybe you have bunions in your feet, so you actually can see like a callusing of specific tissue. That's just wear and tear in that specific range of motion. So you're sending that electricity based off of the way that you live your daily life, and then, you know, the fibroblasts and the fibroclasts, these little cells that either add tissue or take tissue away, they respond accordingly. Uh, and you are structuring yourself just by sitting in a chair. And so when you take that mindset of like, "Holy crap, like right now, I'm literally under a state of construction." When you get up off of this chair, you're, you're tuned up to perform in the shape that you've been practicing most.You know, so a thing that you might have heard is practice doesn't make perfect, practice- practice makes permanent. So throughout the day, you're continually practicing how to engage or inhabit your physical body. And then when it does come time to show up in a meaningful way, you got to pick up a, you know, a heavy trailer, you know, or something, you know, you got to suddenly sprint across a parking lot or whatever it may be, your body is tuned up and cued up to be able to perform because you spent the last day, week, month, year in more of like a kind of like a ready position. And then you can be too ready, you know, where you're too cued up. You're in like sympathetic overdrive, and that's gonna be too much. If you're adding too much stiffness into the system, then the system can't, uh, rest and digest and heal and repair, you know? So this isn't... What I'm saying doesn't mean that you always have to have like a stick up your ass and have like axial extension like, "Your spine's back!" You know, you look perfectly enlightened in samadhi and spiritual and strong and stable. Uh, it's being able to relax, but being able to relax into functionality. The way that we can relax into functionality, uh, you know, there's specific things that we can talk about.

   5. CWChris Williamson7:15

      What would you say, looking at the

3. 7:17 – 11:17

   Common Problems in Training Plans

   1. CWChris Williamson7:17

      current trends in fitness and training, what would you say are the main areas that people are missing out on? Or what are the main problems that you're seeing with most people's training programs?

   2. AAAaron Alexander7:28

      Well, I mean, there's a lot of things. It depen- it really depends on what gym you're in, you know? So if you go to a most traditional, you know, like a 24-hour fitness type space, um, there's a lot of disintegration or myopic focus on specific muscles without much awareness to integrating the whole, putting the whole body together to work as- as- as one- one integrated body. Um, so when you're excessively focused on myopically breaking down individual, like a muscle by muscle approach, you just can't do it. Like you can't organize 640 odd muscles, depends on the specific individual, you know, 360 joints, it's just... It's too much chaos. And so for you to be able to go in and really think like, you know, joint by joint, muscle by muscle, "I'm gonna be engaging these and then I'm gonna... It's just gonna magically all come together," um, that can be confusing for the body, you know? So-

   3. CWChris Williamson8:28

      What do you mean by confusing?

   4. AAAaron Alexander8:29

      ... it can be confusing for the body in the sense that if you don't train athleticism, you won't just self-organize and be athletic.

   5. CWChris Williamson8:39

      Okay, so breaking the component parts of a musculature apart-

   6. AAAaron Alexander8:44

      Yeah.

   7. CWChris Williamson8:45

      ... and training biceps and triceps and overhead extensions and chest press-

   8. AAAaron Alexander8:49

      Yeah.

   9. CWChris Williamson8:49

      ... blah, blah.

   10. AAAaron Alexander8:49

       Yeah. So if you're excessively aesthetically focused, it's completely fine. There's no mor- no moralistic judgment. Um, Jujimufu is a good example of this, where he has done a-a-a pretty good job of integrating, um, athleticism and calisthenics and gymnastics and powerlifting and bodybuilding, you know? So he's a bit of an oddity in his ability to- to juggle a lot of variables, and it's really beautiful to watch.

   11. CWChris Williamson9:18

       He calls himself a hybrid athlete, right?

   12. AAAaron Alexander9:20

       He is.

   13. CWChris Williamson9:21

       That's what he refers to himself as.

   14. AAAaron Alexander9:21

       Yeah, that's what- that's what he is.

   15. CWChris Williamson9:23

       A polyathlete, I can't remember.

   16. AAAaron Alexander9:24

       Yeah, you know? And then within- within that, I would say, you know, athletics goes beyond just, you know, musculoskeletal integration, but also, um, you know, how's your response to, uh, cold temperatures? How's your response to heat?

   17. CWChris Williamson9:42

       Why is that part of fitness? Why would someone who says, "I- I do fitness, I've got a fitness plan." "Do you do hot and cold exposure?" "No, I don't." "Okay." What- what would you say to someone who says that?

   18. AAAaron Alexander9:51

       The same way that your body has a physiological adaptation, you know, a hermetic stress. We were talking on my podcast before this about hermetic stressors in our lives. The same way that you'd have that to develop, um, muscle cells to be able to be stronger in a specific position as a product of going through, you know, a bicep curl or deadlift or whatever you're doing. Uh, your body has similar physiologic response to being exposed to cold temperatures. Has a similar physio- physiological response to being exposed to heat, has a similar physiological response to being exposed to altitude, you know? And so your body is continually changing. And this is the thing that we- that we started off with. 100% of the time you are under a state of construction and all your body knows is environmental stimuli. You know, so you have this amazing opportunity to, through exposure therapy, uh, it just... You can start to make yourself be stronger or weaker, you know? So if you don't expose your body to enough exposure, um, in the form of heat, in the form of cold, in the form of heat, in the form of some type of hermetic stressor, uh, then the body will start to atrophy because it's inherently incredibly lazy, and that laziness, it's- it's- it's like one of the key features in our capacities to survive.

   19. CWChris Williamson11:09

       What would you say... Let's talk about some physical practices-

   20. AAAaron Alexander11:13

       Yeah.

   21. CWChris Williamson11:13

       ... for a bit.

   22. AAAaron Alexander11:14

       Yeah.

   23. CWChris Williamson11:14

       What are some of the physical practices that

4. 11:17 – 20:21

   Physical Practices for Daily Life

   1. CWChris Williamson11:17

      you think... I know that you're big into groundedness and getting hips below knees. That's one of them.

   2. AAAaron Alexander11:21

      Yeah, it's a thing.

   3. CWChris Williamson11:22

      What about that and some of the other physical practices that you think people should just play around with a little bit more when they're in the gym? The sense of play itself is also another part of what I've noticed in the sessions I've done with you,-

   4. AAAaron Alexander11:33

      It's huge. Yeah.

   5. CWChris Williamson11:33

      ... uh, is- is a rarity. So let's talk about that.

   6. AAAaron Alexander11:36

      Yeah. So we... All human beings are riding on millennia of spending time with our hips below our knees, spending time moving along, you know, not necessarily like crawling along the ground. All that's a part of your- your developmental patterns and depending upon your belief system, evolution, that was probably a thing as well, and you're probably swinging through trees if you believe in evolution as well, you're an arboreal creature. And, uh, you know, and then that transitioned to being a bipedal mammal cruising along the land. Um, you know, but that's... A lot of that's kind of-It could change depending upon, you know, what, what you think, so it's, it's all hypothetical, like, where exactly where we came from. Um, but getting down on the ground, if you just look at, like, present day, thoughts on evolution aside, look at any child. The way that a child navigates their own physiology and their own construction of themselves is they will squat, they will sit, you know, in, like, kind of, like, a cross-legged position, maybe a straddle position. Uh, maybe at some point they'll start to kneel. Uh, and so they're spending a lot of time in that low position, and that's what you see as well looking at hunter-gatherer tribes. Specifically, the, the Hadza people in Northern Tanzania is where there's been research about this, uh, from University of Southern California, specifically is where this came out of. Uh, researchers went out there and measured the amount of time that Hadza people were spending in resting positions, because the big idea is like, you know, we're, like, this culture of sedentarism, it's killing us, it's causing all of our issues and metabolic disease and depression. Uh, but if you look at hunter-gatherer tribes, Hadza specifically, uh, what you'll see is they spend about 9.82 hours, was the averages th- that they gathered, in resting positions. So right now, we're in a resting position. The difference is we're up on chairs, you know, so we're forming our body into a certain way in this position. Hunter-gatherer tribes, Hadza specifically, would be in kneeling positions for a good chunk of the day. They'll be in squatting positions for a good chunk of the day. They'll be in, you know, essentially all the same positions you see your, your child in. And when you're in those positions, uh, one, it's just, it's helpful with circulating blood, circulating lymph, you know, like, ankles are unattractive, but they're also incredibly unhealthy. It's an indication, it's like, "Oh, we're in trouble." You know? And so what that does outside of just being, you know, making you feel energetically lighter, you know, and, and more attractive 'cause you don't have, like, big, thick ankles, um, you're setting yourself up to stay athletic all the way through your life. You know, so when you start to limit range of motion in the ankles, limit range of motion in the hips, um, that affects your gait pattern, the way that you walk, the way that you move throughout the world. Um, also, uh, elderly needing assisted living, the number one leading reason for that is they've, you know, they fall and they can't get up.

   7. CWChris Williamson14:36

      Falls, yeah.

   8. AAAaron Alexander14:36

      So fall risk is this massive thing that's completely specific to Westernized culture, abandoning the ground. It's, like, unbelievable when you think about it. Like, if you really give that a moment of the amount of sovereignty that's been lost and the amount of, you know, time and money and energy and worry, um, and it's (laughs) like all of that is wrapped in, i- is wrapped up in us literally making an, an unconscious, um, move away from where we came from, which is just naturally resting in those positions throughout the day.

   9. CWChris Williamson15:18

      So what would be the prescription? Let's say that someone listens and they go, "Okay, yeah, that, that sounds good."

   10. AAAaron Alexander15:23

       Yeah.

   11. CWChris Williamson15:23

       "I want, I want to get rid of my ankles. I don't want to be-"

   12. AAAaron Alexander15:25

       Sure. (laughs)

   13. CWChris Williamson15:26

       "... falling and, falling and hurting myself when I'm 70 years old."

   14. AAAaron Alexander15:28

       Yeah.

   15. CWChris Williamson15:29

       What's a good way that someone can integrate these practices into their day?

   16. AAAaron Alexander15:32

       So just changing your environment, you know. So have you done one with Bruce Lipton?

   17. CWChris Williamson15:36

       No.

   18. AAAaron Alexander15:37

       Okay. I think we've talked about him. I did a podcast with Bruce Lipton a year and a half ago or so. And what, he's, you know, big, has been massive in championing the concept of, of epigenetics, you know, and how our environment changes our genetic outcome. And one of the things that he mentioned to me was, you know, when he was studying cells in, in Petri dishes, if he wanted to change something about the cell, he wouldn't do anything specifically to the cell itself. It would be changing the culture that the cell exists in. You know, so within your own body, if you're just focusing intrinsically on what's happening inside the body itself, that's a great start. It might get you somewhere, but until you actually change the environment that's forming the body and, and the mind and, you know, your s- your perception of self and all that to fi- to fit that mold, you're just gonna keep falling back into the same position. You know, so you can do all the, the calf raises or all the, you know, the couch stretches or all the different kind of therapeutic rehab, prehab exercises you want, but what got you into that position in the first place, you know? And so the first place that I would start is saying like, okay, like just create a space in your home. It could be in front of the couch, you know, get yourself, like, a comfortable rug so it's inviting to get down to. Um, you could put, like, self-care tools in your house, have, like, a foam roller lying around, or get one of those, like, percussor guns or, you know, a softball to kind of do some myofascial release stuff on. Get some Moroccan poofs, you know, or, like, floor cushions. So suddenly, the culture that your cell is inhabiting itself within, uh, is shifted to invite the cell to create change in itself just with these, like, really basic visual cues. You see, you walk into a space with a, a pull-up bar hanging through some doorway, just naturally-

   19. CWChris Williamson17:32

       Everyone does pull-ups.

   20. AAAaron Alexander17:32

       ... and innately, you will have the urge to let your arms, like, suddenly levitate over your head.

   21. CWChris Williamson17:38

       Yep.

   22. AAAaron Alexander17:39

       You're like, "Oh, I'm, I'm on the bar." (laughs) Like, "W- how did that ha-" It's like, it's magic. The bar is there, hands on the bar.

   23. CWChris Williamson17:47

       Yeah.

   24. AAAaron Alexander17:47

       I didn't have to give you any reps or sets or tell you, you got... And that's the element of, of, of play, you know? So if we can start to make the, the movement landscape, you know, the, the environment that we inhabit ourselves in, suddenly it's like we become moved by the environment, right? So when you walk outside, if it's kind of cold-... and you say, "You know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a little, a little cold thermogenesis here. I'm not gonna put, like, all of the layers on." You know, you go out there and you get moved by the cold. Suddenly, you know, you have this horribilation and your hair kind of sticks up and your body activates its own insulation system by causing your hair to raise up. It's like a d- it's like a, it's like a, a down sleeping bag on top of your body. Like, whoa! It's pretty cool that we have that capacity. We just need to place ourselves into the environmental conditions in order for our body to show up. But inherently, your body wants to show up. It's just, we have done such a tremendous job at outsourcing our body's necessity to show up to, you know, to machine or to Amazon. Nothing wrong with that. It's actually brilliant. It's like, it's, it's freaking amazing that (laughs) that the human mind has been able to outsource almost everything, to the point that you can lay on a couch, press buttons on your, your phone-

   25. CWChris Williamson19:10

       And not die.

   26. AAAaron Alexander19:10

       ... and have food delivered to your face.

   27. CWChris Williamson19:12

       (laughs)

   28. AAAaron Alexander19:12

       Have sex delivered to your face. (laughs) Like, it's pretty freaking impressive. Like, I'm not mad at it. You know, I'm, I'm really just, like, in awe, like, like, whoa! Starting from, like, whacking rocks together to create fire, you know, however-

   29. CWChris Williamson19:27

       To sex in the fa- sex in the face.

   30. AAAaron Alexander19:28

       ... to sex in the face off of your blue-lit screen, like-
5. 20:21 – 29:14

   Choosing the Right Workout

   1. CWChris Williamson20:21

      something increasingly that I've realized is an important, an important, uh, uh, consideration when doing any sort of practice. And especially since we've been out here, me and you have spent a lot of time at Kuya, which is a hot and cold exposure place next door.

   2. AAAaron Alexander20:34

      Yeah.

   3. CWChris Williamson20:34

      Uh, but even training as well, that if you do a training session or any sort of physical practice, the best judge of whether or not it was right for you is whether you feel good afterward or not.

   4. AAAaron Alexander20:45

      Yeah.

   5. CWChris Williamson20:46

      Do I feel good-

   6. AAAaron Alexander20:47

      Right.

   7. CWChris Williamson20:48

      ... after I've completed this?

   8. AAAaron Alexander20:49

      Mm-hmm.

   9. CWChris Williamson20:49

      Because if I don't, then what, what, why, why am I doing it? We go out of next door having done three rounds of, what, 20 minutes hot, three minutes cold-ish, something like that on average.

   10. AAAaron Alexander21:00

       Yeah, yeah.

   11. CWChris Williamson21:01

       And I feel on top of the world. Like, I feel phenomenal. Like, the, the best post-sex glow without having to find someone else to do it with.

   12. AAAaron Alexander21:09

       Isn't that great?

   13. CWChris Williamson21:10

       Outstanding.

   14. AAAaron Alexander21:11

       Mm-hmm.

   15. CWChris Williamson21:12

       Like, and that's just ... Like, you haven't, you haven't put anything in your body, haven't taken anything. This is completely internally generated-

   16. AAAaron Alexander21:18

       Yeah.

   17. CWChris Williamson21:19

       ... from doing that. And then the same with some of the sessions of training, you know, I came up with this thing called the manopause, right? Which was the-

   18. AAAaron Alexander21:27

       (laughs)

   19. CWChris Williamson21:27

       Toward the end of their 20s, uh, I saw a lot of guys, m- myself included, having trained doing, like, bro split lifting for decades maybe, 'cause we wanted to get big and be attractive to girls or whatever, and then you realize, "Oh, I get out of breath going up a set of stairs and I can't touch my toes anymore. And I'm pretty sure that my body is meant to do more than just bicep curls." And you start to revert back to other modes of training, so maybe you do Brazilian jiu-jitsu or, uh, Thai boxing or yoga or CrossFit or functional fitness or fucking running or athletics, whatever, right?

   20. AAAaron Alexander22:04

       Yep.

   21. CWChris Williamson22:04

       Um, and I found that my satisfaction after doing those sorts of sessions was so much higher.

   22. AAAaron Alexander22:12

       Mm-hmm.

   23. CWChris Williamson22:13

       So much higher after doing that kind of a workout. And I ... It just made me think how many people are doing a training modality that they really genuinely don't enjoy, and that their body is telling them that they don't enjoy, but that they just stick at it because ... And this is probably correct, that something is better than nothing. But that if the end goal of your fitness is to make you be, like, a happier, healthier, stronger human being-

   24. AAAaron Alexander22:36

       Yeah.

   25. CWChris Williamson22:37

       ... then you can just use how do I feel post-workout as a pretty good judge of whether or not my training modality at the moment is working.

   26. AAAaron Alexander22:44

       Yep. Well, it's like we were talking about before as well. It's like you don't know what you don't know, you know? So if you are, have been, you know, whatever workout dogma or regimen you've subscribed to over the years, you kind of have, you're just, like, getting work in, just like getting it done. Um, that's great. I'd rather someone have ... Oh, thanks. You turned my gain up.

   27. CWChris Williamson23:06

       Yeah, just a little bit.

   28. AAAaron Alexander23:07

       I was noticing it was a little low on this side.

   29. CWChris Williamson23:08

       You were a little bit quiet. It's fine.

   30. AAAaron Alexander23:09

       Damn, I was noticing that the whole time. Um, yeah, so some work is better than no work. But you can paint yourself into a corner with your work that eventually you might have to reverse engineer to get yourself out of that corner.
6. 29:14 – 35:50

   Building a Holistic Training Culture

   1. CWChris Williamson29:14

      So, let's say, let's say that somebody that, that's listening does a lot of training and they think, "Right, okay. This sounds, Arran, this sounds great. Like, I, I need to be functional. I should move in a more holistic manner. I like the idea of creating an environment in my house that kind of engenders a, um, parasympathetic, very calm, self-love, self-work kind of environment. Um, what else can I do? Like, give me some practices, give me some takeaways-"

   2. AAAaron Alexander29:40

      Sure.

   3. CWChris Williamson29:40

      "... that I can do to encourage a more holistic aligned body protocol."

   4. AAAaron Alexander29:45

      Yeah, yeah. Well, so, two of the things we mentioned is just making, orienting your space so that you just get your damn hips below the height of your, your knees every now and again. Like, just get yourself down there. Um-

   5. CWChris Williamson30:00

      So, it's in that sort of upright squatting position. I know, I noticed that you do that-

   6. AAAaron Alexander30:03

      Yeah, sure, or anything.

   7. CWChris Williamson30:03

      ... you, you do that sometimes leaning up against a wall, so someone could just get down off the couch and then just lean up against the couch with, in that bottom-

   8. AAAaron Alexander30:10

      Anything.

   9. CWChris Williamson30:10

      ... squat position.

   10. AAAaron Alexander30:10

       Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Just be i- i- and then so a part of that as well is, is, per mentioned before, like e- engendering a bit more of this, this nature of play-... into your life. You know, inviting that into even, inviting that into conversations. You know, not being so damn stuffy and serious. You know, the way that we communicate to each other, if you look at, and this is going out of like, well, this is kind of, kind of s- practices that are in the book, or at least conversations or philosophies of the book, um, you know, different cultures gesticulate. They use their hand gestures or facial expressions more or less than others. You know, so you go to Italy, suddenly it's like, you're out here, and then here, and then here, you know. Like, "Ah," somebody grabs you by the shirt and like pulls you in.

   11. CWChris Williamson30:56

       (laughs)

   12. AAAaron Alexander30:58

       You know, it's like, that's just how we communicate. Like that's, I'm just expressing, you know? And you maybe go someplace else, maybe like, I don't know, you know, I don't know, some place in the United States, or maybe like a Muslim culture would be different, like a, like a Buddhist culture is gonna be different than a... You know, each place has their movement signature, and there is, there are, are re- there are implications and repercussions of, of each of these, you know? And it's like the, what do they, what do they call it, the French paradox. It's like, how are these damn French people eating all these baguettes, and they're still like pretty darn healthy?

   13. CWChris Williamson31:32

       How is it, how is it that they manage to eat all these baguettes and they're healthy?

   14. AAAaron Alexander31:34

       I think there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of elements in that, and I think community is the main one. I think people run on community. We run on purpose, we run on community, we run on the sensation that, uh, um, "I've got your back, you've got my back." You know, and I think that when that, when we have that sensation of, of safety, again, safety, central nervous system, neutral spine, right? When we come into that place of feeling safe with my community, it allows me at a, a neuromuscular, cellular, like all the way down into ourselves level, uh, to be able to relax, to be able to breathe, to be able to, you know, have that... (sighs) And so I think the French paradox has a lot to do with people just getting out and eating together and drinking together and smoking cigarettes, and-

   15. CWChris Williamson32:22

       Mm-hmm.

   16. AAAaron Alexander32:23

       ... you know, whatever brings people together. Like I would take a, a, a smoker ideally with like some organic cigarettes that are just mostly exclusively tobacco and not a bunch of chemicals, uh, that gets them to go outside-

   17. CWChris Williamson32:34

       Yeah.

   18. AAAaron Alexander32:34

       ... and take a walk.

   19. CWChris Williamson32:35

       Yeah.

   20. AAAaron Alexander32:36

       And connect and like, you know, have a shoulder to lean on, and get some natural sunlight exposure to their eyeballs, and maybe get a little cold thermogenesis or maybe a little heat, and you know, they have their vice-

   21. CWChris Williamson32:49

       Yeah.

   22. AAAaron Alexander32:49

       ... in quotations. Uh, I would take that person over the, um, orthorexic person.

   23. CWChris Williamson32:57

       What's that?

   24. AAAaron Alexander32:58

       Orthorexic is a person that's like, has an unhealthy obsession with health.

   25. CWChris Williamson33:01

       Okay.

   26. AAAaron Alexander33:03

       I'd take that person any day for, to be on my kickball team, to be on my, you know, my, in my, my, my business, to be in my-

   27. CWChris Williamson33:10

       Over the person who's obsessed with health, but spends all of their time on their own or staring at the screen and never getting their hips below their knees and doesn't have a culture and doesn't-

   28. AAAaron Alexander33:16

       Yeah.

   29. CWChris Williamson33:16

       ... have community and doesn't-

   30. AAAaron Alexander33:17

       Yeah.
7. 35:50 – 42:47

   The Role of Shame in Sex & Relationships

   1. CWChris Williamson35:51

      a little bit of a pivot, what about sex and what about relationships?

   2. AAAaron Alexander35:54

      Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

   3. CWChris Williamson35:55

      With the work that you've done, have you seen a... What dysfunctions do you see with regards to people and their relationship to sex and to their own body and to the way that they judge other people's bodies as well?

   4. AAAaron Alexander36:08

      Well, definitely not my field of depth. Um, but I think it's very, an interesting conversation that is a physical conversation around that. Not that sex isn't physical, uh, but more like anatomical, would be the way that shame manifests in the body-You know, so growing up in a culture that doesn't have maybe full ease around sex, you know, or menstruation, or having a penis, or having a- an anus, or all of these things like, "Ugh!" Like, everyone gets a little uncomfortable if you say anus. (laughs) You know? It's like, "Whoa! Pull it back!" It's like, yeah, you got one, I got one. Like, I took a shit four hours ago. You know, but it's like, to- to- to talk about that or to think about that, it's like, "Oh my God." It's like, what if I didn't take a shit today? It would be dramatically... W- what if I didn't take a shit for a week? It would be like my whole life would be in shambles. (laughs) You know? And so, I think sex is one of those things. It's like our- our nether regions, you know, that part of our body, it's- it's, uh, we're- we're not really, um, inculcated for the most part, at least I wasn't, uh, into a culture that has a lot of acceptance of those spaces. You know, in the way that shame manifests in the body, just look at it physically. If you're ashamed, if you're embarrassed, you know, without getting metaphysical, you know, saying like, "Oh, shame, there's deep tension in the perineum and the cells in the root chakra," or any kind of, just kind of random- random bits. Feel in your body what does shame feel like? You know, like for- for you, if you suddenly felt-

   5. CWChris Williamson37:56

      Like a tightness. It's like a sort of a stiffness-

   6. AAAaron Alexander37:57

      Yeah. Stiffness.

   7. CWChris Williamson37:57

      ... and a tightness in the- in the stomach, in the head.

   8. AAAaron Alexander38:00

      Yeah, or maybe a collapse could be a flavor of it.

   9. CWChris Williamson38:02

      Falling forward. Yeah.

   10. AAAaron Alexander38:04

       Yeah. Right? You know, what does, um, uh, s- s- pride, what does strength feel like? What does sadness feel like? You know, the whole gamut of emotions. And that's- that's, um, Sir William James, who's, he's like widely known as the- the father of modern psychology. He was one of the- the preeminent leaders in, uh, the conversation of not just a- a top-down physiology, being like the mind affects the body. You know, so we see a bear. I'm scared, I run. You know, and I respond. Uh, we could just as easily flip that around, and go bottom-up and say, "I see a bear. I have a physiological response. It moves my body into this state that we deem to be fear, and that perpetuates the feeling and the emotion, and then that winds back and it's this ping-pong, boom, boom, feedback system back and forth." Mind, body. Mind, body. Mind, body. It doesn't matter where it starts or where it ends, like the chicken or the egg question. It's like both, what, like, doesn't matter. They're inextricably tied. So if we grow up in a culture that inherently there's a, maybe it's not overt shame, but maybe just like shadow, you know, or blank spots. Like, there's some pages in our physiology, in our anatomy that aren't as well filled out. You know, so there's a- a term, ever heard the term homunculus?

   11. CWChris Williamson39:37

       No.

   12. AAAaron Alexander39:37

       Homunculus means little man. And essentially it's like, well, just flip my- my, uh, toothpick here. Uh, homunculus means little man, and it's- it's essentially like the- the way that... It's like the neurological real estate that our body has to sensation, uh, or the... Of how different appendages experience sensation, the amount of real estate that's offered to that sensory reception in those various different parts of the body. You know, and so your fingers will have... I mean, this little man image, it's like literally up... You could, we could, you could look it up, it's a really interesting th- thing to see. Um, they've got like really big lips, you know, and they've got like really big hands, and you know, pretty reasonably sized genitals, actually. (laughs)

   13. CWChris Williamson40:17

       (laughs) He's got a piece.

   14. AAAaron Alexander40:18

       Yeah.

   15. CWChris Williamson40:18

       He's got a piece on him.

   16. AAAaron Alexander40:18

       He's got, he's got a piece on him. (inhales deeply) Um, you know, so that distribution of sensory awareness can change depending upon a person's, uh, life experience. And so there's some places in the body that, for some people, it might literally be like a shadow place, like you could numb that space out. You know, some people don't have a lot of sensation in certain parts of their body, like maybe like their back. You know, you could rub a, you know, a- a- a paperclip or a feather or something in certain parts of the body, it's like, now I've literally shut that part down. And then it becomes this whole process of re-engaging and reintegrating that- that aspect of yourself-

   17. CWChris Williamson40:56

       Do you think-

   18. AAAaron Alexander40:56

       ... back into the whole-

   19. CWChris Williamson40:56

       ... symbolically that can happen with regards to shame around sex and our bodies, not just in terms of how we perceive them physiologically, if we can touch them and if we can get feedback, but how we see them symbolically in our minds?

   20. AAAaron Alexander41:12

       I think so. What do you think?

   21. CWChris Williamson41:15

       Yeah, certainly, man. I mean, the... S- definitely since being out here in Austin, fuck, like people here have got a- a very l- some people here have got a very liberal, very open, uh, relationship to sex and sexual practices and talking about sex. Far more, I don't know whether it's a British thing, maybe it is a little bit, but far more than I've been used to in the UK. And I'd say I'm, you know, relatively open about being happy to talk about things that have gone well or badly, or that I like or don't like during sex, but-

   22. AAAaron Alexander41:46

       Yeah.

   23. CWChris Williamson41:46

       ... fuck, out here's a- another level. I don't know whether that's, I don't-

   24. AAAaron Alexander41:50

       And just 'cause you talk about a thing a lot doesn't mean that you have a healthy relationship with it.

   25. CWChris Williamson41:54

       Oh, yeah. But I mean, the s- not being able to talk about it at all probably isn't a sign of a good relationship with it.

   26. AAAaron Alexander42:00

       Also not.

   27. CWChris Williamson42:01

       Yeah. So yeah, i- it's been- it's been interesting being out here, um-

   28. AAAaron Alexander42:06

       It's the flexibility. Again, it comes back to- to adaptability and flexibility. If you're, if something makes you uncomfortable, if I say a word, you know, any of the words I said previously-

   29. CWChris Williamson42:17

       Mm-hmm.

   30. AAAaron Alexander42:17

       ... and you go, "Whoa!"
8. 42:47 – 54:18

   Aaron’s Plans for a Successful 2022

   1. AAAaron Alexander42:47

      So-

   2. CWChris Williamson42:47

      What are you working on at the moment, personally? Like, what, what's the next... 2022, if you were to look back at the end of 2022 and consider it a success, what would have been a, a development that you would have gone through?

   3. AAAaron Alexander43:02

      Well, I mean, something that we've talked about previously is I- I have a, a bit of a, a tendency of, uh, in... I don't know if I enjoy it, but I have a proclivity towards chasing, you know? And that was kind of something that we've been talking about in relation to, like, to female relationships, and something that I'm observing in myself. You know, when something is unavailable, it becomes highly prized. And when the availability begins there, sometimes I, I, not sometimes, I can completely notice, um, the opportunity to work with that for me is, is resistance around that, or a disinterest, uh, kind of like a, like an avoidant-type pattern, you know? And so for me, it's like, "Aha, okay. Well, the- there's, there's the work." You know? So now, it's, it's my... The onus is on, on me alone to engage with it, um, or to go to the next and re-perpetuate patterns. Yeah, so that, for me, it's like looking in and, and really being honest with what that is. Um-

   4. CWChris Williamson44:09

      What do you think it is?

   5. AAAaron Alexander44:12

      Likely, my story for that, which I think that's another thing to be cautious of, is being-

   6. CWChris Williamson44:19

      Over.

   7. AAAaron Alexander44:19

      ... too attached to our stories.

   8. CWChris Williamson44:21

      Yeah, over-rationalizing or over-narrat- narrati- narratizing whatever-

   9. AAAaron Alexander44:24

      Mm-hmm.

   10. CWChris Williamson44:24

       ... it is that you're supposed to do.

   11. AAAaron Alexander44:26

       Yeah.

   12. CWChris Williamson44:26

       Yeah. I know what you mean.

   13. AAAaron Alexander44:27

       And that's when things, things that kind of trump our stories, like maybe some type of, you know, breath work ceremony thing, or some life event that was life event-

   14. CWChris Williamson44:36

       Drags you outside of the narrative that you've tried-

   15. AAAaron Alexander44:38

       Yeah.

   16. CWChris Williamson44:38

       ... to wrap around and rationalize a story with.

   17. AAAaron Alexander44:41

       Yeah.

   18. CWChris Williamson44:41

       Yeah, that's an interesting way to put it.

   19. AAAaron Alexander44:42

       Yeah, yeah, whatever it may be. Suddenly you're like, "Oh, okay, story out." You know, "Story on the side."

   20. CWChris Williamson44:47

       Yes.

   21. AAAaron Alexander44:47

       Now, here's, like, God.

   22. CWChris Williamson44:49

       Reality.

   23. AAAaron Alexander44:49

       (laughs) Yeah, like there's like ano- there's this, like the higher purview comes in. It's like, "Okay, we don't need words right now, little Aaron." (laughs)

   24. CWChris Williamson44:57

       Yep, yep.

   25. AAAaron Alexander44:57

       You know? This is, we're just on truth.

   26. CWChris Williamson44:59

       Mm-hmm.

   27. AAAaron Alexander45:00

       You know, and I think that those moments happen when they happen. Um, but for me, the narrative that I have, that I think probably has some level of sense to it, is I think that my mother was who... I've did- I've done actually a full, like, I don't know, like 90-minute podcast with her. And I was like, I think it's a f- I know it was the only podcast that I've ever like really properly broke down, wept in, a couple times. Um, and, uh, she had a, a background of, um, some level of a- abuse. I'm not sure if I shared in the podcast or not, so I don't know if it's appropriate to share, but, uh, she learned that it's not appropriate to not be okay. You know, so kind of like good vibes only-

   28. CWChris Williamson45:51

       Mm-hmm.

   29. AAAaron Alexander45:51

       ... type thing, which is incredibly dangerous, you know? 'Cause then you, you lack decompression, you know? So suddenly, you look, you pin it up, you know, any of those sensations that would be deemed unfavorable. It's just like, "Okay, those don't go out, they go in, and now they just sit and fester and kind of ferment." Um, and so getting the signal that everything needs to be okay, everything needs to be, like be all righty. Um, I think that there was a certain level of... She was very caring and very sweet, you know, always made me sandwiches and always, like had my back. Uh, but I think there was a certain emotional vulnerability that was, um, challenging for her to access.

   30. CWChris Williamson46:34

       Mm-hmm.
9. 54:18 – 1:11:00

   The Power of Movement for Wellbeing

   1. CWChris Williamson54:18

      know, man. I- I certainly resonate with when you, when you think about being in the body, right, and you notice that you've been sat in a meeting or in a situation with someone and you've been tense, and then you kind of check in with yourself and you- (sighs)

   2. AAAaron Alexander54:33

      Mm-hmm.

   3. CWChris Williamson54:34

      And everything just eases up a little bit, or you open your gaze. The best cue that I've learned about this, I learned this this year, uh, from an embodiment coach, was about, um, just using the peripherals of your vision.

   4. AAAaron Alexander54:44

      Yeah.

   5. CWChris Williamson54:44

      So just using that open gaze. And man, I love that cue so much. It just reminds me that, look, there's so much more going on, you do not need to focus just there. You can have all of this beautiful vision outside of you.

   6. AAAaron Alexander54:55

      Yeah.

   7. CWChris Williamson54:56

      Um-

   8. AAAaron Alexander54:56

      There's a whole chapter in the, The Align Method book about that. That's, yeah.

   9. CWChris Williamson54:59

      All right, tell me.

   10. AAAaron Alexander55:00

       Andrew, Andrew Huberman who, he's, you know, popularized a lot of these conversation

   11. NANarrator55:04

       (laughs)

   12. AAAaron Alexander55:04

       ... last reason he thankfully, um, edited through the whole thing for me and kind of, you know, like, pointed me in the right directions. That, and I've, I've been just, I owe so much to his mind and his, his research. Um, but yeah, I mean, the way that you use your eyes, your, your eyes are continuous with your central nervous system, you know? So similarly, this is one of the things I was g- I was gonna eventually likely get to in relation to environmental conditions, changing the visual environment isn't just adding visual cues that cause you to do what would look like mobility or exercise, it's also changing the, the visual environment in the sense of, like, you know, open some windows. Um, i- ideally get full spectrum light into your eyeballs, you know, so it's not just when you're, when you're looking at light through windows, it's going to be blocking some percentage of the, of, of the either UVA or UVB spectrum out. Um, and being able to relax your eyes and awareness that when I am in that panoramic, like (sighs) I'm just taking it all in, that, that lens of perception, it's sending a signal into the rest of your physiology, which is probably an anchored pattern for, again, millennia back, like, you know, generations, generations, like forever, that when you are just taking it all in, just spacing out, probably almost never in history have you just spaced it out and taken it all in and been under attack, right? And so it's a similar thing talk- And then when you're myopically focused in suddenly, okay, cool, we're taking it all in, we're just gathering information about the whole... Or maybe not gathering information, screw that, we're just, (sighs) we're just basking in the moment, we're fed, you know, we've hunted. (exhales) And then suddenly there is a threat, what do your eyes do? (whooshing sound) You know, it all focuses in on that single point. So-

   13. CWChris Williamson56:56

       I've been thinking about this to do with smartphones.

   14. AAAaron Alexander56:58

       Oh, of course, yeah.

   15. CWChris Williamson56:59

       So much of our time is.

   16. AAAaron Alexander56:59

       And you're looking down, and you're looking down into the right, you know, so you're looking down or, you know, if you're lefty, you know, which would be more rare, but you're looking down into a specific direction. So your eyes act like reins to your neuromuscular system. So you can do this, you know, put your, your fingertips back at the bottom of your skull, it's called the suboccipital ridge, and just look up and down, and you'll feel those muscles, those-

   17. CWChris Williamson57:25

       (laughs)

   18. AAAaron Alexander57:25

       ... called suboccipital muscles engaging, right? Yeah. So your eyes-

   19. CWChris Williamson57:29

       That's so funny.

   20. AAAaron Alexander57:29

       So same thing in, in, um, it was in chimpanzees, this has been researched there, (clears throat) the, the cochlea in their ear will change direction with the eyes. So when you are l- looking to the right to, to some potential threat or whatever the thing is, literally even their, their auditory system-

   21. CWChris Williamson57:50

       Also, their hearing opens up as their eyes move almost.

   22. AAAaron Alexander57:53

       ... it will, it will orient towards that thing.

   23. CWChris Williamson57:56

       No way.

   24. AAAaron Alexander57:57

       Which is kind of an interesting thing for people that are like, you know, into jujitsu and wrestling and have like cauliflower ear. I wonder how that affects, affects things, but, um, yeah, man, your, your visual system is so deeply tied into your sense of, uh, either, you know, alertness or, um, you know, executive function, get 'er done, or relax, digest, rest. Uh, you know, so that's in, in the book, in The Align Method, the, the, really, the intention of it isn't so much to have like a step-by-step method, it's more, uh, you know, a, a philosophy to reorient the way that a person engages with their body in any situation. You know, so are you from Viktor Frankl?

   25. CWChris Williamson58:44

       Yes.

   26. AAAaron Alexander58:44

       Logotherapy, man's search for meaning. Uh, one of the things that he said that I align with is, uh, that he said he's, he's more like an optometrist than, you know, like a psycholo- psy- psychologist, you know? So he's just, he's just working with people's perception of the world, you know, the way that they process information, their filter, you know? And so I think that that's a really valuable approach to one's fitness. You know, it's, fitness isn't a thing that I do, fitness is a thing that I am. You know, so all the time throughout every day, they're all a bunch of opportunities if you have the education on how to engage with those opportunities. You know, so you're just filled with these fun li- fun levers all over your body. So your eyes, they will change the way that your, your, your mental emotional state based off of the way that you use them. If you have that information, you can leverage it. Same thing with your auditory environment, same thing with your, you know, the, the sense of touch, certain sensations or textures will make you feel one way, certain sensations and textures will make you feel another way, uh, your visual environment. An interesting thing that you have to fact check, fact check this one, but I heard, uh, with real estate, if you're selling a place and you have like, like pointy plants out front, that sends an indication to potential buyers to, to stay away.

   27. CWChris Williamson1:00:00

       No way.

   28. AAAaron Alexander1:00:01

       I mean, you gotta look it up. There's, there's a, there's a whole field of, of state you'd probably appreciate called em- embodied cognition. Embodied cognition essentially is, is the way that, um, we, we, we think and feel, uh, based off of our, our, our physical experience. You know, so I'm, I'm sure you've heard of like the clipboard studies, you know, where if you give somebody your resume and it's on like a big thick beefcake clipboard, they're like, "Oh fuck yeah." Like, (laughs) "This guy's really knows, you know, he's, he's serious, you know, he's stable, he's supported."... I like this guy, right? If you, and so that's that tactile experience of like, "Man, this guy feels like a, oh, I could trust him." Right? Same thing with, you know, people that are, tend to be taller or, you know, lower voices is something we were talking about before. It's like, "Oh, that guy, there's something trustworthy about that." Like, it feels like, it feels powerful. You're like, "They might just be a tall asshole." (laughs) Like, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. But the way that we cognate that, or the way that you're... Our, our embodied experience of that is like, "Oh, yeah. I trust it." You know, the same thing with if we're, we have a cold beverage when someone goes into a job interview, or a warm beverage. If right now we had icy, you know, whatever, some, some lemonades or something like that, but like, icy cups, uh, based off of research, we would perceive this experience as being a little bit more... That's why I was noticing the temperature of the room. We ex- uh, perceive this experience as being a little bit kind of like more closed, a little bit colder. If you give me like, a hot cocoa, and it's warm, and we got a, a fire going in the background, and we can hear the crackling of the fire, suddenly that's changing my perception to say like, "Wow, man. I just feel so safe here. There's something about you, Chris, that makes me feel safe." It's like, is it me or is it just the environment that we're having this mutual experience? Shit's crazy, man.

   29. CWChris Williamson1:01:53

       This more holistic view of the body overall and of fitness is something that, I don't know, maybe to you and maybe the people that you're speaking to, it's kind of, uh, how would you say? Obvious or it makes a complete amount of sense. But to me, this is like an entire new world.

   30. AAAaron Alexander1:02:11

       (laughs) That's great.
10. 1:11:00 – 1:12:14

    Where to Find Alex

    1. CWChris Williamson1:11:00

       gentlemen. Align podcast.

    2. AAAaron Alexander1:11:02

       Mm.

    3. CWChris Williamson1:11:02

       Align Method book.

    4. AAAaron Alexander1:11:03

       Mm.

    5. CWChris Williamson1:11:03

       Everything will be linked in the show notes below. Any other stuff that people should check out?

    6. AAAaron Alexander1:11:08

       No, I think that's it. I mean, thanks again for making this happen, man. I really enjoyed this. That was a really, a really fun conversation. I appreciate the way that your mind operates, and the way that you create space for, uh, other minds to, to turn the way that they do. So, thank you for creating the space for this. Um, yeah, go check out the Align podcast with you. I really enjoyed that conversation.

    7. CWChris Williamson1:11:31

       Yep.

    8. AAAaron Alexander1:11:32

       Um, another one that they could check out would be the, the Bruce Lipton conversation, if they want to go deeper into some of these topics. And then the Align Method book is coming out January 11th. And so they could get it, this is before that, they can pre-order it. It's on Amazon or, you know, Barnes & Nobles or whatever. And I think that's it, man. I appreciate you.

    9. CWChris Williamson1:11:50

       Awesome, dude. First of many.

    10. AAAaron Alexander1:11:52

        Yeah, let's keep doing it. All right. Over and out. Pa-pow.

    11. CWChris Williamson1:11:56

        What's happening, people? Thank you very much for tuning in. If you enjoyed that episode, then press here for a selection of the best clips from the podcast over the last few weeks. And don't forget to subscribe. Peace.

Episode duration: 1:12:15