Liver Love
In this week's episode of the Unreal Results podcast, I explore the anatomy and physiology of the liver and how it is an integral area of the body to treat to support overall health and wellness.
A key organ especially for swelling and the lymphatic system as well as a driver for many musculoskeletal issues including right shoulder pain, neck pain, hip pain, and left-sided sciatica. I discuss the relative anatomy and how that relates to the mobility of the organ itself and the musculoskeletal system.
In addition, I break down the programming of the "Lymph Love" Regen Session which is very liver focused. Taking you through my thought process and why being precise and specific with movement interventions can be a difference-maker in treatment outcomes.
Resources mentioned and related to this episode:
Episode 3 "Swelling Protocol that Works Like Magic"
Episode 9 "Left Sided Sciatica and Right Sided Shoulder Pain"
Episode 16 "Why the Shoulder Comes Last"
Episode 40 "Healing and Wellness: Remade"
Episode 51 "Surround the Dragon"
Leah Levitan @lymphloveclub IG post
MovementREV Regen Session: Lymph Love
Swelling Reduction Protocol FREE Download
Considering the viscera as a source of musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction is a great way to ensure a more true whole body approach to care, however it can be a bit overwhelming on where to start, which is exactly why I created the Visceral Referral Cheat Sheet. This FREE download will help you to learn the most common visceral referral patterns affecting the musculoskeletal system. Download it at www.unrealresultspod.com
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Anna Hartman: Hey there, and welcome. I'm Anna Hartman, and this is Unreal Results, a podcast where I help you get better outcomes and gain the confidence that you can help anyone, even the most complex cases. Join me as I teach about the influence of the visceral organs and the nervous system on movement, pain, and injuries, all while shifting the paradigm of what whole body assessment and treatment really looks like.
I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in.
Hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Unreal Results Podcast. I feel like it's been forever, but that's just because, um, I recorded podcasts earlier last week and then, um, took a little vacation. Um, sort of like not a long vacation, just two little mini vacations, visited a friend in Lake Norman, um, Charlotte.
North Carolina. Uh, and then I had a business meeting. Um, I'm in Jill Fitz strategy and scale mastermind. Um, we had our in person mastermind in Asheville, North Carolina. And then after that I took a few days and did a beach vacation in Marco Island, Florida. So, um, Yeah, it was a relaxing week, great, inspiring business meeting.
Um, also shout out North Carolina. I'd never been before. I've always heard good things about North Carolina, but I just kind of like chalked it up to every other kind of, uh, area, similar area. Um, and man, it is beautiful. Um, driving from Charlotte to Asheville, going through the mountains. Um, you know, the day was kind of like hazy and the, the, the clouds were like a little misty in the mountains and it's just so green.
Actually reminded me of Hawaii, which is kind of crazy to be inland. Not on an island reminded of Hawaii and then same thing flying out of Asheville When I flew out of Asheville to go down to Florida like looking out the windows like very Hawaii feel of the green of The mountains I think it's the Blue Ridge Mountains beautiful, um Like Dashville, good vibe, kind of like a little hippie town, which actually makes me feel very at home being from Humboldt County, Eureka, California, and going to school in Eugene, like I'm used to that vibe.
And then, um, loved Lake Norman too. It was so great, got to catch up with an old friend, one of my former athletes, um, he was an off road race car driver. He lives there now and I got to hang out with him and his wife and it was so great. And um, then Marco Island, Florida was awesome. You know, it was the Gulf Coast of Florida.
It was beautiful. It was, um, you know, white sand beaches, beautiful water, warm, warm water, warm weather, hot and humid. Um, it's kind of at the point in the summer where I'm like, it's just gonna get more hot and humid and less comfortable. So I definitely hit it at a good time. I'd never been to that area.
Um, Margo Island, just like south of Fort Myers. I'm not sure. Why I was expecting like, I, I didn't have like the highest expectations. I was looking for like resort style, great beach. So I definitely got that. I don't think it was like anything more special than any other part of the Gulf coast of Florida.
Um, it was similar to like Clearwater, similar to St. Pete, you know, almost even similar to Pensacola. Um, not quite as like slow town feeling of Pensacola, but, um, yeah, It was, it, it, it, what's the word? It, um, did its job as like helping me be in a relaxing environment, like solo vacay. So I'm glad I went, um, will I go back?
Probably not. I'm not the, I'm not the biggest fan of Florida, to be honest, even the Atlantic coast. I mean, I like Miami. Miami is this whole, it's like a whole nother thing. Um, and the beaches are cool, like in Fort Lauderdale and, um, Palm beach. But again, like they're not my favorite beaches in the world and it's hot and humid.
And, um, I think I would, I do like the Gulf side over the Atlantic side, um, in general. Uh, Key West still on my bucket list. I was actually considering going there for the few days, but I, Decided not to just a lot of people told me it's not super Beachy that I would be disappointed on the beaches. Um, and it just has a little bit more like, I don't want to say party vibe, but party vibe, like just more like, you know, having drinks and like doing activities that are probably better for group activities with friends than a solo vacation.
And so I decided that's last minute, decided to switch it up. And also even the Key West decision was a last minute decision. Like I, I was already on the east coast. I was not packed for I didn't have flip flops. I didn't have a hat I only had one swimsuit Like I definitely wasn't packed for a vacation.
So that was like also a last minute decision. Um, So I think because k west has been on my bucket list List for so long. I want to do it right when I do it and I want to do it with friends I want to go like on boats and snorkeling and like doing all the things so I felt like I needed more planning. Um, Anyways, that's update this weekend.
I'm still on the East Coast this weekend. I teach the LTAP level 1 in person at In Washington DC at core physical therapy very excited for it. We got a full group. It's a small facility, so we only got, we only have 20 people. I have two TAs coming in, super pumped. That weekend, I will also be announcing an additional, um, LTAP level one in person course for 2024.
All of the courses have sold out, and there's just been such a high demand that I felt like I could add another one. So because, um, the next course after this was scheduled to be November in San Diego, and, um, it's, Over full if that makes sense. There's um, I usually like to target like 24 spots for a course, but some, you know, somewhere between 20 and 30.
This specific facility, we can fit 30. So we're going to do 30 and that's my max. So I think I'm at 28. So not too late to get into the San Diego course. If you're interested. That will be November 2nd and 3rd, um, in San Diego at Olympus Movement and Performance, which is up in like Carlsbad area. Um, I host courses there a lot.
It'll be great. I'll probably have, um, five to six, um, TAs there. So it'll be a really great group of TAs. And, uh, yeah. So like I said, announcing the next course location this weekend. So that'll be June 15th I'll announce the next location. Um, spoiler alert. It is also on the east coast. Um, Yeah, super pumped super pumped um I I expect it to fill up quickly too just because of the demand And because of all the places that I kind of polled on instagram and in my email it was It's the top, top requested location.
So anyways, let's just get into today's topic. And I want to talk about the liver. You know, I actually talk about the liver a lot. I was like thinking about all the, like, I feel like I mentioned the liver in almost every podcast, but also that's because the liver comes up a lot when we're learning them.
The Baral Institute, basically the teachers are like, honestly, everyone in the world could stand to have a liver lift. And so. And it's right, like it comes up with the LTAP a lot being visceral referred pain or just like altered biomechanics because of a liver that does not have the space and freedom to move well.
So the other thing too, why the liver comes up in, especially in the, in the world I work with the athletes, um, and like sports medicine, uh, When we have any bit of swelling, you're going to want to treat the liver, especially swelling that's not going away. And so, the liver is just, yeah, high, high likelihood that you're going to feel better after doing some specific things around the liver.
And so, I want to talk a little bit just about the liver. And again, I'm going to, there's going to be quite a bit of, Podcast linked in this episode, um, that Joe's going to link in the show notes because I talked about it a lot. So, um, all of what I'm going to say today, I've probably talked about on another episode, but my hope was like pulling it all together and it's like own in its own episode.
So, um, we're going to talk a little bit about, the motions, the common referred pain, the common pathologies that are usually associated. Then we're going to talk about a little bit about anatomy, its role with the lymph system, and then we're going to talk about, um, specifically movement. in relationship to the liver.
Of course, I'll share a couple manual therapy, general manual therapy techniques for it, but the liver responds very well to movement based interventions as well as manual therapy. General manual therapy as well, The obviously I have a lot of visceral manipulation tools for the liver. So in the Brawl Institute, we learn a liver lift.
We learn liver compression technique. We learn an induction of the liver mobility. We, we learn an induction of the liver motility. We learn how to encourage motility. We learn how to specifically target all the different ligaments, the suspensory ligaments of the liver. We, um, know how to target the portal vein of the liver and the bile duct and the gallbladder and the sling of fascia around the gallbladder and the lesser omentum or the hepatoduodenal ligaments between the liver and the small intestine and the liver and the stomach.
And, and so, um, And then diaphragm techniques that, that connect or treat the connection between the liver and the diaphragm. Um, so there's a, there's a lot of very specific techniques I could pick, but oftentimes I do general stuff on myself and on, on my athletes because it just works really well. And why not do something general and why not do a movement?
Because then, you know, hopefully I'm empowering the athlete to know how to take care of themselves. So. Um, we're actually going to, in this podcast episode, sort of break down all the exercises that are in my lymph love regen session, which basically could also be called liver love regen session. Um, I'm just going to talk through each of those movements and how it relates to liver and like how I even, like why I sequenced the class that way.
So, um, Hopefully you will enjoy that. I know that's like a top favorite region session of a lot of people. It's not just me. It's also, you know, it's part of the swelling reduction region bundle. So, um, you might already have it, especially if you've downloaded the swelling reduction protocol. It was like a, a.
Offer a sales offer after you downloaded the freebie to get the two regen sessions Supporting swelling and so if you got that you have both both sessions, but today we're just gonna be talking about the lymph love Regen session so without further ado the liver the liver is a big organ in our body.
It's associated mostly with the right side, but it actually extends over to the left. The left midclavicular line has two lobes, right and left. Actually, I think it has more than two lobes, but you know, to make it easy, right? Left lobe. And then, um, it tends to be like, I always kind of describe it as football shaped, but it's not so symmetrical like a
more. short of on the upper right and back part of the liver. Um, it is, it weighs about one and a half kilograms. And, um, that weight is actually supported mostly by the negative pressure in our thorax. So we don't actually feel the whole weight of the liver, though it does have that weight. Um, it's also this visceral organ specifically is considered a gland.
Um, it's very Much associated with, I mean, it does a lot of things. I think Lea Leviton, I don't know if that's how you say her last name. She's at lymph love club at lymph love club on Instagram she just posted a thing a Post the other day and she was talking about it and she was like the liver performs over like 500 functions, so the liver is like a powerhouse of physiology and Doing the things for our body.
So, um, I'll make sure to link that post in the show notes as well. So, um, yeah, it has many, many roles. So it's a big part, like I said, obviously it's a big part of our lymphatic system. It's also, Because of that, it plays a role in detoxification, it plays a role in our immune system, it stores vitamins, it helps with our digestion, it produces hormones, it does a lot of things, it synthesizes our protein, um, it does a lot.
50 percent of the lymph. that flows through our lymph, comes from the liver, or comes from the heart. Yeah, it comes from the liver, comes through the liver, um, the liver from a blood supply standpoint, the liver gets more venous blood to it than arterial blood, and that is because of its filtering detoxification role.
It's collecting that venous blood flow from the body that is also containing a lot of that, um, lymph and like. Cellular excrement and it's filtering its needs right from the blood so big venous venous organ which then makes sense between knowing how much venous blood Supply goes through it and is associated with it and how much it's connected to our lymph system.
It makes sense then why it's going to be so important for our fluid balance, our fluid flow, and our swelling. So and one of the things that I always share is And which was like pretty profound when I learned it from Philip Beach in his, well, in his courses, but also his book, Muscles Meridian, Muscles and Meridians.
He talks about the fluid field and the fluid field. Well, so he talks about the fluid field, but he also talks about the helical field and the helical contractile field, the borders of it basically border the nipple line. And then, um, That border creates rotation, and if you look at our body, the majority of our like rotation comes from the thoracolumbar area and along the border of that helical field.
And, um, basically it's a, well, the nipple line, right? So a diagonal line from about midclavicular, maybe just a little outside midclavicular line, down to, um, in a V, basically. And it doesn't. ever come to, it's not like a perfect V that comes together. It kind of stays. Eventually, I guess it would come together if it was the line, but it does not come together in our body.
And, um, this rotation, when you look at how the organs are situated around this helical field, the organs that are as much associated with fluid, like the liver, like the kidneys, like the breasts, um, Like the digestive organs that are pushing fluid through them. Um, they all lie on this helical field, especially around the thoracolumbar junction because the simple act of walking, which is a very rotational movement for us.
This helps to mechanically move the fluid, mechanically pump the fluid. It's like wringing out a towel, right? And so, um, this is, you know, super interesting to me because it also sort of like explains why movement can be so powerful in supporting the liver. And as you can imagine from that rotation is a big part of it.
So we're going to talk about that too. Um, some other things just to sort of list out the liver, like normal referrals from liver visceral referrals is going to be Right shoulder, neck, hip, left sciatica. Those are the big ones. Both hips, right and left hip. More left sciatica than right, though it can be right sciatica too.
Almost always right shoulder and um, neck and upper back. Now as we talk in every episode, basically, those are more of the visceral pain referral Tendencies or the relationship, specifically the left sciatica one is a relationship of the venous flow, the portal vein relationship, um, and actually I have a whole episode on that that will be linked.
It's called right shoulder and left sciatica. or something around that. Um, it's all about the liver as well. So, but we also know that whenever there is a visceral protective pattern, it changes our biomechanics and orients our body sort of around that structure and that can change mobility and create pain and pretty much anywhere.
So, though those are the like standards, They're not the end all be all, uh, some common, uh, spine, spinal level associations, so spine restrictions here, or treating these areas of the spines can have a reflexive effect on the liver. It's going to be C3 to C5. That's the phrenic nerve. So remember the phrenic nerve is a sensory nerve, as well as a motor nerve, and it provides sensory information from the area of the liver area of the articulation between the liver and the diaphragm.
And so when the liver is not happy, it sends that message on the phrenic nerve straight to the nerve roots of C3, 4, and 5, which, you know, I talked about a lot in the episode on, like, why You, why, why I think it's the episode, like why the shoulder comes last. I have a whole course on that. Never treat the shoulder first.
So that relationship is really what it's all about. But oftentimes you can even do treatment on C3, have an effect on The liver, the diaphragm, the thorax, in general, the gut, um, the other spinal segments is going to be between T5 and T9 10. Um, these are more associated with the diaphragm as well as the sympathetic innervation of the orion.
So, The relationship from the sympathetic nerves, the celiac ganglia, the, those are the, between T7 and T9 is those T5 and T6 are going to be more like mechanical diaphragm relationship. And then the T12 and L1 still continues the diaphragm relationship, right? Because we know the, the, the tendons of the diaphragm go down that low.
But also this is going to relate to blood flow. The hepatic artery comes off of the abdominal aorta right around this level too. So, um, a spinal restriction at this level can affect blood flow to the organ. So really great spots for targeted treatment on a movement or manual therapy standpoint. From an anatomy standpoint, you know, we talked about How big the liver was.
But now let's talk about its ligaments. So you have the relationship the diaphragm makes with the liver. I often refer to it as like a ball and socket joint. That's really how it acts. That ligament basically. that connects the liver to the diaphragm is the coronary ligament, and then it has other parts to it.
The coronary ligament kind of turns into the triangular ligaments as well. So you have a right triangular ligament and a left triangular ligament. Those are the suspensory ligaments with the corners of the diaphragm. And then the coronary, meaning like crown, is the ligament on the top that connects the diaphragm.
the liver attaches it to the diaphragm from the top side. So these ligaments too are just basically folds in the peritoneum. And so the entire peritoneum then tension wise would be reflected when there is a mobility issue around here, makes sense. And then the diaphragm, not only does it make that joint with it, it's going to be the muscle that tightens up to protect it when there is.
And so this is really going to affect a lot around the diaphragm, right? It affects our breathing, it affects our heartburn, it can affect our lung function, it can affect our heart function. So when we see this again, like it goes back, I talk a lot in various episodes about breathing being an output to me.
This is why, yes, we can use it as a input, but oftentimes it's just more of a interesting, like, see how the diaphragm was sort of splinting and then we did this compression to the liver and then now all of a sudden you're getting good three dimensional breath because now the diaphragm isn't splinting the liver.
So, big relationship to the liver. From an emotional standpoint, the, the emotions that tend to be associated with the liver, put an extra heavy load on the liver, are emotions that are sort of related to toxicity, to be honest. So the, the liver is a detox organ and so it, it, It gets, it gets stimulated or it's required for any sort of detoxification that the body encounters.
And that includes like toxic people, toxic relationship, toxic feelings. So the emotions mostly associated with the liver are going to be anger, fear, and anguish, and then dealing with unbearable difficulties. And so again, You can see why the liver has such a high load in general in life. From a Chinese medicine like organ clock standpoint, its function is highest during the hours of 1 a.
m to 3 a. m. So oftentimes if you find yourself waking up around this time, it can be indicative of a liver that is sluggish or a liver that is like overwhelmed and needs some support. Um, there is a skin reflex zone. That is another great treatment spot. About three fingers of the, of your own body, right?
So the patient's body or three fingers of your body, if it's your body below the xiphoid process, the area of skin there, when it's kind of dense, hard to lift, just doesn't have really good give to it. Um, this tends to be a reflex zone for the liver. Um, and it'll be especially like that when there's a long standing issue with the liver and issue meaning just a long standing load that the liver has just not been very supported, um, or a long standing load to the liver, like a liver disease.
So, again, though, it's a reflex spot, so it's a great spot to target for manual therapy. Um, and then also when you kind of think about. What's deep to that the structure that's deep to that is the other ligament Well two ligaments one the falciform ligament the falciform ligament extends from the coronal ligament Vertically and it continues on to the round ligament to the anterior abdominal wall And then basically it's continuous with the uracus ligament.
And then basically is the structure that goes all the way down to the anterior pelvic floor. So it's like the central tendon. And so in, also in this area, around that skin reflex zone is the hepatoduodenal and the hepatoceliac ligament, which is also where the lesser omentum is. It's the ligament that holds the liver, the stomach, and the beginning of the small intestine sort of all in place.
Relationship with each other. So that's a really great spot to do treatment as well. The vagus nerve Hugs right in the corner of the stomach right around there. So it can be a very Reflexively great spot to treat for the nervous system Also, though, it can be a very sensitive spot to treat, so poking hard at it is not always the way.
So, um, that kind of gives you an idea of the anatomy. Now that we've talked about the anatomy, let's talk about the mobility that is then required of that really large organ in the body. And, um, oftentimes when people think about organ mobility, they just think about the inferior. and superior, um, movement that occurs with the breath, but it actually is more than that.
The liver mobility. We look at the whole liver. I'm like, here's my right side of the liver. Um, I'm like, I'm at a football player's house. You'd think there'd just be a football, football flying around here to use as a demo, but I don't see one. So we're going to use the, the old Coke can here. Um, the liver mobility wise.
It has a swinging type pump handle motion, um,
right, so pump handle is like a water pump, right? So, uh, mostly right sided, superior glide and inferior glide. So this motion really sort of pivots off of the triangular ligaments, the left and the right triangular ligament. So when we're looking at Does the liver, is the liver able to swing up towards the armpit and down towards the hip very well?
We're looking at how well the excursion of the left triangular and the right triangular ligament Uh, is to allow that, right? So in general We're looking at it in relationship to the right side of the body because that's the bigger lobe, right? So that's why it's more of like a pump handle, but you can see it's going to require mobility on both sides of those ligaments.
Now too, we have what's called anterior and posterior role. And so this is that ball and socket relationship of the liver and the diaphragm. And it's going to be the coronary ligament and the falciform ligament, allowing for anterior and posterior roll. In general, we're going to have a little bit easier time posterior rolling than anterior rolling, because again, the obliqueness of how the liver just sits in the body tends to be on the posterior roll side of things.
Um, then we have rotation. So we have internal and external rotation of the liver. You can think medial, lateral rotation, but it's just rotating to the right, rotating to the left, right? So this rotation is actually on the axis of the vena cava, the abdominal aorta, and this is cistern chyle, which is the main lymph duct right there.
There is a notch on the back of the liver for those three vessels. And there's a ligament that holds them against the liver. And that becomes the pivot point for that rotation. So it's like here and here. So it rotates around that pivot point. This is why rotation also is such a powerful movement in fluid flow because it moves around vessels that are associated with fluid.
So understanding this anatomy allows us to get a little bit more clear when we're doing the movements. I always share that when you're doing any trunk movement around this area, you're going to affect the liver, but we can use trunk movement and really specifically to really target the liver versus the spine or the ribcage moving.
And the, the, the rotation is actually a perfect example of this. So if my microphone is my spine, the fluid structures, the abdominal aorta, the um, vena cava, and the cistern chyle are just off the side of the vertebrae. It's not right on the middle. It's not right along the middle of the spine at all. It's just off the side to the right.
And so that means when we can, when we would embody liver rotation, we want to think about the axis being just the right side of the spine versus the spine itself. Now this is very nuanced. It's very like, specific and precise, but in your body, it feels very different. It feels very different to think about just moving the ribs.
Even, even let's forget about the liver just right now. Think about your rib cage and your rib bones and moving them into right rotation. Okay. Versus the midline, the spine and the spine unraveling into rotation. Do you feel how the quality of that is different? Now if we think about the area of the liver and we think about the axis being just off the spine, and this Big, heavy lobe of the right liver swinging around that axis.
Do you feel even how different that is? And to me, I feel actually more of a diaphragm stretch when I do it that way, which makes sense to me because the diaphragm is so intimately connected with the liver, but knowing the detail of anatomy and cueing that detail of anatomy makes a difference in the mobility.
Same thing of the. Lateral flexion, which is basically the movement that's going to be associated with the superior and inferior glide that's happening. If I'm imagining it coming from the corners of the triangular ligaments, and I know where that is, right? The sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. left side of my diaphragm to that midclavicular line and then sort of that whole right area.
If I can imagine the pivot, those being my pivots. Now when I swing into lateral flexion, which is superior gland of the liver on the right, It feels different than just Side bending it feels like oh, yeah, I can actually yeah, I can imagine I can see how that feels like my whole liver moving and then same thing with the anterior posterior rule if you can imagine those the ligaments and their diaphragm interacting around the around the liver like a steering wheel, then you can imagine what it feels like for the diaphragm to lift up and over the liver to roll to help with the anterior roll and the posterior roll, right?
It is that ball and socket motion. And so that's going to be associated with flexion and extension at the thoracolumbar junction, but again, in that very specific space between T5 and T10. So, This knowledge of the suspensory ligaments and the mobility, it can be so powerful in making our interventions more precise and specific.
And whenever we can make our things, whether it be assessment or treatment, more precise and specific, we're going to get better results. Um, so that brings me to the lymph love regen session and I, and you know, I wanted to go over sort of my programming. Thoughts with that because you get to see this thoughtfulness of the anatomy and the relationships of the anatomy And, And how we can exploit those in movement to get really specific in our cueing and specific in our intention and our programming.
Right? Cause at first glance you might see this and be like, Oh, yeah, it's just punch spine mobility and breathing. And da, da, da. But I'm like, Yes. You But with the intentional cues, it becomes a swelling reduction or a liver mobility regen session. And it actually does then feel different. So as with every regen session, I start with a body scan check in, and that's because it's hard to make a change if we don't know where we started.
So you got to know where you start in order to see where you're going. And so we want to always start with the body skin or maybe even a little range of motion check. So if I were checking ranges of motion associated with the liver, I or checking objective measures associated with the liver, if there's swelling, I'm checking circumference measurements.
If in pulses, distal pulses, if, um, I might check trunk rotation, hip flexion, um, shoulder flexion, neck range of motion. Those are all great checks for the liver. From the body scan, I move quickly into clavicle mobility. The reason why, well specifically around the clavicle mobility, I do a subclavius release.
Again, if it's going to be intentional for the I want it to be affecting the lymph and the swelling quite a bit. So subclavius is the quick spot to open up that retroclavicular or costoclavicular space for the thoracic duct. Also, it's stimulating the supraclavicular sensory nerves, which share the nerve root with the phrenic nerve.
So I'm already giving the phrenic nerve some better information that's going to affect all the things that the phrenic nerve innervates. So starting with the clavicle self massage, then clavicle mobility and sensory work, then I move into scapular mobility for the same reasons. Scapular mobility for the relationship to the cervical plexus and the Phrenic nerve, as well as the accessory nerve.
The accessory nerve is a cranial nerve that shares, shares some space, some territory with the vagus nerve. So I know that's going to support my gut organs a lot, my thoracic organs a lot, and my general, like, swelling and inflammation. As well as the function of the upper trap and the diaphragm are very linked together probably from this actual connection between the accessory nerve, the Okay.
vagus nerve and the phrenic nerve and the cervical plexus roots. So we do that. Then I go into cervical mobility. Why do you think I'm doing that? Because I want to start moving C3, C4, C5 because I'm going to intentionally target the phrenic nerve. From there I do trigeminal nerve stimulation, some scalp stuff.
Same concept, opening up the cranium, opening up the neck spaces, down regulating the nervous system to be more of a parasympathetic state. So we're in that rest regeneration state and also relying upon these cross communications between some very specific cranial nerves, trigeminal nerve, facial nerve, accessory nerve.
vagus nerve, glossopharyngeal nerve, all of these things together are going to have a good influence on the organs and the nerve that are going to relate to the liver, as well as decreasing swelling, opening up the spaces of the neck. So then I move into some thoracic mobility and a spinal roll down. So specifically with the spinal roll down, I'm focusing on that anterior and posterior roll of the ball and socket.
of the liver. So that's what the, that's what I'm really cueing in this movement is especially on the segments between T5 and L1. Can we imagine this garage door motion of up and over the liver, up and over the liver. Then, um, I don't think it's actually in the class, though sometimes I add on to that.
Ragdoll. Ragdoll is a very similar, we get the anterior posterior roll, but now we also get the superior and inferior glide of the liver by adding lateral flexion and rotation into it. Um, the rotation, because we start with lateral flexion, is a little bit less, but we'll get to rotation In a bit for a second next here, and then from there, come down and do seated lateral flexion.
So again, you could even queue at the triangular ligaments, but this is what we're really doing is we're working on that. Motion of the liver, opening up of the space around the diaphragm and the ribs, then trunk rotation. And now when I'm doing trunk rotation, I might start with a base, some basic just trunk rotation, but then I want to start cueing the livers.
I put, I have the patient put the hands on the liver and I, you know, cue that just off the midline, just off the spine to the right. Imagine rotating around those structures. How would that feel in your body? Can you feel them sort of like ringing out? And then, um, we move on to some pelvic clocks and The pelvic clocks really are to set us up for this next exercise Which is targeting the psoas and the reason why I'm targeting the psoas is because there's this very deep Connection between the psoas and the diaphragm and so it's also going to help open up More mobility around the liver more mobility to allow for that free anterior posterior roll So from there, I move into a da Vinci stretch or da Vinci rolling pattern with the breath.
This is a wonderful exercise because it stretches out the diaphragm specifically in rotation. As well as it involves rotation and also does this rotation and diaphragm stretch with a very lengthened psoas position. So again, we're playing with this relationship between the limbs and the trunk and how the limbs are amplifiers of rotation.
And so we're using them to amplify this rotational pattern. And then that's it. You can finish with legs up the wall, um, but then you want to finish with a body scan and see where you go. But that, that is like as simple as that regen session is. It's so powerful. But again, you can get even more specific by cueing the anatomy that we just learned about the liver.
Um, or thinking about that, right? Even when you're maybe one of the ways like that I could demonstrate this from a clinician patient standpoint is like, let's say instead of da Vinci rolling, you just picked a 90, 90 trunk rotation stretch. You can be very specific around the liver by placing a bolster or your hand at those specific spinal segment points to make sure the fulcrum is moving around T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10.
versus just at T12 or above that, right? You get really specific on where you place your hands, even on the trunk, right? Like I'm going to place a lot of hand on the right side versus the left side. If I'm trying to really facilitate liver rotation, no matter if I'm rotating to the right or the left, side bending to the right or the left.
If I want to facilitate more liver, my hand's going to be more on the right side. So knowing these little anatomy, pieces can be really powerful in the intentionality of your movement, the intentionality of your manual therapy. So this is the liver. Again, you can't get enough of the liver. I was feeling very bloated, very, um, Inflamed from the travel, I drank, you know, like four days in a row, which I haven't done in a really long time, not like binge drinking, but just like, you know, one or two drinks each night, which is a lot for me.
It was, you know, right around the beginning of my menstrual cycle. And so I was just in that. Like luteal phase of like just feeling cruddy. Plus I have a tendency towards like lymph congestion. I haven't been doing great about not eating wheat. So again, just real inflamed and swollen. I took myself off my thyroid medicine.
So again, all these things that would make me like really feel not so great and super congested. And so I was kind of feeling down about it. Um And I saw a picture of myself from the business meeting and I just was like so puffy. And so the next day I was like, you know what? I know how to deal with this.
I'm just gonna do my lymph love movement session. Move my body. See if I can get the swelling out. And wow, wow, made such a difference. And I'd say like the crazy thing too is like when you, for me at least, when I really get the fluid moving in my body, I start going to the bathroom a lot. Like my kidneys are like, yes, let's go.
We can actually like get rid of stuff. And, um, I am based, it's basically like I'm peeing water for Like three to five days straight because I'm like finally like letting go of all that Extracellular fluid and oh my gosh, it feels so good and ironically so when I was down there for vacation I did this actually did this lymph love regen session, but then I also Got a massage and a facial mostly for relaxation, but also in the thought of like, I'm super inflamed.
Like it'll be good to get some massage to help with the limp. And I gotta be honest with you. Like if, if it was the whole reason I was doing it was that like what a waste of 500 because I got so much more out of the movement focused for the lymph flow with the liver focused movements. Anything else like it was so noticeable like I was, you know, I felt better the day I got a massage.
Cause I did all this stuff the day before, but then like I got the massage and the facial, not really changed. And then later in the day I did another session of the lymph LoVE. And then like same thing, like tons of peeing just, just literally feel the fluid like leaving. And so it was like so powerful, A reminder of how easy it is to, to help our body do its thing when we can get really specific and precise with one, our assessment, right?
That's what they all talked all about, but then two, like even our treatment. So hopefully this was, um, a good episode for you. You appreciate it. Hopefully too, you're starting to see whether you've been listening a while or you just listening in this episode, like hopefully you can see now that like you don't need to learn visceral manipulation to have a huge effect on the viscera.
You just need to change your lens of view of the body and your knowledge of anatomy. That's what it comes down to. So enjoy, let me know what you think and we'll see you next week.