Why Essentrics is Essential with Susan B.

Time to get moving! This week's show sheds some light on a little-known (but positively excellent) exercise program called Essentrics, which might just hold the secrets to unlocking the body stiffness most of us experience as we age. 

This week's guest is Susan, a former Essentrics coach who's been doing their workouts herself for many years. She describes the program as "One of the best things that's ever happened to me," and it's easy to see why: it's musical, whimsical and puts lots of emphasis on staying fit & limber without pushing yourself too hard.

While most exercise plans focus on concentric movements like weight lifting, Essentrics instead prioritizes eccentric movements, which use the muscles fully extended and don't require weights of any kind. As Susan explains, they pack a ton of benefits for anyone with stiff joints or trouble moving around. Just look at Susan herself! At 76 years old, she can still get on her hands and knees to play with her baby grandson - and even stand back up with him in her arms.

And the best news? You don't even need to leave your house! There are in-person Essentrics classes running all over the place, but if you can't find one near you, they also have a huge repository of classes available to stream online at essentrics.com. For any of our listeners in the USA, you can also find their workouts on PBS, under the name "Classical Stretch."

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

You are listening to What's Next? Conversations with Boomers. And I'm Barb Demaray, your host. Now, on this show, we have talked about exercise a couple of times. We had an episode on strength training. We also had an episode with the Super Agers, David Cravitt and Larry Wolf, talking about what we as boomers need to do in terms of exercise. Today we have another episode on exercise. And this is a specific exercise program I think you're all going to love. It's not a sponsor. I'm not promoting them in any way that benefits me. It's just simply for your information. Really interesting. It is called Eccentrics. And I have a feeling that most of you have never heard of it. And I just learned about it through my sister, I don't know, maybe 10, 12 years ago. And I really loved it. Today we have a guest on who is an avid follower, supporter, participant of Ecentrics. And she also has taught it a lot. Her name is Susan, and she does not work for Eccentrics, but knows a lot about it. And I knew that she would be the perfect guest. She's actually a friend of my sister's. So that was the connection. So Susan, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Thank you, Barb. It's my pleasure to be here. I have never done a podcast before, so it's a new experience for me. And we're all about new experiences, right? We're all about growth. Growth and new new avenues.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Right. Okay. So I know that you are not employed by eccentrics, as I said, but I would say that you're you're an enthusiastic participant. And you have been for some time. So what do you know about the origins? So, for example, where did the name come from?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So it's a very interesting name that they have for this technique. It's known either on PBS TV in the US as classical stretch or eccentrics. And it's spelt with two S's. It's a take on eccentric concentric stretching. Ecentric with a C C is elongated muscles. Elongation as ballerinas would do, dancers. And they changed it to ESS because that is the fundamental, I would say, concept of this form of dynamic stretching in motion. The muscles are elongated and then strengthened by moving them in the elongated position as opposed to the concentric stretching one often finds lifting weights, where you shorten the muscle and strengthen it in the shortened position. And this is sort of a fundamental concept of the program. You elongate and by strengthening your muscles in that lengthened position, you open up your joints, and there are remarkable stories of solving pain issues from this approach. It made so much sense to me, sort of intellectually, when I came across it, that that is part of the reason that I fell in love with the technique at age 63. Which was a few years ago, right? It was a number of years ago, yes. 13 to be exact. 13 to be exact. So I hope that answers the question about the name. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Now, do you want to say a little bit about Miranda Esmond White, who is the founder and what we call her the head of the owner of Eccentrix?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Yes. So Miranda Esmond White was a ballerina, uh, went into ballet school at age 10, I believe, at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada. And so has a dance background. And she is the creator of this technique. And Miranda was a dancer. I believe at some point in her 20s, she might have had an injury that ended her dancing career. And then down the road, she got into the fitness industry and had a studio. She herself suffered from very severe back pain at times and realized that the type of exercise that was out there, aerobics and so on, was not actually, it was bulking up her body. It was not keeping the long, lean, strong dancer body. So she decided to completely rework and create this program, which is always done to music, and it has choreographed sequences. And I think the other thing that's incredibly important is that we have approximately 650 skeletal muscles in our body. And Miranda's philosophy is you must work and touch all of those muscles. You can't just work a part of your body. So it's a full-body program.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

And I want to add that Miranda right now, she is in her, would you say late 70s?

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Yes, later 70s, approximately 77, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

And she's a joy to watch. And you mentioned the music. And that's one of the things when I started doing eccentrics online, the music was just, it was just part of the experience. Because I was you, I did aerobics for many, many years. And you know, the when I was in my 20s, the music was great. And then after a while, I just thought, stop all that pounding. I just, and eccentrics, it's so gentle. And you can tell when you watch Miranda that I'm she does mention often that she was a ballerina, but her flexibility, you know, when I see her touch her toes, and you know, when she's doing any kind of a forward band type thing, and she's I think, oh my goodness. So it's sort of like she really hasn't lost that flexibility and strength that she acquired when she was a dancer.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yes, I would say that's true. And then another very important part of this whole eccentrics program is that her daughter, Sarah, was so intrigued in the early stages of Miranda's developing this method of dynamic stretching that she really felt that it was important to sort of take it out there. So, together as a mother-daughter team and another business partner, they've taken this out so that it doesn't just exist in one small studio in eastern Canada. It's gone worldwide. And Miranda had her workouts on PBS, has her workouts on PBS for at least 25 years from the early 2000s on uh PBS, which is an American public television. And there it was known as Classical Stretch.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Right. Now the program did start in Montreal, and there that's when most of the studio is ours. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yes, that's correct. There is one studio that is company owned. It's a head office studio. It's right in the heart of Montreal, and they offer classes uh six days a week by various highly trained master trainers of Eccentrics. I'm very fortunate that I'm I was born and brought up in Montreal. I moved away and lived elsewhere for a long time, but that is part of how I fell into it. A neighbor was talking about this, and I don't know if this is the right place to say this, but I am someone who has always lived an active life, but not a workout life. I never found anything that I could stick with. I'm not super flexible, and so yoga wasn't a good fit for me. I dabbled in it like everyone has, and Pilates as well. And so I was actually stunned that I I'm an addict, frankly, uh, of this program. And it's not hard to do. I it's such a good fit for me personally. And this is what I find talking to other people that are committed. We're all like, it feels like we're in a cult sometimes, you know. It's so we're so giddy. And it for myself speaking personally, I just never get tired of it. It's fantastic. I feel very lucky.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Well, what attracted me right away was how effective it was, but I wasn't, you know, having to turn myself into a pretzel. It wasn't hardcore. When I started doing aerobics and it got harder and harder, I mean, that's pretty heavy duty. Centrics is not, but that is not to say that it's not doing something for your body. It's not effective. And that's one of the reasons I think that it's so appealing to our demographic, because that's what we want. I always say to people, the only exercise program that you're gonna keep up is one that you like. Because people, oh, I do this and I love it, or I do this and I do this. But if you don't like it, you're not gonna go back. So eccentrics is a program that I bet you use come across a lot of other addicts.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yes, yes. I have. At retreats that eccentrics have put on in different parts of the world. I've been to a few, not all. And certainly at the studio, we all smile at each other and we all on the way in and on the way out, we are so happy and feel so good afterwards. It's an unbelievable connection with people.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

I think that's great. Okay, one of their selling points is that doing eccentrics, you can actually age backwards.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Can you talk about that? Yes, I can. And I'll just hold up this is Miranda's first book, Aging Backwards. And that's I think it was published in about 2014. It was on the New York Times bestseller list, as far as I know. And um, for anyone who'd like to find out more, it's a great book to read. But I can speak to Aging Backwards because having not been sort of a workouty kind of person, I found by my mid-50s and kind of late 50s that if I blitzed on gardening for eight hours, I was like hardly able to move the next day. Whereas when I was younger, I could just do that and get over it. But I noticed there was sort of a change around that age. And so what I have noticed with my body, and I know started noticing it quite quickly. So I didn't go into this being particularly fit and certainly not flexible, and I did not have strong muscles particularly. I mean, I was okay, but nothing special. And I have noticed that I have built a lot of muscle, and this was all in my 60s. You know, there's a myth out there that you can't build muscles when you get older. I I beg to differ. I've toned on my arms, my quads are much stronger. So I have, with my own eyes and seeing changes in my own body, my posture has changed and opened up. I have seen real, really concrete changes in my body. And I would venture to say that I'm more fit now and I'm 76 than I was in my 50s.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

That's remarkable. And I want to add, we are always told at this age that one of the most important things for us to do is strength training. And eccentrics uses no weight, it's all our body weight.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

That is correct. So it's based on the use of, you know, gravity, the force of gravity. And so it's using our own body weight. In fact, because you're working in an elongated muscle position, it's it's actually contraindicated. It's not safe to add exterior weights. You just use the weight of your own arm because you're you're then especially you're more vulnerable in when your muscles are extended. So using my own body weight has greatly strengthened my muscles. So there's a big component of strength training as well as flexibility and increasing the range of motion in the joints. And I would also add that you might not feel if you were to start this, you know, right out of the blue as I did, you might not feel too much the first one or two sessions. But if you give yourself a chance and don't overdo it, you're going to find that as your flexibility increases, the work actually gets harder. So for me, after 13 years of doing this pretty regularly, I don't ever feel there's a ceiling or I've hit the end. I feel like I can always go further. And I love that.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

I know too with eccentrics, because as I mentioned, I've only done it online because we don't have certainly not close to me. There's no studio, but they have set prayer. Okay, here's classes for the 40 plus A's group, here's classes for the 50 plus, 60 plus, 70 plus. Do you stick to your own age category or do you do whatever the well, because you're not doing it online. Are you sometimes doing it online, Susan?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

When I'm here, I sign up and get a monthly pass and go basically every day if I can. But when I'm not here, I do use ETV, which has in excess of I think three, four hundred videos available. They're fabulous. The classical stretch seasons are 23 minutes each. And I actually depend on that. I rely on it to keep up with this because it feels so good. I really don't want to go backwards in the wrong sense of going backwards.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Such a good testament to this program. So I was going to ask you what drew you to it, but you've kind of answered that, unless you want to say more.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Well, the actual way in which I stumbled into it really was that a neighbor of mine here had had mentioned it, that there was this program that was dance-based and, you know, and it was close by. It was literally the studio was at that time, it's a little further now, but it was literally four minutes away. But I kind of was saying to myself, oh yeah, an exercise program, I'll never follow. You know, like I my history was to maybe go once or twice, and that was it, you know. So I wasn't thinking I would become hooked on this, but I heard it from a neighbor, and then it's kind of a fun story. The local Montreal Gazette, there was a feature of Sarah, the daughter, in a deep plie training the famous Montreal Canadian hockey team. And she had her back to the camera and the whole team was in front, following her. And I twigged that the studio my friend was talking about was related to this picture. And I thought, gosh, if the Montreal Canadians are doing something like this, this must be a pretty worthwhile program. So then I Googled it and wandered over and signed up for a one-month boot camp, not knowing what I was getting into. And pretty much from the first session, I'd signed up for a month, so I was going to go. And I signed up, and and honestly, by say day two, I was loving it. I felt like I came in. I became an addict right from there.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Yeah, well, that would probably sell me too. Okay, if it's good enough for the hockey team, then this must be this must be pretty good. Now, what makes it stand out in your opinion from other exercise programs? So I was saying that, you know, I had done many, many aerobics. I also do yoga, I've done some Pilates classes. So, what makes this stand apart from other programs that people probably have tried and might be doing?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

It's hard to put my finger on it exactly. But as I mentioned earlier, I'm not a very flexible person. So yoga and holding those deep stretches never felt right for me. And I wasn't very good at it. Pilates had a lot of equipment, and I wasn't always in a situation where I could partake of that. When I started as eccentrics, it just felt intuitively so right. It is based on the natural body movements, and there's a lot of attention to safety and clean alignment. And I would say after doing thousands of classes and workouts, which it is by now, I have never once felt that a move, a true eccentrics move, was ever unsafe. And I've never injured myself in all that time. So I love the fact that it is there's virtually no equipment other than maybe a floor mat, occasionally an elastic band, but there's nothing added. It's just you and your body and possibly a mat. Mirrors are used at the studio and they're very helpful because there's a lot of attention to body position and clean alignment. We build up things over our lifetimes where things get out of alignment. And that is the source of pain. I really believe that. So it's very simple but quite complex at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Right. I found that to be as well. When you said there's no equipment, you're right, except she does use bands sometimes. And another thing she likes to use is a hemorrhoid cushion, right? And I always, you know, when I first heard that, and you know, when I was watching one of the classes, I thought, does everybody have a hemorrho?

SPEAKER_01 17:09

It's just something soft to sit on. It is kind of funny to see that in in the videos where Miranda introduces us. I think for some people, lying on your side, like doing the side leg lift component of the program, it's quite hard on the hip. I sounded a little hard at the very beginning. I'm always on a just a regular yoga or studio mat. But funnily enough, after I kind of think toned up a little bit, I do it without, I've never used a hemorrhoid cushion. And I often do the workout without even the Sarah band, but I just love that simplicity. So therefore, it's very portable. You could do it in a hotel room, you could do it on your back porch. You know, I love the simplicity of that.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Me too. Well, another thing she does use, which everybody has, is a chair, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yes, that's correct. And in the studio here in Montreal, we use bars, which are two-level ballet bars. And so often the workouts are standing and full-body trademark exercises, a lot of work in the upper body and corrective posture or opening up as we're all working and moving forward all the time. So we tend all of us, including certainly myself, very tight in the back here. So I I've actually changed my posture from the years of doing this program. Uh, so there's the standing work. Often in a one-hour workout, you'll get a mat work and then bar work where you work on the bar. And it's it's lovely when you're in an hour-long class to get all three components. There are some videos that are an hour long. For example, the class of 2012, one of my very favorites, and you get all three components in that particular workout online.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Because most of the online classes are only about 30 minutes, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yes, some are 15 and targeted. One of the things I love doing when I'm, you know, working on my own, I could be a bit of a procrastinator, even though I love this. So I often will open up a classical stretch season or some of the new videos they're producing right now, which are 23 minutes. That was the time for TV. It was like a half-hour program and then a few ads. So the workouts were always 23 minutes, but it's it's a magical number because psychologically it doesn't seem too hard to do it. It goes quickly and yet it's very effective. So when I'm working out on my own, I'll often go to the 23 minute videos and then maybe do two because once you get started, it's easy to continue. But 30 minutes, some are 15. And they've broken down the workouts to target different parts of the body, back pain, hip work, you know, the whole torso is worked in this program.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Shoulder. I know she talks a lot about people who have frozen shoulder. This would be a good one.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Yes. And all humans tend to be like we work forward, everything's ahead of us, you know, and especially now with computer work, I think we're going to be producing a whole generation of people who they're stuck in front of that computer for five hours. And I think this could be an unbelievable technique to compensate for staying in that position too long. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

If somebody is 65 years old, they've never been in an exercise class before, would you recommend it for somebody that has not worked out before?

SPEAKER_01 20:28

I would because you know you touched on earlier, beginner, intermediate, and advanced, but essentially the moves are the same. And the only difference, in my opinion, is a more advanced practitioner would maybe be able to go a little further in the stretch. That's what changes, is how deeply you can do it. So, as I did, I started off at a very modest level, but the entry point is perfectly fine for I was 63 when I started and I hadn't been doing any exercise at all. So you just start and you do your best at the exercises, and it's non-judgmental. And as Miranda constantly says, if you're in pain, go to the edge of pain, but don't ever ignore it or push through it. Just go there and you will find your body, which is a miracle. Our bodies are miracles. But gradually, as you as you work and don't push into pain, your body will actually start to change and respond. And so there's a big focus on gentle movement, as Miranda has said in in a lot of her videos, which are also online. The mantra of no pain, no gain, which is the philosophy of a lot of people going to gyms, pushing hard, it can actually not be beneficial. Muscles can strengthen more when you're not too tight or stressed, or you know, when you have the ability to relax but work them where things can slide and move, you'll actually get stronger faster. I believe that. So there's a lot of educational, I guess I'd like to add that. Another reason that this program has appealed so much to me, and I hear other people saying this as well, is there's a lot of scientific underpinning and information in this program about how our bodies work. And that educational component to me has been fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

I agree. I like that part of the program as well. She's always, you know, talking about the no pain, no gain and why that is not good. She's often talking about it's okay if the muscles hurt a little bit. You don't want a knife pain when you've got that knife-like pain, then that's that's no good and to stop. And I really love that. She explains this is for this. You know, this will help you do this. This will be beneficial for whatever. And yeah, it's a really good all-round program. So if you're 65, you've never done an exercise class before, in fact, you've not really exercised before, which that does account for a lot of people, this program would suit you perfectly.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Could I just interject there? I think one important thing is if people have specific medical issues, such as maybe they've had a hip replacement, knee replacement, you know, it is always wise to consult with your doctor, I would say, for your own safety and just speak to a medical professional. But I would just add that common sense advice for anybody. But yes, in my opinion, because I was that person, had been doing nothing. I was moderately fit, but I wasn't like an intense athlete or anything at all. And I just went right into it. And it's sort of an ageless program, as far as I'm concerned. Uh at the studio, there can be 23-year-old students in the class. It can be the whole range. I might be the oldest at this point, but not always, you know. I mean, it's that's also a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah, a mix of ages. I like that. And what about genders? Are there more women than men? Is there an even mix of women? What do you experience?

SPEAKER_01 24:03

It's not an even mix. It is heavily weighted towards women, but men do come. You know, Miranda herself has trained the Montreal Canadians, the strength and conditioning coach of the Montreal Canadians at one point wanted his athletes to improve the flexibility aspect. So they worked with various Olympic athletes. They worked with a well-known female Olympic level ice skater. So, in general, I would say in the classes and at the retreats and so on, it is mostly women. But there are men who who love it. There are medical, you know, doctors. There are a lot of men who have bought into this as well.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Who knows how many people participate online?

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Right? Because there also is the category of people that want to exercise, but no thanks. I don't want to go to a class. So they're much more comfortable doing it in their own home. So and I was going to ask you about the demographic, but you've kind of answered that. So it's a whole range. As young as 23, I'm sure there are people in their 80s that do it.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Yeah, absolutely. And it I feel it's something I could and would like to try to keep going with. I don't see an end. I I just really hope that I I feel this is keeping me vibrant and young. And if my circumstances are such as they were recently, about a month ago, where I couldn't do the workups, I was out of an internet connection location. And honestly, I'm telling you, after a week of not doing it, I could feel things happening in my body. And I just did not feel the fluidity. So I feel like I'm completely dependent on this program at this point.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

It really yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

I I mean it's like one of the best things that's ever happened to me in my entire life is to have found this by chance.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

You've represented the program so well. The company, I'm sure, will appreciate very much how you've promoted it and raved about it. Is there anything else that you'd like to add?

SPEAKER_01 26:02

What I've been saying, it really comes from the heart for me. I can be a bit of a skeptical person when it comes to the wellness industry and all the pills and the this and the latest, this and that. I'm a bit of a skeptic. So when I go on and on, I mean, my son has even told me that I have to chill a bit. You know, I at the beginning, I was so like, I couldn't believe it that I was like going on and on and telling everybody about it. I had to sort of like calm down a little, you know. It was a bit my it was like an evangelical, you know, it was the it was unbelievable. But what I guess I would just wanted to add there was that when you hear me talking this sort of enthusiastically about it after 13 years, I'm not faking it. I mean, I I this for me, my experience has been so unbelievable. I'd say it's like actually one of the best experiences of my entire life. I've met incredible people through it. One other thing I would like to add is in parallel with their fantastic website, their ETV, my personal ability to attend their studio, and anyone can come and attend, but they have this fantastic, four-level, well-thought-out training program to teach people to teach this program or learn, take it to another level for their own learning. And it's quite academic. Uh, there's a lot of material about the body and how the body works. I've known people to say it's one of the best, most rigorous training programs they've ever run into. And these are people who've been trained in other athletic methodologies. So I've loved the, and whoever would have thought that at the grand old age of 68, I became a level one instructor, which is how I met your sister. I offered classes and she called me, and she was one of my students at the period of time where I was teaching.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

I was just going to ask you about your teaching because I know that you have taught.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Are you still teaching? I mean, at this moment in time, I am not teaching. I'd love to teach again, but I moved between two different cities in Canada. And of course, the pandemic came along and shut down a lot of live stuff, which is when my stint teaching in Vancouver came to an end because of the pandemic. And then I took up teaching again at a cancer wellness center and love that the it's a problem I can probably solve, but I just because I move around a little bit, it's hard to sometimes teach consistently.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

If somebody wants to learn more about eccentrics, can you give the website?

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Yes. So the website is eccentrics.com and it's spelled esn t-r-i-c s dot com. The head office is in Montreal, and you can also seek it out under the name of Classical Stretch. The creator is Miranda Esmond White, and her daughter is a co-founder, Sarah Esmond White. So people would not have any trouble in finding it. I think they have trained over 3,000 uh instructors who have participated in their training program. And there are probably 1,500 certified instructors throughout the world. And one last thing I would add is if anyone is inclined to sign up for ETV, it's such a reasonable price for the quality of the material. Do it with a friend. You know, put it on your TV and get a couple of friends over, a friend. It's just so much fun. It's the next best thing to being in a live class.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Yeah. Well, as I said, I've never been in a live class. I've just done it in front of my TV. And I feel like I'm in a class. I feel like I'm in the room. And I tend to do exercise at night. I do a lot of things at night, not in the morning like most normal people do. So I can do it in the evening. Susan, just a huge thank you to you for coming on and sharing your knowledge and experience around eccentrics. It's been so interesting. And I know for sure we're going to have people that are going to watch this or listen to it and get on their computer and look it up and find out how they can participate. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

You are so welcome. It was a great pleasure to talk to you and to talk about what this has meant to me in my boomer years.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

In your boomer years. Yeah. Yeah. See all the things that we could still be doing. And as we said at the beginning, you know, continually growing.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

That's what we want to be doing, stretching our bodies and our minds and expanding, not width-wise, but my I have a little grandson who's turning one tomorrow and is well over 20 pounds now. And I can get down on, I can get down on my hands and knees, crawl around, and then when he wants to be picked up from the floor, I can get him into my arms and actually have the strength from this program to get straight up again and stand. So for that I'm very grateful.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Did you hear that, people? That is one thing that a lot of people complain. I can get down on the floor, but it's getting up, but I can't do it. Okay. Thank you again and enjoy the rest of your day.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Thank you so much and a pleasure meeting you.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

This episode was written and recorded by Barb Demaray, edited and produced by Aidan Glassy. As always, special thanks to our guests for making it possible. If you enjoyed and you'd like to hear more, follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow the show on YouTube at what's next.convos with boomers. Thanks for listening.