EP012: Body Shop with Meki Blackwell

I recently did my first (8-hour!) myofascial release session with my guest Meki Blackwell and it revealed a deeper perspective on how the body’s connective tissues work — I mean beyond what we all understand as “rolling out.” Are we taught how to move? Are we taught how to stand? We all know the answer to that, and it all leads to pain and premature aging.

 

Joins me today for an interesting dive into what it means to understand the mechanistic body as a holistic system.

 

 

 

Key Takeaways

 

From MeatHead to Body Shop [2:06] Simplified, myofascial release is what people call rolling out, right? Meki shares a metaphor — flossing your teeth is like rolling out, seeing her for treatment is like seeing your dental hygienist, easy enough!

 

So MORE stuff to do? [2:58] Eat right, exercise, meditate, yoga, myofascial release, and then your entire day is gone! Making offers that you don’t have to do all of that, but it doesn’t affect your quality of life.

 

Learning to move [3:38] Mekai explains that there are many body parts people tend to wrongfully grip in order to perform certain movements as well as the consequences of that. Tony shares his meathead experience and how treatment has helped him get better.

 

Intelligent fascia? [11:30] There is building evidence that the fascia is part of our overall nervous system, and a lot of nervous receptors are situated there and provide information on spatial awareness. Meki offers that though it may be controversial now, she believes the fascia to be part of human consciousness.

 

Type A boons [18:45] Type A people can really benefit from this kind of treatment. Meki shares some techniques she uses to help high-performance people get resolution on certain problems or difficult decision making.

 

Before and after pics! [25:30] Meki shares before and after pictures from her Instagram (see for yourself here!)

 

What about all the normals? [29:48] Meki does a lot of work with athletes but she shares how her treatments help normal non-athletes as well.

 

How long does it all take? [31:15] Tony asks if everyone’s session takes 8 HOURS!? Bodybuilder type bodies take longer since, in order to get to the multiple layers of fascia, many passes are required and more so when the muscles are larger.

 

[34:07] Tony closes out this week’s episode with a bit of a recap on the benefits of myofascial release noting that most training programs are optimized for either esthetics or performance and until recently, few of them integrated intentional recuperation but the trend is shifting.

 

If you want to see the second round, watch episode 11 of the Tony Wong Podcast here.

 

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