Z Health: the most powerful, and infuriating, fitness tool

Her back pain went from a 9 to a 2 after tracing the alphabet with her finger. It took :30 seconds

He couldn't lift his arm past shoulder level for years, then whacked his head with his bicep after doing a vision drill. It took :20 seconds.

He couldn’t move his neck following a medical emergency, but restored full range of motion by holding his breath and doing squats. :60 seconds.

I am not brilliant, I didn't stay at a Hiliday inn express, I study z health.   It is simultaneously the most powerful and infuriating fitness tool kit available.

What is Z health?

I’m going to leave something out but here we go. The core beliefs of Z health are:

• Everyone is an athlete.

• Your body is wired for survival, not performance.

• If one move can get you in pain, one move can get you out.

• It all starts with your brain. Every voluntary movement you make is created by your brain. If you want to really change the way you move, you have to start by changing the brain.

• Your Brian needs fuel, and activation to work optimally.

Highlight that 2nd to last one. That’s what makes Z health so frustrating. The brain doesn’t work the way most people would think it does. To change the brain you may have to do some really odd, random things.

Like tracing the alphabet with your index finger to relieve back pain.

Or doing an eye drill to relieve shoulder pain.

Or holding your breath to restore mobility.

People fight me on these. People who pay for my “expertise”. If you have neck issues and I say hold your breath you’re going to have questions.

I get it. I thought it was BS until I saw it work over and over again.

Time for an example

We tried everything. His neck wouldn’t move. We tried mobilizing the muscles of the neck. We tried mobilizing the muscles above and below the neck. We tried massage. We tried gliding and slacking the nerves.

I could go on.

His neck wouldn’t move.

Working with problems like this is frustrating. You make educated guesses and then test to see if the guess worked.

Nothing was working.

I went back into my Z health training. The brain is wired for survival. It was limiting motion in the neck to protect the client.

Protecting him from what? The tissue wasn’t damaged, nor was the surrounding musculature. This wasn’t any physical trauma to the neck.

Ok… what does the brain need? Fuel.

Fuel comes in the form of gaseous exchange “mainly focused on oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange and maintaining a healthy ratio of carbon dioxide in the body.”

Was the brain not receiving enough fuel? Let’s test.

He held his breath and performed 10 squats. This increased the amount of CO2 in the blood, pushing the Oxygen out (and into broader circulation, see the Bohr effect) and delivering more fuel.

His neck moved. It moved like it hadn’t in years.

Sometimes neck pain isn’t about the neck.

It’s about the brain.

Always.