You know I like talking digestion right? It’s the unsung hero of healthy bodies!! I was reminded of that again in Costa Rica chatting with so many who had found better health after talking to a functional medicine doctor. We’re going to get a little sciencey today, so buckle up. But don’t worry we’ll finish with action items thanks to Dr. Missy Albrecht DPT, founder of Invincible.
A lot of the things I learned in physical therapy school blew my mind.
In particular, when my professor fixed my lower back pain by working on the mobility of my intestines.{I know it sounds crazy, keep reading!}
Which is why I am so passionate in my own practice about linking movement and nutrition through a practice called visceral mobility.
Healing Chronic Fatigue with Food
Before I started physical therapy school I’d been dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome, which basically meant I was sick and tired all the time.
The successful treatment of that was learning about food intolerances. Removing specific foods helped to eliminate the main systemic issues going on in my body, but that change didn’t address years of the damage to my intestines from eating a food my body couldn’t process.
Our bodies respond to these foods intolerances as foreign objects, creating an inflammatory response to get rid of them.
This chronic inflammation causes scar tissue (also referred to as adhesions) to build up inside the intestines, decreasing their motility (movement inside the intestine) and their mobility (movement between the intestines and other tissue/organs), thus creating a cascade event that doesn’t allow surrounding nerves and muscles to function properly.
Amanda’s Note: All of this means that when you aren’t going to the bathroom daily and you aren’t digesting food properly, your entire body suffers the inflammation. That means aching knees and as you’ll see issues with our hips.
Visceral mobility (aka visceral manipulation) is a general term to describe this movement between organs that we need to have proper function of all systems of our body.
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Visceral Manipulation Explained
Visceral manipulation is a technique that was developed by Jean-Pierre Barral, D.O. of the Barral Institute. During more than 40 years of practice, he has found that “visceral mobilization increases proprioceptive communication within the body, thereby revitalizing a person relieving symptoms of pain, dysfunction and poor posture.”
He has also found that “musculoskeletal dysfunction may self-correct after proper visceral mobilization.”
Our abdominal organs (aka visceral) are woven in a network of fascia, a web-like tissue structure that transports nutrients and holds our body in place, which also allows for movement. This network of fascia is connected to the fascia in your foot, arm, hip, etc. Which means a disruption in the fascia surrounding your viscera can also disrupt surrounding joints, nerves, muscles and blood vessels.
For example, the adhesions in my gut were found where the small intestine meets the large intestine in my right lower quadrant of my abdomen. It was affecting the hip flexor and surrounding fascia, causing my pelvis to be out of alignment and presenting as lower back pain.
Imagine if fixing your gut could cure your knee, hip and IT Band issues! It can #eatwell Click To TweetThings that create dysfunction in visceral mobility include:
- Incorrect breathing (weak diaphragm)
- Unhealthy diet (inflammatory foods & poor digestion)
- Poor elimination (from poor hip angle during elimination and other factors).
- Bad posture (slouching compresses the viscera and doesn’t allow for natural movement/breathing)
What happens if we let the inflammation go unchecked?
- Poor levels of recovery between your workout session
- Aches and pains making it challenging to continue to exercise
- Feeling so burnout, with a loss of drive or motivation to perform the exercises you are attempting to do
- Greater risk for over training as your immune system is weakened and cannot repair tissue damage as quickly
Visceral Manipulation Resolves Hip Issues
One of the most common things I see, that relates to visceral mobility, is issues with the hip flexors.
Because of the proximity of the hip flexors to our visceral organs, a lot of people have pain in their hips, low back or tight hips.
A common sign is someone who constantly works on their hip flexors, using a ball to massage the muscle, and it just tightens up a few days later. Or maybe never releases. A lot of times this is a posture/movement issue, but even more often I find restrictions in their viscera.
After a few minutes of working this area, I can re-test the hip mobility or pain area and it’s usually improved without even working on the hip flexor!
Using visceral mobility as a tool in my physical therapy practice has made a huge impact on the entire wellness of my patients and athletes.
As you can see in the photo above, the Visceral Manipulation process simply includes applying gentle force to specific areas of the core to eliminate adhesions and improve movement through the intestines. This holistic practice has been around for ages, but is now used by more Physical Therapists seeking to find lasting relief for patients.
Addressing this area, even when people have no known digestion issues, has taken my patients’ healing to the next level.
My treatment philosophy is focused on self-care so this is a huge piece of the homework I give to my patients as well as preventative work I teach in my group classes/workshop in the Denver area and online through my Thrive Movement & Mobility Program. I have also realized that the viscera can’t gain full mobility if nutrition is not being addressed. I have teamed up with various nutrition specialists to ensure that my patients are addressing this piece of the puzzle.
How to Try Visceral Mobility
I want to leave you guys with some tips to get started on your own visceral mobility journey:
Improve Posture
If you’re having pain anywhere in your body (back, knee, abdomen, etc.) you’re most likely taking the pain posture… slouching. This will only feed the cycle of poor visceral mobility by cutting off blood flow and impairing digestion. Check in with yourself throughout the day to ensure you’re maintaining good spinal alignment and shoulders back.
Deep Squats
Spending time in a deep squat improves tissue and joint mobility, as well as improving pelvic position for elimination. I recommend spending time in a deep squat (supported on a yoga block or something similar) throughout your day. As well as investing in a squatty potty to improve your hip position and aid in proper elimination. Straining will not only limit your elimination, but will also increase stress in your body and strain your pelvic floor muscles.
Belly Breathing
This is a great way to naturally mobilize the visceral and keep them moving, as well as strengthen your diaphragm. Place one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest. Focus on deep inhales and exhales, only allowing the belly hand to move. *make sure you aren’t bearing down like you’re going to the bathroom*
Gut mobility using the coregeous ball from Yoga Tune Up. This tool has been my favorite way of teaching my patients and athletes how to work on their visceral mobility on their own. It is less specific than having educated hands working on you, but allows the organs to be gently moved as well as the surrounding tissue. 
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Extra benefits include relaxation and improved breathing. I have an online course to instruct people how to use this ball for visceral mobility here. I also teach people how to use it via in-person sessions, skype and in the online Thrive Movement & Mobility Program.
Assess Nutrition
If you improve your visceral mobility but don’t get rid of the cause you’ll never fully heal. Things like inflammatory foods, food intolerances, low acid production and low enzyme production will continuously limit visceral mobility. This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect all the time! But you should go through a healing period where you are perfect so your body is strong enough to handle the cheats. This is out of my scope of practice, which is why I recommend all of my patients work with a nutrition specialist on these issues.
I’m so grateful to be able to share this amazing information with the world and look forward to hearing about everyone’s journey with visceral mobility!
Man thanks to Missy for diving in to this area! I know it’s a new topic for so many you, but after sharing how digestion impacts our health I know you were looking for more! Learn more about Missy and my favorite recovery spot Denver Sports Recovery!
Have you ever noticed changes in your gut effecting your runs?
I have!! Removing dairy actually helped my IT Band!
Have you heard of gut mobility before?
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This is so interesting! I am a huge believer that our bodies can heal themselves in most instances. I’m also a huge believer in chiropractic and physical therapy to help us get there. Great post!
I’d believe it! A few years ago I suffered from terrible digestive problems and this spread to other areas of my health. After removing a bunch of foods I was intolerant/sensitive too it was crazy the changes I felt! From of course better digestion, to better energy, less anxiety.
There are so many good points in this post! I am going to save this so I can read it again and make sure I didn’t miss anything! Thank you for sharing this! I think it will help a lot of people!
This is so interesting. It’s funny how gut health is emerging as such an important aspect of health right now. Very cool that you use it in your physical therapy practice too.
This is so interesting! Especially since I had so many issues with my hips over the past couple years after taking a spill and than having my hips popping out and after years of no relief finally getting some from the chiropractor. Switching up my workouts and knock on wood no issues for the last 6 months or so. I will have to really have to ponder this more though and try some of it.
WOW, this makes sense, but I’ve never thought about it before. I usually have a lot of tightness in my hips but not pain? Would this still help?
This is so true! I had a PT discover this for me. I’m unfortunately mildly allergic / intolerant to so many foods that I can’t avoid eating them. If I avoided all of them I’d be on a diet of meat and water. I can’t do that! I will say that when I was cutting out all of them (yikes) for the few months I tried it DID help. And I know when I’ve eaten too much dairy when my plantar fasciitis and old ankle sprain flare up. Thanks for sharing this!
This is a really great article, we often overlook reactions to what we digest. I have notice certain spices do affect by bands,
A great article, Amanda. Digestion is often a very disregarded aspect, and we should listen more to the signals it sends us.
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this is a really interesting article, Amanda! Since I started running, I’ve discovered so many ways that all the parts of our body are connected and work together, much more than we usually suspect. I knew nutrition and gut health was important and not just for digestion, but I never though it could have such an influence on joints and mobility! I have tight hips and some hip imbalances that I know affect my running, I’d be curious to see if this approach could have any effect. I’ve already looked up (and found!) a visceral mobility therapist in Vancouver, I think I might give it a try!