Get fit with Gwen

Grab a foam roller because it’s time to open up your chest with these “angel arms.”

If you spend your day sitting at a desk, scrolling on your phone, or just carrying the weight of life, this one’s for you.

Angel arms on a foam roller open tight chest muscles (pecs), improve your thoracic spine mobility, and help improve your posture.

This movement pattern “activates” the muscles between your shoulder blades that help stabilize your shoulders. It helps restore overhead shoulder mobility
and hydrates and glides your fascia through slow, controlled movement.

How to do it? With your palms together, take a nice deep breath, and open your arms as you slowly exhale.

Try to relax and let your elbows fall closer to the ground with gravity, time and breath. Focus on keeping your ribs down.

Breathing and moving with intention can help shift your body out of “fight or flight” and into a more relaxed state.

This isn’t about forcing a stretch — it’s about lengthening and creating space.

Sometimes the most powerful movement is the one that helps your body feel safe enough to let go.

Thank you, South Jersey Physical Therapy and Functional Wellness for another tool in my toolbox!!!

Kick, reach, and wake up your body AND your brain.

Alternating front kicks lengthen your hamstrings, calves, hips, and posterior chain (muscles on the backside of your body).

This movement pattern strengthens your core and hip flexors as you lift and kick with control. It also builds your balance, stability, and coordination by challenging your single-leg strength.

You’re also mobilizing your fascia as your tissues to “glide” through a full range of motion.

You’re even supporting lymphatic flow through this rhythmic, full-body movement.

This is functional movement and mobility! It’s a perfect movement “snack” for a quick break and reset.

PS - Crossing the midline (opposite arm/leg) requires the left and right sides of your brain to communicate, helping improve your coordination, motor planning, body awareness, and focus.

Our fascia loves variety, hydration, and movement. Gentle, flowing patterns like this encourage the layers of connective tissue to glide instead of feeling stiff or “stuck.”

Think less about forcing a stretch and more about creating space throughout your body.

For this movement pattern, imagine your back is flat against a wall as you lean, lengthen, and reach. This is great for better posture. Plus, you’re lengthening through your entire side body — from your foot and hip all the way through your ribs, lats, and fingertips.

This movement pattern improves thoracic (mid-back) mobility, opens your lats and intercostal muscles between your ribs.

You’re lengthening fascial lines that can become tight from sitting, stress, or repetitive movement, and restoring healthy movement between your rib cage and pelvis.

You’re building your core stability when you use your obliques to return to the center position, which requires balance and body awareness.

Move slowly. Reach long. Breathe deeply. Let your body unwind one side at a time.

This alternating camel reach back variation isn’t about how far you can lean, it’s about moving with control.

As you lean back, you’re opening the front of your hips, quads, chest, and shoulders.

As you rotate, you’re restoring mobility to your thoracic spine - something so many of us lose from stress, sitting, and living in survival mode.

Use your deep core to bring yourself back to center before reaching tall and switching sides.

I love this movement pattern for thoracic rotation and spinal mobility, and how it opens tight hip flexors and the front body.
It strengthens your core through controlled movement, builds balance and body awareness.

It’s not easy, but it also encourages diaphragmatic breathing, helping shift your nervous system out of fight-or-flight.

Also, this type of movement helps hydrate and mobilize your fascia because you’re moving through multiple planes of motion.

Try it!!!!

One of the treatments I’ve received at South Jersey Physical Therapy and Functional Wellness is vagus nerve stimulation as part of my recovery from burnout and nervous system reset.

The vagus nerve is a major part of your parasympathetic nervous system, which is your body’s “rest, recover, and restore” mode. It plays a role in regulating your heart rate, breathing, digestion, immune function, and how your brain responds to stress.

For me, this healing journey has been about creating an environment where my body finally feels safe enough to heal. When we’ve been stuck in fight-or-flight for months (or years), our bodies can forget what it feels like to truly rest.

Vagus nerve stimulation is FDA-approved for certain medical conditions like epilepsy, migraines, treatment-resistant depression, and other disorders.

Supporting healthy vagal function influences stress resilience, inflammation, gut-brain communication, mood, and overall recovery.

I don’t see any one treatment as a magic fix. I see it as another tool, in addition to functional movement, fascia work, breathwork, quality sleep, mindfulness, and learning to slow down without feeling guilty.

Healing isn’t about doing more. Sometimes it’s about helping your nervous system remember how to do less, and realizing that “less” is exactly what your body has been asking for all along.

ADHD mom hack: BODY DOUBLE

Thank goodness for my girl Karly. She values and understands all the things that are important to me = functional wellness.

I’m coming back from burn out.

I haven’t really worked out - even walked - in 3+ weeks! Only mobility, dancing, flowing, and little bursts of movement.

Again, thank goodness for Karly bc we can seriously body double while 💪🧘‍♀️

A body double helps you sort through your thoughts, ask questions, keep you accountable, and make the process feel lighter.

Sometimes I FaceTime a friend while I fold laundry. Or “walk and talk.”

As women/moms/people, we spend so much time trying to do everything on our own. But our brains weren’t designed to thrive in isolation.

Community is medicine.

Connection regulates our nervous system.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is invite someone into the process.

Do you already do this? Tag your favorite body double!

Reminder - take a movement break!!!!

Lateral shuffle + arm circles = brain and body training

This simple movement packs a lot of benefits into one exercise.

✅ Improves lateral strength and agility
Shuffling side to side strengthens your hips, glutes, inner thighs, and ankles while improving your ability to change direction quickly.

✅ Enhances coordination
Your lower body is moving one way while your arms circle in the same direction. This challenges motor control and helps create new neural connections between the brain and body.

✅ Boosts proprioception
Proprioception is your body’s awareness of where it is in space. The combination of stepping, shuffling, and arm circles improves balance, body awareness, and reaction time.

✅ Mobilizes your shoulders and thoracic spine
The arm circles encourage movement through your shoulders, upper back, and rib cage. This can help counteract the stiffness that comes from sitting, driving, and working at a desk.

✅ Supports lymphatic flow
The rhythmic muscle contractions from the legs and arms help move lymphatic fluid throughout your body. Since the lymphatic system relies on movement, exercises like this can support circulation and recovery.

✅ Gets both sides of the brain talking
Cross-body and multi-directional movements require communication between the left and right parts of your brain, which may help improve focus, coordination, and cognitive function.

✅ Nervous system regulation
The repetitive, rhythmic nature of this movement can be calming while still being energizing. It’s a great way to get out of your head and back into your body.

This is my “recovery from burnout” story, and it’s just the beginning.

This is where we started, assessment and manual treatment. Dr. Ken and South Jersey Physical Therapy and Functional Wellness exceeded my expectations.

I was a mess! “Exacerbation of reactive airway disease” (no pulmonary history) and my body just didn’t feel right.

The signs of burnout were there, but I didn’t think it would happen to me. I’ve been “toe-ing” the line for years! 😬😬😬

Now? This is my nervous system reset. I’m forming new and better habits for real life.

Stay tuned to hear more about how I’m healing myself at South Jersey Physical Therapy & Functional Wellness.

Real talk! I am recovering from burnout - physical and emotional. Thankfully, I have so many resources to support me. South Jersey Physical Therapy and Functional Wellness The Enlightened Elephant Wellness Loft

(Don’t mind my “junk room.”)