After years of research and exploration in the field of health and wellbeing, I finally came across the SomaTraining program of Guy Voyer. I had struggled for years to find a curriculum that was not strongly loyal to obsolete theories and uninterested in evolving beyond its current paradigm. I started looking into different types schooling that were popping up in the personal training industry—seeking methods that were intelligent, creative, and focused on taking into account the whole being and lifestyle. SomaTraining was one such method that was on my radar, and once I experienced the undeniable effectiveness of the ELDOATM exercises firsthand, I had to learn more.
My First Encounter with ELDOATM
I had been struggling with a chronic spinal injury that routinely gave me tremendous episodic pain syndromes. The therapist I was working with gave me some of the ELDOA exercises as a way to help myself. I had no idea how, but they were by far the most effective exercises regarding my spinal injury. To this day, the debilitating level of pain I was plagued by has not returned.
Interested in incorporating ELDOATM into your professional practice? Join my upcoming ELDOA 1&2 Intensive Course.
The Beginning of My SomaTraining Education
I found a SomaTraining school I could attend and decided to take the myo-fascial stretching and ELDOA courses, as I had experienced firsthand how detailed and effective they were. However, I was certain that strengthening exercises for the abdomen and extremities would be a waste of my time. And the idea that I needed a 3-day course on the squat seemed strange. I had been studying the squat for years. I just figured, “Okay, this Guy Voyer guy has an incredible method of exercise for the spine and fascia but also has a bunch of other courses for people who don’t know much about exercise.”
I attended my first course and within the first 3 hours Guy lectured on the physiology of the fascia, complexity theory, and tensegrity (a theory of structural dynamics best know as being developed by the famous architect Buckminster Fuller). He was speaking on subjects which were at the very foundation of my studies in all of my areas of interest. Psychology, biology, chemistry, neurology, endocrine function, cytology, and extracellular matrix interactions were all at the heart of my research over the past 5 years.
My interest was piqued. I thought, “How is all of this so important to learning the stretches?” And then he brought it all fluently into the context of anatomy, biomechanics, and how to use this understanding to precisely organize exercise interventions to predictably influence tissue development in a client. He gave the “how” I was seeking, explaining how these exercises improve tissue quality and function for the individual performing them. By the end of that first day, I was totally hooked. I told the person sitting next to me: “I will take every class this man teaches.”
Why I’m Proud to Be a SomaTrainer
SomaTraining is not a protocol. It is not trying to tell you what to do with an injury, a surgery, a pathology. That is for doctors and physical therapists. SomaTraining teaches you how the body is organized, how it responds to the environment, and how it develops. My job as a SomaTrainer is to sense the individual, ask them what they want, and help them learn how to bring actions into their lives to produce the results they desire. It is a creative, interactive, process-oriented practice that empowers individuals with the ability to help themselves. Guy often says, “The client is their own best therapist.”
SomaTraining is a creative, interactive, process-oriented practice. As a SomaTrainer, I have the privilege of empowering my clients with the ability to help themselves.
Have questions about becoming a SomaTrainer? Ask me about my experience.
Want to learn all about the ELDOATM method and how to incorporate it into your professional practice? Join my upcoming ELDOA 1&2 Intensive Course.
