Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

As a body specialist, I often hear people say things like, “I’m not flexible,” “My shoulders don’t do that,” “My left leg has always been weaker than my right,” “My mother’s toes were the same way, it’s just genetic.”  And this is alarming to me. This is an indication that most people believe that they are stuck with their bodies just how they are.  When nothing could be further from the truth.  Our bodies are changing constantly.  Cells are dying off and being replaced continually.  Some tissues regenerate faster than others, but within the span of seven years, every single cell in your body has been replaced at least once. The truth is that our bodies react and respond to what we do with them. And with some guidance and diligence, we can reshape and reform our bodies.  It is true that our tissues have memory; this is how we maintain our basic shape.  But we are also highly adaptable.   As a child, I was fortunate enough one day to see a re-run o...

Your body is a sound resonator. Each one of your 75 trillion cells vibrates in response to sounds that you hear. Music, voices, birds’ chirping, jackhammers, thunder, car alarms, etc.  Everything that you hear has an effect on you. In his book, “The Mozart Effect” Don Campbell tells the story of how he used humming to help break down a blood clot in his brain. He also recounts many stories of how people have consciously used sound to assist their body in self-healing. I have felt profound effects from sound.  I have been brought to tears by hearing the drone of Tibetan Meditation Bowls, and have felt my entire being tighten up and get stressed at the sound of a mysterious, seemingly innocuous squealing in a car of the New York City subway.  When I put my iPod on shuffle, it is interesting to hear the different types of music come up and to notice how it can instantly change my mood.  “Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak....

There is a need for a basic, fundamental shift in our thinking as a society surrounding the issue of having a well-functioning body.  Our bodies are physical.  The language of our bodies is called SENSATION.  The body doesn’t care about talk.  It doesn’t care about terms like “frozen shoulder,” “tendinitis,” “TMJ syndrome” or “fallen arches.”  Our bodies care about sensations like ‘heat,’ ‘pain,’ ‘tension,’ ‘electrical charge’ and ‘stiffness’ and about mobility and stability.  It demands balance and without it, will ask for it using it’s language.  Usually this request for balance is sensed as PAIN. Many people will come to see a doctor with a physical complaint.  As an example, lets say the complaint is that they have pain in their shoulder when they make large arm circles. Many medical doctors will ‘diagnose’ this problem based on talking.  In other words, the client will describe the issue, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this,” and the doctor...

Wow, I’ve been away from home for a long time. As of this writing, I’ve been in Seattle for a week and have been away from New York for a month. I arrived in Seattle last Monday and have been staying at a friend’s house.  Our first night, I pulled my Yoga Tune Up therapy balls out of my bag and began massaging my feet and legs and showing him how to use them.  He’s a waiter and he really appreciated how much relief they were giving his feet and legs and forearms and hands. I don’t think he’s going to let me take them home.   Being back in Seattle, similar to being in Santa Barbara again, has been an odd trip down memory lane and also a reminder that things are constantly changing and that you can never go back home.  It won’t be there.  It’s the same city, but everything is different.  Some of my favorite restaurants are gone and many new places are awaiting my new discovery.  I’m sharing my Bond Girls routine and it seems to be going over really well...

I don’t remember how I heard about the HTKA seminar in New Jersey, but  I just liked that these guys had this seminar called “How To Kick Ass” and it was one of those moments when i just had a feeling that there was something about this that i needed; so I signed up for it without even knowing who either of these guys were. As it turns out, one was a pitching coach and the other was a wrestling coach. And they both have very successful businesses and wanted to share how they got them that way. The guys created a fraternity of about 30 like minded guys ready to bust balls to make their business a rocking success. And the room was filled with testosterone.  In fact, after the seminar, I had to get back to teach class in Manhattan, but all the guys had a bonfire on the beach and partied like fraternity brothers. The seminar was filled with great ideas for reaching more people, turning more potential leads into clients and retaining clients for longer. And now, two weeks after the...

WOW! I just spent a day in Carpinteria with Gil Hedley, who gave a full-day presentation of his work. He dissects human bodies to learn about them, but his approach is one of great respect and reverence.  He calls himself a somanaut. Soma (body) and Naut (sailor). He in an explorer of the inner space of the human body.  He strives to keep the integrity of each system as he removes them layer by layer.  His first step is to “unzip” the skin.  He removes the entire skin coating intact. And one of the things that he says is that there is really no such thing as the skin.  It is a manufactured construct invented by anatomists to categorize our body parts.  But in actuality, the tissue that we know as skin doesn’t end, it gradually transforms, cell by cell, into the tissue below it.  Going in with a scalpel is really the only way to differentiate the “skin” from the underlying layers, but it is imposed.  There is really no actual delineation tha...

A reader sent me this question: I know that one is supposed to exhale on the heaviest exertion of a movement or exercise (right?)….But can you say more about breathing and moving; breathing and exercise; breathing and stretching? What is the science behind this breathing? Great question, thanks. Yes, the common belief is that you should be exhaling when you exert. There is no scientific, chemical reason why you should be exhaling, it is all about the mechanics. When we exhale, it recruits the muscles of the core. The abdominals the obliques and the lower back muscles can all be involved in a vigorous exhale; the kind that is recommended during a strenuous movement.  The reason this type of breath is recommended is simply for the recruitment of those muscles to support  your spine during the exertion.  Another factor is that when we are exerting it can increase the pressure inside your body.  It is instinctive for people to hold their breath during an exertion becau...