Functional Movement & Joint Mobility with Athlete Ellice De Giovanni
I had the great opportunity to sit down with ex-hurdler, movement specialist and author Ellice De Giovanni, to talk about mobility and movement. We started off by uncovering her background as an athlete and her life as a paramedic that led her to create a very unique joint mobility program that has helped many people.
We went into detail about the importance of mobility and the connection between our joints and our brains. With her techniques that can be performed by anyone, you can simplify your health and magnify your life. This conversation is invaluable and worth sharing.
Ellice De Giovanni’s book, Wtf: I Can’t Even Deal is available at https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/wtf-14
Discover movement with Ellice De Giovanni at https://www.ellicedegiovanni.com/
Show Notes:
1:32 – After competing in World Juniors as a professional athlete in hurdling, Ellice contemplated on how she could teach others why she loved doing sports. Being very active from a young age means she learnt the discipline and the importance of being goal-orientated, two critical traits that she thrives with in her everyday life.
3:44 – Ellice made the shift from being a professional athlete to becoming a paramedic. Once completed university, she was taught by some of the best trauma physicians and doctors like Steven Rashford.
5:16 – We discussed the work-life balance of a paramedic and the mental health issues associated with it. Ellice shared her natural ability to separate the anatomy from the emotion, noting that the hardest part was adjusting to working 12-hour days, 5 days a week.
7:07 – Ellice shared the effects shift work had on her health and the lack of education surrounding it, like what to eat during the night when you’re meant to be asleep. Working late nights can affect sleep patterns which in turn can cause issues like sleep apnoea and eventually lead to weight-related medical comorbidities.
9:08 – Suffering from asthma and learning that it was an allergen, the experience taught Ellice the importance of what you consume. But it wasn’t until her son, who had head-to-toe eczema from 6 months old, tried and failed with creams and steroids, that it truly sunk in and lead to a change in her perception of medicine and healthy alternatives.
11:02 – Ellice is a successful author of two books. She shared what inspired them both, starting from being a paramedic and wanting to help the youth, then with such great reviews wrote her second book with more focus on adults. The books covered everything from natural ways to mend our mental and physical state to a strong focus on our central nervous systems.
13:20 – We went in-depth about the benefits of joint mobility and improving our central nervous systems naturally, as we have become accustomed to being too comfortable, which creates a habitat in our bodies that can easily create diseases.
16:18 – The brain is a powerful organ and mobility is a key tool to moving our joint structures which assist in brain function. Ellice explained in detail the benefits of movement and how a lack of mobility can actually trigger a threat response in our brains.
17:47 – Ellice shared her top 10 tools that have helped her through wellness, fitness, exercise, mindset and movement like hot-cold therapy. She explained how it kills those pathogens we create in our bodies from being stagnant.
19:59 – As an athlete, Ellice learnt how joint structures switch the left and right of our brains, making for better performance with speed, agility and movement. This knowledge and her time as a paramedic, lead Ellice to design her unique joint mobility program which includes functional fitness and joint mobility techniques.
23:33 – Ellice noted how important our feet are and how they are connected to our brains. It’s been proven that wearing shoes actually stops the integration between your left and right brain, which when they’re not working together, you can become more fatigued.
25:54 – We talked about inflammatory type diseases like arthritis and how stretching your joints can stop further deterioration. Movement can take over pain receptors and that’s exactly why we want to move all those joint structures to suppress pain inflammation responses to getting into the brain.
27:54 – Ellice shared the greatest changes she has seen in her clients, like going from not being able to bend over to pick something off the ground, to being able to get up with ease after sitting cross-legged. Her greatest pride is seeing the confidence that comes from realising how able you are after some joint therapy.
31:24 – I asked Ellice how to get started with joint mobility exercises and she explained that it starts with understanding how the joint works simply by starting to move it.
33:22 – Simply put, wellness to Ellice lies in her true appreciation of the makeup of the human body. She shared a beautiful analogy on how our bodies are our real estate.
