No Pain, All Gain: Somatic Healing with the Workout Witch Liz Tenuto

Summary

Hacking Your ADHD

Episode: No Pain, All Gain: Somatic Healing with the Workout Witch Liz Tenuto
Host: William Curb
Guest: Liz Tenuto (The Workout Witch)
Date: May 11, 2026

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Overview

This episode delves into the world of somatic healing with somatic specialist Liz Tenuto, known as the "Workout Witch." The conversation focuses on how gentle, intentional movement can help people—especially those with ADHD—regulate their nervous system, release chronic stress and trauma, and improve overall well-being. Liz explains the science behind somatic exercises, why the traditional "no pain, no gain" approach often backfires for neurodivergent people, and how simple, accessible practices can make a significant difference in everyday life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The "Workout Witch" Persona & Somatic Science

[02:19]

• Liz explains her "Workout Witch" moniker arose because people react to her small, gentle exercises as if they're "sorcery" due to their powerful results:

  "What kind of sorcery is this?"
  – Liz Tenuto, [02:29]

• She clarifies that her methods, while appearing "woo woo," are firmly rooted in neuroscience.

2. What Are Somatic Exercises?

[03:11]

• "Soma" means body; somatic exercises are simple, science-based movements to heal the body.

  "They're literally these tiny micro movements that you can do in bed or on the floor that release tension out of your body..."
  – Liz Tenuto, [03:14]

• Particularly relevant for neurodivergent people who often operate under higher baseline stress due to greater sensitivity to sensory input and a world not designed for them.

• The body often sits far from "homeostasis" (the middle, calm state) and either runs too "amped" (fight/flight) or "shutdown" (freeze).

  "Most folks with ADHD are operating on one of the extremes."
  – Liz Tenuto, [04:23]

3. Reframing Calm: "Calming Up"

[05:03]

• William introduces the useful term "calming up," describing the need to bring energy up into an alert and regulated state, not always "calming down."
• Both speakers agree that ADHDers often benefit from more (but the right kind of) sensory input—like fidgets or weighted blankets—not less.

  "Some people need more sensory input to feel more stable ..."
  – Liz Tenuto, [05:19]

4. Somatic Exercises as Intentional Stimming

[06:05]

• Liz likens somatic movements to "intentional stims"—self-regulatory movements ADHDers do to soothe themselves.

  "I think of somatic exercises as like really intentional stims."
  – Liz Tenuto, [06:05]

• Evolutionarily, humans processed emotions and stress through movement, singing, and dance, but modern life—and especially tech—traps excess energy in our bodies.

5. Practical Somatic Exercises

[07:46]

• Example: Bilateral Stimulation

  "...just rock your hips right to left for about a minute. And that gives you this bilateral stimulation, which helps you with emotional regulation..."
  – Liz Tenuto, [07:55]

• These movements are easy, require no equipment, and can be done anywhere—from bed to a parked car.

• Even brief sessions (1–5 minutes) yield noticeable relaxation, with longer sets (10–20 minutes) leaving the body deeply at ease.

6. Consistency Over Intensity

[09:55]

• Debunks "no pain, no gain" as counterproductive for ADHDers.

  "...low to mid intensity exercise is way better. And it's better for people to be consistent..."
  – Liz Tenuto, [09:55]

• A short walk every day is more effective than intense, infrequent workouts, and less likely to create resistance and executive function burnout.

7. Somatics and Trauma Release

[11:59]

• Trauma and chronic stress push bodies into fight/flight/freeze states.

• Nature’s way: Animals (e.g., dogs) shake out trauma after stress (neurogenic tremors).

  "...that shaking is how your body releases the trauma and the stress out of its body and like returns to homeostasis."
  – Liz Tenuto, [12:19]

• Humans suppress this release due to socialization, which inhibits natural recovery.

• Her trauma releasing sequences replicate this safe, gentle shaking, leading to both physical and emotional release.

8. The Safety & Structure of Trauma Release

[14:17]

• Trauma release is advanced and should be approached gradually, ideally after several relaxation-focused sessions.
• Liz describes a gentle, guided process—never overwhelming.

  "...to be super safe...it's like a 12 to 18 minute sequence depending on how much the person is responding to it..."
  – Liz Tenuto, [14:17]

9. Interoception (Awareness of Internal Sensation)

[18:30]

• Many ADHDers have poor interoception—trouble sensing internal states (muscle tension, jaw clenching, etc.).

• Regular somatic check-ins (jaw, stomach, shoulders) are important:

  "A lot of us don't know what our bodies are doing and how much tension we hold in our bodies subconsciously."
  – Liz Tenuto, [18:42]

• ADHDers often exhibit "bottom-up" processing—physical tension shapes emotional state.

10. Normalizing Movement and Rejecting Stigma

[20:56]

• Discussing ways ADHDers adapt—sitting on feet, rocking—which can be wrongly pathologized but are simply needs for movement.
• Rocking and other rhythmic motions (like using rocking chairs) have proven calming effects and are not "weird" but human.

11. Who Should Try Somatic Healing?

[22:57]

• Anyone experiencing “unexplained” physical symptoms (headaches, gut issues, insomnia, chronic pain) that doctors attribute to stress.
• Also beneficial for managing emotions, focus, and nervous system baseline.

  "If you have like any physical symptoms that you go to the doctor for and they're like, it's stress... people who experience frequent headaches, people who have unexplained gut issues, people who have sleep issues, people who have physical pain that's lasted for longer than three months ..."
  – Liz Tenuto, [22:57]

12. Results and Expectations

[25:56]

• Most people feel improvement within three days (with 10 minutes/day).
• True baseline shifts take several weeks; Liz’s programs are 30–60 days of brief, accessible daily practice.

13. How to Start—Small, Safe Steps

[29:49]

• Learn a bit (books: When the Body Speaks, The Body Keeps the Score, Waking the Tiger), but real change comes from movement practice.

• Liz offers a free video for newcomers—just DM her "release" on Instagram.

  "...you can just like, DM me release on any of my. On my Instagram account, and I would send you a free one minute video..."
  – Liz Tenuto, [29:49]

• Take it slow; avoid "level 10" intensity from the start: titration is key for safety and effectiveness.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On doing what your body needs, not what society expects:

  "We rock babies. There are all these studies done on war veterans with PTSD who get rocking chairs... It's incredibly soothing, but it's been pathologized as weird."
  – Liz Tenuto, [22:00]

• On the importance of consistency and ease:

  "For me, I don't really want to spend like 15 minutes driving somewhere and then have to... get on a wait list for a class...doing exercises at home is...my go to."
  – Liz Tenuto, [11:24]

• Encouragement:

  "It is possible to be less tense. And it is possible to get good sleep again and it is possible to feel more at ease in your body."
  – Liz Tenuto, [32:09]

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Important Timestamps

• The "Workout Witch" explained: [02:29]
• What is somatic healing? [03:11]
• Goldilocks regulation for ADHDers: [04:23]
• Calming up vs. calming down: [05:03]
• Somatic exercises as stimming: [06:05]
• Example: bilateral hip rocking: [07:46]
• Consistency over intensity: [09:55]
• Why trauma release is safe, gradual: [14:17]
• Interoception, ADHD, and tension: [18:30]
• Symptoms that point to the need for somatics: [22:57]
• Results timeline: [25:56]
• How to start safely: [29:49]
• Encouragement for ADHD listeners: [32:09]

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Top Three Tips (Recap, [33:03])

1. Intentional somatic exercises create long-term nervous system regulation—random stimming only helps in the moment.
2. Recovery from "functional freeze" is about "calming up," not just calming down, to reach a regulated state.
3. Physical tension has a direct impact on emotional state for ADHDers; consciously relaxing the body can produce immediate emotional shifts.

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Tone & Final Takeaway

This episode is practical, empathetic, and full of hope. It reframes movement and self-soothing as science-based, accessible tools for real change—even for those who struggle with consistency, motivation, or trauma. Liz’s message is clear: gentle movement—not pain—is powerful medicine, especially for ADHDers.

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To try a free somatic exercise:
DM Liz "release" on Instagram for a sample video.

Further reading:
When the Body Speaks (Liz Tenuto),
The Body Keeps the Score (Bessel van der Kolk),
Waking the Tiger (Peter Levine)

Transcript

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[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

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[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

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[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

welcome to Hacking RadHD. I'm your host William Curb and I have ADHD. On this podcast I dig into the tools, tactics and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Hey team. Today I'm talking with Liz Tenuto, more widely known as the Workout Witch. Liz is a somatic specialist with a degree in psychology from UCSB who has spent over a decade helping people release chronic stress through movement. She's also the author of Moving Through Trauma, which hit shelves in January. Liz's work bridges the gap between psychology and physical health, specializing in how trauma and stress manifest as psychological issues like gut problems, insomnia and chronic pain. In our conversation today, we're diving into the world of somatic exercises, which are slow, conscious and gentle movements designed to enhance the mind, body connection and nervous system regulation. We talk about how traditional no pain, no gain fitness often backfires for the ADHD brain, the nuances of interoception, and why your body might feel stuck in a functional freeze without you even realizing it. If you'd like to follow along on the Show Notes page, you can find [e-mail] 294 alright, keep on listening to find out how to get your body and brain on the same page.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

I was just looking through everything you sent over and the one thing that really caught me off guard is can you tell me a little bit about this name the Workout Witch? Because that's a little bit not what I was expecting there.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, definitely. I joke with people that I am a Witch. But in reality, when I teach these really tiny movements that release stress out of your body and regulate your nervous system, and they're so small and they, they look so lazy and like, it kind of looks like you're just rolling around in your pajamas. And the overwhelming response that I get from people is like, what kind of sorcery is this? And so that's why I've called myself the workout witch, because the exercises look quite woo woo, but they're actually based in neuroscience.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Awesome. Yeah. So this is a lot about this somatic exercise, right?

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, exactly.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

So tell me a little bit about what the somatic practice is.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, so. So soma is the Greek word for body. So somatic exercises are tools for body healing. They're really simple and effective tools. They're literally these tiny micro movements that you can do in bed or on the floor that release tension out of your body, release stress out of your body and regulate your nervous system.

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

Awesome.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

And yeah, you were saying this is very science based. It's not just something that someone came up with.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Right? It's very science based. Yeah.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

So what exactly is going on to like help release in here?

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

So essentially, you know, and I think specifically for neurodivergent people, our bodies tend to run at like a higher baseline of stress. And it's not really our fault. Like, we're more attuned to our environment, we're more sensitive to sensory information, sensory load, we process sensory information differently. And then we also live in this world that is not set up for neurodivergent people. So inherently we're running on sympathetic activation of the nervous system, which is just fancy language for like a fight or flight of your nervous system. And that's kind of our baseline for people with adhd. So the, the way when you're. There's kind of like stress physiology, fight flight physiology, and then there's like shutdown physiology and then there's like the Goldilocks place in the middle that's called like homeostasis or the ventral vagal state, if you want to use nervous system language. And that's the, this Goldilocks place is the place that feels really good where you feel at ease and you feel relaxed in your body and you're not tense. Most folks with ADHD are operating on one of the extremes.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, definitely. I did some writing a couple weeks ago about this idea I came up with of like calming up, of like bringing your state back up into a. You know, because often we think about like getting amped up, but that's not usually what we need. We need to bring our state up but not be super excited.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yes. And folks with ADHD need more. Some people need more sensory input to feel more stable than a neurotypical person would.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, absolutely. Like, I always think with like, fidgets and like weighted blankets and stuff and how much that helps. And it's not less input, it's more input, but it's not, you know, going crazy with it.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah. Which feels very counterintuitive because. And I love the term calm up. That's such a. Such a clear way of describing it, because we think of calming down all the time. You know, maybe as a kid you were told to calm down all the time, and that just like feels really bad to hear. So calming up is this great reframe.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. I was always. It was also something I was like thinking with my kids where I'm like, yeah, they're not gonna go. Asking them to calm down here isn't gonna work. What they need is to like, get up to the right. Cause when you're under stimulated, it can also be like, you're like out of control.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Absolutely, absolutely. And sometimes for me at least, like, sometimes I just have to like, slam a pillow a few times to like, release some emotion or I'll pull on my ear. I. I pull on my ear like all the time in meetings and in line and on the plane to just give my body a little bit of that support, a little bit of that self soothing. They're kind of like. I think of somatic exercises as like really intentional stims. Mm.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

That's. I. Oh, I love that because. Yeah, I've definitely, like, specifically for some things, like heavy work I've heard about where you just need to really use your body to get in tune with how you're feeling.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Exactly, exactly. And I think evolutionarily, our nervous system is quite old and it hasn't yet caught up to modern life and modern society. And we as creatures and humans are used to movement. We're used to dancing and singing and moving as a way to express our emotions and as a way to heal. But in modern society, we're like, so much more sedentary, especially with the tech boom now. And because of that, a lot of that energy kind of just like sits in our bodies and we don't have the simple tools to like, process the emotions and all of the tension and energy that's just kind of stuck.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, definitely. I. The last week I had like kind of a sick week where I'm like. And then I'm like, at the end of the day, I'm like, I haven't moved at all today, and I. I need to do something.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, totally, totally.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

So what kind of movements are. So you were saying a little bit like, you know, ear tugs and maybe, like, hitting a pillow and so. But what are some of the other kind of movements that we're. You'd be talking about doing here?

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, so one really effective tool is bilateral stimulation. It's the same type of movement that's used in EMDR with your eyes or with sound, but you can also do it with your body. So. So, for example, you can lay on your bed on your stomach with your hands stacked on top of each other and your forehead on top of your hands, and you can just, in the laziest, least ambitious way possible, just rock your hips right to left for about a minute. And that gives you this bilateral stimulation, which helps you with emotional regulation. It helps release tension out of your body. It helps release stress and anxiety out of your body. I do that exercise almost every night before I go to bed because I have a history of insomnia, and it just kind of helps me release any extra energy that my body is holding before I go to sleep.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, it sounds pretty good, because in it, I do love also the emphasis on, like, how easy it is to get into these movements, because a lot of times people are like, when they're thinking about doing exercise or movement or something, they're like, they're thinking, like, I'm going to go to the gym for an hour.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

It's so much like, who has time for that? I do not.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, I was, like, looking at my schedule today, I'm like, oh, I. I'm gonna go for a walk. And that's gonna be good movement for today, but it's not gonna. Definitely.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, exactly. And so one of the things I love about the exercises that I teach, and I've tried, like, a lot of different healing modalities, and, you know, I've been in fitness for a long time, so I've. I will. I will try anything. But one of my favorite things about somatic exercises is that you can do them in the hotel room, you can do them on the plane. You can, you know, do them in your car, in your parked car. You can do them in bed. They're just like, you don't need any equipment. It's not a heavy lift to do them. You can do them for, like, one minute to five minutes and immediately feel better. If you do a longer session, like 10 to 20 minutes, you're gonna feel really at ease, really relaxed afterwards.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, that sounds really nice. Cause I, I know there's just.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

It can.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. With that intensity of how much you think you need to do, it can be very hard to like even get yourself motivated to do anything, especially if you don't think you're gonna get results.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Totally, totally. And I think like, you know, I think historically the fitness industry has been very like, no pain, no gain, like high intensity exercise. And you know, after a certain age, like, even after like mid-30s, you don't actually don't really want to be doing high intensity exercise. You do want to be doing strength training, but like low to mid intensity exercise is way better. And it's better for people to be consistent, which is difficult for folks with ADHD, but like to be consistent for like 10 minutes a day. So if you take a 10 minute walk every day, that's way better than you going to one one hour class at the gym every week. But it's this reframe because we've always been taught like, pump iron and go hard sweat.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. I can't imagine doing some of the hit hit workouts I did in my 20s at in my 40s now. It would not work out well.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

No. And it's like, it feels like torture too.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, I think that's part of like, I would, the amount of resistance I would feel to being like, oh, I'm gonna go do this. And I'm just like, I would need a lot of, of executive function to

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

just make that happen.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, me too. Me too.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

And I think that's important for people to also remember, like. Yeah, this is not just this one thing you're doing where you're like using up these resources. It's like, yeah, if I'm spending all my energy to make sure I go to this exercise class, that's gonna, I mean, yeah, it's good for me. I'm not trying to say not do it, but, you know, find something that balances so you can still do other stuff throughout the day.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Exactly. Because the whole point of being fit and exercising is so that you can like, live a good, healthy, long life. So for me, I don't really want to spend like 15 minutes driving somewhere and then have to like, get on a wait list for a class and like, it's just too, like, it's too much. I will not follow through with that. So for me, like, doing exercises at home is. And taking walks is my go to.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, that and, you know, avoiding injury and all that kind of stuff. It's. Which this is also making me think. So this is also very like trauma based kind of stuff as well, right?

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yes, yes, very trauma based. So folks who have experienced long term stress, which is considered chronic stress, so anything that's over three months or trauma go into this like fight, flight, freeze, physiology as well. And so the exercises that I teach there is a sequence of exercises that releases trauma out of your body. And the way that that works is essentially after you experience trauma, your body's natural reaction is to like shake a little bit. These are called neurogenic tremors. So if you think about a dog, when a dog gets really scared, they shake afterwards. And that shaking is how your body releases the trauma and the stress out of its body and like returns to homeostasis. As humans, we have this cognitive override, like don't shake. That looks weird. So like there are certain moments where you can't stop the shaking after trauma. But most, most people don't let themselves shake and they don't really let themselves process their trauma right after it happens. We have this delay where we trying to be functional, keep trying to push through our day to day. We don't give ourselves that time after it happens to heal and to process. So the trauma releasing exercises that I teach essentially replicate that shaking in a very safe, gentle way so that it physiologically releases out of your body. But then you also get this big emotional release when that happens too. So you cry like this huge cry and then afterwards you feel significantly lighter.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

So it was funny when you like mentioning the dog, because I have a Chihuahua sleeping next to me and I'm like, she's like 90% fury. And then also just pure tremors when she's like done.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yes, totally. And dogs are great examples of that. And there's, there's this book called Waking the Tiger by Dr. Peter Levine, who's one of the kind of founding people in Somatics and he has a whole chapter called why Animals don't have ptsd. And it's focused on that shaking that they do after they experience stress or trauma.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

That's really interesting. So can you talk, walk me through a little bit about how this, you would in induce this shaking? Um, I remember reading articles about this years ago that was, and that was very much focused on like muscle overload, which this does not sound like it's anything quite like that.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, no, I'm not into muscle overload. Cause it can be really overwhelming for people and it can like re. Traumatize people. Um, so I, I, in terms of doing the trauma releasing exercises, I don't do it until I'm like about like I've done like 15 to 18 other sessions with people to get their bodies out of like tension and get them a lot more relaxed and at ease in their body before we start to touch on the trauma release just to be super safe and so that no one gets overwhelmed as they're doing it. The exercises are essentially like these exercises where you're laying with your knees bent and your knees touching and you open your knees out to the side and then you bring, you do some engagement with your stomach. You bring your knees up about halfway and you'll start to feel this shake in your inner thighs. And then there's like a whole sequence. It's like a 12 to 18 minute sequence depending on how much the person is responding to it, where they're opening and closing their legs at these various degrees and resting in between to kind of give ourselves that integration time too.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

And then this is something where like they're focusing on the emotions that they're doing or is that just kind of something that comes out on its own?

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[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

It kind of comes out on its own. I really cue for like relaxing. So I'll also, I'll often talk about like, how relaxed can your jaw be, how relaxed can your stomach be? You know, are you tensing in your tongue right now? What, what's happening with your eyebrows? So I'm really queuing for them to relax their body so that the shaking can just, just be allowed to happen and then the emotions just kind of naturally come through.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

I can see and yeah, especially with this. Sounds like it works much better with like someone kind of guiding you through the process.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, it does. So you don't have to. I teach courses, so when I first started doing this, it was because I had experienced a lot of trauma in my childhood and so I was working one on one with someone. But this was back in 2008 and Somatics was like very niche and very obscure. And now it's having its moment. Like it's getting a little bit more well known and there's been a lot of research since then as well that has really substantiated it as science based, which I think is also part of its boom right now. But so I teach courses and I have a 30 day trauma releasing stress and trauma releasing course where I guide people through. It's like about 10 minutes each day and I guide people through the day by day of releasing trauma. So you just have to like turn the video on, watch it, follow it, and you're good to go.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, was because I was just thinking with like the lack of interoception I can have sometimes where I'm like, I don't know how I'm feeling and someone's like, oh, you should like release your jaw muscles. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I had no idea.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Totally, totally. But I mean, I feel like that's kind of quite common for people. Like, I think a lot of us don't know what our bodies are doing and how much tension we hold in our bodies subconsciously. And I am constantly reminding myself, you know, like, oh, am I clenching my sphincter right now? Like, what's going on? And for me, I kind of start to notice like an emotional shift where I'll be like, why am I all of a sudden anxious, then I'm, I'll check in with my body and I'm like, oh, my shoulders are like up to my ears.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. And I think that's also like a great point for people is that for ADHD we also have this like very bottom up system where how our body feels is then reflecting in how we are like physically feel or mentally feeling.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Exactly. Yeah. There's no separation for us. Yeah, yeah.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Because I've definitely had like. Yeah, I'm like, oh yeah, my shoulders are really tense and I'm feeling stressed, but I'm not, I'm like, I'm not actually stressed about anything. I just need to relax myself somehow.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah. And it's really cool because sometimes when you relax your shoulders and all of a sudden you have that emotional change, that shift as well where you're like, oh no, I'm not stressed. All I have to do is like tell myself how, how relaxed could my shoulders be?

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. But yeah, again it's the, that lack

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

of interoception where I'm like, I don't

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

even realize this or you know, I've been like sitting in a chair funny all day and I don't realize that I've been doing that.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, totally, totally. A lot of folks with ADHD like sit on their feet or like wrap their feet around the chair leg or you know, they're just like tense in their toes all the time. We're good at hiding it. It's like tongue tension, toe tension. But I do think that that's, I think this is my theory and this isn't like backed by science, but this is just my lived experience is that like we do need more stimulation, we do need more movement to feel at this baseline place for us. And you know, for a lot of people like in school or like at work or whatever, like moving around a lot while you're working was considered distracting and maybe you were punished for it. So now we've come up with these really creative ways of like sitting on our feet to get that stimulation or tensing our tongue to get that extra stimulation when we could just be like moving around more. Be way better for us.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. I used to have a standing desk which I found really helpful for like just being like, oh, I can like, you know, move a little bit more here and it's nice. But had to go away from that when I hurt my back a while back. And it's interesting how I was like, oh yeah. There's different ways of like interacting with having just one Set desk space and has never quite worked for me.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, yeah, we need a little more movement. So I will, like, even on podcasts, sometimes I'll be like, rocking a little bit and moving a little bit and I just kind of try to let myself be my body be a little more dynamic. Yeah.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

I've ended up getting this like, meditation chair where I can like sit cross legged in it. And so then it gives me a little bit, like, I can then also just like move my legs in different ways and have like, oh, this is not quite straight sitting in here because I move around a little bit too much and my chair would be squeaky, squeaky, squeaky.

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

Which is not great for podcasting.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, I'm sure we need, we need like a little more body freedom than other people.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's one of those things that is really hard to get people to like, kind of utilize for their ADHD is there. Because we do have all this, like, messaging that like, oh, you need to sit still.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah. And like, like, for me, like, I love rocking, but that's been kind of like pathologized as, like, there's something wrong with you if you're rocking. And I'm like, I just think it feels great. We rock babies. There are all these studies done on war veterans with PTSD who get rocking chairs or who are taught these rocking exercises and they're. It's incredibly soothing, but it's been pathologized as weird.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

I'm now thinking to all the rocking chairs my mom had. I'm like, oh, yeah, that makes sen, which is always one of the, like, more interesting things here, is that there are so many coping mechanisms that people have developed to be like, culturally acceptable versions of these things where it's like, you know, the people that really need to be get that movement, they're like, oh, yeah, I'm always at the gym or something. It's like, yeah, that's the culturally acceptable version for them.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Totally.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

So while I'm thinking about this, this. So we were talking about trauma and stress, but, like, who should really be kind of thinking about doing this kind of work?

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah. If you have like any physical symptoms that you go to the doctor for and they're like, it's stress. And you're like, okay, what do I do with that? Like, you can't not have a kid or just like, not work or completely change your lifestyle to be less stressed. Right. So people who experience frequent headaches, people who have unexplained gut issues, people who have seen Sleep issues. People who have physical pain that's lasted for longer than three months, whether it's lower back pain, you know, shoulder pain, neck pain, jaw pain, and they didn't have like an acute accident, like a car accident fall. People who feel like they have a hard time with managing their emotions with focus movement helps that a lot too. But I would say like the physical symptoms that I just listed and the kind of like lower grade health conditions that a doctor can't quite help you with yet are really great like indicators that your body is in its stress physiology is in fight, fly or freeze, and that these exercises would be really soothing and beneficial for you if you have like an autoimmune condition or cancer or you know, a more serious health condition. The exercises are very relieving and do reduce your symptoms, but it like won't go away. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, like for me, like, it's like I had sleep issues for a really long time and so I just do these exercises before I go to bed and it helps me get three night sleep.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. When you're like going through the list, I'm like, oh yeah, I have all of those things.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, yeah.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Which I mean they are also all very common with ADHD because it's like, oh yeah, we also have sleep issues and gut issues and chronic stress. And so I can see a lot of people being like, oh yeah, this is definitely something that I need in my life.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, yeah. Because it's really not about like overriding this, the, the things that we experience having adhd. It's just about how do we like stimming is great, I'm very pro stimming. But it doesn't regulate your nervous system long term because it's not as intentional. So if you switch just random rocking for example, to like bilateral stimulation rock, you're actually regulating your nervous system. And when you practice that long term for like a couple months, you're going to change the baseline of your nervous system so you just will feel more at ease in yourself but you won't lose any of the like amazingness of the adhd.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

And so yeah, so you're mentioning that you probably would feel something like within like 10 minutes, but this. So like how long? This sounds also like kind of like a maintenance practice kind of thing where you don't just like, I've done two weeks and now I'm cured. Which is kind of how a lot of people want things to work. But it doesn't. There's nothing quite like that.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah. Are you Asking how long it takes.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, just like kind of what the sense of like what people should expect if they wanted to do this.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

You'll feel better in three days with like 10 minutes or less. With my courses that I teach. So we do guarantee you'll feel better, you'll feel more relaxed within three days. Um, on day 18 through 25 is the big trauma release. So by the end of the 30 days, the goal is that you feel much lighter at the end. Um, and then I have a 60 day nervous system program. So generally for people in 30 to 60 days, they feel like significantly more at ease and more relaxed in their body. But you'll start to feel better in just three days.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Mm, awesome. That does sound very nice. Uh, yeah, but I'm also like, man,

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

wish I had time for that.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

But yeah, it's only 10 minutes a day and you can do them in bed. So that's like. For me, that's like the big kind of hack is being able to do them in bed because I can just be like, cool. This is part of my morning wake up routine or part of my sleep routine.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. Because it does seem like building in the routine part of it is really important.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah. The consistency is, will yield the best results. But you know, at the same point, like, consistency, like for me, I kind of like tricked myself into working out by being a fitness instructor because I, like, knew I. I like, love movement. I love. I used to be a dancer, but I knew I probably wasn't going to work out unless I, like, made it my life. And I do like it a lot. But for me, like, I do still have to trick myself into doing it. So I just go into the space and I just lay there and I'm like, whatever happens, if I. I'll just lay here. Whatever happens is good. And then normally, like two minutes of laying around, I'll be like, fine, I'll do, I'll do some weights, I'll do it. But like, if I were to be like, I'm gonna work out, like, for me, my brain doesn't like that. Like, it's like. But for me to be like, I'm gonna go lay down. My brain's like, sure, let's do that. I'll go lay down, wiggle around a little. My brain's like, okay. And then after like two minutes and I'll be like, okay, fine, I'll like do a few, I'll do some strength stuff.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, I always love the lowering the stakes and then also sticking with that. Like, if I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go lay down for a little bit. And I'm like, you know what? I really do not want to do anything. Being like, okay, I'm not going to. That's fine, too.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yes. And then. And then. But then that's what your body needs in that moment, and that's what's really beneficial for you in that moment. So you're taking really good care of yourself and increasing your interoception skills by doing that.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. So one of the things I was interested in that you mentioned earlier is you were talking about the places where this wasn't as great was the, like, acute injury kind of thing. Um, but I also saw the Felderkreis method there, up there, and I'm like, oh, that's. I've heard about that for, like, acute stuff, too.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, yeah. So with acute stuff, I always suggest that people just start with your doctor. Do what your doctor is telling you to do first. If they clear you for movement, like, for gentle movement, you can do somatic exercises, but you have to wait until the doctor clears you for that. Interestingly enough, Feldenkrais is. That's one of the modalities that I'm trained at. And he created a lot of these movements while he was stuck in a hospital bed to heal from an acute injury. But I just am very cautious with people. Once you get cleared for gentle movement, you can do it.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, absolutely. Because a couple of years back, I tore my quad, and that was something where it's like, yeah, I need to do. I mean, it's one of those things where I still need to do stuff with it, because it's just like, oh,

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

this is still tight.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Years later, even though I've done, I'll be like. Be like, you know, massaging my leg. I'm like, there's a knot right there still that's never gone away.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Such a big muscle to heal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could definitely do somatics at this point.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

So if people wanted to get started on this, what kind of should they be doing? Like, what should they be like? Obviously, you have your program, but is there any other, like, kind of avenues that they should kind of look at?

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, I mean, I think reading about it is really interesting to read about. I have my book when the Body Speaks, and there are other books like the Body Keeps the Score. The Body Keeps the Score is quite dense and meaty to get through. There's also Waking the Tiger by Dr. Peter Levine. But it's really interesting to read about it a little bit and learn about it at first. But ultimately, the healing really does happen through the movement and through the exercises. So if you were to want to try an exercise, um, you can just like, DM me release on any of my. On my Instagram account, and I would send you a free one minute video to try out, so you can just like, see if you like it, see if it makes sense in your body.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Awesome. Yeah, I think there's. For a lot of people, it's just kind of like, even the idea of getting better is kind of scary. And so, like, it's like, it really needs to be these small steps.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Totally. Yeah. And it's interesting because in Somatics, we teach titration, which is exactly that. Where you're taking these small, incremental steps, you know, day by day, so you're not overexposing yourself. I never, like, I never want people to just jump right into a trauma release. Like, some people want to grow and, like, have this really intense experience with a practitioner that's going to, like, poke them and make them cry. And I'm like, no, don't do that. That's like, so intense. So, yeah, like, you're saying these baby steps is the best way to go about it. And I do structure everything in that way. Because you don't want to overwhelm yourself.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah, absolutely. Because, I mean, if it is very classic, ADHD is like, let's just go level 10 immediately.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Totally. Let's do this. Yeah. Which is understandable. Like, I. I get. I get that I used to be like that when I was younger. And, yeah, I had to unlearn that.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

Yeah. I mean, that's why, like, I used to love doing, like, the super intense workouts. Cause I was like, oh, I felt like I did something then.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah, totally. And. And, yeah, it's like I sweat a lot, and now I can't walk for four days. And I didn't.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

I remember doing something like, I'm like, had to, like, help my friend move the next day. I'm like, this was the biggest mistake, that I'm going up and down these stairs and every step hurts.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Yeah. Yeah.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

All right, well, we're coming up here on time, so I was wondering if you had any final thoughts that you wanted to leave the audience with.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

I think for a lot of folks with adhd, we feel like it's not possible to, like, feel less tense. But I just want to share that it as. As someone who has been through a lot, I want to share that it is possible to be less tense. And it is possible to get good sleep again and it is possible to feel more at ease in your body. And the cool thing about the body and kind of why I'm obsessed with healing the body is because the body does heal quite quickly when you give it the correct input. So it's very responsive. It's really always working for you. It's never trying to hurt you in any way and it's self healing. So once you kind of activate those systems, those natural repair systems, it just compounds.

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

I'm sure a lot of people will get a lot out of this.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Thanks so much William.

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

Thanks again to Liz for coming on the show and thank you for sticking with us all the way to the end. Before you go though, let's do a quick rundown of Today's top tips. 1. While random stimming may help us cope in the moment, it doesn't necessarily lead to long term nervous system regulation. By intentionally performing certain somatic exercises, we can actually shift our baseline physiology over time.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

2.

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

When we are in a state of functional freeze or understimulation, the goal isn't to lower our energy levels, but instead to move from a shutdown state up into a regulated and alert state of ease known as the ventral vagal state.

[William Curb (Interviewer)]

3.

[William Curb (Host of Hacking ADHD)]

Because ADHD involves a bottom up nervous system, our mental state is often a direct reflection of our physical tension. By consciously relaxing, we can trigger an immediate emotional shift even if we don't realize our own stress levels. Alright, that's it. Thanks for listening. I'd love to hear what you thought of this episode. Feel free to connect with me [e-mail] contact if you'd like links or to read this episode's transcript, you can go to the show notes [e-mail] 294 and if you'd like even more hacking your ADHD, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and in a All Distractions, which comes out every other week in it, I give out my best distractions of the week, be they what I'm watching, what I'm playing, what I'm reading, and everything in between. I also try to give out a few bits of actionable advice in each newsletter, although your mileage is going to vary there. If that sounds like something you're interested in, head on over to hackingyouradhd.com newsletter to sign up. And I also want to make sure you know about our Patreon, which you can easily [e-mail] Patreon it's a pay what you want model, meaning that all levels of the Patreon receive the same stuff. You can pay $0, $2 or $10 and it's all the same right now. You get early access to all the episodes and behind the scenes content. Also, be sure to check out our discord [e-mail] Discord and check out our YouTube channel, which you can find at YouTube.comadhackingyouradhd and finally, if you'd like another way to support the show, the best way to do so is to tell some about the show. Especially. Especially if you think a particular episode would resonate with them. Just click the Share button on your podcast player. And now for your moment of Dad I was at a zoo with an enclosure that only had a baguette in it. I was gonna ask about it, but then I just figured it was bred in captivity.

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[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Hey everyone. Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh no.

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[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

Me to a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

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Anyways, get a [e-mail] or with your local agent.

[Liz Tenuto (Workout Witch)]

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