Meet Bonnie Crotzer: Flossing Wellness Teacher
Bonnie Crotzer
Hope you join our Floss party
With an extensive and professional background in bodywork, movement and biomechanical flexibility and strength, Bonnie developed her method and platform The Floss to educate people on an often overlooked aspect of health - our fascia network.
Bonnie's Fascia Flossing classes and private sessions re-sculpt the bod's foundational structure through a personalized combination of physical manipulation, guided resistance movement and engaged muscle elongation techniques.
Q&A with Bonnie
What was your introduction to working with the body? How did this change and develop over time?
I started dancing at 4, so I was admiring bodies and studying them from a very young age. I have always been fascinated with the body, I think we are walking miracles. By 15, I was taking Pilates and yoga to support my dancing, and it opened another layer of integrated awareness. I went deep into my yoga practice, got certified and began teaching in my young 20’s. I loved it and still loved it but overtime I recognized that, on my mat, I wasn’t truly listening to my body as I pretzeled myself into crazy shapes and arm balances. I was stressing my body both dancing in ballet companies and in my yoga practice, the exact practice that I had thought would save me and sustain me through my dance career. That’s when I was introduced to Bob Cooley’s work and it opened up a whole new world, a way to heal myself, and beyond that, to feel incredible. I didn’t know that I was allowed to feel that good or that is was even possible.
Can you explain your theory (or rather the theory you teach) on stretching?
You know how the places where we feel tight, like where a knot is? Where the tissue feels tough, hardened, even dry or like a dead zone? Well, the kind of stretching we do helps make that tissue elastic, springy, and hydrated again. To revitalize the tissue, we stretch like animals stretch...picture a cat or a dog pawing the ground as they lean back or how you naturally yawn in the morning...animals contract as they stretch...it’s an engaged elongation also called pandiculation also called eccentric contraction. So we take that concept of engaged elongation and apply it in an organized fashion to every major muscle group of the body.
How does yoga and TCM play into your teaching?
We use the Chinese Medicine road map of the body to guide us along the fascial chains.
Many folks, including Dr. Dan Keown PhD., LAC, postulate that it could be the fascial plains that form the channels in which the Qi flows, also known as meridians. In other words, as we stretch we are cleaning up the fascial pathways so the Qi flow is more efficient, like taking the kinks out of the garden hose.
From a clinical stand point, I find this to be true. Often if someone has scar tissue where the Small Intestine Channel runs (along the back of the shoulder), they most often are having gut issues as well. If they get UTIs or have to urinate a bunch, the Bladder Channel is usually super tight. If they are a mega worrier (me!), they usually have tough tissue along their Spleen Channel. So we use the Meridian road map to give us clues, like we are on a treasure hunt for healing.
A Floss session, in some ways is the macrocosm if an acupuncture treatment is the microcosm. Receiving acupuncture works on the fascia as well but on a smaller more acute scale to refine the Qi flow. After Flossing for many years, my acupuncture sessions became more potent. Because my fascial channels that form the meridians became unblocked and the Qi could flow.
What can people do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to benefit their bodies?
Start with sleep, good water and enjoying yourself. Go mega on the veggies, mostly cooked with a steady amount of raw. Then add movement, get the fascia moving, warm it up to melt it down and get your energy flowing.
Learn one Floss, the hamstrings preferably! They have a direct impact on how the Spine sets up.
Learn two acupressure points that are specific to your needs...like if you get headaches try GB 20 at the base of your skull, press everyday for one minute, do it anywhere (on the subway, at the office, home, etc.) To learn more about acupressure go to our blogs on Ghostflower.com or follow us on IG @ghostfloweractive.
If people want to learn more about the work you do where can they go to read, experience and learn more?
Take a class! Best to feel this stuff, it’s confusing to resist and elongate at first! I will help you! A private sesh is going to do leaps and bounds as well.
Another good starting point is my blog post on fascia on the Ghost Flower website (my activewear brand that teaches you where the meridians and acupoints are on the body). Look up Bob Cooley, he taught me, he is an genius when it comes to changing the fascia and so much more.
READ:
Spark in the Machine by Dr. Dan Keown
Yoga Fascia Anatomy by Joanne Avison
The Endless Web by Schultz + Feitis
Anatomy Trains by Tom Myers