The Workout Witch on Somatic Healing: Reset Your Nervous System in 5 Minutes a Day
The Gabby Reece ShowShow Notes
Your chronic pain, your tight hips, your inability to wind down… a lot of it isn't just aging or overtraining.
This week, I sit down with Liz Tenuto, somatic instructor and founder of The Workout Witch, to talk about what's actually driving the tension most people have been managing for years without ever addressing the root cause. Stress lives in the body. So does the solution.
What makes this conversation land is that Liz doesn't just teach this work, she lived her way into it. She came out of chronic pain, insomnia, and a genuinely hard few years. The tools she shares aren't theoretical. They're the ones that got her out.
What we explore: - How 80 to 90% of stress and trauma is stored in the body rather than verbal memory, and why that's the missing piece for most people who've already done the mental work. - Why the tight hips epidemic isn't a mobility problem - it's a psoas that never reset after your last stressful email. - What "functional freeze" looks like for high-performing adults who are crushing it all day and then collapsing the moment they stop. - How to know whether your chronic pain is structural or emotional - and the self-check you can do right now to start telling the difference. - Why high-intensity exercise can spike cortisol and backfire when your nervous system is already in survival mode, and how to sequence your training around your actual stress state.
Chapters:
00:00:00 What Somatic Movement Actually Is 00:03:28 Little T Trauma: You Don't Need a Big Event to Be Carrying Something 00:07:00 Signs Your Nervous System Is Dysregulated Right Now 00:10:15 Why Nervous System Health Is the Next Frontier in Fitness 00:19:31 Why 80% of Your Stress Lives in the Body, Not the Mind 00:26:06 How to Tell the Difference Between Aging and Accumulated Tension 00:36:23 Functional Freeze: The Hidden State Draining High Performers 00:41:40 How to Know When Someone Has Actually Shifted 00:56:32 How to Start: Time, Frequency, and What to Expect 01:05:40 How Chronic Stress Disrupts Your Hormones and Health 01:08:32 Why High-Intensity Exercise Can Make Things Worse When You're Stressed 01:14:00 How to Build Stress Tolerance and Expand Your Capacity 01:25:06 Somatics vs. Talk Therapy: What Each Does Best
About Liz Tenuto: Liz Tenuto is a somatic instructor, Pilates teacher, and Feldenkrais-trained practitioner with over 15 years of hands-on coaching experience. She's the founder of The Workout Witch, where she's built a science-backed somatic movement method that's reached more than 240,000 students and 4.8 million followers across platforms. She came to this work through her own story, chronic pain, insomnia, and a long search for what actually worked.
Connect with Liz Tenuto: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theworkoutwitch_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theworkoutwitch_ Website: https://theworkoutwitch.com/ Book: https://theworkoutwitch.com/pages/book
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The Gabby Reece Show
This is where I have real conversations with the people I find most worth listening to: scientists, athletes, coaches, parents, and thinkers who are doing the hard work of building a life that holds up over time. No hacks. No quick fixes. Just honest, practical conversations about performance, longevity, relationships, and what it actually takes to show up well at every age.
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