What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You (Without Words)

A trainer was doing a routine diastasis check. Nothing unusual. Client lying on her back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor, just chatting the way you do during a session.

Then the trainer mentioned the words “pelvic floor.”

The Muscle That Wouldn’t Stop Shaking

And the client’s adductor started shaking. Right there, mid conversation, with no exercise happening at all.

It kept happening. Every session. Any mention of pelvic floor, core, or hips, and that muscle would go off like it had a mind of its own. And curiously, the day after any session at all, even ones with zero upper body work, she’d report tight shoulders and a neck she could barely move.

Nothing about this matched what was actually being trained. Which was exactly the point.

Bodies Talk. We Just Don’t Always Listen

Most of us are trained to look at the body mechanically. Is the form good? Are the right muscles firing? Has the range of motion improved? All useful things to know.

But sometimes a body is telling you something that has nothing to do with mechanics. This particular client had a difficult upbringing she rarely spoke about directly, along with a recent divorce from an emotionally abusive relationship. Nobody knew the full extent of it early on. Nobody needed to. The body was already showing signs that something deeper was going on, long before any of that history came up in conversation.

That’s the part worth sitting with. You don’t need a client to disclose their whole story before you can notice that something doesn’t add up. The shaking, the unexplained tension, the reaction that’s bigger than the exercise calls for, these are all information.

When the “Obvious” Fix Isn’t the Right One

The instinct here might be to work around the reactive muscle. Avoid what triggers it. Stick to what feels safe and predictable.

That’s not what happened. After checking in properly, and confirming the client felt safe enough to try something different, the trainer suggested boxing. Which felt like an odd choice, given how much tension was already showing up in the neck and shoulders.

She’d never boxed before. She threw herself into it completely. And she left that session like a different person. No shoulder tension. No neck tightness. None of the usual next day reports.

The following week, the same core and pelvic floor work that used to set off her adductor barely registered a response.

Nothing about that outcome was random. Boxing gave her body a safe, structured way to move through something it had been holding onto. Sometimes the body needs to discharge tension before it can relax into the work you actually wanted to do in the first place.

You Don’t Need to Diagnose Anything

This isn’t about trainers becoming therapists or trying to work out exactly what happened to a client. That’s not the job, and it’s not appropriate to go digging.

What is appropriate is staying curious. Noticing when a reaction doesn’t match the movement. Asking simple, open questions like “does that happen often” or “what are you noticing right now.” Letting the client lead, and giving them the chance to feel a bit more in control of what’s happening in their own body.

Sometimes that curiosity is the thing that actually helps, far more than any specific exercise choice.

What This Looks Like in Everyday Sessions

You don’t need a dramatic story for this to be relevant. Watch for the small things:

• A muscle reacting somewhere unrelated to what you’re actually working
• Tension the next day in an area you didn’t train
• A client who seems fine physically but avoids eye contact or seems distant
• A response that feels bigger, or smaller, than the moment calls for

None of these automatically mean something serious is going on. But they’re worth noticing, and worth gently checking in about, rather than working straight through them.

Trust the Body’s Signals

Every body carries its own history. Some of that history shows up in ways that have nothing to do with strength or flexibility. Being willing to notice that, and to work with a client’s whole self rather than just the muscle in front of you, is often what turns a good session into one that actually helps someone heal.

You don’t need all the answers. You just need to keep paying attention.

Find Support That Looks Beyond The Scale

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Whether your goal is to process a difficult birth experience, rebuild trust in your body or simply feel more supported as you move through motherhood, working with the right support team can make all the difference.

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