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Jen Gulley | Physio + Fascia

@jenjoygulley

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Physio · 21 years 🌿
Fascia · Pilates · Heart Coherence 💛
Curious where science meets magic ✨
Co-Founder @neupilates · @neumovement

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Hi, I'm Jen.
I'm obsessed with watching the miracle of healing unfold in another person.
I believe that miracle lives at the intersection of science and ancient wisdom - and there are so many roads that lead there.
I love learning about each road. Combining certain roads. And teaching others how to find the right road for themselves.
That's what this page is about.
I'm a physiotherapist with 21 years of clinical experience, a fascia researcher, a Pilates educator, and someone who has spent a lifetime exploring both the science and the mystery of what it means to truly heal.
Where science meets magic - miracles happen every day.
It's one of my greatest honours to be part of that.
I'm so glad you're here. ✨ by @jenjoygulley

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2 months ago

After 20 years and three clinics, what’s mattered most has never been the exercises… it’s the people.

The client who comes back after an injury.
The instructor who messages to say “it finally clicked.”
The students who cheer each other on.

No algorithm builds that. We get to, together 💚 by @jenjoygulley

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5 days ago

You don’t need to relax. You need to finish the exhale you’ve been holding since this morning.

If you did Part 1, your diaphragm can actually move now - so this will work. If you didn’t, go back and release the diaphragm first, because everything below depends on having the range to empty.

Here’s what I mean. Most of us walk around in a low-grade inhale. Shoulders up near the ears, breath parked high in the chest, ribs that haven’t fully emptied in hours. We call it stress, but mechanically? It’s an unfinished breath. The body never got the signal that the threat passed, so it keeps idling in a state that’s ready to run.
The exhale is the off-ramp. Not because it’s calming in some vague wellness way - because of the vagus nerve. When you lengthen the out-breath so it’s longer than the in-breath, you’re directly stimulating the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system. Heart rate dips on the exhale. Blood pressure follows. The system that’s been bracing finally reads: safe.

But here’s the part most people skip. You have to actually empty. Push past where you’d normally stop. Get the stale air out of the bottom of your lungs - the part your shallow day-breathing never touches.

Try it right now, with me, while this loops. In through the nose, four counts. Then out, slow, for eight. And at the end, when you think you’re done - keep going. Finish it.

That’s not relaxation. That’s completion. Your body has been waiting all day for you to let it finish.

Save this for the next time your chest feels tight. Then come back and tell me what you noticed. by @jenjoygulley

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6 days ago

You’re not bad at breathing. Your diaphragm is stuck.

Before you try to “breathe deeper,” understand this: the diaphragm is wrapped in fascia that’s continuous with everything around it — the ribs, the spine, the organs beneath it, the deep front line that runs all the way down. When that fascia gets shrink-wrapped and bound down, which it does from stress, from sitting, from years of shallow breathing, the diaphragm physically cannot move through its full range. You can tell yourself to take a big breath all day long. The tissue won’t let you.

So we don’t start with the breath. We start with the release.

Here’s what I’m doing with my hands. I hook my fingertips up and under the front edge of my rib cage - soft, curious, not forcing. On an exhale, as the ribs soften down, I let my fingers melt in just under that bony edge. That’s where the diaphragm attaches. I’m not digging. I’m inviting the tissue to let go. A few slow breaths here, letting my fingers sink a little deeper each time the ribs drop.

You might feel it referred somewhere unexpected - into the back, down toward the belly. That’s the fascia being continuous. That’s the whole point.

Do this with me a few times while this loops. Hook, soften, melt in on the exhale. Give the tissue back its slack.

Because here’s the thing most breathwork skips entirely: you can’t finish an exhale through a diaphragm that’s locked. First you free it. Then - and only then - the breath actually works.

That’s Part 2. Follow so you don’t miss it, and save this one to do before you try the breath. by @jenjoygulley

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6 days ago

Building the thing we wished existed. Long days, late nights, and a room full of teachers learning to see bodies differently. Wouldn’t trade it. 🤍 by @jenjoygulley

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7 days ago

Community is medicine. 🤍 Social connection is one of the biggest predictors of long-term health, and it’s often the piece we overlook. Tag the person you move with.

📚 Holt-Lunstad, Smith & Layton (2010). Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Medicine. by @jenjoygulley

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9 days ago

Permission slip, signed. 🌲 Your nervous system has been asking for this all week. by @jenjoygulley

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11 days ago

Your postpartum client has DRA. Where do you start? 🤍

Most of us were taught to measure the gap. But the gap isn’t the whole story. What matters is tension in the linea alba: can your client create enough tension through the midline to handle the load you’re giving them?

Here’s how I start on the reformer:
→ Check the tension. Relaxed, fingers sink in. Connected, fingers meet resistance.
→ Build it with breath. Exhale, engage the pelvic floor and lower abs.
→ Load the legs and arms first, head down, belly quiet.
→ Watch for doming. If you see it, the load is too much, for now.

And loaded flexion like the hundred? That’s not our call to make alone. Get clearance from a healthcare provider first.

Knowing when to progress, and when to refer, is what makes you a confident instructor.

Every client with DRA deserves an individual assessment from a pelvic health physio. This reel is education for instructors, not a substitute for that.

#DiastasisRecti #DRA #PostpartumPilates #PilatesInstructor #ReformerPilates by @jenjoygulley

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13 days ago

Some souls find you right on time. Not early, not late. Exactly when you needed them.
Ferdi, I’d cross every path again to find you. by @jenjoygulley

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13 days ago

Pregnant and still want to keep moving on the Reformer? 🤍

Try these physio-taught Reformer Pilates exercises designed with pregnancy in mind.

Pregnancy can change so much in your body…Your posture, breathing, core, pelvic floor and how you move. Pilates can be such an amazing way to keep moving, build strength and stay connected to your body as things change.

Our physiotherapists love using the Reformer because exercises can be modified and progressed for the individual in front of us.

Want to learn more? Check out our NEU Pilates Rehabilitation Course, where we teach Pilates exercises on all the equipment, with physio-taught modifications and considerations for each trimester of pregnancy…plus so much more.

Save this flow to try later 🤍

Every pregnancy is different, so check with your healthcare provider and work with a qualified professional if you’re unsure what’s appropriate for you.

Follow @neupilates for more physio-informed Pilates, Reformer flows + movement education. by @jenjoygulley

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17 days ago

WHAT A WEEKEND 😍

To everyone who showed up in Kelowna this weekend - we’re so grateful!! For your questions, your willingness to be beginners again, and for trusting us with the work of learning to help people heal.

To our team - @malrielynn @cherylspilates @kbeale93 @taylorkjartanson @jenjoygulley @larayanik - who spent the weekend teaching, cueing, and correcting with so much care - this only works because of you.

This is why we do this!! Not just to train instructors, but to help people feel at home in their own bodies … and to help you help others do the same. 🫶🏻

Want to be in the room next time? Comment WAITLIST and we’ll let you know when registration opens. by @jenjoygulley

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21 days ago

Today’s medicine: be the dog.

When your nervous system is overwhelmed, your body doesn’t just feel it. It braces around it.

That’s why you can’t think or stretch your way out of a depleted system. You have to convince the body it’s safe.

Slow breath.
Exhale longer than your inhale.
Gentle scraping over your fascia.
Warm hands on your belly.
Feet on the earth.

Two minutes is enough to start.

Save this for the day you can’t do anything else.

Dogs are such great teachers. by @jenjoygulley

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a month ago