How does the body actually heal? Leigh Ankrum — founder of the Ankrum Institute and a teacher of whole-body manual therapy — shares short, clear conversations on what your body is telling you: fascia, the nervous system, the body's pressure systems, movement, and the deeper patterns underneath pain. If you have ever sensed there was more to your symptoms than you were told, you are in the right place. The body knows — listen in.
Your Kidneys, Your Hip Flexors, and How We Bend With Age
By the end of puberty, most of us already carry a subclinical level of dehydration, and the kidneys, which filter sixty percent of your blood every minute, pay for it. In this episode I explain where the kidneys sit in the body, resting on the psoas, your hip flexor, and what I see happen as people age: kidney tension becomes hip flexor tension, and the body starts to bend forward. I share the simple things that help the kidney, and why I believe getting older does not have to mean getting worse.
This episode is for education and isn't medical advice.
My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners
CHAPTERS
0:00 Coming up
0:23 The Body Knows
0:37 Welcome: kidneys and aging
0:44 Subclinical dehydration
1:11 The kidneys' workload
1:52 Where the kidneys sit
2:24 Why people bend forward with age
3:07 What helps the kidney
3:31 Aging does not have to mean worse
3:46 Until next time
14 Oct 2026
The Two Triangles That Hold You Up
Your neck is not what holds your head up. In this episode I introduce the two triangles the body actually stabilizes on: an inverted one whose point is the fourth thoracic vertebra, with sides running up to the base of the head, and an upright one that starts at the third lumbar vertebra and runs out to each hip joint and down the legs. I explain why the neck is for orienting rather than holding, why muscles are for movement, why your legs really start at L3, and why a practitioner who does not work from these principles ends up chasing symptoms.
This episode is for education and isn't medical advice.
My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners
CHAPTERS
0:00 Coming up
0:13 The Body Knows
0:27 Welcome: two triangles
0:57 The upper triangle: T4 to the head
1:20 Your neck is for orienting
2:09 The lower triangle: L3 to the legs
3:11 Why it matters: posture
3:46 Muscles are for movement
4:15 Your legs start at L3
4:57 For practitioners: stop chasing symptoms
5:39 Until next time
7 Oct 2026
Scars and Adhesions: Different Beginnings, Same Trouble
Scars come from a cut or an opening: the body sends fibers to stabilize the wound, and it keeps sending them long after. Adhesions start differently. Every structure in the body except unmyelinated nerves is wrapped in fascia, and when an organ or muscle stays in dysfunction long enough, that fascia changes from fluid to crystalline and sticks to its neighbor. In this episode I walk through both, using the kidney and the psoas as an example, and show why scars and adhesions end up doing the same three things: reducing function, slowing fluid flow, and entrapping nerves.
This episode is for education and isn't medical advice.
My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners
CHAPTERS
0:00 Coming up
0:20 The Body Knows
0:35 Welcome: scars versus adhesions
0:43 How scar tissue forms
1:51 Fascia around everything
2:18 How adhesions form
2:57 Example: the kidney and the psoas
3:22 Fluid to crystalline
3:58 Adhesions versus scars
4:55 What both of them do
5:12 Until next time
30 Sept 2026
Two Exercises for Real Pelvic Floor Tone
Most of the medical world hands women one answer for the pelvic floor: Kegels. But most pelvic floors are either far too tight or under-toned, and tightening everything at once helps neither. In this episode I share the two exercises I actually recommend: the elevator, where you tighten floor by floor from the perineum up to ten and come back down one floor at a time, and the one-opening-at-a-time practice that teaches each set of muscles to work on its own. I say it plainly, so you can do it correctly.
This episode is for education and isn't medical advice.
My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners
CHAPTERS
0:00 Coming up
0:20 The Body Knows
0:34 Welcome: pelvic floor tone
0:51 Too tight or under-toned
1:19 Exercise one: the elevator
2:09 How often
2:22 Exercise two: one opening at a time
3:08 Mix the order
3:30 Until next time
23 Sept 2026
How Your Ankle Actually Works
Your ankle is not the two bumps on either side of your foot. In this episode I walk through the mortise, the joint your two lower-leg bones form around the talus, and why it has to open a little on every single step you take. I explain what happens when the tibia and fibula freeze and stop opening, why the whole back of the leg then has to overstretch, why runners feel it most, how a half-open mortise makes you pronate, and why an ankle that stops working so often shows up as knee pain.
This episode is for education and isn't medical advice.
My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners
CHAPTERS
0:00 Coming up
0:13 The Body Knows
0:28 Welcome: how the ankle works
0:37 The malleolus: inner and outer
1:06 The talus and the mortise
1:38 Every step, the talus widens the ankle
2:17 When the two bones freeze
2:44 Overstretching the back of the leg
3:29 For runners
3:50 Half open: why you pronate
4:27 What to do about it, and the knee
4:58 Until next time
16 Sept 2026
The Central Chain: From Your Head to Your Pelvis
Everybody says the body is all connected — but what does that actually mean? In this episode I introduce the central chain: the line of fascial connections running from the top of your head, deep through the neck, to the heart, the liver, the small intestine, and down to the pelvic floor. I walk through why trouble in any one structure pulls on all the others, how the chain creates the forward-pulled posture so many of us carry, and where practitioners can begin to release it.
This episode is for education and isn't medical advice.
My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com (https://leighankrum.com)
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners (https://leighankrum.com/practitioners)
9 Sept 2026
Learning to Read the Body: What Posture and Gait Reveal
When I look at a body — standing still or in motion — it tells me a story. In this episode I share how I read that story: the three things I'm looking for (position, mobility, vitality), why a high right shoulder usually points to the liver, what the arm swing and the stride reveal about the fascia underneath, and the quiet figure-eight the hips are meant to make when we walk. My hope is that you start seeing bodies — including your own — with new eyes.
This episode is for education and isn't medical advice.
My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com (https://leighankrum.com)
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners (https://leighankrum.com/practitioners)
2 Sept 2026
Concussions Are Cumulative: What Most People Never Learn
Most people think a concussion comes from a hit on the head — but concussions can begin as early as birth, and each one adds to the ones before it. In this episode I walk through the many ways concussions happen, what concussive force actually does to the brain, the long list of symptoms it can create, and the story of a high-school football player whose life stopped after his fourth concussion. Then I speak to practitioners about the biodynamic approach I use, and to anyone who's ever had their bell rung: don't blow it off.
This episode is for education and isn't medical advice — if you've had a head injury, please get evaluated by a physician.
My writing, teaching, and book live at https://leighankrum.com (https://leighankrum.com)
Practitioners: https://leighankrum.com/practitioners (https://leighankrum.com/practitioners)
26 Aug 2026
Your Leg Actually Starts at Your Belly Button
Your leg actually starts at your belly button — how the body is designed to move, and why stiffness is not just age.
19 Aug 2026
Dizziness, Headaches, and Your Body's Pressure
Dizziness, headaches, vertigo — understanding the body as a pressurized system, and what that means for treatment.
12 Aug 2026
Understanding Fascia: The Body's Connective Web
What fascia actually is, how it connects every organ, nerve, and bone — and why it matters more than your muscles.
9 Aug 2026
A Car Accident Affects More Than Your Neck
What a car accident really does to your body — jaw, pericardium, diaphragm, kidney, brain — and why symptoms keep developing weeks later.
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