Zacarry Cupples

Zacarry Cupples, physiotherapist and the developer of the human matrix method was lucky enough not to suffer of chronic pain for a long time, but he did have some chronic gut issues and dismprphia which was connected to this issue. how did he heal himself?

It all started at: 

part of the human experience is experiencing some suffering, whether it's losing a loved one or pain or anything in terms of pain,

I've been very fortunate to not have very long bouts of persistent pain. The longest I had was when I was a cross country in track and field athlete in College. I had, probably, like, six, seven months of, like, a groin abdominal strain that I just couldn't shake. And I can't even recall I didn't like doing any specific treatment to help with it. I just would get up. I feel it. I get frustrated. But then I would go and do whatever I could, movement wise to help. And then just over time, it got better. But then with something like running, you just end up getting beat up somewhere else. So that was the longest pain that I've ever dealt with. But

one thing that I would say that I've dealt with longer on and off over the years has been just kind of some gut issues. I would get a lot of bloating as a kid and as an adult and I don't it's just like I get bloated.  that was frustrating for me on many fronts. I think that led to a lot of body dysmorphia to some extent where I look at myself and I would get really stressed out about that, because there were some times where I got very lean.

Change in the plot: 

So there was a few different moments. I had worked with a buddy of mine who does some nutritional functional medicine stuff. His name is Ben House. He had put me on a low FODMAP diet that really helped my waist got two inches smaller in circumference within, like, two weeks. It was that dramatic. So that was really cool.

But what really changed for me is I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and it was like the first place that I had decided I'm going to live here permanently. This was like a decade of me just moving everywhere. And so I think having that having a few other life stressors just from that experience be alleviated. And then I also started working with nutrition coach Georgie Fear, who just really helped me have a little bit more freedom and flexibility with eating and food. And it's like, wow, you know, I can eat. I can have treats like I can have cookies once or twice a week and not pay for it. Or, hey, if you want to eat this, you just have to modify the amount that you have and all that and then just paying attention to if I'm hungry, like listening to my body and working that way. And that's really been helpful. And it's given me a lot of freedom with food that I don't think I ever had in my life because I was very inflexible. I remember I was dating a girl in College. Part of this is just my obsession with things. I was eating the paleo diet, and I wanted to be a really good runner, and so I would only eat paleo to the point where her parents would make me paleo meals every time I would go and visit. But that's not a sustainable long term strategy. And now I feel like I have that with food, and it's been really cool

My relationship to pain: 

When you have pain,  I get it. It's a frustrating thing because there's so much in life that you want to do and accomplish, but it's just like anything. Learning any skill or anything like that. It takes time. Right. You could think of having freedom from chronic pain as learning a skill. And the skill is getting your body to move and do the things that you want to do without hurting so much

My best advice to fellow sufferers of chronic conditions: 

Have hope. The human body is very adaptable. We always change. You're not the same person you were five years ago. In fact, at a cellular level, I think, what is it about every seven years, you have completely new cells over time.  that should give you hope. You hope that you can get better. And then you just have to find whatever strategy or likely strategies that are needed to help move the needle in a positive direction.