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Liz Tenuto08 May 2026

Episode 552: Liz Tenuto: Why Stress Gets "Stuck" In The Body, The Science of Somatics, & How to Finally Let It Go

1Frameworks
11Insights

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Frameworks in this episode

Self-Mastery5 steps

Progressive Somatic Release Sequence

Release surface tension before progressing to deeper muscles and integration

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 1

Myth Buster

Why the Claimed 99% Success Rate Needs Context

Tenuto says her courses and app have a 99% success rate across 240,000 students. When asked how it is measured, she says the figure is based on how many people use the money-back guarantee, so it reflects refund behaviour rather than a clinical measure of symptom improvement.

  • Tenuto reports 240,000 students over five years
  • She states a 99% success rate for her courses and app
  • The stated measurement is the money-back guarantee rate
  • Low refunds do not by themselves prove medical efficacy

“with my courses and my app, I have a 99% success rate.”

Liz Tenuto

“we judge it based, we have a money back guarantee, so we just judge it based on how many people.”

Liz Tenuto
#evidence#success-rate#methodology

Hot Take· 2

Hot Take

Why Tenuto Sees Massage as Short-Term Relief

Tenuto says massage and acupuncture can offer short-term relief when someone needs to feel better the next day. For longer-term change, she argues that even tiny active movements are preferable because participation builds new neural pathways out of a pain cycle. The neural-pathway and long-term healing explanation is her claim, not evidence presented by the episode.

  • Massage is described as passive and temporarily relieving
  • Tenuto estimates relief may last one to three days
  • She argues that small active movements create longer-term learning
  • The interview does not compare outcomes from massage and somatics

“Massages are great short term”

Liz Tenuto

“when you're a little bit involved, that is what builds new neural pathways.”

Liz Tenuto
#massage#pain#movement
Hot Take

Tenuto's Stress, Bloating, and Belly-Fat Explanation

Tenuto says stress can increase fluid retention and lead the body to store calories as visceral fat, making belly weight harder to lose. The host adds that elevated cortisol is associated with holding fat and notes that spot reduction is difficult. The transcript does not provide evidence for Tenuto's stronger claim that the body will not lose visceral fat until it exits a stress response.

  • Tenuto links stress with bloating and fluid retention
  • She describes visceral fat storage as a survival response
  • The host cautions that spot reduction is difficult
  • The causal and treatment claims are not demonstrated in the episode

“a lot of people experience bloating when they're stressed because your body retains more fluid.”

Liz Tenuto

“it's hard to spot reduce anyway.”

Host
#cortisol#visceral-fat#bloating

Explainer· 3

Explainer

Why Tenuto's Audience Skews Toward High Achievers

Tenuto says her audience is largely 30 to 60 and includes high-achieving people carrying many responsibilities. She describes followers who appear functional but privately report sleep trouble, persistent back pain, gut issues, or anxiety, while presenting somatic exercises as a way to seek relief without abandoning their existing lives. These benefits are her claims and personal reports, not clinical findings established in the episode.

  • Tenuto says women make up more of her audience, though the practice is intended for all genders
  • She associates her audience with high responsibility and hidden symptoms
  • She reports that her own insomnia, gut issues, and anxiety improved through the exercises
  • The transcript does not independently verify those health outcomes

“folks who are really high achieving, who have a lot of responsibilities, but also perhaps have sleep issues”

Liz Tenuto

“for me, I really did get rid of my insomnia and my gut issues and my anxiety through doing them.”

Liz Tenuto
#high-achievers#stress#audience
Explainer

The Email-versus-Bear Explanation for Stuck Stress

Tenuto argues that a stressful email can trigger bodily reactions originally suited to a physical threat, including contraction in the jaw and psoas. Because modern stressors rarely lead to fighting or fleeing, she says the physical discharge never happens and the stress response remains unfinished. This is her explanatory model in the interview, not a clinically demonstrated mechanism within the episode.

  • Tenuto says emotions begin as physical sensations before the brain labels them
  • She uses a stressful email as a modern fight-or-flight trigger
  • She names the jaw and psoas among muscles that may contract
  • Her proposed remedy is a safe physical discharge

“if you get an email that's really stressful, it can kind of immediately cue your fight or flight response.”

Liz Tenuto

“we have to have some sort of physical discharge to kind of come back to homeostasis.”

Liz Tenuto
#fight-or-flight#stress-response#mind-body
Explainer

How Tenuto Describes On and Off Nervous-System States

Tenuto uses sympathetic activation for a nervous system she describes as stuck on, with restlessness, anxiety, irritability, and difficulty sleeping. She contrasts it with parasympathetic activation or freeze, described as stuck off, with exhaustion, numbness, withdrawal, and difficulty acting. These symptom groupings and her use of polyvagal theory are speaker explanations, not diagnoses established by the transcript.

  • The stuck-on pattern is associated with fight or flight
  • The stuck-off pattern is associated with freeze
  • Tenuto describes distinct emotional, social, and energy signs for each
  • Similar symptoms may have causes not discussed in the episode

“sympathetic activation of your nervous system, which is when your nervous system gets stuck in fight-flight.”

Liz Tenuto

“Then there's parasympathetic activation, which is more associated with freeze response”

Liz Tenuto
#sympathetic#parasympathetic#polyvagal-theory

Story· 1

Story

The Ballet Break That Made Tenuto Reconsider Her Pain

Tenuto assumed years of ballet caused her chronic pain, but says the pain worsened after she stopped dancing for two years in college. She reports returning to movement and later somatics, after which her chronic pain went away, and interprets her own pain as emotional. She also advises medical assessment first; her claim that pain lasting over three months is generally emotional is not substantiated in the transcript and should not be treated as diagnosis.

  • Tenuto initially attributed pain to the physical demands of ballet
  • She says stopping dance did not improve it
  • She reports improvement after returning to movement and starting somatics
  • Her personal interpretation cannot establish the cause of another person's pain

“I quit dancing for two years during college. I studied psychology and my chronic pain actually got worse.”

Liz Tenuto

“once I started somatics got significantly you know it went away, my chronic pain went away. And for me, it was emotional.”

Liz Tenuto
#chronic-pain#ballet#personal-story

Q&A· 1

Q&A

Can Sleep Position Reveal a Stress Response?

Tenuto lists jaw clenching, tooth grinding, curled hands, extreme fetal posture, waking at minor sounds, and waking around 3 a.m. among signs she associates with stress during sleep. She also calls stomach-sleeping with one bent knee the mountain-climber position and says it keeps the abdominal muscles mildly active. These interpretations are her claims, and the episode provides no diagnostic evidence that a posture reliably identifies stress.

  • Tenuto argues that the body can remain stressed during sleep
  • She associates several behaviours and postures with that state
  • She contrasts them with lying long on the back or side
  • Sleep position alone should not be treated as a diagnosis based on this interview

“people didn't realize that you could still be stressed out during sleep.”

Liz Tenuto

“when you're in that position, there's mild activation in your stomach muscles, your body can't fully relax.”

Liz Tenuto
#sleep-position#stress#sleep

Tool· 2

Tool

The Five-Minute Bedtime Rocking Practice

Tenuto says she teaches rocking exercises that can be done in bed for no more than five minutes. She claims they release tension, lower cortisol, and relax people enough to fall asleep, but the transcript does not demonstrate the movements or provide evidence for the cortisol claim.

  • The practice is described as bed-based and brief
  • Tenuto presents relaxation and sleepiness as the immediate targets
  • The actual rocking sequence is not explained in the audio transcript
  • The physiological claims remain speaker claims

“There is there are some rocking exercises that I teach that you can do before bed.”

Liz Tenuto

“they take like five minutes maximum, but they release tension and stress out of your body.”

Liz Tenuto
#sleep#rocking#cortisol
Tool

Pillow Chopping as a Container for Anger

Tenuto offers chopping a pillow with the hands as one physical outlet for pent-up anger. She says bodily expression can keep anger from remaining as tension and affecting stress hormones, although the broader health effects she describes are unverified speaker claims in this transcript.

  • The pillow provides a bounded object for physical expression
  • Tenuto frames anger as requiring a healthy physical container
  • She links unreleased anger with tension and stress hormones
  • The episode provides no evidence that the exercise prevents health problems

“So what I teach are these really simple, easy, effective ways to finalize your body's biological stress response as well.”

Liz Tenuto

“it releases stress and tension and pent up anger out of your body”

Liz Tenuto
#anger#physical-discharge#stress

Takeaway· 1

Takeaway

How When the Body Speaks Organizes Symptom Routines

Tenuto says her book is divided into three sections. Its final section contains mini routines with three lessons each for concerns including anger, sleep, stress, gut issues, and cognitive complaints such as brain fog.

  • The book uses a three-part structure
  • The final section is practical rather than purely explanatory
  • Each mini routine contains three lessons
  • The named routines target several reported symptoms and emotional states

“The last part of the book, the book is split into three sections, and the third section in the back are mini routines with three…”

Liz Tenuto

“So there's anger release, sleep issues, stress release, gut issues, cognitive issues.”

Liz Tenuto
#book#routines#somatics