S2 | E18 Ken Moench

I'm in Austin, Texas with Ken Moench, founder of Moench Method Bodywork, which has four locations around the city, and author of Every Baby Hurts. I had just spent about three hours on Ken's table, and I'll admit I was tenderized. So I asked him to explain what he actually does, and why it did something for me that years of massage, myofascial work, dry needling, chiropractic, and physical therapy never quite managed.

Ken walks me through his method: pressing into a tight muscle to temporarily block its blood supply so it lets go, then moving it through its full range of motion until the pain signal shuts off. He explains why muscle relaxers and painkillers never touch the fascia, why the work has to start at the root of the chain (the hip flexors, the psoas, and the low back), and why my flat-on-my-back sleeping and side sleeping were quietly working against me. I also share what happened when I finally slipped into deep REM sleep in the middle of an afternoon.

Ken's path here is not what you'd expect. He was an industrial electrician who worked on barges along the Mississippi and the Intracoastal Canal, until a layoff in Baton Rouge sent him praying for direction. He became a physical therapy aide at St. David's Hospital in Austin, went to massage school at night, and started getting people out of pain faster than the hospital's physical therapists could, so fast that the doctors nicknamed his work "marrow massage." He tells me how he combined three rudimentary weekend classes into the technique he has now taught his team for more than 30 years.

Then we get to the book. Ken tells the story of his infant grandson, who screamed through every diaper change, and what he found when he put his hands on the baby's hip flexors. A second grandchild, who seemed perfectly calm, led him to the thought behind the title: if that baby hurts, every baby hurts. We talk about pre-birth posture, why every culture has swaddled infants, and what Ken sees in older adults who end up curled and stooped.

We also talk about the practice itself. Ken says the average client comes 2.4 times a year, and that the team celebrated when that number went down. He shares stories about Austin FC, a hurdler who won gold at the Pan American Games, and a big-league pitcher whose fastball went from 82 to 98 miles an hour. He explains why most of us stretch the wrong way, and how he trained for a marathon by stretching only to the first hint of tension. Finally, we get into his work on dogs, including the nearly 170 foster dogs he and his wife have taken in.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What the Moench Method is, and why the pain fades even while the pressure stays on
• Why the work starts at the hip flexors and moves down the chain, and why I needed the posterior chain done too
• How sleep posture, side sleeping, and flat surfaces can shorten muscles overnight
• Ken's path from industrial electrician to physical therapy aide to massage therapist, and the prayer behind his method
• The story behind Every Baby Hurts: two grandchildren, two sonograms, and one big idea
• Pre-birth posture, swaddling, and why older adults end up stooped
• Why Ken tracks average visits per client, and why he wants that number to fall
• Athletes, from Austin FC to Olympic-level competitors, and what flexibility does for speed and strength
• The right way to stretch: warm, sweaty muscles, the slightest tension, and deep breaths
• Working on dogs, hip dysplasia, and Ken's no-charge policy if he can't help

You can find Ken at moenchmethodbodywork.com and search Moench Method on Instagram and Facebook. His book, Every Baby Hurts, is available online and through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.