Three Questions with Meghann Koppele Duffy

What's The Deal With Your Tongue?

• Meghann • Episode 7

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What’s one of the most powerful but often overlooked movement tools? The tongue. Yes, the tongue! In this episode of Three Questions, I explore how tongue position influences concentration, cervical spine stability, proprioception, and overall movement efficiency. I also use one of the greatest athletes of all time as an example of how and likely why he used his tongue to fuel elite performance. Tune in to learn how you can begin optimizing movement from the inside out.

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Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions where critical thinking is king, and my opinions and research are only here to support your learning and understanding. Hey, I'm Meghann, your host of Three Questions, and I really appreciate you clicking on today's episode about the tongue. Now, I'm gonna keep this episode, um, as short as possible because it might seem like such a niche topic, but I, I really wanna get you excited about the tongue.

Um, not in a creepy way, but you know what I mean. Now, let me give a little backstory about maybe something you don't notice about your own tongue. And let's start with question one. Where and what does your tongue do when you are trying to concentrate? So where does your tongue sit and what does it do when you're concentrating?

Think about it. Do you find when you're writing papers. You've got like hamburger mouth and your mouth is open. Is your mouth closed? Do you push your tongue into your cheek? Do you stick your tongue out and you might like not even recognize or think about it. So watch your friends, partner, spouse, parents, and see what they do with their tongue when they're trying to concentrate, especially when they're like reading a newspaper.

Or do people even read newspapers anymore? Reading your phone, right? Listening to something cooking. What are they doing with their tongue? Because this is going to tell us a lot about how people use their tongue to stabilize different parts of their body. Now, why is the tongue important? Well, you know, moving our tongue activates our cranial nerves, which is very important for the brain.

But what I wanna talk about instead is the fascial and muscular connections to our neck. So right now just put your hand on the back of your neck, kind of in between each vertebra and move your tongue around. Stick it out, pull it in, move it right to left. And I want you to notice if you feel any movement or activation in your neck, and if you feel things going on in your neck, that's like a good thing.

If you feel nothing going on in your neck, well, you might have like EDS hypermobility in the tongue. Yes, you can have that. Or there's such a disconnect because of an injury, a concussion, or you know, other things. So what kind of got me most interested in the tongue? I know this is kind of weird, I might be aging myself, but there are certain athletes that just.

I don't know. I, they just mesmerize me. I just, watching them they're so much better than everybody else. Now if you think about it, in order to play division one sport, you were like the best in your high school. Right? And then out of people who played division one sports, how many of them actually go pro?

And then once you're professionals, there's like top people pro bowlers or I know that's what they call it in football. I don't know what it is in every sport. And then there's like. People who aren't as good. So think about it. The guy who, or excuse me, guy or a girl on a team. The worst person on a professional team was probably the number one athlete in their high school or college.

That's kind of effing crazy if you think about it, right? So rather than going on a tangent here, let's get back to the tongue and why Michael Jordan fascinates me. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, Google a picture of Michael Jordan dunking, and I want you to notice what he does with his tongue, okay?

If you're on YouTube. You can see what I'm doing now. What was interesting, and I have zero research to support this and like Michael and I aren't like, you know, tight, like he doesn't really answer my phone calls, so I couldn't even ask him this question. But the first thing I would ask Michael Jordan is, what's with the tongue?

And he would probably say, I don't know what you're talking about, because it's so natural to him. But my hypothesis is that Michael Jordan stuck his tongue out and did specific things with his tongue. To help his brain know where his head was in space when he was flying through the air, but also to stabilize his spine, especially cervical, so that his eyes could stay focused on the basket and he could really move his limbs to get closer to the basket.

And if you have never seen Michael Jordan dunk from the free throw line, you do not have to be a sports person to appreciate it. And if you still don't appreciate it, go to a basketball court and stand at the free throw line. And look how far away from the basket is. It is fricking nuts. Okay, now why stability in the cervical spine and jaw is crucial is to really make sure his eyes could converge.

So as you get closer to something, whether you're walking or you're flying through the air towards a basket. Your eyes have to converge, and I just realized many of you might not know what that is. So let me just show you. It's when your eyes come in and slightly down, so put your thumb out in front of you and bring it to your nose.

Okay? The ability to see it clearly is because our eyes are converging and our eyes also diverge. Go away. So like say if Michael Jordan's eyes couldn't converge when he would get closer to the basket, he would lean away from it. That's no good. Also, did you ever notice some guys when they go to dunk seems like a layup.

Pun intended. Okay. Now why? People say, oh, that's a layup. That's often an easy shot, but people miss layups and dunk sometimes because either their eyes couldn't converge on the basket or they took their eyes off the target too soon. Okay, so back to the convergence. Think about in your daily life, if you're walking towards something and your eyes can't converge, you're gonna lean back.

That's gonna change your center of gravity, it's gonna change your proprioception, it's gonna change your date cycle. Okay? You have any friends who are close talkers. Oh my God, I'm one of those. Um, that's also because I have hearing issues and processing in my left ear, but also because, um, I don't have great spatial awareness, so I know I'm too close to someone if they back away.

Now my eyes converge very well, so if I'm up close to you, it's not jarring from a sensory experience to my eyes. But it is very jarring to a lot of people because they're convergence and also because I speak with a very loud tone. Again, because of the hearing, I don't think I talk loud, which literally makes people laugh.

I think I talk at a normal volume. Now, I believe I spoke about in episode two about what a client's observation about my, um, talking was. So make sure you go back and listen to episode two if you haven't. 'cause it'll really make you think about sensory preferences. Okay, back to the tongue. So where is your tongue when you're concentrating?

Think about it. Your brain might not even pay attention to it. So every so often, move your tongue around and then put it back in that spot and enjoy some more time For concentration. Think about instead of taking breaks of reading, or listening or writing, give yourself a sensory break. So if your tongue is always here when you're concentrating or up here or in your mouth or pressing into a tooth, give your brain a sensory break.

Move that tongue around and then let it go back there. Cool. Moving on to question two. Can your head move without changing your tongue position? Now what do I mean by that? Okay, so let's just do it before I explain. Let your tongue float in your mouth, like not touching any teeth, not touching the roof, or touching the floor.

Almost think of that game of operation. Remember when you had to like pull the thing out without touching the edges? And I want you to move your head around

and see if you can move your head around without your tongue touching or tapping different parts of your mouth. Okay. Now, if you were able to do this, uh, question two B, can you do that and notice what your eyes are doing? So if you're watching me on YouTube, you can see this. And if you're not, I'll describe it.

When I do that exercise, I, my brain naturally picks a visual target. So I'm looking at something specific in my room and I'm moving.

While staring at that visual target and I also had my mouth open, which tells me that I probably stabilize my jaw better with my mouth open than my mouth closed. Okay, now I'm gonna do an episode about sleeping, but this is very important because with all this mouth taping, love it. Great idea. But if your jaw has trouble stabilizing with your mouth closed, we could be creating some gripping patterns in your face and jaw that might inhibit.

Good breath. Okay, so another episode. I'm gonna stay on track. Now what if you did the opposite of me? What if you moved your head and eyes with your tongue? That would be called with a VOR cancellation. What I did was a VOR, vestibular ocular reflex, so my eyes stayed focused so I knew where I was in space.

This way I didn't get dizzy or fall over or anything like that. Both are fine, but instead of giving you the answers and what to do, you know, this podcast is to help you guys think. Which one does your client do? That's their set point. Maybe start there and work on helping them be able to do the other.

Now, if your client can't do the other, you have to ask yourself question three, how is your client's proprioception of their tongue? Maybe they have no idea where their tongue is in their mouth. They don't feel it. Okay, so sometimes what I do for clients is I make them bite their own tongue. Not hard. So to do that, maintain the pressure of the teeth against the tongue while you move your head.

So in order to answer question two, I might have to add more sensory input to the tongue. You get me. So if you struggled with that exercise, bite down on your tongue gently and try to move maintaining that tongue position. So it'll be a little different because your teeth will be on your tongue. Okay?

Was that so much easier? Some of my other clients actually have to hold their tongue, or I have even had a client put a piece of candy on their tongue and then do these exercises. Why the piece of candy? Because it was a little bit of a weight, so it gave the brain sensory input on the tongue. What's super interesting, just a little tidbit, when I have done this with some other clients.

Their tongue kind of collapsed or would go like this when I would put the piece of candy on it and it would just tell me that their tongue was not able to respond to that sensory input. Super interesting stuff and can be really helpful if you're working with somebody with speech issues. Um, maybe their speech was affected post-stroke, maybe, you know, they get pain when they talk too much.

Um, I recently worked with this young man who was a trombone player, so any, um, musical instruments where you have to use your tongue a lot. Um, professions when you use your tongue a lot. I don't know. Very important to think about now. Um, question three, if your client doesn't have proprioception of the tongue, I wanna keep this episode super short, but like.

I know I say, I don't wanna give you answers and make you think, but like, would you be interested in a few drills and exercises you could do for your tongue if you answered yes, hang on for the next three minutes And if you said, no, thank you for being here and I. Listen to this episode again. When you meet a client or come into a situation where cervical spinal stability is an issue, they get tired speaking, they lose their voice, they're a singer.

Any of the above, okay? So drill number one. I want you to say your full name, like government, like think if your parent was yelling at you 'cause you were in trouble. And then I want you to swallow. So I would say Meghann Koppele Duffy, where is your tongue right now? I have to report, after doing all these drills for the past three weeks, my tongue position is back on the roof of my mouth.

For a while, it was on my bottom right tooth. That is an unfortunate effect. Unfortunate effect from my concussions. But anyway, where is your tongue right now? And do not judge it. Okay. Now, if you're thinking right now, my tongue should be on the roof of the mouth. Why? Well, because so and so told me. Cool.

But is your tongue there? My goal is to get my clients who have their tongue resting on the roof of the mouth, be able to sleep with their mouth closed, have their jaw stabilized. Of course, I want all that shit for you. But where is your tongue right now? Because if you put your tongue where you want it and you don't have the mobility and stability, it's gonna cause a gripping pattern or bring tension to your whole system, which could create a negative response to your nervous system.

Okay, so that being said, pick an exercise right now. Pick an exercise where there's no spinal mobility. I like to use a pushup. Okay, so if you're listening to this right now, I want you to get down in a pushup position. On your feet. What I want you to do right now is say your full name and then swallow wherever your tongue is right now.

Do your pushup, focusing on where your tongue is, not what your hands are doing, not what your pecs are doing, not what your feet are doing. 'cause I know you just did that. Relax. Stand up. Get back down in your pushup position again. Forget about everything. Focus on your tongue, say your full name and swallow again.

Wherever your tongue is right now, maintain the pressure and position of your tongue as you go down and up in your pushup. How'd you do if it improved your pushup to the point where you were like, holy shit. Well, your spine was not stabilizing, your jaw was not stabilizing, and potentially your eyes couldn't converge or and diverge when you came up.

So tongue position was really inhibiting that. I cannot make any assumptions about your body, nor will I, but I do know your tongue is a disruptor to all those three things. Spinal stability, eyes, ability to converge, and jaw stability. So what I want you to do is start your pushups, or any exercise that doesn't require spinal mobility where your tongue is.

Then hold your body in that position and do drill number two. Okay, I want you, wherever your tongue is, leave it there and move your head around your tongue to get your tongue to find the roof of the mouth. Okay? So let me give you an example. Say my tongue was kind of laying on my bottom right tooth. So I'm gonna leave my tongue there and I'm gonna bring my head down until I feel my tongue touched the roof of my mouth.

So basically like if this is my tongue and this is my jaw. If my tongue was down here, I'm gonna change my jaw and head position so it finds my tongue ish. Once you say, if you have to really bring your head down, just try it. Bring your head down so that your tongue is touching the roof of the mouth. Do not worry about your spinal position.

I want you to be able to do a pushup with your spine in weird positions. Do the pushup again. How'd you do? If we're still cooking, keep going. Now, I want you to keep your tongue on the roof of your mouth, the exact same pressure it is, and try to move your head. Maintaining that tongue position, okay? Just like what I asked you to do before, get your head in a more comfortable position and do your pushup again.

Now, if your pushup is still killing it. Take a break with your tongue, move it around your mouth. Sensory break. Put your tongue back on the roof of your mouth and now rep out your pushups because I want you to pair that tongue position with your pushup. If your tongue is moving all over your mouth, this is not a good drill for you and we've got to go more remedial and really see what is indeed disrupting your jaw.

Oh, now if that tongue shit was terrible for you, here's what I want you to do. Shake out your head like forget about your damn tongue. Get back in your pushup position, okay? Now what I want you to do is look at a specific spot on the floor. Don't think about how you do a pushup. Just get as close to that visual target and further away Do that once.

How did your pushup change if it got better? Okay, great. I'm gonna suggest you start with eye exercises and work on stabilizing your eyes when you're moving your tongue, and if your pushup got worse, no drama. You need to go back and check on your four quadrant stability before you do eye exercises. Okay, so I'm gonna just real quick go through that.

If the tongue exercises made your pushup so much better, keep going with this. You've got enough stability to move your tongue around and change positions. Be weird about it. Put your tongue out of your mouth, put it on the roof of the mouth. I want you to be able to do a pushup no matter where your tongue is, and I want your tongue to be able to stabilize in any position.

Cool. Number two, if the tongue position made your pushup worse, try a visual strategy. If that was the case, I want you to use a visual strategy with your exercises and really improve your integration of your eye movement and your proprioceptive movements. Then when you're killing it, then go back to your tongue.

And last but not least, if both the eye exercises in the tongue were total dog shit for you, don't worry, don't freak out. What I would like you to do is what I call assessing your four quadrant stability. Okay, I will do an episode about that, but I teach a whole course about four quadrant stability, what it is and how to assess it.

So I don't have time in this podcast. But looking at the stability in your four quadrants, your shoulder and hip joint, checking on stability there, and then reassessing this all. All right, so we got it under 20 minutes. Hopefully after this episode you are a little bit more interested in your tongue. I mean, if Michael Jordan is using tongue movement, maybe we should.

Okay. Um, I can't promise that you'll be able to dunk a basketball when you stabilize your tongue better, but it's gonna help you concentrate more and have less neck pain, uh, be able to sleep better and, you know, most likely walk better. So, thank you guys so much for tuning in today and, uh, hearing me out about your tongue, and I look forward to connecting with you all in the next episode.

Thanks.