Nancy! I just had to call you. I knew you were the only one who would understand how exciting this is… I just came from the hospital and they said, I grew 1 inch!”
Lois called me about 5 weeks ago. She was finding it difficult to do daily activities such as gardening and vacuuming. She wondered if I could help her. When she walked in the door, I did a double take. I said, “you are not seriously 85 are you?” She looked a little surprised by my candidness and then responded with … yes : ) Lois looked years younger and fitter than your average woman of 85 years. She told me how her neck and back hurt. After several assessments for strength, flexibility, and balance, I decided to start with some postural awareness, a few releases and some core exercises.
Lois is a delight, she gets so excited and embraces everything she learns and is so motivated to practice her new strategies with a new sense of body awareness. As you can see, in the first photo, she is leaning almost hanging to her right. She really had no idea that she stood like that. The last 4 weeks have been so much fun watching Lois improve.
When we started, Lois needed a pillow to support her head due to the neck pain. The releases have allowed Lois to relax her neck muscles so that she now can put her head on the floor without a pillow and turn it side to side with an increased range of motion. This is a movement that is vital
The first time I asked Lois to get down on the floor, she had a lot of difficulty so we used a chair for assisstance. 4 weeks later she gets up and down unasisted. So great to see : )
Looking at her posture, you can imagine how much work it would take to walk very far in that position. We have done some posture work to help her become aware of the weight in her feet and hips as well as walking tall. Lois now reports to me that she has taken up walking everyday and that she finds it much easier without feeling breathless. There is no stopping this woman!
The most exciting results of our work together is Lois’ height. One week before meeting with me the first time, Lois had been measured by the Dr. Since she appeared to be losing some height, the Dr. sent her for a bone density test at the hospital. 4 weeks after we started our training sessions Lois went to that appointment, again they measured her height. Later that day Lois called me and said, Nancy! I just had to call you, I knew you were the only one who would understand how exciting this is… I grew 1 inch!” I was stunned! 1 inch in 4 weeks! So exciting : ) Still no word on the bone density test but we will be working on that soon too : )