Karen is a recently retired journalist and librarian whose life is filled with family and social engagements, piano lessons, freelance writing, volunteering in her community, learning French and occasional travel.
She meets almost all the risk factors for osteoporosis, including a strong family history.
And she’s a breast cancer survivor.
Karen would not describe herself as an athletic person, but she has challenged herself with lots of movement over the years (we met at an outdoor Bootcamp in 2012!). She walks regularly, and she recently added a specific yoga practice to her regimen that’s designed to build bone density.
At this point you might be asking why she’d need anything from me.
In fact, she doesn’t need much!
Karen enlists my guidance every few weeks.
These are some of the things we work on:
Keeping her bones challenged
- While the yoga program has some benefits, bones need to be constantly stimulated and challenged to stay strong. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. In Karen’s case we mix it up with dumbbells and specially chosen movements that stress her bones beyond her everyday norm, AND that she can perform safely on her own.
Personalizing her yoga poses
- Many conventional yoga poses ask bodies to assume shapes that are too extreme for them. Unlike most people who gravitate toward yoga, Karen has inherited very tight tissues. In other words, she’s not the bend-y, gumby body type that most people imagine doing yoga. I help her find adjustments that allow her to keep challenging her body and feeling confident in what she’s doing, without hurting herself or giving up.
Addressing residual issues from cancer treatment
- Karen had several biopsies, resulting in chest-area scar tissue that tightens over time if not addressed. This can show up as pain in another area, or limited range of motion and function at the shoulder. We make sure she always has movements in her regimen that keep these tissues moving.
I help Karen fill in some blanks and fine-tune her do-it-herself program. This way, we maximize the time she already invests and enhance what she already knows by introducing changing variables. This increases the value of what she’s doing on her own.
Variety is essential
If we do the same thing every week for years, our bodies stop being challenged, and we don’t make the improvements we need to stay strong and agile.
In addition, Karen has me as a partner to track her progress and changes throughout the years. So when new issues arise (which is all but guaranteed as we age), I know her body and history well enough to make adjustments that meet the new circumstances — whether temporary or longer-term.
Working with Susan is very different than taking an exercise class where you do endless repetitions of exercises that may not actually work for your particular body. Instead, Susan is much more focused on helping me to understand how even the tiniest moves, when done correctly and regularly, can make a big difference in my health.