Kayla is strong and athletic: she was a gymnast and shot putter in high school. However, as we poignantly know, even the strongest young person’s life can change radically as a result of an accident. Kayla’s car was one of five vehicles rear-ended in a chain reaction car crash.
Life transforms in an instant
Kayla’s cervical and thoracic spine seized and were pulled laterally, causing scoliosis. Kayla was in so much pain in her torso, she reports that “it even hurt to eat.”
Several months after the accident, following physical therapy, Kayla signed up for my yoga class. Our work with the Yoga Tune Up® therapy balls has helped her upper trapezius muscles tremendously. According to Kayla, “just reclining and relaxing over the therapy balls on my upper back helps me where it hurts!” Additionally Kayla’s range of motion has increased from yoga. She also reports that in jithara parivartanasana she could not get her knees to the floor as the class began. In other words, she could barely perform a reclined twist. By the end of class, she had recovered full range of motion. Of course, the breath and meditative benefits of yoga have helped her manage lingering aches and pains from the accident.
Kayla reports to me that she has even shared her YTU therapy balls with her 13 year-old brother. He is a track runner and the balls have helped him with leg cramps.
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I am glad to hear the YTU therapy balls can even be helpful for those recovering from MVAs and will introduce them to this clientele in my practice.
What a wonderful story to read! It is great to hear about how the body can recover after such extreme trauma. I am new to Yoga Yune Up but it is amazing to hear real life examples like this one of how effective it can be in healing!
Small balls, big balls, all balls all the way. This is so inspiring. The work on these balls changes everything and the best part? YOU are in charge of the change. Getting to heal your own body has power and intention in it beyond measure. I love that young athletes are being introduced to the balls as well. It seems that athletes that don’t go on to be pro, stop a lot of the regular activity and become more sedentary as is most of our lifestyle. If they learn self care early on with the balls they can carry it through their lifetime.
Life transforms in an instant, yes it does. Recently my 89 year old Grandma was hit by a car. She went flying over the hood and fractured her pelvis, both knees and shoulders. It was the medal rod in her leg from her hip replacement last year that took the brunt of the fall and saved her life. My Grandma is 89 and extremely active and healthy. She lives alone and is completely independent. After 2 months waiting for approval to weight bare, she was just sent to rehab last week and is ready to roll! I stopped by on Sunday after YTU and saw her biking away while talking on her cell phone. Fellow rehabers were praciticing yoga in their wheelchairs and on the ground. I pulled out my balls and the PT pulled out his. Ok, the point here. Shes taken great care of her body, after her hip replacement last year, they didnt think she would walk, and she could jog! I know she is going to be okay this time too, because she does everything she should. Even then, life transforms in a minute, so we need to be ready. And when stuff happens, we have yoga 🙂
Wonderful story. I agree with many of the above posts thoughts that once you take the power of your health back into your own hands literally sometimes, you can find healing and a new way to view and respect that body you live in. You must keep exploring your body, as trauma changes it, life, age, injury changes it. TYU balls are such a potent place to begin to just get back in tune with you! After injuries that tend to illuminate the ‘blind spots” all throughout, seek your answers and be open to what you discover
Its so inspiring to hear a success storie and how YTU has changed so many peoples lives. I have a client who after using the balls was able to breath again without pain in her chest and back and we are working on changing her breathing patterns to a more natural state as she has shallow breathed for so long. As we keep unwinding and finding new blind spots is so amazing to watch her recovery and growth. YTU has helped me with my own injuries where all others have failed. It so nice to share these stories. Thank you.
It’s so uplifting to hear success stories and ultimately she’s healing herself through guidance which in my mind seems so much more empowering. Makes a nice Sankalpa lol “I have to ability to heal myself”.
I was in 4 car accidents by the age of 21. I have had significant soft tissue injury. Even after years of various bodywork, (a process of elimination because some things worked and some didn’t,) and finding a combination of things that work to help with pain, I still have some holding patterns and dysfunction in the affected area. Today in YTU – TT, Jill mentioned contracting a muscle in its entirety, through full range of motion, in order to “trick all the muscle fibers into relaxing”. This has proven to be VERY helpful in particular with the Trapezius, which is often injured in MVA’s and some fibers are “ON ” all the time!
Yoga tune up is helping to bridge the gap and fill in the missing pieces for me with these injuries, as I am sure it will for my students who I am and will work with Post MVA..
Thank you for reading my blog on YTU!
It’s encouraging to read about Kayla’s recovery, it’s reassuring to know that small gains in rehabilitating after a car accident can happen in such a big way. I too was in an accident and only wish that I had known about yoga tune up, between using the YTU therapy balls for soft tissue work and therapeutic poses I feel like I can not only locate but retrain the misused, overused and abused muscles that were traumatized in the accident.
This is so inspiring. So many people feel confined to their experiences. The yoga therapy balls are a great tool to unlock those confines.
I am taking the teacher training 12 weeks following shoulder surgery. The work with the YTU therapy balls is helping release post-surgical adhesions and the targeted exercise is helping me reintegrate the shoulders, retraining the muscles to behave properly. I am so grateful for this practice and the way its helping my healing.