Now I am walking, jogging on my treadmill at home, doing the dishes, gardening, even dancing!

I have suffered from lower back pain for years. It used to come in cycles, that came around every few months. Muscles in my lower back would go into spasm and I would feel pain which made it impossible to stand still for any given time; find a comfortable position in which to sit; walk for more than a minute or two; do simple chores like do the dishes let alone gardening. At its worst, the pain was paralysing – making it impossible for me to sit up, stand up or do anything in between.

I have had to go to the hospital twice in that state and been treated using muscle relaxers and painkillers including morphine. I have gone through physiotherapy and been given a set of exercises to follow at home after most of the treatments.

At one point I had to go for an MRI – I was told that the angle at which my spine joins the pelvis is extremely acute – unusually so. So the muscles in my lower back have to work a lot harder than normal to perform daily functions and sometimes they go into a spasm which then causes lower back pain. I was told that this (the position of my spine) was common amongst women of African origin. Also, that being overweight makes the impact worse.  I left thinking, WOW – so is this going to be my life forever?
Enter Karen and Bodylogiq.
I met Karen at a business networking event and as soon I heard her talk about her Bodylogiq approach, I was intrigued. I told her about my pain, she said she could help, and we exchanged contact details. I was not in the middle of a pain cycle then, so I just held onto that information. When lockdown came around, I was in the middle of a pain cycle and unlike previous cycles – this one did not seem to end.

I could not take advantage of the exercise time that was allowed during the lockdown because I could not even walk for a few minutes without doubling over in pain. I couldn’t do dishes, get in and out of the bathtub without great difficulty let alone dance – and I love to dance. I got in touch with Karen. She said she was practising online because of the lockdown which made me hesitate but in the end,  I went ahead because I could not take it anymore.

Karen is patient and understanding. She listens carefully and recommends gentle movements aimed at the muscles in question. I recently had a review after completing a 3-month programme. It was amazing not only to tell Karen how much things had improved but to see before and after photos showing improvements in alignment.

I have been pain-free for a long time, I follow a set of exercises and most importantly I have become acutely aware of what is going on in my body. When I have had a twinge or two, I have been able to address these immediately using the movements I have been taught to get back to being pain-free. I no longer feel helpless or resigned to regular pain because I have the tools I need to support my muscles. I am walking, jogging on my treadmill at home, doing the dishes, gardening, even dancing!

If you are in pain and you have tried everything, get in touch with Karen and try her Bodylogiq approach.

I highly recommend Karen and Bodylogiq – because it changed my life.

Ellen Mukwewa

Update from Ellen, 1 month on….

• I am still doing what I call my “backsercises” twice every day.
• My exercises are now a breeze and I’m jogging most days.
• Last Friday, I had an incident. I was leaning down, brushing my teeth. I flexed my lower back muscles to try and straighten out; I felt the “breaking” sensation I described to you before. I did my backsercises, I did my jogging as usual (on high alert of course, on the lookout to see if the exercise worsened the pain in any way, it didn’t). For the rest of the day any time I was moving between sitting and standing or lying down I was in pain. I remembered that I still had some pain killers from my trip to the hospital – I took some, twice. The following day I continued with my backsercises and I did my treadmill as well. By the end of the day, I was feeling fine.
• And that was it!
• Only 2 days and I am pain-free again!