Selam describes herself as the anti-christ of exercise when it comes to the fixation on healthy living or vanity driven. But in the last year she became a loyal mover after she had to deal with a severe knee injury.
Selam came to the studio in the first place for regular treatments on her knee with our in-house physiotherapist Saskia de Beus. The studio was an ideal option for Selam as she lives not far from the studio and could easily access it even on crutches. When noticing that Selam had secondary symptoms from using the crutches and not moving to avoid the use of the knee (back pain and lack of overall mobility) and knee mobility, Saskia connected Selam to Anna Mora.
Anna did a full assessment of Selam’s needs, so that she could create a program of movement to help Selam’s condition over a series of private sessions on the Reformer. In these private sessions Anna focussed on progressively regaining mobility and strength and rebalancing both sides of the body. When you have an injury, for example, on the right knee, the opposite side of your body also takes a blow as it compensates the lack of mobility and strength of the injured side.
‘I felt comfortable and safe working with Anna as she has such a good knowledge of the body. She worked around and with the injured knee and in the course of these sessions I felt how my body got re-balanced and how I could slowly move again without stressing the injured knee.’
Selam trained 2 times a week with Anna during a period of several weeks. Once she felt re-balanced in her body and after checking with Saskia and Anna, Selam started adding group classes to the private sessions.
‘I feel that I want to continue moving even beyond the knee injury as it’s become a routine- if I could, I would love to have three private lessons a week but as this is not an option I make a combination of a private now combined with group classes in which I can experience different forms of movement.’
Selam started with the Pilates Mat class and then progressively combined these with Reformer and Springboard classes as her body became stronger. Lately she also added MUNZ FLOOR to her movement routine on Sunday mornings:
‘I much like to start my Sunday with MUNZ FLOOR – Tim is a good teacher and he creates an environment in which my body and I have the time to wake up even after a late night up.
When asking Selam what she specifically likes about the studio she shares:
‘I like that the studio is an inclusive place where people come to move, free from the idleness and evangelists in exercise environments. I like the fact that it is a small studio with a personalised and qualitative approach. It is a space without pretension where people of all ages are welcome – either to recover from an injury like me or simply to move with qualified teachers.’
