Hi, I am Barbara and I live in the UK. I am 76 and a very active pensioner with lots of interests. The days are too short really to fit in all the things I would like to do.
I heard of Maria about 5 to 6 years ago through my health coach Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo who was raving about her. Dr. Ritamarie offered her clients to take part in some exercise sessions with Maria to get a taste of what it is like to work with her. That’s how I met Maria. I took Maria’s very tempting offer of a set of three online sessions as I knew that I had to bring exercise into my life. I was never drawn to doing exercise or sports in general. I was more drawn to dancing or other ways of movement which are enjoyable and the closest to exercise I could get was to do walks if they were not too long.
I knew that it would be a big challenge for me to start doing exercises but as I couldn’t brush aside all the voices which said that exercise has such an important role to play if one wants to stay or become healthy, it was clear to me that I had to bite the bullet.
But there was a part in me that behaved like a mule, whose only goal is to resist, partially as I couldn’t see myself doing heavy-duty exercises in my ripe old age which everybody seems to rave about. It didn’t help that almost every time I took part in a group exercise I did hurt myself in some way or another as I always tried to follow the instructions to the T.
Well, it took 5 more years of procrastination to overcome my hesitancy, but when I could clearly observe that my body was slowly but surely seizing up, I knew I had to make a move. I could feel my shoulders curling forward, I had a clearly visible hunch in my back (which really annoyed me), my upper back, shoulders, and neck hurt me most of the time and I felt that I was increasingly struggling to keep myself upright. I had this feeling of all the muscles in my back getting very tired and just wanting to quit their job. Over the last years, I had also observed that my balance got worse and worse, and I could see where that would end up eventually.
I finally plugged up my courage and contacted Maria to arrange with her my first session. I was slightly nervous about what kind of exercises she would ask me to do. But how wrong I was to think that way, as she suggested exactly the contrary of what I was fearing. She advised me to take tiny steps but to do these tiny steps very regularly. I was very relieved and each exercise she suggested made complete sense–all done online.
I enjoyed each session with Maria and I can only highly recommend her classes. Maria has an intricate knowledge of the body and she explains very well, how each exercise helps with your problem and what exactly it trains and strengthens. She made sure that I did the exercises the right way without hurting myself which is especially important at my age. She showed great sensitivity and respect for where I was at, where my boundaries were and where I was lacking confidence. She
really understood to motivate me and was always very encouraging and complimentary.
I am so glad that I finally took the step to integrate exercise into my life and to find out, that it can actually be something pleasant, thanks to Maria finding the right exercises which are perfect for my age and my capabilities but are still addressing my postural problems.
–Barbara Andre, Busy and Active Retired, UK
