Untwisting Maya: Her Story

I recently published Untwisting Scoli: Maya, the first in a new series of educational videos by Spiral Spine showing the analysis and exercise process I use to untwist my scoliosis clients. Untwisting Scoli: Maya documents my unique process with a long-time client of mine, Maya.

I originally wrote about Maya in a newsletters at my first Pilates studio many years ago. I can’t believe how young she looks in the newsletter pictures compared to how she looks in the video! Check out these pics of little Maya.

Maya was diagnosed at 7 with idiopathic scoliosis and her parents came to me when she was 9 because her scoli was continuing to increase in curvature. They wanted to do something proactive to help correct Maya’s scoliosis rather than wait for it to progress to the point of bracing or surgery. I told Maya and her parents that I couldn’t “cure” Maya’s scoliosis, but I could “untwist” her and teach her how to understand her body, stabilize herself, and live pain free.

After six months of Pilates with me, Maya’s x-ray showed her curvature was significantly reduced. We were all thrilled by the results. With tears of joy, we officially had a new Pilatista for life!

I don’t have Maya’s X-ray showing her curvature at its highest (which was in the mid to upper-20’s), but I do have an interesting triad of her X-rays. Prior to the first X-ray below, we had already decreased her scoli down to where each curve measured about 13 degrees. I love these X-rays because you can see her bones growing, as she goes through puberty, but the curvature in her spine staying the same. Puberty is stereotypically when scoliosis gets much worse, but we were able to avoid that with Maya by the information I share in Untwisting Scoli: Maya.

Maya moved away from home and went to college a little over a year ago, which meant she also moved away from her mom and dad who kept tabs on her scoliosis. It was a wonderful opportunity for her to step up and take control of caring for her body. I saw Maya during her school breaks and her scoliosis had remained stable! Maya told me that she does my Hard Core Scoli workout at college when she feels herself getting twisted. I was so happy to see that Maya has learned to own her scoliosis and is helping herself to live a pain free life.

My goal in making Untwisting Scoli: Maya is that you can take Maya’s success story, learn from it, and replicate the parts of the analysis and exercise portions that work for you. Whether you’re a parent of a child with scoliosis, a movement practitioner who has scoliosis clients, or have scoli yourself, you can learn how to untwist scoli from this video.