Mary recounts how the COVID‑19 pandemic halted her exercise routine, leading her existing scoliosis to worsen and manifest as severe sacroiliac (SI) joint pain. After months of waiting for specialist appointments, she received two cortisone injections that temporarily eased the pain, but conventional physical therapy—both insurance‑covered and specialist‑based—provided only minimal relief. Discouraged, she turned to Soulcore’s Akimba program, which introduced novel, highly corrective exercises that felt unfamiliar and initially overwhelming, requiring frequent instructor adjustments. Over time, Mary adapted, experienced no further cortisone injections, reduced her ibuprofen intake to six doses over 18 months, and regained an active lifestyle, culminating in a six‑mile rugged hike that she once thought impossible. She describes the journey from chronic disability to a restored, independent life, emphasizing the unique, holistic approach of Soulcore.
Chapters
So before I started at Soulcore, I had gotten myself into kind of a bad place. It was a combination of COVID I stopped exercising, and I have significant scoliosis. So the scoliosis took over, and it presented as SI joint pain. It just kept deteriorating for me. I was still walking every day, but across time, the SI joint became more and more painful. And eventually I got to the point where I was on pain medication 24 7. I saw a hip doctor who told me I wasn't his patient. I needed to go see a back surgeon. I saw the back surgeon, and he referred me to a scoliosis surgeon. Each one of those appointments, I waited numerous months for. Because I was a new patient, the pain was significant. Ultimately, I got myself to the pain center and got SI injections, cortisone injections into the SI joint. And that relieved the pain enough that I was able to start doing some minimal movement again. And I got a second SI joint injection about six months after the first. And it was a few months after that that I started with Akimba. I should say that in the interim, you know, after the cortisone injections, I did see a mainstream physical therapist that my insurance covers. I got, like, one and a half percent relief from those exercises. After that session ended, I tried driving all the way to Albuquerque to specialists in scoliosis. There's a scoliosis clinic, and I saw a PT there. Same thing. I just did not feel like I was getting the help I needed. I wasn't making progress, and obviously I was quite discouraged. I was used to being a very active person, and. And I was essentially disabled before the age of 60, so it was not a good time anyway. So I decided to try Akemba. When I first started at soulcore, the exercises were completely unique to anything I had ever done. I had been a regular visitor to gyms when my kids were little. I had done yoga as an older adult. And what he was asking us to do is completely new. The left and right and just the configuration of what you're trying to do is very unique. And trust me, I may be different from the standard client, but it took me a little while. And in those early classes, I was getting so many corrections. And it was difficult, difficult in that I just kind of wanted to hide. I just wanted to sort of, like, be invisible in the class. And I just kept getting corrections, but the process works. Over time, I was able to catch on. The mind and body both are elastic and eventually sort of start figuring it out. And I have not had any additional cortisone injections since those two before I started with Akimba. And I also have only taken like six doses of ibuprofen in the year and a half that I've been at soulcore, so I've definitely relieved myself of that chronic pain. I have been able to resume my active lifestyle, and I am pleased to say that I was able to hike some six miles on New Year's Day on rugged terrain, and that was just something that was completely out of reach for me in those dark days. Yes, I have gotten the results that I couldn't even dream of when I first started there, and just so happy.
