TESTIMONIAL (Peter's own words — combined from three emails, June–July 2020)
"Having recently retired, I wanted to go back to running after a 15-year break. I was a club runner and had run at a relatively good standard — 3hr 18min marathon PB, 38min 10K. Unfortunately I found that I had effectively seized up, with greatly reduced flexibility and sore joints. I was feeling very old and stiff and quite dispirited.
A friend recommended Susannah and in our first Zoom meeting she immediately gave me confidence that with her help and some effort on my part, I could enjoy running again — and I didn't have to accept the pain.
What has surprised me is my growing understanding of how things are interconnected. If I'm going to ease the pain in my knees and run fluidly again, I have to work on all areas of my body, including my arms and shoulders. I am beginning to understand for myself which areas I need to work on, so I am learning how to be independent without Susannah's direct intervention.
My running has progressed well. I can feel at least the beginnings of rhythm and looseness returning and I am gradually lengthening my stride. I can feel that I am beginning to enjoy the physical aspect of running again — planting my heel with more confidence and breathing, not just gasping. Not bad for a stiff old git!
After completing my six online one-to-one induction sessions and joining the weekly classes, I have a fairly good grasp of the main techniques. This is very empowering — when I feel a niggle in my hamstring, I am able to self-manage my own recovery to some extent. I also use the techniques as part of my warm up and warm down, something I'd hardly bothered with before.
When I started working with Susannah I wanted to improve my flexibility and run pain free. The benefits have in fact been far greater than I expected. It has been transformational in completely changing my attitude to the aches and pains I had accepted as normal. I can now do something about it.
I have to be realistic about my age and I have always accepted that my PBs are a thing of the past. However, becoming stiff and unfit was debilitating physically and emotionally. I had begun to entertain the thought of accepting the inevitable — that my running time was up. Too much pain, not enough motivation. However, I decided to give it one more go.
Using Yoga Tune Up as a complementary programme to support my running was my initial goal. But the programme has very quickly become equally, if not more important than the running itself. The yoga and ball work has transformed my thinking — increasing my confidence in my ability to do the activity and to support everything else I do.
My goals are now more realistic and achievable, which is a result of understanding the interconnectedness of my joints, muscles, breathing and well-being all working together.
Susannah is a superb teacher. She is engaging, incredibly knowledgeable and very responsive to individual requirements. It's good to learn new skills at 65!
Later, reflecting further on the work:
"I was introduced to innovative and interesting ways to re-engage with physical activity based on breathing and activation techniques. What I value most, as well as the group sessions with great people, is Susannah's dedication to me as a person. She has great knowledge of the techniques she practises but she also knows how to give me the means to support myself to maintain fitness, flexibility and improved well-being. I really value her commitment to me even though I am just one of her many clients."
— Peter Brown, Southwell, 2020–2024
4. TEACHER'S NOTE
Peter came to me at a point many people will recognise — retired, with time and motivation to be active again, but confronted by a body that felt like it had aged faster than expected. The frustration of that gap between who you feel you are and what your body will currently let you do is real, and it affects confidence and self-esteem in ways that go well beyond the physical.
What Peter's testimonial captures beautifully is the shift from passive suffering to active understanding. That's the goal — not just to fix the immediate problem, but to give people a framework for understanding their own body so they can continue to manage it independently. Peter arrived not knowing why his knees hurt when he ran; he left understanding the relationship between hip mobility, thoracic rotation, breathing pattern and stride mechanics. That knowledge is his, permanently.
The breathing piece is particularly significant in Peter's case. As an asthmatic, he had a complicated relationship with breathwork — something many people with respiratory conditions share. Working with the Yoga Tune Up balls around the ribcage, intercostal muscles and diaphragm helped him develop a more conscious, functional breathing pattern without the anxiety that breath-focused practices can sometimes trigger. The physical, athletic quality of the ball work gave him an entry point that pure breathwork might not have.
The online format was essential here — Peter joined during Covid lockdown when face-to-face wasn't possible, but the one-to-one Zoom sessions, combined with short video demonstrations he could refer back to, meant progress was fast and the learning stuck. He's now been attending weekly classes for five years, which is the best possible evidence that the approach works.
What Peter is describing here is the result of working across three distinct but complementary modalities. Without needing to know the science, he experienced the results of Be Activated (Douglas Heel Method) — resetting the nervous system and switching on muscles that had effectively gone offline; Yoga Tune Up® with Roll Model Method® balls — targeted myofascial release and self-massage to release deep tissue tension; and Yoga — bringing movement, breath and integration together.
This is multimodality work. There are very few practitioners in the UK combining all three approaches, and each client's programme is individually tailored to their needs. Peter came as a runner — but the work, and the results, went far beyond running.