Jacki (53) went from painful, exhausting exercise to walking 5 miles pain-free even with Fibromyalgia
WATCH JACKI’S STORY
After years of struggling with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Jacki discovered through the Reshape Method® that she could exercise, get stronger, and move more without hurting or wiping herself out afterward.
Jacki got stronger, stopped needing her chair at work, and returned to yoga without hurting afterward
Jacki has lived with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia for most of her adult life, so exercise had never been straightforward.
She had tried running, aerobics, and yoga – and even the things that were supposed to be gentler would hurt.
She loved yoga, but stretching and side bends would cause a level of discomfort that other people didn’t seem to experience. Other forms of exercise often left her either in pain or completely exhausted afterward.
So when she joined the Reshape Method®, Jacki was nervous.
She had committed to 12 weeks, but there was a very real question in her mind:
What if this hurts too much, and I can’t see it through?
By the end of the program, she had her answer.
“I started doing exercises that didn’t hurt, which made me want to do it more.”
And that changed a lot more than her workouts.
JACKI'S RESULTS AT A GLANCE
SHE CAN WALK FIVE MILES WITHOUT BACK PAIN
Walking has always been Jacki's favourite form of exercise, but it came with a downside.
“I would do a five-mile walk, and by the time I got home, my back would ache.”
By Week 12 of the Reshape Method®, Jacki could do the same five-mile walk without the pain afterward.
“I can do a five-mile walk now, and I have no pain – because I’m walking properly.”
She didn’t need to stop walking. She needed to change how her body was doing it.
SHE RETURNED TO YOGA WITHOUT THE USUAL PAIN
Yoga was something Jacki genuinely enjoyed, but for years it had been uncomfortable.
Toward the end of the Reshape Method®, she went back to a couple of yoga classes and started applying what she had learned about her alignment, movement, and muscle use.
The result surprised her.
“I’ve implemented how you’ve taught me, and they [the yoga classes] haven’t hurt me.”
For someone who had spent years expecting exercise to be painful, that was a very emotional change.
SHE CAN STAND ALL DAY AT WORK
Because of her health condition, Jacki has a chair available at work so she can sit when fatigue or discomfort makes standing difficult (she's in retail, so she needs to stand a lot).
During the program, she began having days when she didn’t need to sit at all.
“There’ve been days through this program where I haven’t used the chair, at all.”
As she learned to stand with better alignment and distribute the work through her body differently, standing itself stopped taking so much out of her.
SHE FEELS STRONGER WITHOUT FEELING EXHAUSTED
Jacki had tried plenty of exercise modalities before, but she often came away either hurting or completely spent.
But the Reshape Method® workouts felt different.
“I do your exercise class, and I don’t feel exhausted, but I feel like I’ve had a workout.”
She could feel herself getting stronger without having to flatten herself in the process. For Jacki, that was a major shift.
SHE FEELS MORE IN CONTROL OF HER HEALTH
The physical changes mattered, but Jacki also describes something that goes beyond muscles and movement.
“I’ve awakened to the fact that I’ve got control over my health and wellbeing.”
She began to feel that strength mentally, emotionally, and physically.
And after years of dealing with conditions that could make her body feel unpredictable, that sense of agency was huge.
EXERCISE HAD ALWAYS HURT. THAT DIDN’T MEAN IT HAD TO.
Jacki had assumed that some level of pain was simply part of exercise for her: running hurt, aerobics hurt, stretching could hurt.
Even yoga, which she chose because it seemed like the gentler option, could be uncomfortable.
What changed in the Reshape Method® wasn’t that she suddenly started doing easy exercises that didn’t accomplish much. It was that she learned how to do the movements in a way that worked for her body.
The program gave her time to learn the exercise, then the private sessions gave us the chance to look closely at how she was doing it, what her body was compensating for, and what needed to change.
“You learn how to do the exercise absolutely right.”
For Jacki, that personal feedback made the difference between exercise being something she endured and something she actually wanted to keep doing.
SHE DIDN’T NEED TO WORK HARDER. SHE NEEDED TO WORK DIFFERENTLY.
One of the things Jacki appreciated most was that the exercises could be powerful without being punishing.
They didn’t take huge amounts of time and didn’t leave her wiped out afterward. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t working. She was simply learning to work with more precision.
The movements were tailored to her body, her alignment, and the way she was actually moving – not to some imaginary “average” person in the room.
That gave her something she hadn’t had in other exercise settings: confidence that she was doing the movement in a way that would help rather than hurt.
THE PRIVATE COACHING TOOK THE GUESSWORK OUT OF IT
Jacki had done classes before where the instructor demonstrated the exercise, everyone followed along, and that was more or less it. But when you live with pain, “more or less” can be a problem.
In the Reshape Method®, the private sessions allowed her to get specific feedback about what her body was doing.
She could ask questions, be watched, make small adjustments, and know she wasn’t reinforcing the same movement patterns that had contributed to pain before.
That personal attention also helped calm one of her biggest fears going in: accidentally creating another problem while trying to fix the first one.
THE GROUP COACHING REMINDED HER SHE WASN’T THE ONLY ONE
Because of work and the time difference, Jacki couldn’t always join the group coaching live, but she watched the replays and still found herself learning from other women’s questions.
Someone else might have a different issue, but the movement pattern could be surprisingly familiar.
“You never feel like it’s only you. It’s only you who’s got the wonky bum. It’s only you who’s got the dodgy neck.”
That made the experience feel less isolating.
Everyone’s body was different, but everyone was there trying to understand it better.
And one woman’s question could easily become another woman’s "aha" moment.
BY WEEK 12, SHE WAS USING WHAT SHE LEARNED OUTSIDE THE PROGRAM
One of the clearest signs that the work had landed was what happened when Jacki went back to yoga. She wasn’t simply copying the teacher anymore. She was bringing her new understanding of alignment, movement, and muscle use with her.
And for the first time, the class didn’t hurt.
That’s important because the goal of the Reshape Method® isn’t to keep you dependent on one set of workouts forever. It’s to teach you enough about your body that what you learn starts changing the way you walk, stand, exercise, and move through the rest of your life.
SHE WANTS A BODY THAT CAN KEEP UP WITH HER FOR DECADES
When Jacki talks about why the program matters, she doesn’t only talk about what she can do now. She talks about the woman she wants to be later.
“All this stuff I’m doing is keeping me out of a nursing home.”
And then, very Jacki:
“I wanna be somebody who could bungee jump in my 90s if I wanted to. I wouldn’t, but if I wanted to.”
That’s the point. She isn’t training to bungee jump - she’s building the kind of body she wants to have the choice to use as she ages.
For Jacki, aging well means staying strong enough, mobile enough, and confident enough that her world doesn’t gradually get smaller because her body can’t keep up.
SHE FINISHED WITH SOMETHING SHE DIDN’T EXPECT – STRENGTH
At the beginning, Jacki was afraid pain might stop her from completing the Reshape Method®.
By Week 12, she was sad it was ending: she could walk farther without back pain; she could do yoga without the discomfort she had come to expect; she could stand longer at work; she could exercise without feeling flattened afterward.
And she felt stronger in a way that went beyond the physical.
“It is strength, on so many levels – mentally, emotionally, and physically.”
The program hadn’t asked her to fight her body harder. Instead, it had helped her understand how to work with it.
COULD ALIGNMENT BE YOUR MISSING PIECE?
Jacki didn’t need another exercise program that left her hurting, exhausted, or wondering whether she was doing more harm than good.
She needed to understand how her own body was moving, so she could build strength without constantly paying for it afterward.
She reshaped her alignment, changed the way she walked and exercised, and finished the 12 weeks of the Reshape Method® feeling stronger, more capable, and much more in control of where her body goes next.
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