Hello

[Anna Rahe]

My name is Anna Rahe. At the age of 20, my body expressed the muscular signs of severe scoliosis while spinal x-rays showed not the slightest curvature. I experienced chronic, progressive skeletal torsion, inflexibility and pain. Even though I had been a Pilates teacher and dancer for many years, and despite my attempts to get answers from myriad doctors and body professionals, my symptoms had progressed to the extent that I could hardly touch my toes.

For the next 8 years I sought every kind of treatment and somatic technique to find reprieve. Although no one teacher or technique solved my issues, the journey gave me the tools to develop body techniques that were not only unique from those I had studied, but were also staggeringly effective at changing my body. After 2 years of consistent practice, I had increased my height by 2 inches—a transformation that astonished my doctors—and alleviated most my pain with and exponentially increased range of motion.

I began teaching these techniques to my Pilates clients and dance students at the University of San Francisco who all experienced similar results. Students long dissatisfied with their body shapes and exercise habits had friends asking how they had lost weight. Clients with chronic back and neck injuries even canceled scheduled surgeries because the work had such a radical affect on their bodies.

Through exhaustive personal assimilation and private teaching I have refined and condensed these body techniques into a comprehensive movement system. GST™ reshapes the body’s connective tissue, or fascia, to create strong, flexible muscles that literally lay longer against and closer to the bones. This profound restructuring of the muscle fiber and its relationship to the skeleton dramatically alters the body’s size and shape.

I look forward to learning more from other body professionals on this site as well as sharing information I have learned through my years of study in various somatic disciplines.

[Diane]

Hi Anna,
It's nice that you are wanting to share your discoveries with others. Have you any studies to tell us about, that document these outcomes from your techniques, or will we have to just accept that you tell us so?

Do you really believe you can change fascia through a movement exercise system?

[Barrett Dorko]

Anna,

The way it works here is this: If our questions go unanswered entirely we can only assume you're using the site for self promotion only, and that won't play.

GST is an evolution in Body Contrology. While maintaining a commitment to the original aspirations of Joseph Pilates, GST focuses on the body's primary and foundational movement system: bones and joints.

From your site

How do you pronounce "contrology"? The bones and joints are "primary and foundational"? How so? How did Pilates figure this out?

[NateM]

Hmmm...I smell something stinky.

I only see classic emotional marketing so far. I'm with Diane...please give us some hard data to back up your claims.

And Barrett...I believe "contrology" is pronounced "bologna." The "g" is silent.

...the journey gave me the tools to develop body techniques that were not only unique from those I had studied, but were also staggeringly effective at changing my body. After 2 years of consistent practice, I had increased my height by 2 inches—a transformation that astonished my doctors—and alleviated most my pain with and exponentially increased range of motion.

Oh brother.

[Jason Silvernail]

Hard to believe she's in Los Angeles...

[John W]

Anna,
On the one hand I can appreciate your enthusiasm for human movement and your temerity for entering this forum. After perusing your website, however, I'm left with a sense of snazzy marketing and glitz that characterizes so many popularized exercise programs. The Pilates community as a group has always struck me as being somewhat priggish about how we are supposed to move.

This is fine when teaching someone formal dance, but for the nervous system that is in a state of chaotic, persistent pain, demands for precise, controlled movement is often a barrier to recovery. Any attempt to subdue our bodies' instinctual resolution towards pain-free movement is contrary to our understanding of human neurophysiology. Any therapy that takes place is purely by accident.

If your goal is to just make pretty people look prettier, then I think what you do is just fine. I think you should avoid calling what you do "rehabilitation".

How in the world, by the way, could you experience "chronic, progressive skeletal torsion", but have a normal x-ray? If this is true, then you are a true freak of nature.