About Me

Hi! My name is Jennifer Manson. I have never played a sport. What I have done is some form of personal exercise. However, by my late thirties, after having two children, my exercise options became extremely limited. The vigorous routines that I could do at the gym or follow at home on video were now too much for my knees and my beleaguered feet. My forays into pilates and yoga left me uninspired. I could not seem to get results. Other programs I considered looked unsafe and usually requireed a time investment that I just did not have. Frustrated, I came across my old friend, Callanetics.

I had done Callanetics when the video first came out in 1986 and had had great results, but my young self at the time had been eager to try other exercise methods. How wonderful to come full circle back to Callanetics. In a handful of weeks after starting the program, I saw results in my legs and arms as well as my rear view. Absolutely amazing! The program improved my posture and gave me total body awareness, all done with no impact to my knees, feet, or back. Entranced with the program, I decided to become a certified Callanetics teacher, so that I could share this remarkable program with others.

By the time I reached my late forties, I noticed a physical shift. It was taking me longer to recover from physical activity, and I was often in discomfort, particularly after a long day at my desk job. Waking in the morning had become an experience. I felt like the Tin Man, all creaky with compromised mobility and flexibility. The arthritis in my hands became more pronounced and bothersome. By chance one Sunday morning, I discovered a PBS airing of Miranda Esmonde-White's documentary series Aging Backwards. What she said made so much sense: the need to slowly go through the full range of motion of every one of the 360 joints to automatically strengthen and stretch and rebalance all 650 muscles, thereby eliminationg joint pain and improving posture. Her Essentrics technique does just that, slows down and reverses the aging process. I started the Essentrics by following Miranda's long-running PBS program called Classical Stretch, a 23 minute routine, on a daily basis. I was astounded at how it changed how I felt in my body and how it enabled me to manage the arthritic pain in my hands. I shared my experience with my mother who started doing it in her late sixties. She was also astonished with how much better she felt, but it was my father who saw the difference. He provided the unsolicited comment on how she could now move with so much more ease doing housework and gardening.

Needless to say, I have been doing Essentrics ever since. The benefits of practicing this method daily keeps compounding. Essentrics enables me to continue to do the physical things that I love as well as counteract the negative health impacts of working at a desk job. My flexibility, strength, and posture continue to improve, reversing the signs of aging that I had begun to experience. I see Essentrics as the essential movement version to vitamins and minerals needed to live a full life. What makes it easy is that Essentrics just feels so good and is so enjoyable to do. It soon became clear that I wanted to promote this "soft medicine" so, in 2024, I became an Essentrics instructor.

Essentrics and Callanetics offer huge gains for your physical well-being that will extend into all aspects of your life. I hope you will give them a try!