David Nevala
Yamuna relies on small balls to target specific areas in muscles and tendons.
“Defrost your mind. Discover your body.” It’s more than a mission statement for Mona Melms — it reflects her life’s journey through personal struggle to healing. And it’s what she offers to her clients at Melt, a personal training studio she opened in 2007 and co-owns with Ben Dreyer, and at Mona Method, her new group exercise studio on the Capitol Square.
By now, you’ve probably heard about the benefits of foam rolling: a fitness tool that uses body weight to “roll out” knots in muscles, break down scar tissue, and recover after a tough workout. But there’s another version of body rolling called “Yamuna Body Rolling” that’s made its way from New York to Madison. Instead of a foam roller, Yamuna relies upon small balls to target specific areas in muscles and tendons.
Mona Melms is one of the few certified Yamuna practitioners in the city. When I step inside her new studio in the U.S. Bank Plaza (aka the “Glass Bank” building) for a Saturday morning class, I know I’m in for a treat. The space is bright and airy with wood floors; mirrors cover the front wall of the studio.
Starting at the barre, we stand in our bare feet on “foot wakers,” half-spheres with knobs; Melms runs us through a series of poses to improve range of motion. Then we move to yoga mats, using three different sized Yamuna balls and our own body weight to prod, stretch, and work out knots. The movements are small and strategic, and Melms guides us through each one, particularly when we hit uncomfortable and painful spots. “We say ‘it hurts so good,’” she says. Because we are often holding ourselves in a plank position, it’s also a core workout. Using the Yamuna balls, I can feel my muscles release, and by the end of the hour-and-a-quarter class, I feel like I have had an expensive massage.
“Yamuna uses the ball as a prop for you to really feel the tendons and muscles and all that you’re working on,” says Melms. “It’s so powerful in the way Yamuna can reset your structure.”
A lifelong fitness professional, Melms is also a practicing registered nurse with Group Health Cooperative. She brings substantial knowledge about the body to her work with clients. “I’m an anatomy nerd,” she says.
David Nevala
Melms: “I’m an anatomy nerd.”
Melms opened Mona Method in December to have a space solely dedicated to group classes, including Yamuna. She credits Yamuna for helping her after surviving breast cancer — twice. “I have had two bouts of breast cancer,” she says. “I had the first one when I was 30 with two babies, and they told me that I would die within a year because I had advanced Stage 3 breast cancer. I got into a clinical trial and that nearly killed me, too. But I survived it, and then I had the second bout two years ago. And it was a grim prognosis. I had eight surgeries in the past two years, and I had a couple rounds of chemo, and it was really awful. But I would get on the Yamuna balls and it helped me regain a little integrity in my body when I was wounded.”
Melms firmly believes that there are ways the body can heal itself, short of invasive surgery and other treatments to address body aches and pains. She was intrigued with the principles of Foundation Training after hearing about its benefits from a client. She knew it was something she wanted to try, so Melms reached out to Foundation’s creator, Dr. Eric Goodman, and they became fast friends. “I was in the first pilot group ever trained by him to become a Foundation Training teacher,” she says.
She brought “the craft” to Madison and says her clients saw fast results. “Clients who couldn’t run because of back pain were running, clients who couldn’t cycle because of back pain were cycling, clients who couldn’t golf were golfing, they were lifting their kids, taking hikes, and sitting at computers without back pain.”
Foundation Training is built on the belief that by strengthening our core, we can restore postural integrity. Like Yamuna, it follows intelligently designed sequences and movements to build strength. Melms likens the practice to yoga in the way it relies on holding postures and specific poses instead of boot-camp style workouts.
In a recent class, Melms walks students through the “woodpecker” pose, which requires rotating at the hip while in a lunge stance. Think about what you learn in this pose, says Melms, the next time you’re reaching for something. “You want to stabilize your pelvis through your hips and glutes so you don’t ever hurt your back again,” she says after class.
Goodman created Foundations Training when he suffered from chronic spine damage. Rather than resort to surgery, he researched anatomy and physiology to find ways to help the body heal itself. Foundation has been embraced by elite athletes and “desk warriors” alike, and Melms is now one of three certified Foundation Training instructors in Madison.
“Foundation and Yamuna fit and follow my basic beliefs about the body,” says Melms. “First you follow, then you learn, leading others and giving them the power to heal themselves.”
Mona Method
Located inside the U.S. Bank Building at 1 South Pinckney Street, Suite 102
Class calendar at www.monamethod.com
$20 single drop-in class, packages available
