“Movement lifts a man up”: how to stay healthy and keep working at 78

Svetlana Kozyr has devoted her entire life to medicine. Despite her age, she still helps people, including infants, cope with diseases of the spine, neck, feet, pinched nerves and other problems. Her day does not pass without morning exercises and evening walks, because “movement lifts a person”, says the heroine.

After medical school in the city of Salsk, Rostov region, Svetlana Mikhailovna got a job in the therapeutic department of the local hospital, then managed to work in Germany and returned to her homeland.

I loved my work very much, but I couldn’t be a nurse because I couldn’t tolerate medicines. So I started practicing therapeutic gymnastics and massage. A doctor came from Rostov to show me how and what to do.

– How did you end up in Germany?

– A man from the military enlistment office came to give me a massage and suggested that I go to Germany to work. Our troops were there at that time. There was no money, so I decided to go as a masseuse.

At that time I got sciatica, and a German doctor was sent to me. He started to tell me “punkt, punkt” (German dot) and I didn’t understand anything. Then it was translated to me that the doctor was talking about the point massage technique. I tried the new method on the same German and realized how muscles, nerves and vertebrae are interconnected.

– What is the specialty of this technique?

– I work with paralyzed people, patients with flat feet, rheumatoid arthritis, hernias, scoliosis. I’ve often been told that I’m mocking, that I’m hurting, but then they bring me flowers. My fingers are my eyes. I can look without looking and determine which part of the spine has a herniated disc. You’re not a massage therapist if you don’t know every muscle group.

I’ve had people come in with a wand and leave without one. My fingers feel which muscles are weak and which are tense. As I work, I see where and how much pressure to apply to make the weak muscle work. A massage is not meant to be pleasurable if it is not relaxing.

I work the whole body: after the back, I do the feet, calves, back of the thighs, arms, neck and work the points on the head. I go only along the course of the nerve. After the massage, I do therapeutic exercises in the supine position if the patient has problems with the spine.

– At this age, it is often difficult to keep active. What is the secret to your energy? Is it morning exercise?

-I make sure I exercise. I rarely shirk. If I don’t exercise, how can I advise people to do it? I wake up, turn on my back, put my arms above my head and stretch. Then I lift my head, turn it in different directions, the main thing is to do everything slowly. I roll over on one side, get up, lie back down, now the same thing on the other side. In the evening I roll over on the ball: first on my stomach, then on my back. I lift it up a few times to use my arms.

A 7-year-old boy comes to me, I tell him: raise your arms and stand on one leg, and he says to me: can you do it yourself? I take it and do it. Here and additional training: I have to show him how to do the exercises correctly.

– You say that you don’t like medication. How do you maintain your health without pills?

– I don’t inject or take anything except aspirin. I have an orthopedic foot mat, rolling sticks, and I go over my back and arms with a massage roller to relieve pain, improve circulation, and take away tension in my muscles. I have home physical therapy. If my joints hurt, lemon, cabbage leaf and salt come to the rescue. Of course, movement also helps. Even when I give a massage, I walk around the couch so that I don’t have to work on one side. I take care of my health too.

– How else do you advise to keep yourself in shape?

– I only walk, although I have free transportation. When I was in Kislovodsk, I ran in the mountains. Walking is muscle tone. If you walk well, don’t slump your shoulders, put your feet flat, your muscles will be properly nourished. When I was teaching, I always told that from each vertebra there is a spinous process, and from it there is a nerve that goes to the liver, to the pancreas and so on down. If there is a deformity, the nerve begins to slant and poorly nourish its muscle group. So proper body positioning is very important.

– What do you recommend to people who lead a sedentary lifestyle?

– Sitting a lot is very harmful: the load is constantly on the spine. The easiest thing to do is to go to wash your face on your heels immediately after sleeping, then back on your toes, then on the outside and inside of your feet. It’s just like a school warm-up. You can stand in a doorway and stretch with an outstretched arm to one side, then the other. Squats with a support, only be sure to tighten the buttocks and abdomen. If you are sitting in the office or studying, lift your arms up alternately, shake and work your hands. This engages the biceps, forearm, hand and fingers.