Helena Chang/Educated Body in Cambridge

Bottom-line: Helena is a miracle-worker who truly pays attention to what you individually need. She also is fun, engaging, and not judgmental. I’ve been working with her for a couple of years, and she addressed the root causes of my persistent shoulder and neck pain. She draws upon several approaches (she is a licensed massage therapist, certified Pilates instructor, and trained in gyrotonics, among other things), and she has a deep knowledge of anatomy. It would not be going too far to say that she is uniquely skilled. She also creates a unique program for each person, depending on their needs — there is nothing cookie-cutter about her approach. Do not be discouraged if you need to be put on a short waitlist for a consistent appointment time - Helena will keep you updated and is well, well worth the short wait.

I started seeing Helena for lower back pain after physical therapy and worked with her continuously for two years, and intermittently for a couple of years thereafter. Helena is knowledgeable and patient. She knows a lot about how to properly use the muscles and taught me how to properly engage my muscles and core. I learned a lot from her and I’m now able to use this knowledge in my daily life and when exercising or practicing yoga.

I have been working with Helena for about two years and she is just an awesome instructor and educator. She always explains things (how your body works and where is the source of the problem), and gives instructions in an effective and intuitive way to make sure you can get them and exercise in the right way. I came to her as I notice that I have a chronic problem with my right knee—it would hurt whenever I took a long walk or run. After my training with her and adjusting the ways I use my legs and feet, I don’t even remember when was the last time my right knee bothered me. Moreover, I can feel my body much better now. Before, I felt my body was like a whole piece. Whenever I moved, I moved everything together unconsciously and if I didn’t feel well, I could not ever identify exactly where the problem was. Now I can feel parts of my body better and better and can coordinate them by focusing on specific parts. I definitely consider myself lucky having the chance to work with her!

Helena is a very special person who sees her clients as whole beings rather than just people who need to "get in shape." She can assess how your body may be moving counterintuitively and where to strengthen to help build new muscle memory. She has all the right equipment and a prop for every exercise, in order to make movements more effective and comfortable. In addition, whe has a great sense of humor and life experience to share.

I worked with Helena for a little over a year, and came to her because I had been having neck and shoulder pain for years. I had tried massage, Physical Therapy, stretching and nothing seemed to help me long term. In just 1 session with Helena I felt so much better, and she taught me that I wasn't breathing properly which was affecting my entire body. Each session was tailored to my needs and what would be helpful for that day. She is incredibly knowledgeable, and was able to help me make lasting changes that I'll continue to work on for the rest of my life. So happy I found her and highly recommend!

I've always hated exercising, so it's like a miracle that I genuinely enjoy and look forward to working with Helena. This is also the first time I've been able to keep up with exercise on my own, outside of classes. I think there's several specific factors that make Helena's classes work for me, when nothing else has. 1. I feel physically better after my prescribed exercises. Historically, when I've tried exercising (either with a class or on my own), I do it because I know I should and that it's good for my long-term health. Unfortunately, even knowing this rationally, I always end up fizzling out and dropping it after a while. Working with Helena though, I always find that I feel physically more relaxed, balanced, and comfortable immediately afterwards. This is the first time that when I work out, although it's still tiring, I have an obviously positive result right away. Having that has made a huge, huge difference for me. 2. I develop a sense of how my body works, and why each exercise is effective. Usually when I've worked out, the reason for doing those particular movements is super vague and boils down to "it's hard, so it must be good for you". Besides being demotivating, I also find it difficult to remember. Helena is very methodological about explaining what muscles are involved in each exercise and why we want to stretch or strengthen them. Having that context makes me more interested in the exercise, more motivated to do it, and makes it easier to come up with my own exercise plans. And now if some part of my body is aching, very often I have a sense of how to address it!! I love that instead of body pain being a total mystery, I can think "maybe such and such muscle is tight" and take immediate action, usually with great results. I'm also surprised at how much less disconnected I feel from my body as a result. 3. I'm more focused on each exercise. I usually have a problem where when I start trying to exercise, something distracts me in the middle of it and I end up forgetting I was ever exercising in the first place. This is definitely because I generally find physical activity quite boring. I like that with pilates, the work is both physical and mental. I have to focus on if I'm moving the correct muscles, if my posture is correct, etc. Personally, this also makes it easier to endure the physical effort involved. Overall I feel very confident that I'm improving my physical health in a sustainable way. Also, Helena is just a wonderful person to work with. :-) Starting classes with her has easily been the best change I've made in my lifestyle in the past year.

Is there a word for super-awesome-and-wise-and-kind-and-amazing-and-life-changing? That's the word I would use for Helena. I came in with a myriad of shoulder, back, hip, neck, and knee issues. I couldn't sleep well at night due to neck pain, I also had trouble keeping up with my kids. Getting older with decades of bad posture and bad habits. Could barely get a jacket on without wincing, tough to walk up the stairs due to tendonopathy in one knee, and difficulty getting stronger even though I was weightlifting regularly. It's been about 2 years, I'd say that it took about 1 year just to reverse some of the overly tight muscles in order to activate a lot of core muscles. But after 1 year, it's been a clear progression of getting stronger, more flexible, and even faster than I was 10 years ago. I now have no problem carrying all my kids at once, or outrunning them all day long. Most importantly, I feel that Helena's process-oriented, present-conscious style really helped me to appreciate the little things in life, even if it's just some small muscle in my back that is now talking to me after being muted for most of my life. I lift with my glutes/hamstrings/abs now, instead of lifting with my quads and lower back. I play ball sports using my upper back instead of my shoulder and arm. I loosen my neck by focusing on my deltoids and pecs. I reduce knee pain by just talking more to my glutes and inner hamstrings. I hit the ball harder by talking to my rib cage. It's all super counter-intuitive to someone like me, but the improvement to quality of life has been unreal.

Helena is incredibly knowledgeable, creative and supportive. Therefore, each session is tailored to you just as you are at that moment, to help you become the person you can be. I look forward to every session, knowing I will feel stronger and more functionally able. Helena challenges me and, with skill and encouragement, she helps me get stronger, more flexible, more agile, more self-confident in movement. This is very important to me, as a 71-year old, with 2 total knee replacements and a spinal chord injury, who has lots of bad habits from years of obesity and underuse in my relatively recent past. I live in Los Angeles, but am regularly in Cambridge where my new grandson and his parents live. I was blest to work with Helena for 6 weeks straight around when he was born. Now I can’t wait to work with Helena whenever I am in town, she is amazing — and has made a huge difference in my life.