Today at 17:24
Lena Bovay, who was born in Ivano-Frankivsk, danced for a ballet company in Geneva and moved to London at the end of her career. But for the past decade, Bovay has been working as a Pilates coach and she wanted to put her skills to good use by helping Ukrainian veterans.
“I wanted to show that such an old tradition as Pilates still exists today. In Ukraine, this concept is still quite revolutionary. People think that Pilates is just something girls do for fun. But I wanted to dispel this myth and show how much Pilates helps with rehabilitation,” Bovay said.
Bovay has been watching the conflict closely since Russia annexed Crimea and began its military intervention in eastern Ukraine in 2014. She began writing a book on rehabilitation with the help of Pilates when the first wave of wounded Ukrainian troops were returned from Donbas. The target audience of the book is Ukrainian military personnel.
“It’s like I was writing this book with them. Thank God they returned home alive, we will help them with rehabilitation. They need it. It was my main reason for coming here,” Bovay said.
In 2014, Ihor Kostev spent six months fighting on the frontline in the Luhansk region. He suffers from physical and psychological trauma.
“In war, you feel completely different, you don’t give your emotions free rein. At home, insomnia started: I close my eyes and it seems that I’m running away from someone, you hear the sound of grenades, missiles are flying,” Kostev said.
Kostev has problems with his back and neck as a result of wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying heavy loads every day for months at a time. Now, he is hoping Pilates will help in his recovery.
“I am sure that I will keep performing the exercises I performed today. I will also show them to my fellow veterans. We need them. It’s just that nobody knew how to do them correctly. And now we will recover,” Kostev said.
“I found it very interesting. Your muscles stretch and it even cheers you up. Of course, it’s better to at least do this than nothing at all to improve your health,” war veteran Maksym Struk said.
Bovay has given them all a copy of her book to help them on their path to recovery.
