Last week I was flipping through Good Times when I saw an unusual ad. The caption, “Underwater Yoga Therapy”, caught my attention. But the next line was even more intriguing: “warm water and cannabis”. There was no website, just a name and a phone number, which I promptly dialed.
Which is how I met Ed Frey and ended up at Simpkins Family Swim Center on a sunny Monday afternoon. Suited and sun-screened, I wandered in to find Ed submerged in the warm water pool. Although he’d suggested I might want to imbibe pre-session, this time I was there to observe and learn.
Frey was happy to share his story. A lawyer by day and still active in his eighties, he recalled how a lifetime of physical injuries began catching up with him in his sixties. Baseball injuries, car accidents and street fights had taken their toll, at times leaving him unable to stand, let alone walk.
Frey first discovered what he calls the body’s ability to be adjusted at age 45, when he began weekly chiropractic treatments that continued for the next 16 years. Eventually, his chiropractor conceded defeat, explaining, “I’ve never worked on a back this stiff, and if I try to adjust you anymore, I’m gonna hurt you.”
Today, Frey’s agility in the water belies his age and motivates him to share the protocol he discovered nearly 20 years ago, when he was 60 and struggling to swim at the Simpkins pool.
“I was a terrible, weak swimmer,” he recalls. “I twisted my body around and felt nice little adjustments. That’s how I discovered this method, and ever since, I’ve been doing it.”
Frey believes the water allows the body to move and adjust in ways that aren’t possible on a chiropractor’s table.
“You’re on the table and you’re lying down, and all the forces of gravity are pulling. But in the water, you’re getting stretched in ways that a chiropractor can’t possibly do, and no physical therapist could do it for you.”
“When you get underwater, the gravity’s gone. We’re all two-thirds water. Now we’re in our own environment. The body becomes free, just part of the water. All of a sudden, your body starts to tell you how to move in order to make the right adjustment that you really need.”
The movements, he explains, happen spontaneously, without conscious instruction.
“You don’t do it from your brain. Your body is instructing itself. You become your own chiropractor.”
Frey describes the movements as something like a ballet dancer’s, with the body floating and often submerged. He says he can sometimes hear and feel the adjustments taking place.
“It’s profound because it really gets you back into the original design of your skeletal configuration. I was 60 years old before I started, so I had a lot of work to do. And I still do.”
Now 86, Frey says he continues to experience improvements.
“I’m feeling younger all the time. I’m stronger in my spine. My hips move better. It’s just wonderful.”
He also describes having trouble with his right arm and shoulder, which limited his ability to reach overhead. Through underwater movement, he says he has been able to stretch the shoulder joint and improve his mobility.
Frey practices every two or three days, typically spending about an hour in the pool. He emphasizes that the process involves neither swimming nor traditional exercise.
“You don’t even instruct your body to do anything. It comes from your center spontaneously.”
Shortly after discovering the technique, Frey introduced it to a local chiropractor, Dr. Krista Alangi Aaron, who was impressed enough to help him create a demonstration video. The video, titled Ed Fry Underwater Yoga, has been available on YouTube since about 2009.
Although Frey originally called the practice underwater yoga, he now questions whether that name accurately describes it. “There is no name for it. It’s new. Nobody knows about it.”
Recently, Frey began offering free introductory sessions to anyone interested in trying his approach. When someone calls, he arranges to meet them at the Swim Center, where they enter the pool together and explore the movements.
The only expense is pool admission, which, depending on your age, is always under $10.
“I want to spread the word,” he says. “It’s a basic human capability, and nobody knows about it.”
A practicing attorney, Frey says he has no immediate plans to charge for his instruction. For now, his biggest frustration is that more people haven’t discovered what he considers a profoundly healing practice.
“I’m just totally stoked,” he says. “And totally frustrated that nobody else knows about it.”
Elizabeth Borelli is a local wellness expert and founder of Santa Cruz wellness expo. visit www.elizabethborelli.com to learn more about upcoming events.
