Facing Match Day in a flexible frame of mind

This Friday, Omaha native Anna Kolbeck will take the stage with her College of Medicine classmates to discover where she has matched and will spend her residency.

She’ll take the steps up onto the stage without any problem or pain.

That wasn’t always a given. In 2007, Kolbeck, a competitive dressage rider, took a fall from her horse. The result — a fractured vertebrae — gave her a glimpse into the medical profession that she really didn’t want. It also led her to yoga, a practice that eased her pain, calmed her mind and later helped her handle the stress of medical school.

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“It was about two years after my accident when I first went to a yoga class — to be honest, before that class, I had no interest in trying it,” she said.

Anna Kolbeck, who will match on Friday with her College of Medicine classmates, turned to yoga after a horseback riding injury.

A friend wheedled her into attending, and although the class left her sore and her back twinging, she slept better that night than she had in a long time. She started attending more classes, and her back pain decreased.

“A lot of the poses in yoga are helpful for back strengthening and back flexibility,” she said.

Kolbeck said yoga helped her through the first two years of medical school.
“They were the hardest for me,” she said. “I would go to a yoga class the night before a test if I could — I thought it was more helpful than studying, sometimes.”

Anna Kolbeck

“At first, it was stressful. But the more I taught, the more I enjoyed it.” Anna Kolbeck

Kolbeck grew to enjoy yoga so much that in 2011, she became a certified yoga instructor, although teaching added more responsibilities to the medical student’s load.

“At first, it was stressful,” Kolbeck said. “But the more I taught, the more I enjoyed it. And I wanted to teach, to get that practical experience so I could use it later as a physician.”

For Kolbeck, the injury and the treatment — including yoga — will make her a better rural, family medicine physician when she begins practicing following her residency.

“I think being a patient is really important for physicians, just to be able to empathize with patients,” she said. “And while the yoga helps me personally cope with the stresses of being a physician, I also would like to incorporate it into my own practice.”

Of course, sometimes yoga isn’t needed. On Monday, Kolbeck was one of the students who found out she had matched.

“I think that’s going to be a stress reducer for everyone,” she said.