Daily pain? Here’s how pilates can help! (pt. 1)
You have probably heard (and hopefully experienced for yourself!) how great Pilates is for sculpting, strengthening and mobilizing the body, and how amazing it can be for improving your energy levels, mood, sleep and digestion. But how about those daily aches and pains? While most people love it for the fitness and physique gains, the globally-loved practice is equally as incredible at helping to reduce pain and discomfort (ranging from mild to chronic), rehabilitating injuries and helping to prevent them in the future. It’s no surprise then that sports trainers, physical therapists and other health practitioners are making Pilates an increasingly essential part of client care. Clearly there’s nothing Pilates can’t do!
We’ll get into some examples of conditions Pilates can help with later on in the second part of this ‘Pilates for pain’ series (which you can read here), but for now, here’s 3 ways Pilates helps to relieve and reduce your pain so you can live life feeling on top of your game!
Finds the culprit
Pain in a particular area is often caused by a weakness, imbalance or tension in a totally different part of your body. After all, your body is all connected! Through Pilates, your instructor will help to identify and reduce muscular imbalances, weaknesses and other factors in your body that may be the culprit for your pain or discomfort, and will create a personalized programme that is specific to you, to help strengthen/mobilize/release as needed so you can say goodbye to that pain - for good!
Teaches you how to move
Just because you have been walking, running and moving for a long time now, it doesn’t mean you’ve been doing it right! Your body is built like a machine, with every part designed to perform a particular task to keep it functioning at its very best. Yet when we first learn to walk and move, most of us aren’t taught about - and therefore don’t consider - the ideal way to do it. We just develop a way that works for us - regardless of how efficient - and stick with it for life. Hence, the vast majority of people do not move in a way that is the most comfortable and efficient for their body, and hence start to suffer from pain, injuries and/or physical decline far sooner than they would like. Just think about your teenager who suffers from neck or back ache due to too much hunching over their phone or laptop, for example!
But - thankfully - Pilates is here to help. Among many other things, Pilates trains the deep muscles of the abdominals, pelvis and spine to dynamically support your body and ensure proper biomechanics and alignment. Using a variety of apparatus and drawing on their own countless certifications and decades of experience, our Private Pilates instructors will work closely with you to re-establish the best way for your body to move, so you can optimize it for maximum comfort and longevity every single day.
Improves your body awareness
Pain is often impossible to ignore, so it might sound a little strange to hear that many people actually have less self-awareness around an area that hurts. As a result, you may be unknowingly positioning and moving your body in a way that is actually making the pain or condition worse. A key part of Pilates is good body awareness. This means understanding not just how your body should move (like in point 2 above), but also being able to recognize in your own body when something feels a little off - such as sitting twisted at a desk, standing with your weight more on one leg than the other, or carrying a heavy bag that’s pulling your spine and pelvis out of alignment, for example. Having a natural understanding and instinct for how to adjust and correct this in yourself each time you feel it is fundamental to avoiding injury and pain. And Pilates will help you to develop exactly that!