Is Pilates For Me?

Dr Monica Zaksek B.App.Sc(CompMed) MOsteo

Believe it or not, Pilates is named after an actual person, Joseph Pilates. As a child Joseph Pilates had been in poor health and utilised exercise in his adolescence to transform his wellbeing. Driven by an interest in how exercise could promote health, he created a series of exercises for stretching and strengthening that could be used by everyone, as well as engineering equipment on which all of these could be performed. There has been a massive expansion since his teachings back in the 1920’s with many studios all around the world.  

What type of patients do we see in Pilates at WRH?

All of our Pilates instructors are osteopaths, who have done further Pilates study. This gives then a deep understanding of the body.

WRH has a variety of patients currently participating in Pilates that are coming in with different injuries, fitness and health levels, gender and ages. So that you can get the attention you need, we set individual goals and we have a maximum class size of only four participants. Which means individual programming and a class tailored to your specific ability.

Why Start Pilates?

As part of the injury rehabilitation

Pilates is such a great compliment to hands on treatment and can help in the management of most musculo-skeletal conditions. Whether it be from your posture, work related injury or something more serious like a lower back disc injury, Pilates can help.  Research now agrees that exercise (and pilates in particular) helps you get stronger, more stable and become pain free more quickly.  

Let’s improve your pelvic and spinal mechanics, strengthen your abdominals and stabilise you neck muscles so that you can attack your next goal pain free.

Fun and Fitness

Getting strong and fit does not have to be boring. Shock horror!

You will never be bored as the amount of things we could teach you are endless and are never the same each class. Based on your goals and how you are feeling on the day will dictate what we decide to teach. There is no better feeling than achieving a certain movement or exercise that you worked toward for a long time and we can also monitor your progress as time goes by.  It can also help move more freely and strengthen particular muscle groups which can help complement other sports.

During pregnancy

The body changes so much during pregnancy, so it’s even more important to keep as active as you can. The Pilates team at WRH know which exercises are appropriate at each stage of pregnancy. Instructors can modify exercises accordingly for you as your body changes. For example, lying on your back may not be appropriate due to breathlessness during the later stages. Many women even stick around post pregnancy to work on pelvic floor strength as well as making sure they are keeping away the neck and back pain associated with breast feeding, lifting  and bathing bubs.

So to answer my question, Yes, Pilates is for you…. So what are you waiting for?

Click here to find out more about our clinical pilates or even our new Cardiolates: A Pilates based fitness class

Please note, the advice above is generalised and may not be specific to your situation. If in doubt please contact one of our osteopaths or another health care provider to provide a specific diagnosis and treatment of your condition.

References

Hayden, J., Van Tulder, M. W., Malmivaara, A., & Koes, B. W. (2005). Exercise therapy for treatment of non‐specific low back pain. The Cochrane Library.     

Yamato, T. P., Maher, C. G., Saragiotto, B. T., Hancock, M. J., Ostelo, R. W., Cabral, C., … & Costa, L. O. (2016). Pilates for low back pain. Sao Paulo Medical Journal, 134(4), 366-367.