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Pilates is a form of exercise that relieves injuries, gives you knowledge and understanding of your own body, and teaches you how to avoid future injuries.
Joints can be mobilised manually, but isn't there more future in the client learning to mobilise themselves?
When we as Pilates instructors see clients with pain, it is our job, through a unique system of exercises, to find the cause. We look at the mobility of the joints that hurt and go in depth to find connections between body use and recurring pain. We don't just look locally, because the body's movements are a huge network of causal relationships where all joints affect each other, and not infrequently a wear and tear injury due to incorrect use of the body originates in a completely different place than where it is felt. The Pilates instructor can put together a targeted training programme that works your entire body, balancing and strengthening key areas of the body and putting extra focus on the painful area. We help the client to incorporate appropriate movement patterns, teaching them to use their own body in the best possible way.
If you're in pain, you shouldn't necessarily avoid exercising.
It's about finding comfort despite pain and finding the best exercises for you.Pilates is functional training and you learn to roll, stand, stretch, bend and move in all directions. The good patterns you establish with your exercises can be transferred to any physical activity, whether it's sports, a walk, or your daily chores.
The body is designed to heal itself, and it does, whether it's a wound or an overuse injury it has sustained. But sometimes one-sided strain, inappropriate use of the body, posture, and lifestyle factors such as activity levels, stress and fear of pain can affect the healing process. These same factors can also greatly affect the sensation of pain and present challenges to living an active, moving life. And that's where Pilates training is the great educational tool that teaches you that movement is not dangerous and that exercise can feel really good.
One tool, for example, is to slowly incorporate a movement and to relearn, or generally teach the body that movements that previously seemed “harmful” are not. Slowly integrating small movements into larger ones, and ultimately transferring the movements that were previously “dangerous” into part of general, daily movements that are part of an active life, and even a life that involves exercise. It's all about incorporating good movement patterns, no matter what level of pain you have, but also focusing on mental management, as understanding pain and managing it is both physical and cognitive.
“With body, mind , and spirit functioning perfectly as a coordinated whole, what else could reasonably be expected other than an active, alert, disciplined person. Moreover, such a body freed from nervous tension and over-fatigue is the ideal shelter provided by nature for housing a well-balanced mind that is fully capable of successfully meeting all the complex problems of modern living.” (Joseph H. Pilates, “Return to Life Through Contrology” 1945)
Pilates helps you avoid falling when you stumble, get up when you fall, and once you're up, avoid falling again.
And once you've learnt to look after yourself, you don't need anyone else to do it.
- Camilla Nellemose Bækholm