Pilates Can Help With Your Back Pain (Part 1)
With a rise in sedentary lifestyles, spinal or back pain has become extremely common. It is thought that around 80% of the population will experience neck or back pain at some point.
To minimise the risk of back pain it is important to recognise certain risk factors such as:
Spinal pain can affect an individual’s quality of life drastically, as it adversely affects physical movement, and will probably also interfere with your sleep. The deepest stage of sleep is usually the time where our bodies begin the healing process. Our muscles relax, their blood supply increases, and growth hormone is released, which helps with tissue growth and repair. However, this process doesn’t occur if we are not getting a good night’s rest due to muscle pain.
Pilates has long been used as a form of rehabilitation, with Joseph Pilates himself developing it to help injured soldiers. However, it wasn’t until the 90’s that Pilates became more commonly used in the rehabilitation of injuries, with many physiotherapists and orthopaedic surgeons recommending it to their patients, especially those with back or neck pain (APMA, 2013).
Back pain is often associated with the weakness of “core stabilizers” (back and abdominal muscles). Core stabilizers also include the relationship between the diaphragm and these other muscles. This relationship includes our ability to breath efficiently, which is a whole other topic for another article. When weakened or too tight, these muscles are less able to support both our breathing and the spine, which results in poor posture and an increased risk of back pain.
People who suffer from back pain need exercises that encourage strength and mobility, such as Pilates. Re-educating the body through specific exercises has been shown to improve back and neck pain, headaches, and movement function (Moffett & McLean 2006).
Pilates, when done properly, uses techniques that target balance, strength, and mobility, which helps build appropriate musculature around joints such as the hip and shoulder. This helps with alleviating strain on the vertebral column of the spine, which can be a key tool for the management of back and neck pain and better spine health.
Pilates, when done properly, uses techniques that target balance, strength, and mobility, which helps build appropriate musculature around joints such as the hip and shoulder. This helps with alleviating strain on the vertebral column of the spine, which can be a key tool for the management of back and neck pain and better spine health.
Check out our Part 2 of this article soon, where we discuss why some types of Pilates may not be suitable for people with spinal conditions.
Pilates Can have helped hundreds of clients in Canberra in the last 22 years, manage and improve their spinal health. We look forward to assisting you.
To get a started towards improving your spinal health, you can contact us about making a booking or call us on 0419 777 477.
Thus, people who suffer from back pain are encouraged to do exercises that encourage flexibility. Pilates is one such exercise. Through re-educating the postural (stabilizing) muscles of the spine and shoulder girdle, Pilates has been shown to improve back and neck pain, headaches, and movement function (Moffett & McLean 2006).
