We all get an aching back once in a while but then there’s that kind of back pain that is more excruciating. I believe Pilates can help a great deal.
Pilates assists individuals to recover from acute and chronic back pain and associated symptoms. It offers a gentle yet effective approach to improving overall strength, balance and flexibility. Pilates may be modified for any client’s individual needs. Many back pain clients have tight low backs as well as weak and imbalanced stabilizer muscle groups. By teaching clients to engage their core muscle group when lifting objects or even their own legs, the incidence of back pain may be lessened.
Many low back pain clients lack a general awareness of their body and therefore do not know how to move without causing more pain. Pilates instruction educates the client how to move slowly and precisely in deliberate and precise actions. Increasing general body awareness helps correct faulty muscle patterns and allows the client to participate in the process of identifying muscular imbalances and misalignments. As soon as the client gains a greater sense of body awareness pain may be managed by encouraging the client to stop any range of motion prior to pain occurring. Even if it takes instructing the client to only move in quarter-inch increments, (as has been done with fibromyalgia clients) it is possible to empower the client to feel he or she has some control over the pain felt and therefore enables the client to manage the occurrence of pain overall. Even if the origins of back pain appear idiopathic, addressing the cause of a client’s kinesiophobia by giving them tools to control spinal movement and the load of associated stabilizer muscle groups, allows the client to recover faster than telling them to ignore the seemingly irrational fear. The experience of pain is real to the individual and a way to help him or her navigate beyond and through the pain is to offer one a sense of control over it in the first place.
Overall, Pilates addresses back pain on both a mental and physical level. Clients will learn stabilize their spines through a series of core strengthening exercises and will also learn to understand their body’s response to perceived pain. Once a client develops a strong and stable trunk , it is also crucial to provide tools to enhance flexibility using the “core” as the foundation for all body movement and activity. Pilates offers clients the opportunity to apply the body awareness and core engagement techniques learned in their sessions to their every day lives. Stemming from the fact the client is actively involved in the process of recovery during the sessions, future likelihood of reinjury of the back lessens and compliance of practicing skills for spinal stability and core engagement increases.