Last Updated on July 8, 2024 by Pilates Power
Pilates Expectations – Movement equals Happiness .
‘Pilates is not just exercise it’s a lifestyle that changes the world’
Brent Anderson, founder of Polestar Pilates
There is so much written and talked about Pilates and why we should do it for all sorts of different reasons. We want to understand it as an activity that you simply attend and we often see it defined as a core based type of exercise combined with flexibility. Thankfully Pilates is so much more than that.
Having been a Pilates Teacher for over 16 years I have seen the method grow in popularity and throughly enjoyed seeing people begin and develop their own personal journey with Pilates. Pilates is not defined by any type of person who attends, we see people who have injuries, back pain, neurological issues, muscle in-balances and low muscle tone, posture issues, the list goes on and on. Many Pilates beginners would just like to be stronger and fitter for ‘life’. One of the areas we concentrate on as Pilates Professionals ( that you will also hear in other wellness support sectors) is Back Pain.
The Advantages of Pilates for Addressing Back Pain Issues : Pilates can both alleviate existing back problems and prevent future ones by straightening the spine and improving posture.
Having just attended a fantastic workshop in London, I wanted to share thoughts and studies we analysed over the weekend as they relate to all of us, back pain being something we all suffer from at some point.
Chronic pain, joint degeneration, back pain and recurring injuries are caused by the way we use our bodies it is the way we sit, stand, and move throughout our whole lives. Our nervous system is responsible for telling us how to use our bodies. Our nervous system tells us which muscles to contract, when to release them, and how to hold our bodies when we are sitting or standing still.
From early childhood, our nervous system actually learns how to make us do these things. The more we repeat a certain posture or movement, the more deeply learned that muscular pattern becomes.
These patterns become so deeply learned by our bodies we don’t even have to think about them. This is what we call muscle memory.
Muscle memory is clever, it allows us to get through our daily lives efficiently. But unfortunately, sometimes we learn faulty patterns that damage our bodies for example sitting hunched over at a computer. The only way to change these deeply learned muscular patterns is to re-educate the nervous system.
So we need to engage the nervous system in an active learning process that consists of very slow, focused, conscious movements. These movements are incorporated in your mat classes or 1-1 Pilates session at Pilates Power. We are also bringing these techniques in to our Workshops. We aim teach to the nervous system how to release chronic muscle tension, back pain and stand and move in natural and more efficient ways so that you reduce pain and reduce damage to the body.
We will be doing another Myofascial Release & Somatics Workshop on Wednesday 27th November at 6.30pm. Please visit here for more details. Contact me for more information. See directions here.
