Pilates for Specific Conditions

Pilates Rehabilitation for Specific Conditions

The Pilates exercise routine is known for its ability to strengthen your body and improve your posture, flexibility and balance. I have worked with GP Health Referral teaching Pilates for the past 6 years, seeing many clients with varying injuries, conditions or recovering from illness.

The type of injuries vary from total hip/knee replacements, post operative recovery, Musculoskeletal (anything to do with the relationships and functions of bones and various tissues – ligaments, tendons, and muscles – in the body), lower back pain to minor back problems.

Conditions range from Asthma, Diabetes, Osteoporosis, Stroke, Arthritis, Hypertension, Angina, Weight loss, Anxiety and Depression.

You might find you would benefit more from a private one on one sessions to start with and progress to semi-private and then on to a class environment.

Joseph Pilates, the creator of the now famous Pilates exercise routine, was a nurse in the German army during World War One. It was there that he developed a method of strengthening the muscles of the soldiers he was assigned to. He attached weighted springs to the soldiers beds and voila…the first Pilates equipment! These soldiers healed and recovered faster than the soldiers who did nothing. Rehab Pilates. Who knew?

To Joseph Pilates, rehabilitation meant getting creative with what you had.

Pilates rehabilitation works for many reasons. The great attention to detail and form is a perfect way for a client to gain strength in the weaker or injured muscles and joints. Pilates is gentle on the joints, so there is little worry of over stressing an already stressed body. Pilates also develops the smaller muscle groups that work to support joints and bony structures. And because Pilates builds a bodily awareness to balance, chronically weak and imbalanced muscles become equally strong.

Pilates as rehabilitation is also great preventative medicine. Keep yourself strong today and avoid injuries tomorrow. This is a great metaphor for people suffering from arthritis, osteoporosis or fibromyalgia.

Rehab Pilates not only develops strength, but it increases flexibility in muscles and joints. This is a particularly important note for people suffering from arthritis. These clients need to keep their joints “oiled” up. They do that by using them. Use it or lose it! Keeping a full or
near full range of motion in the joints is immensely important to all people, but to arthritis sufferers in particular.

All clients whether they are young or old, professional athletes or weekend warriors, can benefit from a Pilates exercise routine. We all have weak links in our muscular skeletal makeup. Pilates as rehabilitation or simply on it’s own is a great way to balance out our
weaknesses and get us, and keep us, on our feet.