What Is Pilates And How Is It Beneficial For Injury Rehabilitation And Prevention?
Pilates is a system of exercises that focus on your whole body to enhance mobility, balance, coordination, use of breath and strength. Performed on either a mat or reformer (a sliding carriage bed with springs, ropes and pulleys that assist with movement), pilates provokes a plethora of physical, mental and emotional benefits, making it a popular exercise method for general health and fitness, injury prevention and rehabilitation post injury.
We are exposed to a wide variety of movements and loading patterns in our daily lives through work, school and sport. By performing regular strength training and physical activity our loading capacity increases. Pilates type exercises help improve muscular strength, endurance and control which is important for reducing the risk of injury and rehabilitation after injury. Pilates is a great way to become more familiar with your body and work on many different skills.
Pilates exercises focus on spine and limb flexibility and strength, effectively stabilising your body through use of breath, precision, control and flow. In this blog, we explore the history of pilates and its popularity as a rehabilitation strategy, guiding you in choosing the right pilates clinic and instructor for your unique body.
How is Pilates good for my body?
Did you know that only one hour of pilates per week is required to improve your flexibility? Results are comparable to changes achieved in 10 sessions of intensive physiotherapy. This powerful result is the reason pilates intervention is increasingly popular in the early stages of rehab, safely helping patients move post injury with the long-term goal of developing an efficiently functioning, well-conditioned body.
Pilates exercises strengthen the deepest muscles of your core and the muscles surrounding your joints. By strengthening all parts of your body, pilates promotes correct movement patterns and thus is effective in reducing your risk of injury, strengthening muscles weakened by injury and preventing re-aggravation of previous injuries.
Pilates principles recognise that all bodies are different and consequently offers a greater degree of flexibility and modification than most conventional forms of physical therapy. All movements can be regressed or progressed depending on each individual and any injuries they have sustained, focusing on continuously improving movement and strength.
Who created Pilates? Foundations of the Pilates method.
Pilates, originally named “contrology”, was developed by a man named Joseph Pilates back in the 1920s. Joseph suffered from a range of childhood ailments, including asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever, and consequently was inspired to commence an ongoing journey towards optimal health.
Joseph engaged in a range of physical activities including bodybuilding, yoga, circus training, calisthenics, gymnastics, skiing, boxing and martial arts. Using his collective knowledge and experience of these various activities, he designed a series of vigorous physical exercises that promoted whole body health. These exercises aimed to correct muscle imbalances by targeting specific muscle groups to improve posture, coordination, balance, strength and flexibility.
Joseph practised his methods at an army camp during WW1, where he worked as a caretaker for soldiers suffering from war-derived diseases and various other physical injuries. Having experienced success with his treatments, Joseph and his wife Clara soon opened their Body Conditioning Gym in New York City, where they brought the pilates method to the general public.
Continuously experiencing success with treatment, knowledge and practice of the pilates method spread and has steadily gained popularity (more so in the past couple of decades) as medical researchers have validated its effectiveness for rehabilitation and overall physical health.
What will Pilates do to my body?
Put simply, pilates will retrain your body’s movement patterns and teach you to move more efficiently whilst you become stronger and more agile. Pilates focuses on spinal and pelvic control, helping you improve your postural endurance and mobility.
Frequently engaging in pilates as exercise assists with athletic performance, recovery from injury and overall health. Whilst many movements can be challenging, they are low-impact and gentle on your body, performed primarily in reclining or seated positions.
Pilates exercises promote muscle symmetry throughout the body by strengthening your deep abdominal muscles and the muscles surrounding your spine. Your core strength will improve dramatically and you will learn the breathing techniques necessary to correctly execute movements with maximum power and control. By learning to coordinate your breathing with your movement, you enhance muscular recruitment, reducing compensation tactics that put pressure on your lower back and/or neck muscles.
How is Pilates used for Rehabilitation?
Since the early 2000s, there has been a growing body of evidence on the relationship between pilates intervention and patient recovery, and thus, pilates has gained gradual popularity as a mainstream rehabilitation tool.
For rehabilitation, pilates is used to treat both acute and chronic injuries, providing a whole body approach to patient care. Proprioception (spatial awareness) is an important component in injury recovery, forming a link between your musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Pain and prolonged habits can lead to compensatory movement patterns that can sometimes be contributing to ongoing pain and dysfunction. Mobilising early is important in decreasing the convalescent period, especially following a musculoskeletal injury.
Pilates helps you become responsible for your own rehabilitation, actively teaching you about your individual body and how it moves. The flexible nature of pilates exercises encourage patients to move at their own pace, gradually increasing the incline of activity to match their capabilities.
What kind of injuries does Pilates help you recover from?
Some movement patterns can place unnecessary load on our joints and soft tissues. Pilates exercises are useful not just as a rehabilitation tool, but also as a preventative measure for injuries in general.
Pilates is used to treat a range of injuries, including:
Disc herniations
Spondylolisthesis
Lower back and neck pain
Scoliosis
Menicus injury
Joint replacement
Patients post Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) repair
Shoulder pain or injury
Some other issues pilates is useful in treating include:
Back and neck pain
Pilates teaches you to strengthen your spine through all ranges of movement and for functional tasks, such as squats. There is also a focus on head and cervical spine control which can help alleviate and avoid neck pain.
Knee injuries
Whether resulting from acute or overuse injuries, Pilates helps with efficient knee loading, which relies on a strong core, quadriceps (quads) and gluteus (glutes) muscles. The low-impact nature of Pilates enables you to isolate and strengthen specific muscle groups so you can perform exercises comfortably
Stroke patients
Stroke can result in mobility, strength and balance problems which tends to lead to a more sedentary lifestyle. Pilates exercise addresses all of these skills and can help stroke patients improve their function and independence. There is also a positive association between Pilates and improvement of gait ability in stroke patients.
Choosing a Pilates Studio / Instructor
The widespread popularity of Pilates means that pilates exercises have become highly accessible both in online and clinic environments. There is a huge difference between Pilates as exercise and Pilates as physical therapy however, and thus it is important to consider where and from whom you should receive Pilates training.
If you are concerned about and injury or pain you may be experiencing, ensuring you are guided on Pilates movement mechanics and how to adapt them to suit your individual needs and goals, we recommend consulting an exercise physiologist or physiotherapist with a Pilates specialty.
The person instructing your pilates technique should have sufficient knowledge of physiology and your individual injury so they can apply precise, specific techniques to best support your recovery through tailored exercises.
Getting started with Pilates
One of the most common (and frankly, silly) reasons people are apprehensive about commencing a Pilates-based program is their concern about lack of strength, flexibility and balance.
This is why we recommend consulting a qualified healthcare professional, such as a GP, Exercise Physiologist or Physiotherapist. Your healthcare professional will perform an assessment and design a program that supports your personal movement goals. You will progress gradually as your body conditioning improves, you develop your technique and your strength increases.
As previously mentioned, Pilates exercises range in difficulty from beginner to advanced. This enables you to continuously challenge yourself and improve.
If you are interested in getting started with pilates, you can join one of our pilates-based group physiotherapy classes.