Pilates for back pain relief

Back pain is a broad subject with lots of various causes, so the exercises that we give would be tailored to a client’s individual needs based on what we see in the client. 

However, there are some general exercises that do help strengthen your back, help with pelvic stability and mobilise your back which all will help to reduce back pain or your chances of suffering it.

Below is a 25-minute video with exercises I do with you and talk through as we do them.

Back pain is either from things we do daily, so poor posture
and muscles are then held in a lengthened weakened state, which eventually can
cause pain. This is something over time we can effectively fix with Pilates as
we heighten your awareness of your posture and also give you productive functional
exercises that if done regularly, will help eliminate the pain as well as
improve your posture.

Or pain can come from injury like a pulled muscle to a
prolapse disc. Rehabilitation is often the way forward.  Pilates exercises are often used by
physiotherapists to aid core strength, pelvic stability and strengthen your
back as well as work on posture.

In our Pilates classes we look at what you need in your
daily life and how to make our exercises as functional as possible. It is not
necessary to have a six-pack for your abs in your daily life as nice as it
might be deemed to look!  It is important
to have a strong back in your daily life to aid with any activities you might
be doing from sitting at a desk to running to playing golf….

What is your core?

Your core is made up of many muscles, including your
rectus abdominis (superficial muscle that runs down the front of your torso,
often referred to as six pack), transverse abdominis (the deepest internal core
muscle that wraps around your sides and spine), erector spinae (a set of
muscles in your lower back), and the internal and external obliques (the
muscles on the sides of your abdomen)

So to strengthen your core we need to look at how to use all
these muscles in a functional way and also help provide exercises that will
facilitate balance of muscle groups.

In our Pilates classes we work especially with the healthy
backs class on back extension so we strengthen the spine. Pelvic stability
exercises so we make sure compensations do not happen. Standing exercises that
challenge balance, body awareness exercises for posture, proprioception and
also strengthening of the glutes. 
Changing the pace of exercises challenges core stability as you are
trying to keep still in your upper body as you work your legs for instance with
side lying leg work.

We do work our abdominals but in a stabilizing role. You do
not need to do lots of flexion exercises (sit ups) to have a strong core.  Various exercises in 4 point kneeling and
progressing up to plank variations and working out side lying plank exercises
are working your whole body as well as your core. It is nice to have toned abs
for aesthetic reasons though and so we do flexion work as this helps achieve
the toned look J 

The YouTube video link shows some exercises for easing back tension and pain. We will have a separate video for specific core toning exercises. We do have core strengthening in this video as well taking into consideration that we work our abs through their full rang of movement.

We hope you find it helpful. It’s a 25-minute daily routine.

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