It’s almost become “normal” to have some type of physical injury or issue these days. You only have to look at how many allied health professionals there are to know that many people struggle with some kind of ache or pain and going to the physio/osteo/chiro is routine.
Why?
Well Joseph Pilates talks about “normal health” in his books and that it’s a natural condition that we all have the birth right to attain. But as the world has developed over the past few hundred years, it’s been at the cost of “normal health”.
As a consequence, our busy technology based lifestyle actually contributes significantly to poor health.
This includes the health of our joints, muscles, fascia (connective tissue), combined with the fact that we have lost connection to the natural movement capability of the human body is one of the major reasons people get injured.
This of course, doesn’t include traumatic or acute injury that results from an accident.
We are talking about “lifestyle injuries”! Yes, injuries that are caused by our modern lifestyle.
Lower back pain is more common than the common cold! Not to mention the prevalence of knee and hip replacements, shoulder and neck issues, plantar fasciitis and the list goes on…
So where does pilates fit into all of this?
Joseph Pilates created an exceptionally intelligent exercise method that is based on how the human body should be developed for optimal movement capability.
This includes getting full range of movement in all joints, including the spine which Joseph describes as…the ridgepole of the human house.
Developing every single muscle to be capable of contributing to the function of the body in the way it was intended to. In other words, no overly weak muscles and no overly strong muscles.
Once you get the balance of strength, length and mobility right, there is less opportunity for the body to be compromised in its movement capability.
Here’s an example:
If you don’t move the joints of the spine, don’t develop the spine muscles and then sit all day at a desk, your spine will become compressed, stiff and the muscles around it will have to over work to try to support it.
You get home from work with a stiff, sore back. This goes on for some time, then one day you wake up and can’t get out of bed because of acute back pain. The “ridgepole” has started to crumble and off to the physio/chiro/osteo you go!
Pilates does work to prevent lifestyle injuries; we’ve seen hundreds of people change their bodies through the original pilates method and overcome all sorts of issues and injuries.
Now, if you practice pilates it’s not a guarantee that you will NEVER get an injury, but the chances of it happening diminish significantly and you have a happy, healthy, strong and functional body as a result!
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