Pilates and Back Pain

An interesting article on Pilates and back pain

Laura Coale

Pilates helped Laura Coale recover from back surgery over 10 years ago. She believes in the benefits of pilates so much that she became a pilates instructor and owner of Colorado Pilates. Contact her at info@coloradopilates.com.




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Next ArticleDenver Pilates Examiner Pilates shouldn't be a pain in the neck
June 2, 6:57 PM · Add a Comment
Add a CommentShareThisFeed What should you do if you feel neck tension or pain in your neck during some of the abdominal exercises? Modify the exercise or choose different types of exercises.

Neck tension and pain can be caused by a number of different things, but working through the pain is certainly NOT going to help alleviate it.

In many of the exercises where you are lying flat on your back, you can keep your head on the floor and not curl up (i.e. during the hundreds) until the deep muscles in your neck gain strength to support the weight of the head. Also, as your abdominal muscles increase in strength, you’ll be able to curl up higher off the mat so that your head will be more supported on top of the shoulders.

Weak abdominals may be the cause of the neck tension so working on strengthening the abdominal muscles is always good. Choosing exercises that start seated on the sits bones and roll back from there are more “neck-friendly” than others. In addition, exercises in the all-fours position can really help you connect with your deepest abdominal muscle, the transversus abdominis, and this will help your abdominal muscle endurance as well.

There are many modifications to Pilates exercises so please ask your instructor what you can do to avoid neck tension or pain. After all, Pilates is supposed to make you feel better not worse!

While performing the Pilates "hundreds" exercise you can simply place one hand behind your head or place your head on the mat to relieve any neck tension you may feel.
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Morenformation on complementary therapies and back pain at www.backpainloss.com
Besr wishes
Paul