Injuries, though common, often result in stress and frustration. They make you unable to do everyday activities, such as playing a sport or enjoying time outside with your children. Even simple tasks like unloading the dishwasher or shopping for groceries cause pain.
How do you heal injuries efficiently to get back to normal life?
The answer is Pilates.
Pilates is one of the best ways to heal and strengthen your body simultaneously, and it has been in practice for 100 years. While it can be a rigorous workout, it is unique in that it can improve injuries through specific exercises as well.
Targeting the entire body with a focus on strengthening the core, Pilates is a solution to both healing injuries and gaining strength.
Here are 5-ways Pilates can help you get back to an injury-free life.
1. Helps With Posture and Balance
Poor posture is a common cause of injuries, especially when it relates to back, neck, and spine issues. If you often slouch while sitting or standing, it is going to have a negative effect on your posture and will likely cause back pain as well.
Because Pilates has such a strong emphasis on core work and movement, one of its main benefits is that it improves and strengthens your posture.
Your core impacts many areas of your body. By building up core strength, your muscles will feel stronger while your neck and shoulders feel less tension.
A strong core not only means better posture but leads to improved balance as well. With poor balance being another cause of injuries, especially as you get older, practicing Pilates is a great way to better your stability.
2. Targets Specific Areas
Everybody is different, and every injury is different too. A great benefit of Pilates for injuries is that you can personalise your treatment plan and exercises to focus on the certain areas of your body that need help the most.
Pilates movements can target areas such as the knee, spine, ankle, shoulder, or foot.
With each specific area of the body comes a myriad of suggested exercises that will help that area heal and get stronger.
For example, if you are struggling with a knee injury, a Pilates instructor can tailor your exercises so that your knee area is being strengthened. Their knowledge and experience, combined with low-impact Pilates movements, will lead you to a quick recovery.
3. Encourages Correct Exercise Movements
Perhaps you have an idea of the right exercises you should be doing to improve an injury, but you worry that you may be doing them incorrectly.
Doing repeated movements the wrong way, even if you do not feel pain while doing them, can be equally as harmful to your body.
Pilates gets rid of any uncertainty about correct movements with its special machine, the reformer. A reformer consists of pulleys and springs designed to help stretch and work different parts of the body.
Using a reformer at your local Pilates studio and the coaching of a certified instructor is the ultimate package. With the two, you can learn the correct movements through a combination of direct instruction and repeated practice.
Your certified Pilates instructor will walk you through each exercise, while the reformer will make sure each movement is done correctly.
Once your body learns the correct movement, you will be able to complete the exercises without the help of the machine. This means you can do Pilates at home as well, making it a more versatile form of exercise that still brings the same positive benefits.
4. Improves Flexibility and Mobility
There is a reason why stretching is such an important pre-workout activity. This is because warmed-up and flexible muscles lead to a lower chance of injury.
Pilates works your flexibility through slow and repetitive exercises and an emphasis on breathwork. By decreasing stress and loosening the tension in your body, not only will your injury improve, but you will feel yourself relaxing into your new strength as well.
While increased flexibility means fewer aches and pains, and an improved range of motion means better mobility. With so much of your daily movement dependant on the quality of your mobility, having a better range of motion will only make life easier.
Better mobility enhances your quality of life, and all of this can be accomplished using the controlled movements of Pilates.
5. Prevents Further Injuries
Your injury has healed, but now you worry about re-injuring yourself or even injuring another part of your body in the future. How can you prevent this?
Improving flexibility and mobility through stretching and other exercises will not only heal previous injuries but will prevent future ones too. The more time and energy you dedicate to Pilates, the better stability you will have.
Pilates combines strength work with flexibility training to put your muscles in the best possible position for staying healthy and strong. Your body stretches and releases tension while building up power and stamina.
Choosing Pilates for rehab is a great first step to preventing future injuries.
Book Your Complimentary Pilates Consultation
The benefits of Pilates are endless. Pilates is known to improve injuries by strengthening your muscles, tightening your core, and improving your body’s mobility, among other factors.
When you have an injury, it is important to learn Pilates movements from a certified and experienced instructor.
Pilatique Pilates Studio, Singapore’s STOTT PILATES Licensed Training Centre, is here to help. With instructors who are all up-to-date with their certification, you will be taught by professionals who are able to customise your exercises to treat your specific injury.
Not only does Pilatique offer personalised instruction, but their Pilates studio contains the best, state-of-the-art equipment. Cleanliness and safety are a top priority, so you will never have to worry about anything except enjoying your Pilates experience.
Are you ready to find out how Pilates can best improve your injury or general health? Book your free consultation with us now!