Rehab Pilates: Your Best Option For Injury Rehabilitation

Pilates is a popular exercise program across the world. It features a broad range of low impact and light resistance strengthening exercises. Pilates isn’t just the actions described above. Did you know that rehab pilates is a thing? If you’re suffering from an injury or recovering from a surgery, pilates is great for rehabilitation.

Injuries Rehab Pilates Aims to Fix

So many Singaporeans have jobs where they are bound to a desk, sitting all day long. This causes extreme pain in the lower back and muscular imbalances in the hip flexors, neck, all the way down to the feet. These muscle imbalances affect everything that we do. They can cause us to have poor posture, walk favoring one side or put more pressure on a joint than what’s considered healthy. The way we move is disrupted and because of improper balance, varying muscles become weak. These imbalances in our bodies can eventually cause muscle pulls or strains, or even tears and rips.

How Does Pilates Help?

The Pilates exercise program works to strengthen your body’s core. Your core consists of your abdominal muscles and obliques, alongside muscles that are close to your spine. Strengthening your core helps to prevent muscular imbalances and reduces stress on the pelvis and spine. It helps to stabilize your body so you being to move the way it’s intended. Rehab Pilates also helps to provide even musculature and a high level of flexibility. Every exercise within the Pilates program is modified for any type of injury to reduce stress on the joint and the surrounding muscles.

How Does it Vary From Physical Therapy?

That’s not to say that those that don’t have injuries don’t get a good workout. The exercises modify to provide an advanced version so that individuals have a wide range to progress into. It differs from the traditional physical therapy program where a patient is handed a sheet of exercises and expected to simply adhere. The exercises may be too much or too little, not keeping the patient’s ability in mind. Pilates removes this and allows for customization of exercises for the specific patient while teaching the correct form. With physical therapy, a patient may show up and a physical therapist helps them through all of their rehab motions. In Pilates, the patient learns how to rehab themselves without the help of another. They will have a better understanding of how the body works, how correct form feels, and how to get the best sequence of exercises for their body.

Pilates Exercises

Rehab Pilates is a great way to let the patient guide their own exercise experience. Instead of pushing them to do things their body isn’t ready for yet, they get to go at their own pace. The less pain a patient feels, the more they get to move, and the more confidence they’ll have in what they can achieve. Rehab Pilates aims to create a movement experience that is positive where the patient can receive encouragement along their journey. Pilates exercises are typically done on a reformer or a mat. A reformer comprises of a sliding seat that is connected to ropes, pulleys, and springs. Reformers help to restore balance and achieve even musculature in the body. Reformers also assist in any movement and often corrects poor form that developed over time. A patient will start with the reformer and eventually transition to the mat when they are ready. When a patient no longer feels any pain while using the reformer, they can do exercises on the mat to further strengthen the injured muscles to prevent future injury.

Differences in Pilates for Rehab and Exercise

Rehab Pilates is different than your traditional Pilates class at your local gym. They have different goals. Traditional pilates does not seek to correct an imbalance or fix an injury. Rehab Pilates should be taught by someone that is experienced in physical therapy. They need to understand how to teach proper form to help strengthen the weak or injured muscles. Going to a pilates class with an instructor that isn’t certified or doesn’t know physical therapy could make the injury inflamed or worse.

What Other Types of Rehab Can Pilates Help With?

Rehabilitation with pilates isn’t just for muscular injuries though. There is evidence that pilates can also help with a variety of impairments. These include neurological impairments that a patient that received from Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis, or even strokes. Pilates can help to restore and retrain muscle function following one of the impairments. It’s also effective in preventing osteoporosis and can even reduce the effects of aging in an individual. Pilates helps to stabilize any pain in the body and works to alleviate that pain over time. It helps those recovering from surgeries such as back, hip, knee or shoulder. With pilates, a patients range of motion can be improved and any overcompensation from one side of the body to the other can be corrected.

Get Started Today

Are you yourself, or do you know someone who is struggling with an injury or recovering from an impairment or surgery? Are they going to physical therapy on a daily basis and not seeing any results in their condition? Pilates for rehabilitation is a fantastic way to get your body back on track after an injury, without the pains of physical therapy. Pilates helps with muscle fatigue and is gentle on all of your joints. It treats injuries, common illnesses and diseases, and chronic pain. It’s been around since the 20th century but has really taken off in the last fifteen years. The more research and experiments that were done surrounding how pilates can be used for rehab, the more people saw that it was effective to use. With pilates, the therapeutic benefits will not only help your body, but your mind, spirit, and soul as well. If you’re interested in learning more about what pilates can do for you, contact us today.