Manage and Prevent Back Pain with Pilates

I often wish that I’d started Pilates much earlier in life. Knowing now that I can prevent back pain with Pilates, I could have avoided a lot of agony over the years. Have you ever had a really sore back? You know the kind I’m talking about; the constant aching and shooting pain when you move “wrong”. Back pain has prevented me from sleeping, I’ve been unable to bend over to tie my shoes, and have even been “stuck” in a certain position from it. If any of this is familiar to you, keep reading, my friend. 

Back Pain Is No Joke

I went for years not understanding the back pain my husband Craig often dealt with. He was the passenger in a car accident where the SUV rolled several times, which was a contributing factor. Craig also helped his wheelchair-bound mother a lot, transferring her from her chair to and from the car or couch. He would even carry her in the chair up the stairs when we visited family. My husband has always been active in martial arts and hockey, but at the time he wasn’t doing much for strength, flexibility, or mobility.  

I still remember one day in his office when he leaned over to reach something on the floor beside his desk and BOOM. He was stuck. He was in excruciating pain and couldn’t move. I helped him get to the doctor but felt terrible that I couldn’t help any further. I also didn’t truly understand how much it hurt. Honestly, watching him try to move was a bit comical. Of course, karma came to get me, because a few years later I experienced something similar. 

After years of teaching aerobics and spin classes (which are full of repetitive movements), and having had three babies and the associated years of feeding, falling asleep in awkward positions like sitting up, carrying the baby seats and multiple children at once… it caught up to me. I had some serious imbalances in my body and I put out my lower back. Another time I had a terrible kink in my neck and a knot in my traps that kept my head unable to rotate much at all. 

Pain Stops You From Doing Things You Love

In the past, back pain caused both Craig and me to take time off work, life, and our hobbies. We are both very physically active, but even sleeping felt like a danger sometimes. This was awful for both of us because exercise is a stress reliever and we both love our jobs. Being sidelined made us miss the things that made us happy. 

I was listening to an audiobook the other day, and the author told a story about a famous basketball player who was retired, and said how he was now “of an age that when he leaned down to tie his shoes, he’d also think about what other things he might need to do while he was down there”. This made me laugh, and I have clients who’ve said similar things to me as well. But it truly isn’t funny, because I know that no one really wants to feel that way.

When you have constant pain in your back, knees, hip, etc, you eventually have to consider stopping the activities that you love to do. Gardening, golf, getting down on the floor to play with your kids or grandkids, or taking long nature walks with the dogs. It makes me feel sad, especially because I know now that you can manage and prevent back pain with Pilates. Through strength, mobility, and flexibility practice, you can keep doing all the things you love for a lot longer! 

Gently Prevent Back Pain With Pilates

Our bodies are meant to move in a variety of ways, and it doesn’t need to be extreme or intense. I promise you don’t need to bend in half or put your legs behind your neck! Staying mobile and pain-free takes a combination of consistency and balanced movement. 

Think back to your childhood or observe the children in your life. They don’t like to sit still, do they? I remember rolling down grassy hills, hanging from monkey bars, running everywhere and playing jumping or chasing games. Then, because this is the society we live in, our lives became more sedentary. Active play in kindergarten slowly turned into more and more desk time. Then came jobs where you stood at a counter, sat at a desk, or performed repetitive movements all day long. We didn’t even notice that the movement and rolling around we did as kids helps us stay limber, flexible and mobile.  

No, you don’t need to roll down hills to feel good again (unless you want to). Instead, you can very often manage, reduce, and prevent back pain with Pilates’ gentle, safe combination of movements that help you become more flexible, mobile, and strong. 

When using the reformer, tower, or chair we have the resistance and assistance of the springs to help you to do exercises and movements that you may find incredibly difficult otherwise. They also help provide your body with extra stretch or the ability to curl, flex, or extend more than is possible with just your body weight. Our ultimate goal with Pilates is to help us do everything else in life better (and pain-free).   

Stop Suffering

By moving your body in ways that it does not get moved regularly, we start to correct imbalances. As those imbalances decrease, so does the pain. From my experience over the years, clients notice that they feel good after a Pilates workout; but it’s often several months into sessions that they notice the bigger changes. 

Changes like: 

1. A client constantly dealing with back pain couldn’t even get through his daughter’s soccer game without having to find somewhere to sit. After only three weeks of Pilates sessions, he found himself able to stand and watch a whole game pain-free.
2. This client had been in multiple car accidents, one of which was head-on with a large truck. She had chronic pain: headaches, back pain, neck pain, and more. She also had trouble with balance and mobility. One day she noticed that she was able to step into her bathtub without clipping her foot on the edge of the tub. This meant she had improved her balance, could stand on one foot for longer than before, had improved hip flexor strength, and had better hip and knee mobility. She was thrilled!
3. Another client had a hip replacement, and after a couple months of Pilates she noticed that she no longer had to sit down to put on her shorts; she could do it while standing. This was due to more flexibility through her back and legs, and her balance and strength had also improved. 

We do not need to suffer from pain. In fact, you could be proactive and start Pilates before you have any kind of pain. I’m actually jealous of my younger clients who started long before the age when I discovered Pilates! I still have pain every so often, and I still have imbalances (we all do!). But Pilates helps keep them at a minimum, and when I neglect my practice, my body definitely lets me know.