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Moving in the Right Direction  

The right remedy for chronic pain

Are you injured? Do you have chronic pain in a particular area? Does the pain come and go depending on what activities you do? Does the discomfort keep you from doing what you want to do? If you answered yes to any one or more of these questions, are you ready to fix it? Are you ready to get yourself back to the place you were before you started living with your physical limitation? Well, a combination of good physiotherapy (diagnosis) and Pilates movement therapy (exercise) can help.

Physiotherapy

When you get physiotherapy, the therapist will do an assessment of the area creating pain for you. Unless the pain is due to some specific accident, the pain is usually caused by wrong movement patterns. Once the physio diagnoses the wrong movement pattern and the weaknesses that have caused it, then exercises are used to re-create the right movement pattern for that area of function.

Physiotherapy & Pilates

When your physiotherapist works with your Pilates instructor, the results are fantastic. The physio tells your Pilates teacher which muscles are weak and not turning on, and which ones are overused and in desperate need of relaxation and stretching, and finally, which movements aggravate the pain. Then the Pilates instructor coaches you with the exercises given to you by the physio so that you execute the exercises with proper alignment, as well as, chooses other Pilates movements based on the info from your physio.

Pilates

Pilates exercises are excellent for rehabilitation because Pilates exercises combine a balance of strength and flexibility. Because wrong movement patterns create weak muscles and overworked (usually tight) muscles, exercises that strengthen the weak muscles and relax the overworked muscles will bring about rehabilitation. An exercise that does the opposite, will exasperate the pain and prolong rehabilitation.

All Pilates movements emphasize proper alignment, breathing, proper muscle sequencing, and a balance between strength and flexibility. There are about 500 Pilates exercises to choose from so there will always be an abundance of movements that are right for your body.

The final result is your recovery of health

When our bodies are in pain, our bodies experience more stress than they need and our brains are less free to fully experience joy and confidence. Our bodies and minds experience undue stress when we are out of balance. Proper physiotherapy diagnosis followed by rehabilitative Pilates exercises restore body-mind balance which is expressed as joy, confidence, mobility and freedom.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.



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About the Author

Lori Rockl graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Political Science. After working with the Federal Government through two elections, she escaped back into her gifted life of fitness training and now owns a successful Pilates & Yoga studio. Although her clientel tell her often how much they learn from her, Lori would tell you that she is the one that learns the most from her clients. For Lori, the study of the mind-body connection is an infinitely fascinating study. She has found that Pilates and yoga are excellent tools for healthy living and incorporate those tools into her marathon and triathalon training. Please contact lori at [email protected]



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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