Back pain is extremely common, affecting about 90 percent of people at some point in their lives.
For millions of Americans, back pain also becomes a chronic condition that interferes with the full and active lives they want to live.
Back pain sufferers do not have to seek out expensive and invasive options for healing, however. Consistent exercise in the form of Pilates can often alleviate back pain while restoring patients to their regular activities and lives.
Pilates strengthens the core of the body.
Sometimes, back pain occurs because of weakness in one or more of the core muscles of the body, particularly the back muscles and the abdominal muscles.
When weak, these muscles can no longer do their job of stabilizing the spine and working together to accomplish tasks like standing or turning.
That lack of support and strength can destabilize your spine, leading to discomfort and pain when you try to do even simple daily tasks, such as turning around, sitting, or lifting.
Pilates helps bystrengthening the central muscles of the body through gentle exercises. When implemented consistently, Pilates can build up underused or weak muscles so that they can take on their share of tasks such as lifting, standing, or sitting.
Pilates improves muscle imbalance.
People often get into bad habits when moving, stretching, or lifting. Some muscles are overused, while others are underused, for example.
Often, working out exacerbates the problem by focusing on the same muscle groups over and over, strengthening some and ignoring others.
When some muscles are stronger than others, muscle imbalance can increase back pain, and increase your risk of injury.
Pilates can correct this muscle imbalance by working on all the major muscles in the body to ensure even conditioning and strength throughout your entire body.
When it comes to back pain, this practice of equally strengthening all of your muscles can help you to accomplish goals such as improving the movement of your hips or your upper thoracic muscles.
This improved mobility and strength can alleviate your pain and help you return to the healthy life you deserve.
Pilates improves posture.
In today’s sedentary and tech-saturated world, poor posture is common. People tend to cross their legs when sitting, slouch in front of computer screens, or lean their weight on one hip more than the other.
Poor posture can pull back muscles painfully out of alignment. Poor posture can also lead to stiff muscles in the upper back that force the lower back muscles to work harder, leading to muscle tension and pain.
Pilates works on loosening and strengthening all the muscles in your body, pulling them gently back into alignment and ensuring that every muscle does its job.
In addition, Pilates implements good habits for movement, making you more aware of how to align your spine and maintain good posture as you go about your daily life.
These improvements can help you maintain your progress and keep recurring back pain away. Eventually, you may be able to maintain spinal alignment and good posture without even thinking about it — Pilates can improve your everyday life, not just serve as a quick way to feel better.
Pilates restores flexibility and balance.
One of the great benefits of Pilates is its ability to create flexible, balanced muscles that are resistant to injury.
In particular, Pilates lengthens muscles, making them stronger and more flexible. As a result, you enjoy greater mobility throughout your joints and less likelihood of muscle injury.
All of these improvements make it less likely that you will injure your back or continue to experience back pain.
You do not need to continue to suffer from back pain. You can get on the path to health with Pilates training implemented by a compassionate and skilled professional, like those at In Touch NYC.
With their assistance, you can begin to address the causes of your back pain and learn exercises and habits that can strengthen, stabilize, and support your back, abdominal, and related muscles for long-term relief of your pain.