Pain Management Pilates: Defeating Chronic Pain

Pain management Pilates can help with managing chronic pain for patients. Adding daily pain management Pilates can go a long way towards managing your pain! Sometimes even the slightest amount of physical exertion can be debilitating. Exercise, however, is crucial in adjusting muscular imbalances and strengthening the body to tackle pain better. The functional exercises and postural re-education found in methods like Pilates can aid in pain management by enhancing the body from inside out.

These exercises have been used by physiotherapists to combat scoliosis, sciatic pain, spinal nerve impingements, shoulder and rotator cuff injuries. Repeat each exercise 8-10 times.

Pain Management Pilates Exercises

Wall Posture Check and Roll Downs: Stand with your back against a wall. You can find neutral pelvis by finding the place where the pelvis is neither tucked or tilted. With flat lower abs, there will be a slight curvature of the lumbar spine that doesn’t touch the wall. Inhale, engaging the core, then tuck the chin into the chest. Roll through each vertebra. Keep the core drawing up as you descend. Touching the floor is not the objective, so focus primarily on breathing, using the core, and relaxing the shoulders. When rolling back up to a neutral position, engage the pelvic floor.

Pelvic Tilts: Laying supine on the floor, bend the knees. Keep the heels in line with the sitz bones (ischial tuberosities). Again, pelvic tilts are about increasing awareness of pelvic neutral. Imagine there is a teacup on your belly button. If the pelvis tilts forward or backward too much, the teacup will spill. Rock back and forth between these two positions then return to the neutral pelvis.

Bridge Pose: From pelvic tilts, you can initiate Bridge Pose. Do not let the knees drift away from the center line of the body as you first tuck the pelvis, cinching the transverse abdominal muscles together, to lift your spine off the floor. Squeeze the gluteal muscles, lengthen the hamstrings, and don’t lose awareness of pelvic neutral. Reverse the roll up to return to the starting position.

Superman: Recommended for those struggling with fibromyalgia. This exercise works the muscles in the low back to improve posture and strengthens the shoulders. Laying prone, reach the arms forward—yes, like Superman in flight. Firm the gluteal muscles, sending energy down through the backs of the legs to the toes. Inhale, lifting the chest from the ground without dropping the arms. Exhale to control your return to the start position.

Pain Management Pilates & Chronic Pain Prevention

Pilates is a workout that uses the breath to add in proper mechanical movement and establish better postural habits. By incorporating these moves into your workout, you can strengthen your core and bring relief to stiff shoulders and tight hips as well as soothe multiple spine-related issues.

Do you exercise for natural pain relief? Tell us what techniques and exercises you use in the comments below!