Why Back Pain Exercises

Change happens through movement and movement heals” Joseph Pilates. Back pain exercises are commonly used in rehabilitation. Movement is important because if you are stiff in one area, movement shifts to another area, which will then break down faster. For instance, if your lower upper back and hips are overly tight, the movement will shift to the more mobile lower back. Consequently, the lower back will break down from the incorrect excessive pressure placed upon it.

According to research, among adults, 60%-80% experience back pain that interferes with daily activities during their lifetime, while 20%-70% will experience neck pain.

What are the Best Exercises for Back Pain

Back pain is often caused from poor posture to significant underlying conditions. Therefore, the treatment and exercises for back and neck pain depends on the cause of the pain.

Mechanical low back pain can result from an acute traumatic event, but it may also be caused by cumulative trauma.

Pilates personal training

Pilates based exercises are particularly beneficial in rehabilitation settings. What’s more, in the UK, the NICE guidelines recommend Pilates exercise as a first line non-invasive treatment for low back pain and sciatica.

However, it is chiefly important to prescribe the correct Back Pain Exercises for back pain sufferers.  Also, it’s crucial to perform all exercises correctly. The most widely accepted exercises aim to improve posture, increase core strength and enhance spinal mobility.

How do Back Pain Exercises Work?

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What are the best exercises for back pain?

The best exercises for back pain are the ones you can easily commit to doing every day. Evidence suggests that exercising regularly is beneficial for people with low back pain. Moreover, research shows that becoming sedentary is proven to worsen things!
As a result, staying active and carrying on with day-to-day activities tends to improve pain outcomes. Even during times where you must stay at home, you can still exercise by watching online videos.
Therefore, we recommend that you start with only 5 simple exercises that you can commit to.  Just get moving.

Here are 5 easy Pilates exercises for back pain that will help you mobilise and strengthen your spine. Do them every day for 2 weeks before progressing to more advanced exercises (more…)

Reformer Pilates for back pain


Reformer Pilates can be very beneficial for back pain. However, One size doesn’t always fit all.
Some of the widely advocated benefits of regularly practising Pilates reformer are improved core strength, posture, and increased flexibility. These will help you improve and prevent bak pain. Pilates exercises focus on strengthening your abdominal muscles, in fact preferentially recruiting the deep ones. The goal is to retrain your muscles to fire when they are required, with the right amount of force at the right time in order to stabilise your spine. At the same time, maintaining your entire spine mobile. Remember, “You are only as old as your spine is” Joseph Pilates…

Intelligent Exercise. Focus and Think


Concentration is crucial to Pilates exercise! Mindful movement means that you have to be present in the moment without distractions and focus on the task in hand.
So if you are looking for exercises to fix your back without having to think about what you are doing, Pilates is not for you. If you are willing to put the effort and voluntarily learn how to recruit your muscles by concentrating and focusing on precision and learning anatomically how your body needs to work, Pilates is definitely for you. #intelligentpilates

Working from the Inside Out

As with every rehabilitation programme, local stability means that the joints in your spine are preferentially recruited before calling on the big power producing ones. Truly, deep stabilising muscles work close to the joint and need to work before targeting the big mobilising ones. Learn how to do this with our Pilates Exercise for Back Pain classes.

How Does the Spine Degenerate?

As we age and sometimes through injury, the spinal segments degenerate. Spinal degeneration happens when the spine is put through stresses that the discs are unable to withstand. Moreover, poor posture, sitting for prolonged periods slumping will speed up this process. A weak support system can cause also the spinal segments to shear, compress the discs and it’s contents. (annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulpous.

Compression of the discs cause small tears to appear on the outside portion of the disc (fibrillation). These tears heal with scar tissue. Scar tissue is weaker than the original architecture of the disc.

Overtime, the annulus and nucleus lose its water content, the disc loses height and the vertebral segments come closer to each other. As a result, the facet joints in the back to overlap and twist into an unnatural position. In an attempt to stabilise the spine, the body creates bone spurs on the vertebral bodies and the facets. These spurs can cause pain, ache or discomfort as they lose their ability to move properly and may irritate the joint capsule as you move without support.

Pilates as Prevention For Further Damage

Pilates Exercise for Back Pain can help maintain your spinal segments mobile, strengthen your deep abdominal musculature in order to stabilise your spine as you move around in your daily activities.
Prevention is better than the treatment!

back pain exercise

We Can Help

If you suffer from episodic mechanical, non-specific back pain, a Pilates programme may be beneficial for you.

Book now an assessment. We can diagnose, treat and help you get strong through Pilates exercise

Blog written by Carlo Yanez
Registered Osteopath B.A.(Hons.), B.Ost.(Hons)
Fully certified STOTT PILATES® Instructor

 

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