Pilates for Injury
Experiencing an injury is frustrating, especially if you are a busy athlete who just can’t afford to slow down! The good news is that we have a solution to help speed up your recovery process: Pilates for Injury.
Exercise has been shown to help speed up recovery after injury by:
- Increasing blood flow to promote healing
- Reducing inflammation
- Pain management- releases endorphins
- Boosting mood and reducing stress
The problem is, when you are injured many forms of exercise may be painful or difficult to do. Here at In Motion Physical Therapy we always want our patients moving as much as they can safely.
This blog post will discuss why Pilates is the perfect exercise for you to do while you are recovering and after you are fully healed from your injury.
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Personalized attention – PERFECT for people recovering from injury.
Understanding the Benefits of Pilates
Pilates is an exercise style that has been around since World War I, and was created by Joseph Pilates in an active pursuit of a holistic approach to health and fitness. He suffered many chronic health issues as a child and devoted his life to creating a fitness style that incorporated strength, flexibility, and mindful movement.
There are many well-researched benefits to the exercise style of Pilates. These include:
- Increased Strength
- Improved Flexibility
- Reduced Pain
- Decreased Stress
- Improved Sleep
If you are recovering from an injury, and want a solution to get stronger, feel better, and get back yourself again keep reading to see why Pilates is the answer.
Pilates is Low impact Exercise
When you are recovering from an injury, the best way to restore health is not to jump right back into a high-intensity boot camp or a rigorous running routine. If your body has not been performing under those demands for even a few days, resuming without a plan is a recipe for disaster.
Pilates is an exercise style that is low-impact in nature. It is gentle on your joints and can be done early on in your recovery process. Many exercises can be modified based on your injury.
Focusing on the foundation of your movement will help decrease your risk for reinjury as you return to your prior activity level.
Focus of Pilates is on the Core
One main focus of pilates exercise is core strength and stability. Your core creates a foundation for proper body mechanics and movement. Many times as we are recovering from an injury, our core weakens from the decreased demand or compensations our body creates to avoid pain.
Strengthening your core muscles will help improve your posture, balance, and stability and improve your body alignment. This will allow you to resume exercise with good form and engaging the correct muscles.
Core strengthening and stability are especially important if you are recovering from a lower back injury, or hip injury, or coming back to exercise postpartum (no matter what type of delivery you had!)
Pilates Improves Flexibility
Another emphasis of Pilates exercise is controlled movements through full ranges of the joints. This improves your flexibility safely. When your muscles are supporting the joint through the full movement you are less likely to get injured.
The more range of motion that your joints have, the stronger you can become. Many of us are stuck behind a desk, driving a car or in sub-optimal postures for the majority of our day (I see you slumped over reading this post on your cell phone 👀).
Improving flexibility through your shoulders, upper and lower back, and hips will help you not only feel better but it will help you move better.
Tailoring Pilates for Injury Recovery
Here at In Motion, our Pilates classes and Private Sessions are instructed by a Doctor of Physical Therapy. This is important for a few reasons.
1. Gradual progressions
As we have discussed through this post, resuming exercise should be done in a graded exposure. If you have not participated in an exercise routine for a few weeks, months or even years, it is important to start where you are (not where you want to be, we will get there eventually).
Knowledge of the exercises that your body is ready for is our area of expertise. Each session of Pilates will slowly build on the foundation that you started the previous one. This progressive overload will allow your body time to adapt to the stress being placed on it.
2. Professional Guidance
Proper form is crucial for a successful return to (or start) to an exercise routine. Our expert instructors are well educated on anatomy and biomechanics of the human body.
Each exercise is given with a purpose and should be felt in certain areas. A beginner or someone recovering from an injury may not realize that they are not doing the exercises correctly due to compensations. Our bodies will always find the most efficient way of performing a movement, even if that means doing it wrong!
After receiving instruction and learning how to do the exercise correctly, then you can continue safely at home on your own.
3. Adapting exercises to individual needs
Each individual experiencing an injury or set back requires a slightly different approach. This is normal! Everyone’s bodies are different, and depending on what is going on in our lives will respond differently to the stress of an exercise program.
Exercises can be made more challenging or easier depending on the person, their experience with exercise and where they are at that point in time (a few weeks out of surgery or recently returned to competition).
While working the a Physical Therapist trained in Pilates you get the best of both worlds- a medical professional who has knowledge on restoring pain free movement and a movement specialist who has expertise in helping you in create a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.
Tips for getting started with Pilates during Injury Recovery
1. Find a practioner who you trust
Building rapport with an instructor is very important when you are recovering from an injury. Fitness professionals are passionate about their work and want to help you, but at times may be a little too ambitious. You want to make sure that the practitioner you are working with takes time to get to know you and listens to your concerns and goals for exercise.
2. Accept where you are
Recovering from a set back or injury sucks! Sometimes the hardest thing to do it to accept where you are. Many of us “should” ourselves into a place where we are not. Starting where you are is an important step, because then you can work on your fitness and strength effectively to make progress.
3. Start slow and build up consistently
After accepting where you are, come up with a plan to get yourself to where you want to be. Slow and consistent is the best way to do this. If you can show up for 30 minutes day, 3 days a week for a year- you have spent 78 hours improving yourself!
A mistake that many people make is trying to do too much, too soon. This leads to missed work outs, which can affect you physically and mentally. Creating a routine around exercise is hard, once you get into the routine you want to STAY in it. The best way to do this it not to “crush” each workout, but to work at an intensity that is sustainable for you to build a consistent practice (so you can exercise 78 hours a year!)
Struggling with an injury can be frustrating, especially for active individuals. While high-impact exercise may seem off-limits, Pilates offers a gentle yet effective solution for both injury recovery and long-term fitness. Its low-impact nature, emphasis on core and controlled flexibility make it perfect for gradual strengthening and rebuilding stability.
If are on Long Island and are looking to use Pilates to recover from you injury more effectively, call us at (516) 659-1087. We tailor each class to meet your specific needs, ensuring safe and effective progress throughout your recovery journey.
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