Best Pilates smoothie!
You need some energy to get the most out of your Pilates class but it’s not much fun doing a roll up on a full stomach.
So here’s a great smoothie recipe I make all the time. The oats are slow release carbohydrates and the almond milk is a great source of protein. Don’t be put off by the idea of the spinach- you really can’t taste it and even my seven year old will ask for a glass when I’m making a batch:
Pilates Energy Smoothie
1 -2 handfuls of spinach leaves
1 handful of blueberries
1 apple
Half a carrot
1 small banana
35g oats
2 tbsp milled flaxseeds
You can add a little maple syrup if you like a slightly sweeter taste, then top up with almond milk and blend. I hope you like it!
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
Pilates for osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common type of arthritis affecting our joints.
It’s sometimes called ‘wear and tear’ arthritis but I think this is a misnomer as joint wear is a normal consequence of daily activity. Osteoarthritis actually develops when our joint repair processes are insufficient to cope with the stresses and strains passing through them. So it’s probably more accurate to call it a ‘wear and repair’ problem.
Pain, swelling and limited joint movement can all be features of osteoarthritis and although there’s no magic bullet a combination of exercise and lifestyle changes, including medication, can significantly reduce pain and help you to continue your normal activities.
Pilates is ideal form of exercise for people suffering with osteoarthritis as it’s low impact and focuses on muscle strength, control, posture and precise, aligned joint movement.
Here are three of our favourite pilates exercises for osteoarthritis of the spine:
Scissors level 1
- Breathe in to prepare.
- Breathe out to tighten your abdominals gently and float up one leg to 90 degrees
- Pause and breathe in
- Breathe out to lower your leg again and repeat on the opposite side – 8 times each side
Pelvic tilts in kneeling
- Breathe out to tuck your tailbone under and curve through your spine
- Hold and breathe in
- Breathe out and relax your spine and draw your shoulders into the back of your body
- Hold and breathe in – repeat 10 times
Bridge
- Breathe in to prepare.
- Breathe out to curl up your tailbone and ‘peel’ your spine bone by bone away from the floor
- Breathe in to hold and stretch the front of your hips
- Breathe out to sink through your breastbone and melt down into your lower back, tailbone coming down last – repeat 8 times
A programme tailored to your own specific movement restrictions and weaknesses will give you the best results and physios who teach pilates are experts at modifying the exercises to offload sore, stiff joints to allow everyone to enjoy the benefits.
Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions,
The Pilatesfit Team!
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
What causes scoliosis & the best pilates exercises for this condition
Having a ‘scoliosis’ means that part of your spine curves sideways.
For most people this is picked up when they are a child and although you might be concerned that you could have prevented it from happening, this isn’t the case. Scoliosis isn’t caused carrying a heavy school bag, slouching or sleeping on your side. In fact, it’s not caused by anything you may (or may not) have done and we don’t actually know why it develops in some people rather than others.
In some cases, the sideways curve may be very pronounced and treatments such as a brace or surgery might be recommended by a scoliosis specialist. For lots of people, however, having a scoliosis doesn’t cause significant pain or health issues and once you have stopped growing it’s unlikely to get any worse.
How pilates exercises can help scoliosis
You can’t reverse the curve in your spine with pilates exercise but a targeted programme can teach you how to release tight areas of your spine, improve your awareness of alignment and strengthen the internal muscles that support and control your spine.
A good place to start is to learn how to tighten your pelvic floor and deep abdominal muscles. In fact, this is the same for everyone (scoliosis or not) and here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Finding your pelvic floor
Lie on your back with your knees bent and a slight curve under your lower back. Breathe in to prepare, breathe out slowly and tighten your pelvic floor muscles by imagining you are stopping yourself from passing wind.
Step 2: Finding your deep abdominal muscles
Forget about your pelvic floor for a moment and this time as you breathe out, tighten your deep abdominals by drawing your tummy muscle away from the line of your trousers slightly.
Step 3: Tighten your pelvic floor and deep tummy muscles together
Breathe in to prepare. As you breathe out, slowly tighten your pelvic floor and deep tummy muscles to the halfway point between completely relaxed muscle and tightening them as hard as you can. Hold at this halfway point for three breaths. Repeat 8 times
Stretches for scoliosis
Cat/ Camel
Kneel on all fours. Breathe out and tuck your tailbone under, curving your spine. Breathe in and hold. Breathe out and lift your tailbone, drawing your shoulders into the back of your body. Breathe in to hold. Repeat 10 times.
Side stretch in kneeling
Kneel on all fours. Move your tailbone to the right and look back towards this side, stretching your side. Move your tailbone to the opposite side to stretch the other way. Repeat 5 times each side.
Tips: you can increase the stretch by moving your feet as well as your tailbone.
Strengthening exercises for scoliosis
Swimming level 1
Kneel on all fours. Tuck your tailbone under slightly and draw in your pelvic floor and lower abdominals. Breathe out to slide one foot along the floor away from you, without moving your back or pelvis. Breathe in to slide back again and repeat on the opposite side. Repeat 10 times each side.
Single leg stand
Stand up and place your fingertips on the bony points at the front of your pelvis. Take your weight onto one leg, keeping these bones level and hold for 10 – 15 seconds. Repeat on the other side.
Not all pilates exercises will be recommended and some actually may be uncomfortable, so it’s important to understand how to make your own individual adjustments if you are planning to go into a class.
A physiotherapist or pilates instructor specialising in clients with scoliosis will be able to write you a programme of ‘self-corrective’ exercises specifically designed for your particular type of curve.
Give us call if you have any questions.
The Pilatesfit Team!
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
An exercise to improve neck pain
A lot of patients tell me their neck and shoulders get really tight and knotted’… sound familiar?
It’s a really common complaint and you can spot the cause a mile away – poor upper body posture!
Rounding of the upper back with the shoulders rolling forward and chin poking out in front increases muscle activity in the neck and upper shoulder muscles. Over time strain accumulates in these muscles and sore spots develop.
Massage and other treatments like acupuncture can help to relieve your symptoms but this will only last for so long unless you work on your posture.
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
Clinical Pilates for low back pain
There are many people who experience back pain which can’t be attributed to a particular structural injury or disease process even with a scan. The medical term for this type of back pain is ‘non-specific mechanical back pain’.
So what does this actually mean?
Non-specific
Your spine is wrapped in multiple layers of soft tissue (muscles, etendons, ligaments, fascia), so it’s not always possible to isolate a specific structure which is the cause of our pain. This doesn’t mean that your physio doesn’t know what is wrong with you and it can still be treated.
Mechanical
Your lower back pain comes on, after or during doing, certain movements or combinations of movements. It’s generally consistent, predicatable and may get worse during the day or during the course of a working week.
Low back pain
Pain which is localised to your lower back and doesn’t spread into one or both of your legs. There should be no changes in your bladder or bowel habits, loss of sensation around your groin, back passage or buttocks or feeling that your can’t control your legs in the usual way (if you experience any of these symptoms urgent medical advice is recommended).
What does it mean to be told you have ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ non-specific low back pain?
Different types of pain can be classified according to the length of time you have been experiencing symptoms.
Acute pain means that you have had symptoms for up to a couple of weeks and it often triggers protective muscle spasm, so you might have difficulty moving properly during this phase as well as being in pain.
Following on from the acute phase, when the protective muscle spasm starts to settle you will move into the sub-actute phase of healing. You may still experience pain which restricts you from doing some of your usual activites but you might be starting to feel like you can move a bit more easily again.
If you have been in pain for 3 months or more, this would be called chronic or persistent pain. It’s associated with changes in the normal nervous system response, meaning that although some healing has been completed your nervous system continues to respond to information coming from your back as if there has been a recent injury.
What exercises are recommended for non-specific mechanical low back pain?
Clinical Pilates exercises are often recommended for back pain.
This programme will help relieve pain in the majority of back conditions and improve mobility. You’ll gradually be able to move more freely as you move through the acute phase into the sub acute phase, so remember to move within a comfortable range and don’t push into sharp or persistent pain:
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
Reduce stress and improve soft tissue healing
Did you know that being mentally ‘stressed’ has an impact both on your experience of pain and your capacity to heal from an injury?
You might remember school biology lessons and the ‘fight or flight’ response we all have when we encounter a threatening or stressful experience. This is an evolutionary chemical reponse in your body – to improve your chances of survival – where resources are diverted to essential systems such as your senses, hearing, heart, lungs and muscles, giving you the ability to either fight or flee depending on the circumstances.
However, we have not evolved much physically in the brief time we have been on earth, so our chemical processes don’t know that the reason we are now stressed is because of a deadline at work or a relationship break-up. We just go through the same experience as being faced with a life-threatening situation and because we rarely fight or run away at work, the chemicals in our system aren’t broken down by immediate physical activity, so the process doesn’t switch off quickly the way it is supposed to.
A prolonged fight or flight response increases all nervous system activity, including pain signals (like turning up the volume on a radio). Combine that with the effects of increased muscle tension and a minor pain condition can cause major levels of pain, if you are stressed or anxious.
A prolonged response also shuts down all non-essential systems, like digestion. So we don’t heal as quickly because we don’t absorb and break down the nutrients from our food the way we should.
So to reduce pain and improve your healing capacity, we must take practical steps to manage the physical responses of stress (if those things triggering stress can’t be eliminated). Here are some of our practical tips to help:
- Sleep – improved sleep quality and quantity helps to reduce stress hormones. Our recent blog post with tips for improving sleep strategies can be read here.
- Diet – this doesn’t mean going on a diet but it means improving the quality of your food. Poor food quality can be stressful for your digestive system. Click here for ways to improve your nutrition and help with soft tissue healing.
- Exercise – there is extensive research that suggests that exercise will reduce the chronic stress hormones your body produces. Exercise also helps to improve your sleep and mood. Click here for a free 7-day trial of our online Pilates.
- Remedial massage – a deep tissue massage will help lower your blood pressure, your heart rate and stress hormone levels. Please contact us for further information if you are local, our experienced remedial massage therapists will be able to look after you.
- Meditation and mindfulness
Don’t hesitate to contact us for any other advice,
The Pilatesfit Team
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
Pilates for Parkinson’s Disease
It’s been over 200 years since James Parkinson wrote ‘An Essay on the Shaking Palsy’, which is considered the first medical documentation of a condition affecting the brain that we now call Parkinson’s Disease.
For most people the cause is unknown (idiopathic Parkinson’s) but it often affects one side of the body first and it’s more common in men than women.
What are the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease?
There are four main symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease including:
- Bradykinisia – which means slowness in movement
- Rigid muscles
- Poor posture and balance
- Resting tremor (uncontrolled muscle movement) – this is usually in one arm but not everyone will have this symptoms. In fact up to 30% of people with Parkinson’s will not have a tremor
How is Parkinson’s Disease treated?
Medication and targeted exercise programmes are the mainstays of treatment for Parkinson’s Disease.
Here our some of our favourite exercises to improve posture, balance and strength:
Leg lifts with or without support
Squeeze your buttock muscles and lift one leg out behind you, keeping your knee straight and your body upright. Repeat 10 times each side.
Balance on one leg and lift your other leg out to the side, keeping your leg straight. Repeat 10 times each side
Balance work with or without support
Hold on for support if you need to and rock your weight forwards into the balls of your feet and backwards towards your heels. To make it slightly harder you can go up onto tip toes at the front of the movement and lift your toes at the back. Repeat 15 times.
Upper back strengthening
Lie on your front with your hands by the side of your head and elbows bent. Draw your shoulder blades down your back and follow the movement with your upper body and head, so that your forehead hovers just up off the floor. Try not to push with your arms or hands to work your upper back muscles. Repeat 15 times.
Shoulder stretch with a resistance band
Hold an elastic resistance band between both hands. Slide your shoulder blades down your back as you raise your hands overhead. Breathe in to prepare. Breathe our to bend your elbows and pull on the band. Breathe in to raise your hands again. Repeat 10 times.
With Parkinson’s, the best outcomes are achieved by those who start exercising early on, when they are first diagnosed. It’s also well known that the symptoms of Parkinson’s are very individual, so no two people are alike. An experienced physiotherapist will be able to identify the main issues and prescribe a tailored exercise programme specific to stage of your condition and your symptoms.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions!
The Pilatesfit Teamm.
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
Perfect Your Plank
Plank exercises are a great way to work on your core and glutes and many people love doing them because you can feel these muscles working very hard, very quickly. However, it’s easy to do a plank incorrectly which can cause an injury and at the very least means you won’t get the maximum benefit.
Issues with technique range from the way you enter and exit the plank position to where you place your feet and hands and the way you hold your body when you are in a plank.
Here’s our ‘how to’ guide for perfecting your plank:
Start position
Start on all fours with your knees underneath your hips and your hands the same width as your shoulders. Walk your hands forward a pace in front of your shoulders. Tuck your toes underneath.
Action
Hover your knees just up off the floor so that you are balancing on hands and toes, your shins should be parallel to the floor. Push forwards, straightening your legs until your shoulders are directly over your hands and your body is in a straight line.
Perfect your position
The most common mistake we see is when people bend at the hips so that their bottom is sticking up into the air. So you might need to lower your hips slightly, tuck your tailbone under and clench your buttocks to perfect your position.
Make sure elbows are slightly relaxed and not locked fully straight and keep your chin gently tucked in so that your head carries on the straight line of your body.
To move back out of the plank don’t be tempted to collapse down onto the floor. Instead, reverse the initial action by bending your knees again until they are under your hips and lowering them down.
Plank challenge
If you want a bit more of a challenge try lifting one of your legs off the floor by a few inches while you are in a plank. Keep your knees straight and make sure that your pelvis stays level.
Have fun and don’t hestitate to get in touch if you need to.
The Pilatesfit Team!
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
Best Pilates Exercises To Improve Your Flexibility
With the number of jobs now requiring a substantial amount of computer work, it’s no wonder that so many of us end up feeling ‘chair shaped’ at the end of a working day.
Pilates is a great way to improve the flexibility of your muscles and the mobility of your joints. Regular practice not only relieves aches and pains but will make every movement feel easier from putting on your socks in the morning to getting out of your chair at the end of the day.
It’s doesn’t matter how old or how active you are already … it’s never too late to make changes to your daily routine. Here are a few of our favorite exercises to improve flexibility:
Cat/dog Stretch
Start on your hands and knees. Position your hands underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips. Inhale and curve your back up to the ceiling. Exhale as you reverse this movement, drawing your shoulders your shoulder back. Your elbow should stay straight throughout this exercise.
Side bends
Kneeling on all fours, take your tailbone and feet to the left and look around. Hold to stretch the right side of your body for 3 breathes and repeat to the right.
Back massage
Lie on your back and bring your knees into your chest. Rock from side to side or circle through your kness to massage your back gently into the floor.
Spine twist
Lie on your back and allow your pelvis to turn to one side, let your knees follow the movement and turn your head away. At the end of the movement your feet should be on top of each other.
None of these exercises should cause any pain but you should gently push the movements into a stretch sensation. Repeat the movements 5-6 times.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions
The Pilatesfit Team!
Call us on 01223 914415 to book a private class or book online for group classes.
Why Are My Hip Flexors Tight?
Your hip flexors are a group of muscles found deep at the front of your hips, attaching your spine to your thigh bones.
They work to bend your hips and help lift up your legs when you move around.
If you spend a lot of time sitting during your day – commuting to and from work, sitting at a desk and then collapsing on the sofa at home – your hip joints are bent for most of the day. This means that the muscles at the front of your hips are held in a shortened position and without the stimulus of standing and moving your hips regularly, your body assumes that you only need a limited amount of hip movement and adjusts the length of the muscles around them accordingly.
Having tight hip flexors also goes hand in hand with weak buttock muscles (glutes) as sitting compresses your glutes and prevents them from working properly too. Over time, these muscles become weaker through lack of use and having weak glutes is connected with a host of physical problems and altered performance which I’ll expand on in my next blog.
How to test if you have tight hip flexors:
Step 1: Lie on your back and use your hands to pull one of your knees towards your chest.
Hold your knee still and relax your other leg. Ask a friend to look and see if you can lower your thigh until it is parallel to the ground.
If you cannot lower your thigh parallel to the ground then you have tightness in the hip flexors.
Step 2: With your leg lowered as far as you can, then bend your knee to 90 degrees.
If your thigh rises when you bend your knee, then you have tightness in one of your thigh muscles (quadriceps).
You might be tight in both the hip flexors and quadriceps, or you might just have tightness in one muscle group … either way you can target your rehab programme more specifically if this has been assessed properly.
Exercises for improving hip flexibility
Hip flexor stretch
Kneel in a lunge position and tuck your tailbone underneath, flattening your back slightly. Lean forward to stretch a bit further, without arching your back. Hold for 30 seconds, repeat 5 times.
Quadriceps muscle stretch
Lie on your side and hold onto your ankle (or socks or trousers if you can’t reach this far). Tuck your tailbone underneath and gently increase the stretch by bending your knee. Hold for 30 seconds, repeat 5 times.
Glutes strengthening bridge
Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor close to your bottom, hip width apart. Push down through your heels and scoop your bottom up off the floor, lifting your spine bone by bone. Hold for 5 seconds then reverse this movement. Repeat to fatigue.
Tips for fixing tight hip flexors:
Simply stretching isn’t enough to fix your tight hips. You’ll get much better results if you also try to think of ways to get out of your chair more during the day, to stimulate movement and muscle activity around your hips. Your body will rapidly adapt to meet this new demand and if you strengthen your glutes as well … then you’ve got yourself an effective rehab plan!
Get in touch is you have any questions at all,
The Physiofit Team.