Prevent Osteoporosis and Relieve Back Pain With Reformer Based Pilates

By Julie Karickhoff, Owner, Instructor

Club Pilates Burke

. https://www.clubpilates.com/burke/

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Prevent Osteoporosis and Relieve Back Pain With Reformer Based Pilates

Do you have lower back pain, fibromyalgia, injured knees and ankles, or just need to tone up for summer? If so, reformer (machine) based Pilates, a full body, low impact work out is for you. The benefits include improvement in strength (targeted at the core), balance, flexibility and posture.

Unlike typical mat Pilates classes, studios with the reformer give you a whole new experience. The reformer and EXO chair (another apparatus) use spring based resistance to assist you in the exercise and spring tension can be increased or decreased based on your current health needs. Therefore, whether you are weak and stiff or strong and flexible as a Gumby doll, the spring tension can be customized so you always keep improving.

Harvard University found that an estimated 10 million people in the United States have osteoporosis, a disease in which the density and quality of bone are reduced, and it is now responsible for more than two million fractures each year. Strength training (not cardio) has been proven to not only build muscle but to also increase bone density.  Sadly, as we age bone density breaks down faster than our bodies can build it up. In Pilates, you use your strength to pull against the spring tension, therefore helping to prevent osteoporosis.

Additionally, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, over 80% of Americans have or will have lower back pain and reformer based Pilates has been proven to rehab injured backs and also prevent future back pain. Pilates exercises strengthen this area including the core consisting of the pelvic floor muscles, transversus abdominis, and erector spinae muscles among others. The stronger these muscles are, the less lightly you are to get a spinal disc herniation (“slip a disc”), which is an injury to the cushioning and connective tissue between vertebrae.

Finally, reformer based Pilates is safe for pregnant women (in their first trimester) and a recommended way to rehab the pelvic floor post pregnancy. Doctors now are prescribing Pilates before and after childbirth to prevent pelvis prolapse.  These simple exercises can mitigate surgery and improve the muscle tone that the trauma of childbirth brings. Pilates also helps to reduce stress and calm the mind, which is greatly needed during this hectic time.

Start your journey to recovery and strength.  Find a reformer based Pilates studio today.