Pain Relief Exercises Using Pilates

Most of us have lots of different pains. So, how can pain relief exercises using Pilates based exercises help us?

Pilates exercises are well known to relieve back and joint pain by stretching and strengthening the muscles that help to stabilize the spine and joints in their proper alignment.

How can you use Pilates exercises to alleviate your common aches and pains?

Pilates for Back Pain:

Pilates exercises are well known to help alleviate and treat back pain.

What can Pilates DO that others don’t?

Well, for one, they are low impact exercises that help to stretch tight muscles while simultaneously strengthening them.

Most importantly Pilates exercises work the deep transverse abdominal muscles, which surround and support the spine.

The importance of using the transeverse abdominal muscles instead of the rectus abdominus muscles, which are more superficial and generally developed during regular situps and crunches, is that the rectus doesn’t help in supporting the spine.

The Rectus Abdominus are know as the "six pack abs" and serve the purpose of looking good on the outside and helping us to bend forward.

All of the exercises in Pilates are focused on developing and using the deeper transverse abdominal muscles.

Some exercises that you may want to focus on specifically are: Hundreds, Single Leg Stretch, Bridging or Pelvic Lifts, Kneeling Tummy Vacuum and the Cat Stretch.

You can see these exercises at my Exercise of the month pages.

Pain Relief Exercises for Shoulder Pain:

More and more I am hearing people complain of shoulder pain. Generally it is due to weakness in the stabilizing muscles and under-use of the non-dominant arm.

Exercises that help to stabilize and improve shoulder pain and weakness can be found in the new Shoulder ebook by clicking here.

Exercises like the elbow pull and elbow lift help to stabilize the shoulder girdle while those such as internal and external rotation, as well as rowing exercises help to strengthen the muscles of the shoulder such as the rotator cuff.

Pain Relief Exercises for Sciatic Pain:

Sciatic pain can be a big nuisance and, an even bigger pain in the butt!

Generally it can be alleviated and treated by keeping the muscles of the hips and buttocks well conditioned through sciatic stretching and strengthening exercises.

Some of the best exercises for to treat and prevent sciatic pain include Pilates Leg Circles (legs bent or extended), Knee Sways within a pain free range of motion, and Side Kick Series help to strengthen and stabilize the pelvic girdle complex.

Pain Relief Exercises for Wrist Pain:

Many Pilates and yoga exercises include kneeling on the hands and knees. This is definitely a cause for wrist pain in many people.

The wrists can become stronger with practice. When starting just do one or two exercises kneeling and then come back to doing more later. Integrate other exercises in between the kneeling ones.

If the wrist pain continues and does not get better you can do these exercises on your fists keeping the back of the wrist straight or on your elbows.

Even Pain Relief Exercises for your Feet:

The problem with pain in your feet is that you have to be on them all day. There is no escape.

I focus on footwork with all my clients and tell them to take care of their feet by wearing properly fitted shoes and to massage and stretch them daily.

Some of the easiest stretches and strength exercises can be done with the stretch band pointing and flexing the feet and doing range of motion circles to keep them strong and the circulation flowing.

Check out my brand new Foot Ebook that has pictures and descriptions of many foot pain relief exercises to stretch and strengthen your feet for good.

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