The body
Is Pilates good for back pain?
Usually, with one condition. What the evidence supports, and what we actually do in the room.
Non-specific lower back pain is the most common reason a new client telephones this studio, and it is the reason we ask for a private before a group class rather than after one.
What the evidence supports
Trials of Pilates-based exercise for chronic non-specific low back pain consistently show improvement in pain and function against doing nothing, and roughly parity with other supervised, progressive exercise. The honest reading is not that Pilates is special; it is that loaded, supervised, gradually harder movement helps, and this happens to be a well-supervised way of doing it.
The work that helps is the work that loads the position you have been avoiding, slowly enough that you do not brace against it.
What we do about it here
We read your physiotherapist's notes if you have them. We keep the spine loaded in the range you tolerate rather than the range the exercise conventionally asks for, and we drop anything that provokes symptoms on the day instead of working through it. If pain travels down a leg, changes with a cough, or wakes you at night, we will send you back to a clinician before selling you anything.
If back pain is why you are considering this, book a private first. A teacher can build around a restriction in fifty-five minutes; they cannot do it while also running a room of eight.
Reading is the slow way round. $75 covers your first three classes.
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