You're Pain-Free with Pilates! What's Next?
Jul 11, 2021
When you are dealing with chronic pain that is limiting your ability to enjoy life, your main priority is to find a way to stop the pain. For more than 16 years now, I've been using my unique Pilates program to successfully empower hundreds of people to become pain-free and take back control of their lives. But what happens when you do become pain-free with Pilates? What are the next steps to staying pain-free and preventing pain flare-ups in the future? In this post, I'm going to show you what life looks like for the majority of my clients once they have recovered from pain or injury and are living a life without limits and pursuing their passions.
Becoming Pain-free with Pilates
With a combination of 1 on 1 Skype Pilates sessions, reinforced by additional practice between sessions using my online Pilates studio, most of my clients start to see a decrease in their pain level around the 10 hour mark. For people who are determined to overcome their pain, are committed to their Pilates training and want to fast track their results, the 3 to 4 week mark is when they start to feel everything is coming together. They are developing a greater understanding of the importance of the abdominal and glute connection and how to activate these muscles. As they strengthen, their pain levels begin to decrease which is wonderful to see and provides the encouragement they need to keep going towards their goal of becoming pain-free. For most people, their pain level keeps gradually decreasing until around the 6 -8 week mark when it's either very minor or they are completely without any pain at all.
Why should I keep doing Pilates now that I'm pain-free?
Why should I keep doing Pilates now that I'm pain-free?
It's only natural when you become pain-free to be overjoyed. You immediately want to pick up where you left off with your life and do all the activities that were off-limits to you for so long. As tempting as this is, it's much better to ease back into your sports and activities gradually while continuing to strengthen with Pilates. For many people, depending on their individual issue, they are always going to have to manage their pain, for example, back pain caused by a lumbar disc bulge. While they may pain-free for the majority of the time, occasional pain flare-ups along the way are to be expected. If you have the Pilates skills to get back on track the flare-up will only be a minimal disruption to your life. If you have already discontinued your Pilates training when flare-ups occur, it's rare that people have developed the skills they need to overcome this on their own after just a few months of Pilates training. You could, unfortunately, find yourself in pain again and back where started. However, if you are still doing Pilates, it's usually quite straightforward to get back on track fairly quickly. So I highly recommend that you keep going with your Pilates training to ensure the changes that you have made to your movement patterns and the strength and body awareness that you have developed keep supporting you for years to come.
What happens if I don't continue with Pilates?
What happens if I don't continue with Pilates?
When you become pain-free and everything is going well for you, sometimes even after several years you may find that your pain returns when you stop your Pilates training. It's not until you stop and you lose the strength and support you had developed that you would realise just how vital your Pilates training was for keeping you pain-free. I've seen this happen to several clients, who for various reasons had to take a pause from Pilates, but returned to regain their previous level of fitness. Some people wait until their situation has deteriorated to the point where they need a joint replacement or spine surgery. It's devastating for them and distressing for me to see them suffering like that when it could have been prevented with continuous Pilates training. While it's usually possible for them to regain their previous strength and become pain-free again there is lots of hard work ahead to achieve this. Sometimes it's completely unavoidable when clients have to put their Pilates training on hold. However, if you have a serious condition that you need to maintain with Pilates the more consistent you can be with your Pilates training, the more beneficial it will be for you in the long term.
What would my life look like if I do continue with Pilates?
I'm fortunate that my long-term clients of between 5 and 15 years appreciate the enormous value Pilates has added to their lives and are committed to their Pilates training indefinitely. Many of them tell me they can't imagine a life without PIlates because it has allowed them to take control of their pain, manage flare-ups and deal with any unexpected surgeries or injuries that inevitably occur throughout life. When you receive an unexpected diagnosis such as cancer, for example, the last thing you want to do is try to learn how to do Pilates in a short time, it's just not possible. For people who already practice Pilates and are diagnosed with cancer, they have a way of rehabilitating from any surgery they undergo as well as the ideal way of gently exercising safely and effectively during chemotherapy. Pilates is also something familiar and can be enormously comforting at these times. It's so rewarding for me to assist people who start Pilates to not only become pain-free, but to then see them go on to be stronger, fitter and healthier than ever before in their lifetime. Many of them then set new challenges for themselves they never would have considered before they started Pilates. It's just amazing to see! Some have successfully set off on rigorous hikes overseas, others have taken up a new sport they believed was previously off-limits to them and others have given birth to a much-wanted baby.
Once you have experienced the power of Pilates firsthand it's a life-changing experience that will want to continue well into your retirement years!
If you are ready to start your Pilates journey and want to take control of your own health and fitness email me at [email protected] to get started. Alternatively, you can take the free 10 day trial of JS Mind Body Pilates, my online studio and start straight away. It would be my pleasure to assist you on your Pilates journey!
If you are ready to take control of your own health and fitness then download your free copy of my detailed guide.
Learn more about what sort of people benefit from Pilates and how it can help you too. I separate the myths from the facts and share actual case studies of my clients who have achieved life-changing results from my unique Pilates program.
