Chronic pain is something that can stop you not just from exercising but also from your daily activities, isn’t it? Do you feel that you’re scared to even try an exercise for fear of triggering on something? But you really want to get strong and are unsure of what you can do? May be a gym or a bootcamp or a group class? And then you hear of the nearest gym providing reformer pilates. So you decide to join that. I mean pilates is supposed to be great for chronic neck pain and back pain right? Yes, but here’s a word of caution. If you’re a chronic pain suffrerer or have had it in the past, it’s very important that you start the right exercises. Here are 3 reasons why you can rest assured that you’ll be ingood hands with us:
It’s not one program fits all for chronic pain sufferers
Here’s what I mean. If you’ve had chronic pain for a while you know that your body has compensated in other areas. So you’ve probably ended up with tightness or discomfort in other areas of the body. It’s very common for a person with chronic neck pain eventually start getting lower back pain too. It’s just how the body works unfortunately. So it’s very important that you don’t just join a class where there’s one instructor shouting exercises at the front with the whole bunch of people trying to follow her. You definitely need something more tailored to your needs. So we do a full head to toe assessmet of what other areas need strengthening too. Our physios are skilled at doing various tests to find out exactly which of your muscles need strengthening and which of them need stretching.
Only 4-5 people in a group session, each doing their own program
Unlike a gym class, where there can be 15 to 20 people at a time, we only have 4-5 people in a group session. There’s no one shouting instructions at you from the front of the room. This helps us in giving individual attention to our patients. So we can correct the way an exercise is being done. Also everyone in the group has a tailored program based on their level of recovery from chronic pain. So they may not be doing the same exercise as you at the same time.
Physios taking the group sessions for recovery from chronic pain
The aim of these group sessions is not to win a body building competition or a weight loss competition. The goal here is to prevent the chronic pain from showing up again. Of course you will get fit but most importantly it’ll help you to keep pain at bay. That’s why it’s our physios delivering the group sessions so we cna make it affordable for our patietns without compromising on safety. Often we get people injuring their back, shoulders or neck trying to compete with each other in a group class. Don’t worry, this is not one of those at all! Our skilled physios will let you know exactly how to do a particular movement with no impact on your joints.