Introductory Guide FOR our Online Pilates Classes

Hi Welcome to PhysioPilates Carlisle’s Beginners Course, my name’s Rachel Mills, I’m a Chartered Physiotherapist and APPI Accredited Pilates Instructor. 

The aim of this Introductory Guide is to give you basic safety advice, to help you avoid making common mistakes and to help you to get the most out of your PhysioPilates classes. Make sure you either read the whole of this guide or watch the whole the Welcome Video before attempting any of our classes. 

First things first, before you start the lessons please consult your doctor or physiotherapist to make sure these exercises are suitable for you. Whilst most people will be fine doing most of the exercises, no exercise can be guaranteed to be suitable for every person and you may have a medical condition that precludes you from doing some or all of the exercises.

Secondly, a large percentage of people doing PhysioPilates have some pain in some way shape or form, or a medical condition and it is important that your level of pain stays the same or improves whilst you are doing the exercise.  If you are getting an increase in pain it means 1 of 3 things:

· The first is your technique is incorrect – so re-watch that exercise in the lesson, playing close attention to the instructions. 

· The second reason is that exercise is too difficult for you at this stage, so try an easier version of that exercise.

· And the third reason is that the exercise may not be right for you at this stage. So if you think that your technique is correct and it does not help doing an easier version, or there is not an easier version, it may be that the exercise is not suitable for you right now, in which case leave it out for now and try it again in a few weeks’ time when your may have improved enough to be able to complete the exercise successfully.

· If you have any queries about any of the exercises please get in touch

In Pilates we are trying to strengthen our core muscle. Unfortunately, our core muscles become inhibited by pain and hence become weaker, so pushing through the pain is not beneficial, it can even shut off your core muscles even more.

If you are uncomfortable in any of the positions that we do our exercises in, for example lying on your back, then watch the Master Class on Making the Rest Positions (included in email 1) for tricks, tips and techniques to make the different positions we do the exercises in comfortable. If that doesn’t solve your problem then either avoid exercises initially in that position, or just do them for a short period of time and stop before your pain increases, or get in touch with me with your query.

If you are someone who normal feels fine during exercises or daily activities and then feels sore later on or the next day you will need to be more careful when doing the exercises. Initially you may want to only do a few of the exercises in the class for a few repetitions only and leave the others.  If you feel ok after the session then next time try a few more of the exercises, if you feel sore afterwards the next time do less of the exercises and less repetitions. If you cannot find a level of exercises that you can do without increasing your pain then please stop the exercises and get in touch.

If your pain either increases significantly or you experience an increase in pain that last for more than a couple of days then consult a doctor or physiotherapist immediately.

When you sustain an injury or experience pain the muscle systems stop working properly. Usually the deep core muscle stop working and the more superficial muscles become over active and go into spasm to compensate for the weak core. Each joint in the body has its own typical pattern of tight muscles and weak muscles that occur after an injury or pain. 

Often it is the stability muscles that are weaker and the strength – power muscles that become overactive with pain so it is therefore important if you want to overcome pain not to skip the gentler stability exercises in the beginner’s course, and ensure you can do them correctly before you move on to the more strenuous exercises otherwise you may not get rid of your pain quickly or at all. 

It is tempting to rush ahead to do the harder exercises and many people feel that they will get stronger quicker by doing the harder exercises.

Unfortunately, this is not what happens for most people and those who start with exercises that are too challenging, instead the weak muscles are too weak to work in that exercise and instead the overactive muscles work reinforcing the pattern of muscle activity that is causing the pain, rather than improving it. 

Even if you aren’t in pain, being proficient at the stability and control exercises will improve your performance at the harder exercises. So, doing these exercises are beneficial for everyone.

I’ve seen many people with pain who can do the harder core strength exercises such as planks and double leg lifts, yet can’t do the supposedly easier core stability exercises. By stopping the challenging exercises and working on the stability exercises they have seen a huge improvement in their pain. So, start gently and build up gradually, even if you were previously very fit before your pain or injury. 

Even if you have done Pilates for a long time, some of your workout should include work on core stability and control, not just strengthening exercises. Our goal is to focus on the quality of the exercise and to be precise and controlled in the way that we are doing them.

We do a lot of balance work in PhysioPilates as it is a great way to strengthen your legs, to strengthen your core and to improve your balance and co-ordination.  However, certain medical conditions and age-related changes can result in an inability to save oneself on overbalancing, so please check with your doctor or physiotherapist if these exercises are suitable for you.

Even if you’ve done Pilates before I recommend doing the introduction to PhysioPilates course. This is for several reasons. Firstly, as on many occasions, I’ve had physiotherapy patients who tell me they’ve done Pilates before, however when I look at them carrying out their Pilates exercises their technique is incorrect and so they are not getting the maximum benefit from the exercises. in the beginner’s course we go into more depth as to how to do the exercises, so it gives you the best chance of ensuring your technique is correct.

Secondly, we are doing a modified form of Pilates.  Many of the exercises have been adapted so they are more effective at helping you to relieve your pain so the exercises may be different to what you’ve done before so doing the beginner’s course will help insure you are doing the modified exercises rather than the traditional Pilates exercises. 

When you’ve completed the whole of the beginner’s course, you are ready to do our intermediate online classes. You can find out more detail about these at: 

https://physiopilatescarlisle.co.uk/intermediate-classes

If you have any questions or feedback regarding any of the videos please get in touch via email or phone. We welcome your feedback and are happy to answer any questions you have.

The golden rules of PhysioPilates are:

· Check with a doctor or physiotherapist to see if these exercises are suitable for you.

· Do not exercises through pain

· Start gently with the basic exercises and build up slowly.

· If you feel sore after doing the exercises, either immediately or later that day or the next day, you have done too much too soon, do less next time – please ask us if you’re not sure how much less to do.

· Do the whole of the beginner’s course, before moving on to our intermediate lessons – even if you’ve done Pilates before.

· Please ask questions or give us feedback whenever you wish.