As Pilates teachers, our goal is to help our clients find, feel, and correct bad alignment, and muscle imbalances so that they can improve their whole-body health and enjoy life!  It’s frustrating for us and them, when problems or pain lingers longer than we think it should.  Chances are if a client walked through your door with pain, and it’s been there awhile – making changes isn’t going to happen overnight!  But generally speaking – Pilates has fantastic things to offer for improving body awareness and developing new posture and movement habits to help pain and problems go away and improve your quality of life!

Here’s a Great Question about Neck Pain and Pilates that I received recently:

Hello: I receive your newsletter and I have to say thank you for your time and your commitment. I would really appreciate your point of view about people who practice Pilates for a very long time, but still feel pain in their necks, and this stops their progress in the work. I have two students with this problem. They are good physically (don’t have any structural problems in their bodies) which makes me think this is more than a physical problem. Thanks for your time! Any insights would be great. ~ Regards, Barbara

Thoughts from Aliesa George on Neck Pain and Pilates Exercises for Healthy, Experienced Students:

Neck pain during Pilates is a common problem for new students who don’t have great spine flexibility or the strength to get into a good curled up position for exercises like the Hundred, but I think it’s probably a more common issue than one might think for experienced students too!