By Naomi Lawson – Physiotherapist & Pilates Instructor

One of the biggest misconceptions about Pilates is that it is purely about strengthening, whereas other exercise techniques (such as yoga) are all about flexibility. This couldn’t be much further from the truth.

And most people think that Pilates will be too hard for them if they don’t have a strong core.  But Pilates may not be what you think it is!

If what you are looking for is a fun and beneficial way to improve your overall body function, reduce pain or reduce the chance of pain returning, then Physio Pilates is for you. We use dynamic stabilisation to recondition your body through a range of graded exercises. This allows us to create a program suitable for your level of strength and flexibility. Yes – flexibility!

In order to allow your muscles to work most effectively they require both length and strength. Tight muscles can be more detrimental than weak muscles as they prevent joints from performing functional movement and this can increase stiffness or cause injury to other muscles that are trying to work too hard to do their job. So stretching and exercises for flexibility hold just as high an importance in our classes as those working on core strength.

Furthermore, most muscle tension or ‘inflexibility’ is generally a result of having weak muscles elsewhere. These weaknesses mean that other muscles need to tighten up and activate more in order to compensate for the functional losses brought about by the weak muscles. As you start Pilates and begin to strengthen these weaker muscles, lo and behold the tight muscles start to get looser! So an increase in flexibility is definitely an end result of Pilates.

If you’d like to find out more about how Pilates can help with both your core strength AND your flexibility, call us on (02) 9743 2311, or email me at naomi@chrcentre.com.au.

For more info on our Pilates classes, click here.