Clinical Pilates, Floor Pilates and Pilates

At Complete Wellness Physiotherapy in Kalamunda, one of our major services is clinical Pilates, so I thought it would be useful to begin to provide some information about clinical Pilates.

This will be the first of a series of blogs that will discuss clinical Pilates as a unique form of exercise rehabilitation for a range of conditions, the most common of which is low back pain. (Pilates is also used to treat a range of other spinal, upper and lower limb conditions, which we will look at.)

It’s now widely accepted that a major cause of low back pain is lower abdominal or “core” weakness and so Pilates has emerged as a form of exercise that “strengthens the core”, thus providing a form of treatment for low back pain.

At Complete Wellness Physiotherapy Kalamunda, our Pilates is “clinical”. That means the Pilates exercises we prescribe to our clients are specifically linked to our clients’ clinical conditions. We initially take you through a clinical assessment that determines the best direction to “move” you in. All your exercises that we prescribe to you will move you in that preferred direction. So if, for example, your back pain is caused by a disc injury, you may not like to bend forwards, but bending backwards may ease your pain, so all your clinical Pilates exercises will move you in that pain easing direction.

Our clinical Pilates exercises are performed on highly specialised equipment, called reformers and trapeze tables. The interesting thing is that it is much easier to perform exercises on equipment than it is to perform floor exercises. The equipment provides a controlled and supportive environment that gives the patient excellent feedback to perform their exercises well.

Once you have started to master the exercises, we give you floor exercises to do at home. Usually we’ll give you one or two exercises, and the key is to do small amounts but often (4-5 times per day). We are adding to our website a database of videos of Pilates exercises that will serve as an easy to refer to reminder of how to do your exercises correctly.

That’s all for now, your local Kalamunda physiotherapist.

Moz Quinn