Hot on the heels of my Back Care course I’ve just completed a one day course on the shoulder. This course was run by Jenny Herron a first class Physiotherapist and covered everything you ever wanted to know about the shoulder but were afraid to ask

The bottom line when it comes to shoulder problems, pain in the shoulder or restricted shoulder mobility is that getting an accurate diagnosis without a scan of the area is very challenging. All the normal tests can do is attempt to pin point what the problem is but because most of the symptoms are very similar they aren’t that useful.

Having said that an experienced Physiotherapist will be able to prescribe suitable exercises for you to perform in an attempt to help you increase your shoulder mobility and stability.

Many Physiotherapists will recommend you then find a Pilates class to help you continue with the rehabilitation process. This is important because once the Physiotherapists has finished treating you you are expected to continue doing any exercise they’ve prescribed on your own and therein lies the problem. Most people don’t have the will or discipline to continue with these exercises once no one is checking up on them

This means the shoulder  will not continue to strengthen and become more mobile in fact the opposite can occur.

However Pilates is designed to do help improve shoulder mobility, flexibility and strength so taking up Pilates can pick up where your Physiotherapist left off.

When you consider all the other benefits regular Pilates exercises can give you helping with your shoulder problem is the icing on the cake

Bob Bartram
(Pilates Instructor)

I’ve just come back from a 2 day Back Care course in Leeds run by  PFE (formerly Northern Fitness) and taught by Jenny Heron (great course and highly recommended).

I learned a lot more about backs,  what can go wrong with them and how to help people with back problems get better.

The biggest take-away from the course though was “Prevention is better than a cure”. Once the back has been injured either by an accident or accelerated wear and tear caused by poor posture, rehabilitation can often take a long time.

The back is an incredible piece of engineering and is designed to be strong and unless physically injured, last a life time. As we age it does deteriorate but if we look after it by keeping it mobilised and flexible there’s no reason why we can’t live out our lives back-pain free.

If you were a car you’d  be forced into getting regular services and an MOT once a year to keep you safe and any preventative maintenance would be done as a matter of course. Sadly as humans we don’t have to, although we should.

I can imagine everyone who’s under 40 yawning at this point thinking that as they don’t have any back pain / problem / issue at this time that this article isn’t for them.

You’re wrong

Keeping your spine strong, flexible and fully mobile is your best chance of avoiding back problems later in life, and the earlier you start the better.

Working on your back alone though  isn’t going to be enough because back stability is dependant on so many other parts of the body contributing to the spines’ overall stability (muscle strength / balance / pelvic stability….)

That’s where the magic of Pilates comes in.

It’s preventitive maintainance for your whole body.

It’ll balance you, make you stronger, more flexible and improve the quality of your life.

It has for me (Bob) and my wife (Carol) and I’m sure that whether you already have a back problem or you just want to help ensure you don’t get one, Pilates can help you if you practice it regularly.

Remember – before you start any new exercise program, including Pilates, make sure you’ve been cleared by a health professional.  Let’s be safe

Robert Bartram
(Pilates Instructor)

I love Pilates and that’s one of the reasons I teach it. The other reason is it helped me with pain I was experiencing in my lower back and neck caused by an injury in my teens (a long time ago)!

Carol (my wife) had just finished her Pilates Instructors course and I decided to attend her newly formed class to give her my support. I never expected anything from Pilates after all it was for the ladies wasn’t it?

After about 9 months I realised that my back hadn’t bothered me for some time and eventually (I’m slow) linked my improvement with the Pilates I was doing.  My back although will still occasionally give me a spot of bother is 200% better than it was and continues to improve.

I expected nothing and after a year of regular attendance at class (sometimes twice a week) I’d gained significant improvement.

However some of my clients seem to think that 40 years of poor posture can be “cured” in a matter of weeks! They expect any pain they have to disappear and their posture to improve almost immediately. They will complain bitterly that Pilates isn’t helping them at all and that after all they’ve been coming for 4 weeks and they still feel no improvement! Shortly after that they stop coming.

I sigh and chalk it down to experience.

Pilates is magic but it’s not magical. It takes time for the full benefits to be felt and time for the body to strengthen and re-balance. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight.

Joseph Pilates promised that if practiced regularly Pilates will help you develop a strong mind and body and my experience has shown this to be true.

The main point is practice or put another way.

If you don’t do the drills you won’t get the skills or benefits that Pilates promises.

People tend to look confused when we mention “Pilates Neutral Spine”, so I’m going to go through what it means and how to find it for each of the positions that we do Pilates in.

Neutral spine is simply when your backbone is in the shape it should be – a small inward curve in your lower back, and a small outward curve in your upper back. This is slightly different for everyone and is achieved by holding your pelvis level.

The first video in the series is Finding Neutral In Standing which is a never to missed part of your warm-up.

Carol J Bartram
(Pilates Instructor)

The Pilates Zip & Hollow is important to learn because it prepares your body for Pilates and also helps to protect your back while doing the exercises.

A lot has been written about the Zip & Hollow some of it very confusing so to help our clients learn this important principle we’ve produced the video you see below. It will explain how to correctly recruit Transverse Abdominus and how to engage your pelvic floor.

It is part of a series of exercises that we’ve added to our Facebook page Pilates Hull. We intend to add videos as time allows and will cover topics like how to find neutral in all positions along with video responses to questions we get asked.

If you’d like to join us on Facebook click on the link below. You may even like to become our friend and a thumbs up is always appreciated

Carol J Bartram
(Pilates Instructor)

Is Pilates like yoga is a common question I get asked.  As always the answer is neither yes or no.

Joseph Pilates when creating its exercise system took exercises from many different disciplines including yoga.  His genius was in combining them into the exercise system we know today as just Pilates.

I think the easiest way to think about it is that yoga is static whereas Pilates is movement based.  In yoga you enter a pose and then hold it for a specified period of time.  Whereas in Pilates we mostly add movement to the exercises.

Pilates being movement based focuses more on the core, inner skeletal  stabilising and postural muscles.  That’s not to say yoga isn’t beneficial because it is.  In a perfect world if we had time we’d both Pilates and yoga and therefore get the benefits of both.

If asked which discipline I’d pick if I were forced to choose I’d obviously say Pilates.  In my opinion it’s more functional than Yoga and if taught correctly inherently safer particularly for those with an existing structural problems such as a slipped disc.

Also because Pilates is movement based I find it more interesting than Yoga but that’s my personal preference.

Try them both for three months and see which one you prefer and you never know I might see you in one of my local Hull Pilates Classes

I think blogs are an excellent way of communicating with clients old and new.  They enable me to write in a way that ordinary websites don’t.  I can use a blog as a diary to keep you informed of all the latest health and fitness news.

I intend to use my new Personal Trainer Hull blog as a vehicle to keep you informed, entertained and hopefully educated.  I intend as time allows to write useful articles on how to keep fit and lose weight safely and effectively.

Well, that’s my intention anyway!  But as we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions!  So I’ll leave it up to you to give me a prod if I slip and stop posting.

You could help me by asking any health and fitness related questions you may have and I’ll do my best to answer them as soon as time allows.

Remember though just talking and reading about fitness isn’t going to help you in your weight loss goals at all unless you actually apply some of they knowledge you learn!

Sitting in front of the television thinking about exercise isn’t actually going to help.  We need to get up switch it off and start working out.  It’s never too late to get the benefits that regular exercise can bring.

Be sure to check with your health professional before starting any new exercise regime. It’s always best to be safe

Carol J Bartram
(Pilates Instructor)

Teaching Pilates can be a lot of fun but clients can be funny sometimes.  I recently had this conversation with a lady in one of my classes it went something like this.

Bob, I’ve hurt my shoulder and when I do this type of movement (she makes a vague stabbing motion in front of her) it hurts.

I ask this lady the usual questions had she been doing anything unusual recently and did she notice what she was doing when the pain first started.

No she assures me she hasn’t been doing anything unusual and that she thought that Pilates might be the culprit because the pain started at the same time she started doing Pilates.

Now I’m really puzzled there is nothing we do in a Pilates class that should have caused this lady’s shoulder to be painful.

You’re sure you haven’t done anything unusual recently I ask again hopefully?  Nope she replies nothing.  Well have you started doing any other exercise recently at a Gym or at home?  Well she admits, now you come to mention it I did start boxercise at about the same time as I started Pilates could that be what caused it?

I explain to her that yes it could easily have caused the problem (this lady is not particularly well toned and doesn’t have a great deal of core stability yet) if she was just throwing herself around during the class.

The interesting thing is she blamed Pilates for the injury rather than the boxersize  class she was going to.

Sometimes my clients are a complete mystery to me

Robert Bartram
(Pilates Instructor)

People start practising Pilates in East Yorkshire (and elsewhere) for many reasons. For some it’s firming and toning and for others it’s pain and discomfort (moving away from that is .

Many of us now spend a large portion of the day behind a desk hunched over a computer. Our stress levels are high and we don’t pay very much attention to our posture. While we’re young (under 30) our bodies absorb this abuse and in general we don’t suffer from any unwanted side effects except for maybe a little stiffness and discomfort.

The chickens come home to roost though when we get into our forties. By then the accumulated effects of our bad posture and muscle imbalances start to cause us pain. We seek medical advice and for the most part no structural damage is found.

Many General Practitioners, Physiotherapists and Osteopaths will then recommend you take a Pilates class to help rebalance, strengthen and teach you the elements of good posture.

To discover how Pilates can help you strengthen, tone and have less discomfort take a look at the video below.

Teaching Pilates in Hull is interesting and I always learn a lot from my clients. I’ve had the following conversation with many of them. Does this remind you of anyone?

<Mrs X> Bob can you give me any exercises to help my shoulder (could be any part of the body)
<Bob> What did the doctor say?
<Mrs X> Oh he sent me to to a Physiotherapist who gave me some exercises to strengthen it
<Bob> And did you do them?
<Mrs X> Yes, I did them for a couple of weeks and when the shoulder felt better I stopped.
<Bob> Why did you stop doing them?
<Mrs X> Well I had to do them twice a day and they took ages to do so I stopped
<Bob> Exactly how long did they take to do?
<Mrs X> About 10 mins twice a day.
<Bob> I suggest you start doing them again and this time keep doing them even when it feels better.
<Mrs X> (In a whiney voice) But I don’t have time!
<Bob> Either do the exercises or learn to live with the pain it’s your choice.

Keep moving!

Robert E Bartram
(Pilates Instructor)