Pilates Improving Body Core and Stability

Pilates involves core elements which include:

• Conditioning
• Stamina
• Relaxation
• Concentration
• Co-ordination
• Breathing

Pilates is very safe and is suitable for all ages and levels of fitness and is great for:

Improving body awareness

Increasing flexibility

Decreasing stress

Improving posture

Decreasing back and neck pain

Pilates is used widely by health professionals in the treatment of spinal pain.

Body Mechanix Physiotherapy can provide Pilates on both an individual and class basis.

“Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. In order to achieve happiness, it is imperative to gain mastery of your body. If at the age of 30 you are stiff and out of shape, you are old. If at 60 you are supple and strong then you are young.”

Joseph Hubertus Pilates

Running Foot Injuries

There is little evidence that our foot type and biomechanics can be a predictor of injury. However, it could be assumed that, if a person has an abnormal or inefficient running action, at a given mileage, that person would be more vulnerable to injury than someone with a ‘normal’ running action.

‘Over-pronation’ is the foot-type most commonly heard about. This is where the foot tilts in-ward and the individual may appear flat-footed. We are not able to state that every person who over-pronates will suffer injury but we can try to optimise function in an effort to reduce the chance of injury. Every individual runner will have their own threshold of tolerance to the stress of running, regardless of foot-type, and it can take a combination of factors to ‘tip’ that person over the threshold of injury.

The knee, ankle and hip provide both shock absorption and propulsion during running. The running cycle consists of three phases:

Stance phase, swing phase & float phase

The forces are applied through the body during the stance phase, therefore this is when there is the greatest risk of injury.

Running Injuries

Running, both as a competitive sport and as a way of keeping fit for the recreational athlete, is becoming increasingly popular. Running requires the body to absorb repeated high forces and the success of the body being able to withstand these forces can be influenced by a variety of factors. Running injuries are commonplace in the sports injury clinic and usually present as an ‘overuse’ type injury.

Our body shape and individual biomechanics have the greatest influence on determining how much running we are able to do before becoming vulnerable to developing injury. Important ‘intrinsic’ (personal) factors to consider are:

• Muscle balance
• Flexibility
• Cardiovascular fitness
• Weight

We also need to consider’ extrinsic’ (environmental) factors such as:

• Footwear
• Training surface
• Suitability of training programme
• Intensity of training programme including volume of running

The individual interaction between these intrinsic and extrinsic factors is complicated and can contribute to injury. Research has shown that the total volume of running undertaken and sudden changes in volume or intensity of running are the major predictors of injury.