Everyone knows by now that pilates has many benefits to offer in terms of health. It not only works on big muscles but it also works on small stabilising muscles. Therefore, it helps in improving posture, balance and particularly, spinal muscles that are working all the time. This is why pilates is so good when it comes to rehabilitation and at the same time, working and correcting the posture. When it comes to pain, we should take into account that shoulder and neck pain has increased massively since the lockdown happened and we started working from home. In order to get through our work, we compromised our health. The neck and shoulder started suffering more causing extreme pain.
When it comes to pilates, particularly the combination of back series as well as standing ped-o-pull and resistance band series, it helps you work first with back muscles. Particularly with the thoracolumbar area which is the area between the lower and upper back. Then, it also works with the posterior chain with the muscles that are stabilising the scapula bone(these help section and pull the shoulders back, hence, open the chest. In addition to that, we also need to open and stretch the chest muscles so that the body can really open up and you get a much more upright position. This, in turn, would decrease and release neck and shoulder pain.
Egyptian Cross
- Lifting the arms up and down.
- Then from that position, we will extend the arm over the head to reach it above the head and down.
- Then, finish with little circles.
Suspending Position
- We do the salutes.
- Lean forward with your arms above the head.
- We are moving the arms up and down.
- This can be done without any resistance or with a band behind and lower so that you are pushing upward.
Swimming position
- In this position, both arms are stretched out.
- We are moving as if we are moving and trying to arch as much as we can.
- Lift the legs and arms as much off the ground as we can.
- We would mimic the swimming movement.
- This is excellent for strengthening the back muscles.
Also Read: Do Not Ignore Shoulder Pain, It Can Be An Indication of These 6 Health Diseases
- Now, we will change the position of the band and put it in a high position.
- Keep your arms up and down.
- Now, we will bring the elbows to the waist and do arms up and down.
- This is an amazing exercise to open and strengthen the shoulders.
- While we are doing this, we can keep shoulder blades towards each other and keep on relaxing the neck and shoulders.
- We finish off by holding and opening the arms.
- While we are opening the arms, we are closing the head side-to-side.
- Then, we close the arms and then again rotate the head side-to-side.
The combination of these exercises is going to strengthen the back. These would also mobilise and stabilise the scapular muscles as well as alleviate neck and shoulder pain. If you practice these exercises daily, you would find significant relief in your neck and shoulder pain especially if you have to work daily on the laptop during work from home.
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