Pilates too hard for me
 

I thought I give Pilates a try to strengthen my body from so many ortho issues including but not limited to 2 Lumbar ADR, SI joint, cervical issues, knee, shoulder, etc. We tried to go easy but ..... Well it did strengthen me but I ended exacerbating many of my issues. Especially my neck (pain down arm C5/6) and knee (2 microfractures and scar tissue cleanouts). I had to quit. Sometimes you have to know your limitations and be content with what we can you.

Pilates is a style of exercise. You may still be able to work with Pilates, but you'll have to find the balance between what is possible and what's beneficial. It's especially hard for us to discover this, because it's likely a moving target and what was OK yesterday may not be OK today.

(Spoken by someone who cannot find the balance either!)

Rob,

I certainly don't know enough about either your specifics or Pilates but I found my own balance with it. I believe it has done wonders for me though I still have a very far way to go.

I have individual instruction and limited my sessions to half hours only, after first trying hour sessions for 3 months. Fortunately, my studio is very willing to work with me. If it hurts, I do NOT do it. After a year, I now know how much I can push and when to rein it in. There are so many variances, if I can't do something one way, my instructors usually can find another way that works with my limitations. They also tell me I'll probably never be able to join a class and unless someone else comes in with the same specific limitations, I am on my own. It's very expensive.

Two friends tell me they don't understand why it's so difficult for me, that they don't even break a sweat. I work very hard during my half hour sessions then come home and do cardio for at least another half hour, more often longer.

My leg is still bad - my fitness level is still low - but I finally found a way to do something about it --- very slowly.

If you can't do it, you can't but at least you tried. It took me four years before I tried.

Dale

re pilates
 

Hi Rob,
I was doing a pretty simple floor routine w/a lot of core strengthening exercises for nearly several months when I decided to amp up my workout a bit and add some buttock specific exercises.

I should know better by now. Did well at first tho put myself into a huge flare up and had to take weeks off my routine just to come back to baseline.

Like Dale I'm pretty good when I find what works for me and work with that tho I find I'm not a "normie" when it comes to strength and endurance and just have to find my pace with whatever it is that I try as long as the movements aren't extraneous and/or just totally not something my bod will handle.

The upper body gets C5/6 flared up with cervical issues and lower body with L4 so I have to really work at working out and not working myself into flareups/knots.

Good luck with whatever you try. My aim is to keep as toned as I'm able, stay flexible and keep as normal range of motion as is possible for my types of injuries. Sometimes all I do is walk. Sometimes even that lightweight activity is curtailed by the tendonitis I have in both feet so then I do the floor exercises that don't involve being dependent (weight on feet).

My exercise routine is a little of this and a little of that and this and that is whatever I can tolerate and still do to stay active! I like the stability ball a lot for core exercises as well.