Physiotherapy and Pilates classes

Physical therapy and Pilates have a lot in common and are a great way to treat joint pain and muscle problems. If you’ve ever broken an ankle or other bone, or sprained a joint in any way, chances are you’ve been referred to a physical therapist. Here you will have had your joint manipulated and massaged and probably given a variety of different exercises to do in order to strengthen the muscle and loosen the joint and tendons.

On the other hand, if you’ve ever been to pilates, chances are you’ve experienced many of the same things. Here you will be instructed to perform various exercises during class as your instructor demonstrates them in front of the class, many of these will have been testing your muscles and training your core, thighs, glutes and more. can help give you a great toned and firm physique. At the same time, you’ve likely been taught how to stretch properly and exercise, and your balance and flexibility will improve as a result. Just like physical therapy, you will also be encouraged to train with these exercises at home to keep your muscle toned and improve your posture and other aspects of the problem.

All of this works because injuring the joint in this way actually causes much more extensive damage than just the bone or tendon and can have repercussions throughout the body. For example, if you sprain your ankle, this can leave you with a chipped bone or damaged tendon and you’ll likely have a lot of swelling and other things to deal with. This can have other effects on your body: first, you’ll likely start to limp to try to compensate for your swollen ankle, and this will mean you’ll start walking with poor posture. This in turn may mean that your muscle was developed more in one leg than the other and that it was worn out on the side with the damaged ankle.

At the same time, when you’re limping, you’ll be using your good leg in different ways than you normally would: your posture will be incorrect, and the weight will come down in a different way. On its own, this can cause a stress fracture in that leg over time, but it can also cause the muscles to develop unusually on that side to accommodate this. So this could mean that you start to find that your quads are stronger than your hamstrings, for example, and this can put uneven pressure on your spine, damaging the rest of your posture and causing back pain.

Your weaker ankle will now also be less easy to balance and weaker and that means you are much more prone to future injury unless you brace yourself and it is not uncommon to find that you end up damaging this area over and over again.

Therefore, any exercise that addresses the issues should focus on strengthening muscles, improving balance, aiding flexibility, and generally improving all aspects of the ankle.