Pilates: It’s What Stressed Men Need!
After a happy hour training a husband and wife team (let’s call them Janet and John) this morning, I left frustrated that more men haven’t embraced our amazing method of fitness training. John is a prime example of the progress that can be made in just six months.
Perhaps the answer why men are reluctant to try Pilates is in the first comment John made on Day One. He shuffled his bare feet self-consciously and muttered: “You need to know this isn’t my idea. Pilates is a bit girly, isn’t it?”
Well…! Where do we start putting that misconception to rights? For one, the method was developed by a cigar-smoking (not a required habit) man who was a boxer and wrestler. An Austrian, Joseph Pilates began his work when he was interned in a British prison of war camp during World War 1. He developed his mat exercises to help fellow inmates stay fit in an unhealthy environment and began developing his unique apparatus to rehabilitate injured soldiers. It was all about men then, in very tough conditions.
Nowadays, Pilates is the go-to exercise method for elite athletes like tennis-players, golfers and footballers. But let’s forget about them and focus on men living everyday lives and encountering everyday health problems, like John.
He’s in his late 50s. When we started worked together, he was overweight, had high blood pressure and chronic back pain. His leg joints were grumbling, and he complained of frequent heart burn and stomach acidity.
He’s still overweight but promises he’s dealing with it. Despite the continued strain that his weight puts on his back and his joints, he hasn’t ‘put his back out’ for months and reports that his knees and hips are less painful. His heart burn and acidity are things of the past. His blood pressure is beginning to drop.
He swears it’s all down to our twice-weekly Pilates sessions. Who am I to disagree?
So, how did we make such a difference?
First and foremost, I must give John all the credit. He worked hard. Very hard. A typical stressed-out, desk-bound businessman, he hadn’t done any exercise for years and was shockingly unfit. When you’re fit, exercise is fun; sadly, getting fit is often painful, demoralising and frustrating. I’m not surprised he’s a successful man – having put his mind to getting fit, he gave it 110 per cent and pushed through the initial discomfort to achieve his goals. Janet is fit, has great body awareness and no underlying aches and pains – the ease with which she tackled their shared workouts didn’t help his self-esteem at all!
Each session we did was designed to work all the major muscle groups in the body, with special emphasis on his problem areas.
We strengthened core muscles. John’s back really needs break from the weight he’s carrying but, in the meantime, newly strengthened core muscles are providing vital support. To start with, he struggled with basic chest lifts. He’s can now do a perfect roll up and nails some tough ab routines.
Hip flexors (Iliopsoas and quads) were next on the list. John spends most of his life sitting, whether at a desk, in his car, or in front of the telly. No surprise his hip flexors were shortened and weak. (Hip flexors are fixed between lower spine and upper thigh. When they’re weak and shortened, they tug on your spinal column and cause back pain. And a shortened psoas is one of the main causes of sciatica.) We devoted time to stretching and strengthening hip flexors, and John has a set of stretches to do when he’s been sitting for ages.
The indigestion thing… Joseph Pilates was obsessed with breathing properly and standing up straight. He said: “Never slouch, as doing so compresses the lungs, overcrowds other vital organs, rounds the back and throws you off balance.”
Adopting good posture can reduce pressure on your vital organs so they can go about their work in an uncrowded, happy space … good bye indigestion.
(As an aside, compressing the lungs means your breathing is likely to be shallow and laboured, so you deny yourself big lungfuls of life-giving, calming oxygen.)
And finally, John’s leg joints. To be honest, the thing he needs to do most is lose weight. If he doesn’t, he will probably be a candidate for hip and/or knee replacements in five or ten years time. While he finds the motivation to deal with his weight, we’re working on strengthening the muscle around the struggling joints.
In our Pilates sessions, I use therabands and ankle weights to add a load-bearing element to target those muscles.
Once muscle tone improved, I encouraged him to start cycling again. Apparently, he used to cycle with his kids but they’ve grown up and moved out so his bike had gathered dust in the garage.
His first thought was to get an indoor exercise bike but I persuaded him that outdoor exercise has the added features of sunshine, fresh air, social interaction so lots of extra stress-busting endorphins. He and Janet now take a spin around the neighbourhood most Sundays. They have no wish to do endurance cycling but the hour or so they do a week is making a difference, probably the major contributor to lowering his blood pressure.
If a man in your life is being crippled by his work, point him in the direction of the nearest Pilates studio. And go along with him – in another article I’ll write about the motivational benefits of people working in twos and threes.
* If you have recently suffered illness, sugery or illness, or have a chronic or degenerative condition, consult your doctor, surgeon or physiotherapist before exercising. Pilates instructors do not hold medical qualifications and cannot advise on serious illness or injury.
