PILATES AND THE ELDERLY
At Pogo we have a high volume of clients that come into our clinic to attend either clinical or fitness Pilates. The age demographics of these people vary greatly from clients under ten years all the way up to people in their 70’s and 80’s. There are many proven benefits of Pilates, however I am going totalk about how Pilates is specifically beneficial to elderly clients.
Pilates can help improve you balance.
There were approximately 83,800 cases of hospitalisations due to falls from 2009-2010 by people over the age of 65. Although, to someone younger a fall may seem like a trivial event, to elderly people it can quite often be fatal. Complications such as broken hips and fractured ribs can significantly reduce and elderly individual’s mobility and capacity to perform their daily activities. This in turn can further cause atrophy of muscles and make the possibility of a full recovery even lesslikely.
Through specific exercises, Pilates can help target and strengthen the major muscles involved in stabilising an individual during movement; whether it be to bend over to pick something up off the ground or to get out of bed for example.
Pilates can help reduce pain and postural dysfunction!
A handy by product of improving your overall stability is reducing the amount of pain you are in. The muscles that you strengthen up during Pilates to help prevent you from falling also help provide stability to the joints they act upon. This means that if you suffer from pain due to age related degeneration and postural dysfunction; it can potentially help relieve that pain by stabilising the structure and ensuring that you aren’t weight bearing through those joints in a potentially asymmetrical, harmful way.
So if you wish to reduce your risk of complications due to a fall, or want to get rid of that nagging pain that makes it difficult for you to get out of bed in the morning, give Pilates at Pogo a go! We’ll assess and prescribe to you a Pilates program specific to your needs and help you through your journey every step of the way.
Alister Cran
Physiotherapist
For more details about clinical Pilates click HERE
For more details about fitness Pilates click HERE
