My Pilates Journey
Around 5 years ago, I badly injured my back and it affected my life drastically. I had chronic pain (for around 2 years), which was only relieved by strong painkillers. The pain consumed my life, it was all I could think about, talk about, and made me physically and mentally fatigued. My GP told me that it was something I might have to ‘live with’ and that I should no longer lift heavy weights at the gym or run (which was a really big love of mine). I tried physios, chiropractors, osteopaths, all which provided temporary relief, but the pain would eventually come back and leave me feeling like I had zero autonomy in my healing, like I was a prisoner in my own body.
Most practitioners told me was that I was extremely stiff and should probably ‘stretch and strengthen my core’. I didn’t really know what this meant, but I found a ‘daily stretch routine’ video on YouTube and went with it. The first picture you see is of me trying to touch my toes after having done that video every day for a month! I was extremely proud of myself as I could nearly reach the floor. Unfortunately though, I found my back pain had not subsided at all and sometimes it would even be worse after completing the video.
That’s when I decided to try Pilates. It was very tough at first, but I noticed my back felt a tiny bit better after each session, and I learnt more about body awareness, breathing, and anatomy. It only provided temporary relief at first, but that was enough to keep me practicing consistently. With patience and time, my pain started to become less prominent, less consuming, and as I sit here today, I have zero pain at all. I can only speak from an anecdotal experience, but I truly believe Pilates healed me. I overcame my injury, I got stronger, I kept learning, I became more flexible and curious about how ‘limitless’ my body could be (which eventually led to a discovery of contortion).
More than anything it made me want to reach as many people through movement and help them to not give up and keep trying. As Joseph Pilates said : ‘change happens through movement, and movement heals’