This is one of my favorite boxes to stand on us in detail my theory behind why with the increase of the fitness movements, there has been such a surge in injuries pertaining, especially to the back neck, shoulders, hips and knees, basically all of the joints. You can speak to any orthopedic doctor, and no, they will tell you your joints only have so many reps in a traditional weight training program. Muscles are isolated, such as chest and back day. Then the movements are repeated for three sets of 15 reps increasing weight. Not only is this dangerous this is completely not functional and how we use our body. Most movements that happen in gym outside of the squat or simple rotation movements never actually happen in real life. Take for example your average American who sits at their desk for eight hours a day then gets in their car drives home and sits on the couch for the remaining hours of the day, then to lay down and curl up to sleep. Everything that we functionally do you to sit in a chair is done with drawing the feet closer together. This includes sitting in your chair at work sitting in your car, and even sitting on the toilet most gym squats are done with a heavy amount of weight on your back with your feet more than hip distance apart this causes extreme stress to the angles of the hips, knees, and ankles, I most honestly have never seen a squat done properly coming straight out of the gym. Most people think because they can lift a lot of weight. They are strong even at the cost
Of their tissue joints and skeletal system. What happens when we age is the fascial system or the connective tissue not only is dehydrated, but often malnourished. Because of this the bodies healing time is much longer. If you notice most people that are heavy lifters cannot do this past their 40s. They will complain of hip back neck and shoulder pain to the point of enabling them to enjoy their normal life.
What I see is young kids can get away with it but only for so long, the misalignment patterns and compensation patterns that they create end up costing them and that is why in their 40s and 50s they start to have knee pain and be told that they’re going to have to have a hip knee or shoulder replacement along with back surgery. My question is why are the most fat and “healthy having the most surgeries? Is it perhaps they are working too hard the answer to that is yes.
In the professional word world, you often hear work smarter, not harder the same is true for your physical training outside of training for competitive sports in your youth, the Olympics, and perhaps specialized performance events. Most people cannot train to the same level as they did, when they’re young. This is not because I’m getting old. In fact at 45 years old I feel and move stronger than I did even in high school and college when I was competing as a runner. You’re very specific and a high-level training that looks at alignment, coacts, ovation, and proper firing of muscles to create optimal movement patterns.
I have worked with multiple high-level professional athletes from Olympic training athletes, NFL players and PGA golfers and it’s always the same. While they are very strong in the global mold, mobilizers, which are the bigger muscles and can perform the high tactile moves for the sport, the slower and more whisper like muscles that we call, the local stabilizers are often dormant or not even trained. These are the muscles inside that are responsible for joint integrity. What happens when people work out too hard is a overtrained, the bigger muscle, such as the deltoid for the shoulder capsule in the smaller rotator muscles that only respond to low wait actually gets smaller and weaker, which basically causes the shoulder joint to rot from the inside out. The same is true for the hip joint. Well people will over Trina gluteus maximus doing heavy, loaded squads the deep six muscles that hold that joint together and allow the femur to withstand the constant, heavy loads and compressive forces. The joint literally disintegrates from the inside out, causing one to need a hip replacement. The solution to these joint replacements is low load and focused form that strengthens the joints and the internal skeletal frame from the inside out. I have had countless clients that have come to me in a last ditch effort to avoid surgery and heal their body to the point that not only do they not need to have surgery they have restored function and use and live pain-free.
Not all Pilates is equal.
After 25 years of teaching Pilates , it is great to see that people are finally beginning to see know and feel the difference that Pilates makes with that sad one of the things that is most challenging for me is these overnight Pilates instructor? Teacher training. I have had, people come into my studio, saying they are a Pilates instructor not certified or teach somewhere else and after watching them, I clearly know their education and training did not give them sufficient knowledge to actually understand the heart and soul of what Pilates is about. quite honestly I think Joseph Pilates return in his grave if he saw all these people teaching Pilates how they do today. After reading, caged lion, witch discusses the birth of Pilates and its integration into society in the fitness world. After Joseph Pilates passed, was very eye-opening. Joseph Pilates created this work to heal bodies not make money in fact, that was probably the hardest part of Joseph Pilates, Work, and I can relate while being very good at healing peoples bodies and understanding movement sometimes the business side of making money is the hardest part. What is happening today is people capitalizing on the possibility and opportunity to make money off of Pilates without even having an understanding of how to do it. There are franchises out there. I want to buy people that open multiple Pilates studios that don’t even do it and don’t even understand how it works. I personally know of someone who owns 12 Pilates studios in Arizona that has never taught Pilates himself strictly in the business to make money. Then there are people like myself, and a lot of my counter parts that are in the studio 10 to 12 hours a day working on peoples bodies in teaching Pilates and helping people live different that can only spend so much time on the business of it all. Seems like that’s kind of the way it is in the business professional world just because those who market it best often times doesn’t mean they do it the best those that can actually do it the best usually aren’t the same ones that are marketing the best. Because they are spending their blood sweat and tears in it and doing the work.
Not only that, but the level of training that instructors are entering the workforce with is not only limited, but in fact, dangerous I cannot tell you how many times I have had people walk into my studio, saying they have done Pilates at other studios for years and I get them moving and I’m scared to death that they’re going to hurt themselves because they have no control or awareness to form to the point that It’s a risk for me as a business owner to the have them in a class setting. Joseph Pilates found it, and core principles were concentration, control, fluidity, and precision. What I am seeing in the trending, Pilates is fast, hard movements, without attention to form, breath, or mindful control.
