Pain In The Neck!

by: AndreaDow
Total views: 486
Word Count: 345

Monday, April 28th

Have you ever suffered from neck pain during your Pilates practice? I hear clients and instructors talking about their neck pain, especially during the abdominal series, all the time! At Power Pilates, we believe that you must move to heal the body and work your muscles in order to strengthen them. We encourage clients to keep their head up as much as possible during Pilates exercises, but to rest the head on the mat when necessary. Besides this basic approach, strength training a few key areas of the upper back, may result in some dramatic pain reduction according to IDEA Fitness Journal.

I was not surprised to read that neck pain is now the 2nd most common musculoskeletal disorder followed by back pain according to an article in Arthritis and Rheumatism. It also seems that women are more likely to have neck pain compared to men. A recent study looked at 42 women from Germany that were all experiencing tightness and tenderness around the trapezius muscle. The women were split into a strength training group (they met 3 times a week for 20 minutes), a general fitness training group and a health counseling group for 10 weeks. The exercises performed by the strength training group using dumbbells as resistance were a one-arm row, shoulder abduction, shoulder elevation, reverse fly and upright row. The group fitness crew worked out on a bicycle ergometer (also for 3 times a week for 20 minutes) while the education group met 1 hour a week and spent time discussing diet, heath, relaxation and stress management.

The results? The education group saw no improvement, the group fitness crew saw improvements during exercise that did not last beyond the exercise session and the strength training group saw the most improvements. Those strength training had a significant decrease in long-term pain (79% decrease in pain from baseline) and improved shoulder strength by 28%. Talk with your doctor and training about incorporating some of these exercises into your routine. You could see dramatic improvements in just a short period of time!

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