Perhaps the best known mass-market exercise brand now crossing into spine care is Pilates. Borrowing from traditions like Yoga, Joseph Pilates developed his “philosophy” in the 1930’s. These ancient exercises were re-branded for a Western audience. In the intervening decades and especially in the past decade, pilates has achieved commercial success in the U.S. Many of these exercises provide excellent and appropriate training and conditioning for spine fitness and prevention; these types of exercises have been administered under the name of pilates or yoga or others, for decades by physical therapy spine specialists. PacificaSpine provides these types of exercises, under the supervision of a medical professional, in our offices for appropriate patients.
A word of caution is in order for the neck or back pain sufferer. While these types of exercises may be reasonable for the healthy individual, their generalized application to the neck or back pain sufferer is concerning. These exercises are challenging and safety requires attention to very specific details of technique.
Dr. Mark Simonson, non-surgical spine specialist, founder/inventor of the world leading Cybex Fitness Systems, and Medical Director of PacificaSpine, illustrates this as follows: “I am no stranger to core exercise. I started commercial core exercises classes to personally experience the kind of program my patients might encounter. And during the second session, I hurt my back. I attribute it to my improper technique with these exercises that are actually quite sophisticated in application. I was fine within a week or two…but it was an example of the risks associated with a mass-market approach to the spine.”
If you are a neck or back pain sufferer looking for a neuro-muscular or core exercise program – which we fully support – we recommend you:
Seek a Professional provider with medical, osteopathic, or chiropractic credentials. A degree in physical education, biomechanics, kinesiology, exercise physiology does not substitute for medical knowledge.
Look for a provider covered by insurance. Despite criticisms, insurance companies typically do cover reasonable care – in the long run, it saves them money. If they do not cover a certain “provider” or mode of treatment, there is probably a reason for this.
For more information on finding and selecting quality health care, click here.
Need
more information on back and neck pain? Click the above link to view resource books on spine problems. Find out what causes
back pain, what causes neck pain, and when to see the doctor.
Treating back and neck pain sufferers from across Ventura County, including patients from City of Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Ventura, Camarillo and Ojai.
