What Happens After An Injury

When an area of the body gets injured, the local stabilizing muscles turn off to allow healing. Now that these deep muscles are not doing their job of stabilization, the larger more superficial muscles will take over a job that’s not really theirs. Once the acute injury phase has passed, the deep small muscles have to be reawakened in a gentle way to give the superficial ones their deserved break after helping out. If this re-education training of the stabilizer muscles doesn’t happen (in form of physical therapy or Pre-Pilates exercises) the compensatory movement pattern continues and when repeated over many years becomes unhealthy.

Inside the Pilates Encyclopedia membership, we have a whole chapter called “Special Populations” in which we list appropriate exercises for injuries and pathologies.