Hawksland Physiotherapy News

Evening Appointments on Thursdays

From Thursday 17th November Ros will be offering evening appointments from 5.30 to 8pm. This service will be available every Thursday. Please call for an appointment.

We are delighted that Stella is back, working Mondays and Thursdays 9.30 to 3.30

Pilates News

Hawksland Physiotherapy Centre currently runs 2 Pilates Classes per week at St Issey Village Hall on Monday mornings at 10.30am till 11.30am and Wednesday evenings at 6pm till 7pm. These are both run by Ros Boisseau and are suitable for beginners and intermediate. Both session prices are £5

Mats are provided at both classes, all you need is a towel to fold as a head cushion and loose fitting clothing.

Please contact us for a chat about Pilates as you may need a one to one session before starting in a class.

For further details and to chat about your needs please phone Ros or Stella on 01208-813199 or visit our website www.hawkslandphysiotherapy.co.uk.

Pilates. Safe Exercise for Every Body

What is Pilates and how will it benefit me?

Pilates exercises are a system of exercises developed by Joseph Humbertus Pilates who was born in Germany in 1880. He was a sickly boy but studied yoga, meditation and ancient Greek and Roman exercise regimes, and by his teens he was excelling in skiing, diving and gymnastics.

He moved to England and when war broke out he was interned as a POW. He was trained as a ward orderly in the hospital where he devised a series of graduated exercises. Joe's patients started to get better more quickly than others who were on bed rest only. The doctors endorsed his work and he progressed his exercises using spring resistance made from old hospital beds!

His physical fitness regimes are said to have prevented he and his fellow prisoners from succumbing to the influenza which killed thousand of POW's.

After the war Joe returned briefly to Germany before emigrating to the USA. He and his wife opened "The Pilates Studio" in New York. They developed a large following in the ballet and dance world. A number of their students opened studios to teach the method.

Today the Pilates legacy continues to endure and benefit thousands of people around the world. The method is essentially a mind-body controlling techniques that emphasize the importance of beginning movement from a central core of stability – the lumbar-pelvic region. This is the origin of the term "core stability" which we hear a lot about today.

Joe Pilates believed that injuries were caused by imbalance in the body and habitual patterns of movement and that people often compensate for problems in one area by overworking another.

Modern Physiotherapy techniques and current research on recurrent low back pain show that Pilates was well ahead of the field in his thinking.

It has been clinically proven that by specifically strengthening and rehabilitating core stability and muscle and joint function in the lumbar spine, it is possible to reduce the recurrence of lower back pain by up to 50%. To anyone who suffers from lower back pain this is a statistic which is hugely significant. It should encourage anyone with lower back pain to invest some time in regular Pilates based exercise.

What better way to start than book into a class run by Chartered Physiotherapists, registered with the institution of the Australian Physiotherapy and Pilates Institute, teaching modified Pilates, safe exercises graduated to your needs.