Pilates fights cancer

 It’s no secret that exercise can help prevent disease. What is new is that certain physical activities, as Pilates, can help prevent and even overcome some types of cancer.  

Practicing relaxed sports help both prevent and cope with cancer as well as keep a good health condition once it’s overcome.  Pilates and yoga teach you how to breathe and relax so as to prevent the stress caused by cancer, the uncertainty of exam results, and the emotional changes it produces.

For women with breast cancer it’s highly recommended the practice of Pilates because it increases flexibility and elasticity of tissues, and prevents patients develop other conditions such as osteoporosis.

Pilates exercises help improve muscle tone that results damaged by certain aggressive cancer treatments. Muscle endurance exercises benefit bone density and have been proven to improve life quality of cancer patients and people with limited mobility.  

When practicing Pilates, cancer patients can use the aid of fitness complements such as fitness balls, medicine balls, rubber bands, and dumbbells.

For men with prostate cancer, experts advice low intensity workout that helps decrease the collateral effects as overweight and depressive mood. Elliptical machines are perfect of this case; they work out legs, arms and the rest of the body with a rhythm close to running but with a minimum acceptable impact.

Pilates exercises for pregnant women

There are over 500 hundreds Pilates exercises, but a mom-to-be only needs around 5 of them to get their physique and mind ready for labor.

Before you decide to take Pilates exercises, make sure to visit your doctor first for getting his approval, since pregnancy factors, as well as your age, health and fitness level will affect your exercise routine.


Highly recommended Pilates exercises for pregnant women:

Swimming. Pull your belly toward your spine and keep the back of your neck straight and aligned with it. Extend your right arm forward and step your left leg back so they are both parallel with the floor.

Hold for a few breaths then switch sides. Repeat 3 more times.

1. Squatting. Hold with each hand 3 to 5 pound weights and place your back 8 to 10 inches away from a wall, with your feet extended hip-width. Bend you knees keeping your head and back aligned with the wall until you are in a sitting down position.

Take a deep breath that fills your ribcage, avoiding lifting your shoulders. Do 4 bicep curls, and then 4 presses above your head. Get up keeping neck and back straight. Repeat 2 more times.

2. Knee folds on an incline. Lie on your back inclined over a pillow wedge (preferably) or a pile of pillows. Bend your knees and keep and feet touching the floor. Lift your right leg so to make a 90 degree angle with your calf. Return to the initial position without shifting hip weight.

3. Switch legs. Repeat 4 more times.

Tip: Do Kegel exercises while lifting your knee (tighten up the urinating muscles).

4. The hundred. Lie on your back, knees bent and calves parallel to the floor. Lift your extended arms one inch off the floor. Curl your head forward and lift off your shoulders slightly, and pull your belly toward your spine.

Pump your extended arms up and down as you were hitting the air while taking 5 nose breaths, each one followed by 5 mouth exhales.

Take your head, shoulder s and arms down. Repeat 9 more times.

5. Spine stretch against the wall. Sit on the floor with your back against the wall (there must be space at your lower back and neck), legs straight and extended hip-width. Bring your arms forward at your shoulders’ level, parallel to the floor.

Inhale deep enough to lift your rib (but not your shoulder) off your hips. Exhale as you take your head first and then your back off the wall. You have to feel how each of your neck vertebrae rolls away from the wall.

Inhale and exhale again to get back (one vertebrae at a time) to the start position. Repeat 4 more times.

Pilates exercises for joint pain

As we saw on a previous post on Pilates for arthritis pain, the way Pilates can benefit your joint condition can be resumed this way:

Stronger muscles ---> Less pressure on joints ---> Less pain

Now let’s se what Pilates workouts are appropriate for each type of joint pain conditions:

• Hip joint pain exercises: Pilates leg circles help stabilizing the pelvis, and lubricating the hip joint while stretching and strengthening the hip and upper leg muscles.

• Shoulder joint pain exercises: scapular protraction and retraction exercises are great exercises to stabilize shoulder joint.

• Wrist joint pain exercices: Wrist/finger curls help strengthen the wrist and increase finger dexterity by the use of dumbbells or weighted balls.
  

• Knee joint pain exercises: Eve’s lunge on Pilates Reformer stretch and strengthen muscles surrounding the knee joint. In case you do not have a Reformer machine you can do leg extensions with a small soft ball.

Source: Search Warp

Pilates exercises: Part I

Here we present you some Pilates exercise you can practice with a regularity of twice a week:

Remember that the most important thing of these exercises program is to perform them slowly for their correct realization, taking care of coordinating them rhythmically with the breathings.

Diaphragm breathing exercise

Inhale deeply through the nose and exhale slowly through the mouth with lips firmly closed at the same time you are doing the movement (effort). In some exercises, one inhalation is not enough; each person has to adapt her respiration in such a way of not getting fatigue. It would be nice if you play some background music as Gregorian chants that have the perfect rhythm –nor fats, nor so slow- that go perfectly with the exercise and giving you a sensation of great peaces and self-comfort.

A good alignment is essential. Always watch that your column is well aligned.
When it is a good weather you may perform the exercise outdoors, and in some cases with oxygen supply.

Standing up, with the feet together and the arms hanging on each side of the body, start three deep breathings. Inhale through your nose, elevating both arms by the sides until getting both hands together above your head. Stretch your body. Return to the initial position. Slowly. Release at the same time the air through your mouth (as blowing up a candle).

When moving your arms and hands try to make soft movements, esthetic, as in ballet. Don’t stay rigid. When lifting up and moving the legs, do it with the toes downwards to stretch them more.

The Pilates exercise program will allow us, with discipline, to shape and strength our muscles that will enable us to move with more agility and have more physical resistance.