Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
PILATES CAN HELP WITH MANAGING PAIN
Cynthia McMullin of Exton, Chester County, had hip problems for 10 years before finally getting to the root of her issues four years ago. Along the way, her normal physical functioning was jeopardized, and she had to give up playing golf.
Despite seeking medical care, her issues continued to get worse.
“The biggest thing is I wasn’t able to walk very well,” said McMullin, who is in her early 70s. “I had been to an orthopedist, two chiropractors, two PTs (physical therapists), and I had another trainer, and nobody seemed to be helping me.”
One day her daughter suggested something she hadn’t considered.
“She said, ‘Why don’t you try some Pilates to get to the heart of what’s going on — that has always helped me,’” McMullin recalled of their conversation.
It wasn’t long before she headed to BodEmotion Pilates and Therapeutic Fitness studio in Chester Springs to get an assessment by Andrea Littlewood, the owner and primary instructor.
“As soon as she finished, she told me off the bat that I had a hip problem,” McMullin said. “All these people (I went to see in the past) never identified that as a problem, and I just kept getting worse.”
Littlewood told McMullin she could tell it was the issue by the way she was walking.
“When she walked in the door waddling, I could tell she needed a hip replacement,” Littlewood said.
Diagnosing the problem When McMullin began work
ing with Littlewood after her assessment, Littlewood brought in a physical therapist to diagnose the hip problem.
“That led to two hip replacements six months later,” said McMullin, adding she was officially diagnosed with osteoarthritis.
Four months after her surgeries, she was back to working with Littlewood twice a week for private Pilates training.
“She is always working with me with walking and balance and my core and the rest of me,” McMullin said. “She got me back playing golf, so that has been wonderful.”
Three years later, McMullin said she has been able to resume doing many things she was no longer able to do.
“I feel really great — I have energy and I’ve gotten some of my life back,” she said. “Now I can walk really well and I’m playing golf again. It got me more into exercising, and I structure my life around it and it’s a part of my life now.”
Those 60 and older, like McMullin, represent 60 to 70% of Littlewood’s clientele, and it’s not uncommon for them to come in sharing that they their backs, hips, feet or shoulders hurt.
Littlwood said that her interest in working with this age group is partly personal given the experiences she’s going through with her own body.
“I’m 57, about to be 58, and I’m very healthy, athletic and fit, and my intention is to keep that strength as I age,” Littlewood said. “I have personal interest in working with this age group as well as this being a huge part of the population right now.”
The Pilates instruction Littlewood offers isn’t like the style of Pilates you might find at a fitness club where individualization and customization aren’t usually a part of the equation.
“I assess every client before I work with them; it’s a customized approach,” she said. “If you have pain somewhere, and I give you club-like Pilates, you could be worse.”
Littlewood’s full functional assessment includes the hips, ankles, knees and shoulders. She observes how all of the major joints in a client’s body are moving or not moving. If Littlewood believes you might have a medical condition, she will send you to a physical therapist to get evaluated before working with her, as she did with McMullin.
“I do pain provocation tests to see if they are in normal range,” she said. “That’s a huge part of pain management in an aging population — it’s the ankle they sprained when they were 20 years old and never rehabbed it.”
She explained that lack of proper rehab for past injuries is what can lead to pain down the road.
“The older population has more decades of injury behind them,” Littlewood said. “With each injury that wasn’t quite integrated, they are going to have a shift in the body, which leads to chronic compensation before chronic pain.”
Littlewood said one of her goals is to try to catch issues in the chronic compensation stage before the pain becomes chronic. A therapeutic approach to Pilates can address these past issues properly and enable you to regain functionality in your everyday life.
“It’s bringing back functional human movements that maybe were lost in injuries across our lifespan,” Littlewood said.
She described our bodies as “kinetic chains,” where everything is connected.
“The assessment gives me an idea of what exercises are going to make you feel bad or worse, and which ones are going to actually open up the whole chain so all the joints work together in alignment,” she said.
If you go years without getting to the root of your physical ailments, Littlewood said that by the time you hit age 70 everything will hurt. That is why she emphasized that it’s best not to put off addressing issues.
“Address it now so that you can live your later years without pain,” she said.
Overall, Littlewood said that almost all clients in the 60 and older bracket come to her with a weak core, which impacts balance.
“As we age, we lose balance since we have ignored our feet, ankles and don’t have much of a core,” she said. “I work on that balance and foot-to-core integration with everybody.”
When it comes to starting classes with Littlewood after she is familiar with your body, she offers the option of either one-on-one sessions or small groups classes of up to three people.
“We work on the reformer, low chair, tower and mat,” she said.
After working with a client, Littlewood gives them three movement strategies to continue the work by doing it at home or at the gym until she sees them for their next session.
Littlewood finds the clients that are most successful are those who are interested in how their body works, which brings them into a greater awareness when they are doing physical tasks in their daily life. She hopes for all of her clients to gain this awareness.
“I want people to become fascinated with how their body works and be educated and have a greater understanding,” she said, “and be less focused on how their body looks.”
Littlwood said that anyone of any age is capable of getting stronger. She shared her hopes for her clients, which is an underlying motivation behind her work.
“I want them to feel strong and capable and feel their body more, and their awareness of their body and how it moves and make them feel they are in control again,” she said.