Our shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands form a mobile, complex and highly co-ordinated unit. Physios call this unit the upper limb or upper quadrant. Our upper limbs contain 30 bones, many muscles and a complex nerve network.
Our upper limbs are often subject to the most repetitive tasks, from typing to lifting, dog walking to racket sports our upper limbs work hard for us each day.
Shoulder, forearm and wrist problems disorders can be painful and limiting. We want to help you keep healthy, strong and pain free.
Can Pilates help me improve my upper limb health?
Yes! Pilates isn’t just about our spines. Just like our spines our upper body needs to have the right balance of mobility and strength to function well and be pain-free.
Physiotherapy and exercise therapy has been shown to be effective in the treatment of many upper limb disorders and injuries. Pilates can be an excellent part of this programme helping us to strengthen, mobilise, stretch and refine our neuromuscular control and co-ordination.
Pilates and the Shoulder
In our September courses, as well as our usual core strength and flexibility work, we will begin a series on keeping our shoulders healthy and happy.
Our shoulder girdle is a complex of 4 joints. The joint most of us think of as our shoulder – the glenohumeral joint is one of the most mobile in the body. Over the weeks of this term’s Pilates course, we will look at how we can help the joints, muscles and functions of our shoulder to work well.
How can Pilates help my shoulders?
Each course is a holistic programme of exercises that work our whole body and mind, your physiotherapist will develop the class programme around your needs and your goals. Below is a outline of the topics your physio might use to guide the shoulder focused bit of your session this term.
Week 1: Understand and recap the key elements of Pilates, the foundations of the Pilates method. We will also review the shoulder anatomy.
Week 2: This week in class we will be incorporating stretches that open up our chest and shoulders. Poor posture, injury and the repetitive demands of our day to day life can restrict these natural and important movements of our shoulder girdle and lead to more problems. This week we will look at ways stretches to tackle this.
Week 3: The shoulder blade or scapular is important to the mobility, stability and function of the shoulder joint. This week we will include exercises to help achieve balance across in this complex area.
Week 4: Proprioception, or the sense and control of motion, allows our movements to be co-ordinated and adapted to our activities. Find out more from your instructors this week in class.
Week 5: The muscles (and tendons) of the rotator cuff are super important in the strength, stability and function of the shoulder. This week we will be building on our strength work with some focus on these.
Week 6: Our shoulder, like any other part of our body, needs to be in balance with the muscles and joints around it. This week class will include lots of TLC for our necks and upper limb.
Week 7: When we think of weight bearing we rightly think of our lower limb. But the ability to transfer weight across our upper limbs is important too. Come and join us in class this week to discover what your shoulders can do.
Week 8: This is the last week of our little shoulder series. This week in class your instructors will be helping you put it all together. Here is to strong mobile and healthy shoulders! Remember if you feel you need a little more help ask your instructors or come and see us 1:1 for specialist assessment and treatment.