Pilates question

[JudyJulie]

I have been doing a weekly Pilates class locally for three years now, with varying degrees of success, depending on the teacher.

This morning, we had a different teacher who told us she had 18 years' experience. She specifically asked if anyone in the class had osteoporosis or osteopaenia. I said that I do, and she advised me that I should not do any exercises involving rotating or curling my spine.

I explained that I had been doing Pilates for three years and had never been told that before, at which point she shrugged, said "Well, do what you want then" and basically ignored me for the rest of the class.

I have no symptoms, my condition is stable and I have never had a problem as a result of attending a Pilates class.

Is she right? Does anyone know? I feel slightly nervous now that maybe I shouldn't have trusted the other teachers.

I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis just over a year ago (severe enough to require medication).

I saw a physio for advice on appropriate exercise and I would say she is correct.

I was told to it is extremely important to avoid flexion (rounding) of the back in order to avoid compression fractures. Keep the back flat / neutral at all times eg NO crunches or bending forward/rolling down of the spine.

Gentle twisting at the waist is fine but NO twisting with weights.

Also some lifting movements are dangerous, the example I was given was leaning in to a car to put a child in a car seat i.e weighted / rounding of the spine.

Not sure I have explained too well but in summary I would take her advice on board.

I teach Pilates and what she says is what we are taught.

There is loads of info online.

People with osteoporosis should avoid Pilates exercises that involve forward-bending, rolling, or twisting the spine:

Forward-bending: Chest Lift, Criss Cross, Single Leg Stretch, and the Hundred

Loaded flexion: Rolling Like a Ball, Seal, Roll Over, and Open Leg Rocker

Twisting: Spine Twist, Saw, and excessive twisting

Lateral flexion: Exercises that combine lateral flexion (side bending), flexion, and rotation

Crumbs! That's most of what we do in class!

It feels a bit poor that no-one had mentioned this previously.

Not sure what to do now.

She was technically right, but her attitude was appalling - she should have been shocked at the previous poor teachers, not dismissive of you!

Are these dedicated Pilates places or classes at a general gym? I've found the latter tend to be less rigorous, and too large for proper attention.

I'd strongly recommend a 1 to 1 session with a teacher with high-level qualifications, to check what is safe for you, before you do any more group classes.

[If you happen to be in NI I'm happy to recommend mine, who is qualified to not only teach but to teach teachers and has done a lot of specialist training in various medical conditions.]

What she should have done was adapted each exercise - a lot are safe with minor modifications - or given you alternatives.

I have osteopenia (not reached osteoporosis yet) and I have lower back problems and went to a physio for a few weeks. He recommended yoga for stretching the back muscles. I have been going for 4/5 months and all is going well so far - I do a lot of cat & cow stretches, happy baby etc. Yoga classes do lots of bending, twisting and stretching of the spine - is this to be avoided

@chcherrytree12345 I was told to avoid the cat part of cat / cow. You can dip / hollow your spine but NOT flex / round it.

You can absolutely bend at the waist, the important thing is to keep your spine straight (I was told to treat my spine like a log!). Most movements / exercises can be adapted but some should be avoided altogether eg crunches.

There are some good pilates for osteoporosis videos on You Tube. I did Pilates classes for a while and the instructor was helpful when I spoke to her but there were too many movements that I had to adapt, and some I couldn't risk at all, that the class just didn't work for me. My last night there felt like everything she did involved flexing / rolling down of the spine so really not worth it for me!