If you are a serious runner or triathlete, have you considered Pilates?
It’s more than a bit of breathing and stretching!
As I approach nearly 25 years of teaching Pilates I am aware that there is still a perception that Pilates is for women/celebrities/people that are broken/it’s really gentle - delete as applicable. Many more professional sports people use Pilates as part of their training. It’s perfect for footballers for example. The last thing they need is bulk - what they do need is mobility, flexibility and the all important core control as well as their football skills to keep them on the pitch and not the physio couch, there is a reason Cristiano Ronaldo is still playing professional football. OK maybe not the same as at his peak, but longevity and still with skills many other younger players would love to have. And for any endurance sport the same is required.
Having worked with professional sports people and clients who train hard in various disciplines I’d like to share the story of one of them who was indeed one of those sceptics who came through my door a few years ago.
Having held a challenging high profile job for many years, it was clear that their ‘retirement’ was not going to be spent on the allotment. Alongside competing in Ironman races they had also set up a new business running sporting events.
He was referred to me following a particularly nasty accident during a race. Below you can read in their own words their experience with Northants Pilates, and how they went from injury to breaking their personal best results!
And if you want help to push yourself further or give you a competitive edge, check below for private and group classes options
Meet Steve... The 1st Brit home at 2021 European TRIATHLON championship in his age group.
Ist Brit home at the 2021 European Triathlon championship.
I am a 65 year old Triathlete, twice age group national champion and have been competing internationally as part of British Triathlon’s Age Group team since 2011.
In October 2017 I was “taken out” by a fellow rider in a cyclo sportive, my assailant walked (or more accurately rode) away. I on the other hand was left with detached ligaments in my chest and back, torn tendons, displaced scapular and a series muscle tears. After a period of therapy with a very well qualified osteopath the remainder of the rehab was down to movement and very precise movement, way more that a few stretches could possibly achieve. It is worth putting in a context reminder here, rehab for me wasn’t about picking up a pen, typing or frying an egg but being able to swim, cycle and run competitively at international level half ironman triathlon. Swimming being particularly tricky given the type and range of the injuries. So my osteopath suggested Pilates and also suggested that local expert Karen Grinter was the person to talk to.
Happy to try anything I contact Karen to fix up an initial session which would also be an assessment of the injuries I had and where Pilates could help. Assuming that Pilates was a variant of yoga my expectations were not high as I was fully aware that as well as mobility, I need to build back strength and yoga style stretches on a mat wouldn’t cut it.
My assumptions about yoga were wrong but any assumption I had made about Pilates were way off, particularly after my introduction to the reformer – visually something that belongs in a medieval torture chamber – that completely reset my assumptions after about 15 minutes. I worked with Karen in weekly 121 sessions and gradually I got a sense that the strength was returning as well as the mobility and the wing I had sprouted (the shoulder blade who’s supporting ligaments had been severely damaged) in my back was beginning to return to where is should be.
By the time the season started in April 2018 I felt nearly back to fitness but skipped any early competition so when I did my first event (half ironman) in May no one was more surprised than me that I did a PB (personal best) swim split, and I put a lot of this down to the Pilates regime - so I carried on. Not only that I also stopped the weight based Strength and Conditioning I had been doing where lifting heavy weights had led to injury; the Pilates resistance style at lower load stopped this but also provided the opportunity to be more precise about areas needing strength and mobility development.
I still do it weekly, I am a very rare visitor to the physio, have set a number of new personal bests, not common in athletes over 60 and have represented GB at triathlon distance from Sprint to half iron and was 1st Brit in my age category and 6th overall at 2021 Europeans, the only international event not to be cancelled last year.
Preparing for Side Plank on the Reformer..control from core and shoulders needed for this… now where does this fit with your event?
Pilates can add so much to your training and I hope you consider what it could do for you and your PB’s. Steve hasn’t looked back since walking through our doors. So if you want to make an addition to your training, why not add a Group Reformer class, a mat class or private tuition to your training calendar? You have nothing to lose and perhaps your own PBs to gain!
For more information about our timetable and class descriptions, click here. All our classes have limited numbers, we are pretty hands on and we want to give everyone in our classes as much feedback about their movements and alignment as we can. We know that this approach gives results and our high client retention shows this works - a great experience for the teachers and everyone in class. There is a reason we have been running classes for nearly 25 years now.