‘Being young isn’t about age; it’s about being a free spirit,’ Twiggy famously said. Well, amen, sister. But we do have one proviso: as anyone who’s ever slept at a strange angle or weeded without paying due respect to their lumber region will tell you, it’s hard to be a free spirit when your back’s giving you jip.
The model, actress, singer and so-called ‘face of 1966’ is not, as it turns out, unaware of this. As she revealed in an interview last year, around a decade ago she, too, hurt her back. ‘I was going to a therapist about it and he said I should start Pilates to build up my core,’ she said. ‘It’s turned my life around. I recommend it to anyone over 40.’
She now practises Pilates once a week and new research suggests she’s on to something.
Back pain – the facts
Lower back pain will affect around 80% of us at one point or another, according to the NHS. Fewer than one per cent of those cases will require urgent medical care, thank goodness. Still, niggling aches can have a very real impact on your quality of life, tempting you to retreat to the safety of the sofa. Unfairly, this can actually make things worse.
‘It’s important to keep active,’ say the experts at Guys and St Thomas’ hospital. ‘Keeping as active as possible can help you to recover and do the things that are important to you.’ There’s an important qualification here: ‘If exercise causes pain that you cannot tolerate, you need to pace your activity.’ See a doctor and, ideally, a physiotherapist, who can guide your exercise routine carefully.
If you can exercise, what form is best?
The evidence for Pilates
This summer, a clinical study found that Pilates-based core training resulted in a significant reduction in back pain after just four weeks. The study’s participants also improved their core stability and posture. Why? The study suggested that the exercise was activating deep support muscles and reducing mechanical stress on their spinal structures.
Importantly, these were people who experienced non-specific chronic low back pain, not those with disc herniation, spinal stenosis or degenerative conditions, who might require a different and specific treatment path. But since Pilates involves low-impact movements, those experiencing more generic aches and pains can often keep up Pilates practice and benefit from it.
Pilates for beginners
‘Pilates improves strength, balance and mobility and it gives you time to practise moving with control,’ explains Good Housekeeping’s fitness expert Kim Hawley. ‘Plus, it’s low-impact and, in particular with beginner routines, without the cardio work that some people find uncomfortable. So, it has really has massive appeal. For people with persistent, non-specific low-back pain, Pilates can really come into its own.’ The key, she says, lies in understanding exactly what Pilates is doing for your body and where it fits alongside other forms of exercise.
How Pilates can support your back
Your ‘core’ is about much more than just your abs, Kim explains: ‘It’s a group of muscles that wrap around your midsection, working together to support and move your spine and pelvis.’ These include the deep abdominal muscles, the muscles along your back, pelvic floor and even your glutes, which help control your hips and pelvis. All of these influence how your body moves – and that’s where Pilates comes in.
‘Pilates uses controlled movement and breathing to help you practise coordinating these muscles, improving core strength and control, as well as your confidence moving through positions that may have started to feel uncomfortable,’ says Kim, stressing that back pain can make people wary of moving, bending, stretching or getting down to the floor, which only exacerbates the issue.
What Pilates can’t do…
It sounds like magic and, for some, including Twiggy, it can be. But I hate to be the one to say it… Pilates is not a magic pill. It can’t replace all your other forms of exercise.
As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass and strength (around 3% to 8% of muscle mass per decade from around the age of 30 for women). This age-related muscle loss (called sarcopenia) often accelerates to roughly 5% to 10% per decade after around the age of 50, sometimes making everyday tasks harder and increasing the risk of falls, which in turn causes a loss of independence and further decline. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Pilates will help counter that process, but the other vital element is, of course, strength training.
‘Pilates and strength training can overlap, but they don’t challenge the body in the same way,’ says Kim. ‘Strength training using weights, bands, machines or just your own bodyweight and progressively increases the challenge placed on muscles. As you adapt, the challenge needs to increase. That progressive resistance is important for building strength and helping maintain muscle as we age.’
So, pick up your weights alongside a Pilates habit and – fingers crossed – feel like a free spirit again.