Are you a sloucher? Do you have a tendency to sleep on your stomach? You may find that these things heavily impact your natural posture.

Throw in a desk job, a lot of sitting, and even a little bit of aging, and it’s a recipe for disaster on your body! You could already be feeling the effects without even realizing it!

Posture is not fixed overnight, nor is it made worse overnight. But if you’re feeling these signs, it could be time to fix it. Pilates and good posture go hand-in-hand, so here’s what to watch out for and how to feel better inside and out.

Anterior Pelvic Tilt

Let’s start in the middle. When your pelvis rotates forward (anterior pelvic tilt) it can cause your spine to curve excessively. As well as wreaking havoc on your posture, this can be a common cause of low back, hip, and knee pain.

Common for those in desk jobs, the main sign of anterior pelvic tilt to watch for is having tight hip flexor...

If you’ve ever found yourself suffering from some form of back pain, you are certainly not alone.

In industrialized countries, there are 60-70% incidence rate for non-specific low back pain according to World Health Organization. For many, they may feel that their back pain resolves itself for a short while, only to return again. For others, masking the pain with medications seems like the only option. But did you know that movement might just be your answer?

What Causes Low Back Pain?

In acute cases, meaning there is a new injury, the body will try to protect itself by starting an inflammatory process. Let’s use the ankle joint as an example. If you sprain your ankle out on a run, you’ll notice that it gets hot and swells up. This inflammation limits the movement you have in your ankle for a short period of time as a natural protection mechanism. As healing begins, the swelling goes down allowing you to gain motion back and walk without limping. But...

“My hamstrings are so tight” is one of the most common complaints we hear from clients.

It is estimated that Americans spend an average of 12 hours per day sitting. With the amount of time most people remain sedentary rising every year it is no wonder more and more people are suffering from stiff and achy leg muscles.  We have had great results with clients practicing Pilates for tight hamstrings.

The Problem with Tight Hamstrings:

The hamstring muscle group is comprised of three long muscles that run from your pelvis behind your leg and attach to your shin bone below your knee. Their primary action is to bend the knee, but they also extend the hip as well.

Because of their attachment to the pelvis, hamstring tightness is commonly linked to low back pain. If they pull at their insertion site at the knee they can also cause knee pain.

How Pilates Can Help Tight Hamstrings:

While basic hamstring stretches often do little to...

Studies suggest that approximately one in two women and up to one in four men age 50 and older will break a bone due to osteoporosis, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

With over 50 million Americans suffering from low bone mass it is no wonder treating osteoporosis successfully has been at the forefront of the medical community over the last 5 years. One of the most common questions I get from new clients is “Does Pilates help with Osteoporosis?” There are quite a few Pilates exercises that specifically help with Osteoporosis!

If you have been diagnosed with low bone density or know someone who has you’ve probably heard that weight-bearing exercises — such as walking — can help reduce the risk of a broken bone when you have osteoporosis. But you shouldn’t overlook Pilates as a potential bone-stimulating regimen for those needing to boost their bone density.

What Type of Pilates is Best?

Not just any...

Marilyn is an amazing woman and a great client. 

She is 85 years young and has been taking Pilates with me for five years.  With her positive  “can do” attitude she is very inspiring to all in the class.  She always has a smile on her face when she walks into the Studio.  We sat down to talk about her Pilates experience and I asked her the following questions.

1-How often do  you take Pilates?

” I do Pilates three times a week.”

2-What is your favorite Pilates exercise?

“My favorite exercises  are anything that involves stretching or intense abdominal work.”

3-What advice would you give someone just starting Pilates?

“To take a class or private session with Genine.  She is very good at explaining and modifying exercises.  She is always in an “up mood” so she motivates you to do more.  She also assists you if you are having trouble with a certain Pilates...

Lately, I have been working with many golfers who are finding that Pilates has greatly improved their strength and flexibility and as a result, increased their golf score.

Pilates exercises can not only improve your golf game, but they can also help keep you free of injury. Performing pilates exercises regularly will improve your abdominal strength, alignment, balance, coordination and posture.

How is Pilates especially beneficial to golfers as well as to all those involved in other rotational sports such as tennis? Developed by Joseph Pilates, Pilates is a movement methodology that revolves around principles of control, breath, centering, precision concentration and flow. The exercises are core-based, which means that all of them require the active participation of your abdominal muscles, your back muscles, and often your gluteal muscles. In Pilates, you use your own body weight to develop strength and flexibility, particularly in your core and deep stabilizing muscles. In...

Everyone has their muscle problem spots that just seem to need a little more attention than others, particularly between massage or Myofascial Release sessions. 

Below are a few of my favorites that I use on a daily basis to keep myself released and my body happy.

• IT band, Quad, and Hamstring releases: I like to use either a foam roller or a stick roller (like a rolling pin).  FYI – the foam roller is going to provided a deeper, but more painful release than the stick roller.

To use the stick: sit comfortably in a chair or standing and, with firm pressure, roll the stick up and down the length of the quads, hamstrings or IT bands from just above the knee to just below the hip bones.

To use the roller: set the roller up perpendicular to you on a mat.  To release the quads, use an army crawl (on your elbows) to roll from just below the pelvis to just above the knees.  To release the IT bands, lie on your side on the roller and use your...

Our bodies were designed to be upright.

When we sit down the pressure on our discs increases by 40% compared to standing, and when we sit and slouch the pressure increases by 85%. As a physical therapist, I see the negative effects of sitting on the musculoskeletal system all the time when people complain of lower back pain (LBP), tight hip flexors causing hip and LBP, rounded shoulders causing mid-scapular pain, forward head posture causing neck pain and headaches, weak postural muscles which are needed to support the spine, and decreased gluteal muscle firing which stabilizes the pelvis and supports the back. But sitting not only wreaks havoc on the musculoskeletal system but the cardiovascular, endocrine, vascular, neurological, digestive systems, etc, as well.

So how much time do you spend sitting each day? Think about how our lives are designed around sitting. We wake up and (if we’re lucky) sit down for breakfast, then we sit in the car as we drive to work or...

With the Miami Marathon just around the corner, now is the time that we tend to so see the clients pour in with aches and pains which they usually attribute to overuse. 

Well, I’m here to tell you something…most of those injuries are not because you’re running too much, but rather running with the wrong mechanics!  Any serious runner should be complementing their aerobic exercise with a daily mobility/flexibility routine in order to optimize postural alignment during runs.

Kelly Starrett, physical therapist and co-author of Becoming a Supple Leopard, puts it simply that “one of the things you should be able to do as a runner is, with your feet and knees together, squat all the way down without your heels coming up.”  A good habit to make is practicing this type of squat on a daily basis to ensure that you have hip and ankle range of motion that are within normal limits.

Some key factors in maintaining proper running...