Back Surgery: Pilates Mat Exercises that I Can Do Now

Wow. I see I haven’t written a post in a few days. That’s what happens when you can focus on getting better instead of being in pain. I’ve been doing really well. Able to work out a lot and finding that I don’t have such long recovery times. The exercises I’ve been are done really carefully and slowly. Absolutely do not hurry. Form has never mattered as much as it does now.

I wrote three quarters of this post and then the darn thing got erased when I pressed the save button. Go figure. Probably telling me I was doing too much in one post.

So I haven’t really covered the mat yet. I’ve been using the ball – a 65cm ball- to do the exercises for the past month or so. It’s a really great way to get stronger because the ball can be used to support you especially once you get over the stability issues.  And once you get over those, you’re already stronger.

The basic matwork can easily be adapted to the ball. I was trained in Stott Pilates and they have a great DVD series on the Ball. There’s four altogether but I find that the most useful is the Level 1 Core Challenge which focuses on just that- getting your core stronger. DVD’s Level 2 and 3 tend to do more Reformer exercises on the ball and some those are pretty tricky. I can manage some of the Level 4 DVD exercises because they get back to the core without any fancy dancing.

So I’ve taken it off the ball and I am now doing some of the exercises on the mat. The thing about the ball is that it puts your feet up higher for example, when you are doing the ab prep. You have to work harder at staying in neutral and in the beginning I imprinted to protect my back. The mat exercise sans ball is okay.  In fact most of the essential level exercises are okay with the exception of Rolling Like a Ball, the Saw, The RollOver, the Oblique Rollback, the Teaser, Open Leg Rocker, the Swan Dive  and the Breast Stroke.

Rolling on the spine just plain hurts right now. I have two thick mats instead of one. Do the preps for Rolling Like a Ball and the Rollover.  Also the prep for Teaser is okay but nice and slow and with control.

I do the Swan Dive and the Breast Stroke on the ball. Let’s face it – there is no way I can go into Thoracic extension without going into painful Lumbar extension unless I am supported by the ball. The plus side is that I get more height and therefore more movement. I will never do these two exercises on the floor again.

The Oblique Rollback is contraindicated for anyone with disc problems so forget it. What difference is it going to make to your life if you never do this exercise again. Think that way with all the exercises.

I’m going to come back to this because Word Press is having hiccups and I don’t want to lose my stuff again.

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