Barbara WintroubSo many of my senior clients have so many tissue issues, it’s hard to work on all of them. It seems as if most of them have recliner chairs they spend every evening in, some sleep in them and most watch weekend sports in them.
Using the Pilates methods of strengthening and stretching with them during class falls by the way side when they go home. Everything I teach my clients demonstrates good posture and alignment.
I watch old people all the time. I am now an old people.
I watch the women at Pickleball tournaments. Many women came to me at the last tournament with shoulder injuries. All of them had the head of the humerus anterior to their ear lobe. Everyone over 60 looks like they live in a recliner chair.
Picture this:
When you sit in a recliner your head is pushed forward which hunches your shoulders. As you hunch, your lumbar spine rounds and you lose your correct lordosis and your psoas shortens and locks which now pulls on your lower back.
Since your feet are suspended, your whole body is in an open kinetic chain situation so your support muscles turn off. They don’t need to hold you up because the chair is holding you up.
Your muscles atrophy because they are not working for you. Your body will take on the form of the way you spend your life.
If you have a shorter leg the limp will throw off your SI Joint.
If you play golf or tennis (one sided sports) you tend to have a rotation in your torso.
Take a look at the way you are encapsulated in a recliner chair then compare your posture when you stand up.
I bet you still look like you are in the chair standing up. Pilates is so good for every part of your body but what you do when you leave class might be what’s making you hurt and look old.