Herniated disc and frustration

[daisylubob]

Everyone I've known who's had back surgery has said it takes about two years to reach maximum recovery, with diligent PT. So that part at least isn't any different.

Sounds like your Pilates instructors weren't well versed in dealing with back injuries. As we've talked about here before, there are a lot of fly-by-night Pilates certifications out there. You'll want to interview instructors to make sure they have a "real" certification requiring hundreds of hours of training. They may have you use some equipment to prevent your back from going fully into imprint. Ideally a lot of Pilates maneuvers are done in neutral spine anyway, but beginners who can't stabilize their spines in neutral are ordinarily taught to do the moves in imprint, to avoid destabilizing their spines during the move. That's obviously not what you want to be doing.

I have not had any surgery yet. This time line was given for healing the disc non-surgically.

She has been teaching Stott Pilates for 10 yrs, is the best in town. It is who my Neuro DR recommended, he has been to her also. She had me try the reformer, which I also used at PT. SHe was actully the 1st Pilates instructor who taught me about the imprint. No one in classes I have taken before has ever mentioned it. Do you teach Pilates?

Part of my furstration is all of the different opinions and recommendations I get from everyone. It is very confusing to know who is right, who has the best solutions....especially since I have not had a whole lot of improvement.

[OakLeaf]

She has been teaching Stott Pilates for 10 yrs, is the best in town. It is who my Neuro DR recommended, he has been to her also. She had me try the reformer, which I also used at PT. SHe was actully the 1st Pilates instructor who taught me about the imprint. No one in classes I have taken before has ever mentioned it. Do you teach Pilates?

Part of my furstration is all of the different opinions and recommendations I get from everyone. It is very confusing to know who is right, who has the best solutions....especially since I have not had a whole lot of improvement.

That's got to be frustrating. Hope you find a solution soon.

It does sound like your Pilates instructor is well qualified. I have one of those fly-by-night certifications - I know just enough to know that I'm not really qualified to teach Pilates. Anything I post here is from my personal experience and that of people I know, not from any real expertise.

I think the term "imprint" may be specific to Stott Pilates, but the concept is common to every Pilates method I know of, whether it's called the "C-curve" or whatever - reversing the natural lumbar curve to use the floor to stabilize the spine. It's actually one of the reasons I've grown to prefer yoga to Pilates ... in my limited experience with Pilates, backbends and movements outside the sagittal plane are de-emphasized, whereas it's really those two things that cyclists and runners tend to need most.