Why I chose pilates

Many years ago, I had a herniated lumber disc in my back which was excruciating painful. I was a school teacher living in Holland at the time. I used to enjoy playing golf and I was at a driving range practising my swing. Suddenly, there was a slight bulge in my back and I was in agony. I also had pains shooting down my leg, because the nerve was trapped. It was diagnosed as a slipped disc. Apparently, lots of golfers get slipped discs because of the action of flexing and rotating the back at the same time.

I did go and see an osteopath to try and ease the pain. By now, I had moved to Sydney in Australia. I was walking around with what felt like a bag of concrete on my head, because my spine was so compressed. The osteopath did his manipulations, but he only managed to give me temporary relief. At least he kept me moving because at that point, even sitting was painful. He couldn’t fix the underlying problem, which was made worse by my poor posture. I did not have the strength in my core muscles to stay upright. That’s when I took up Pilates, which did solve the problem for me. Within a few minutes of starting, I felt this amazing release. I was so impressed that I retrained as a Pilates teacher and developed my own method, Body Control Pilates, which is very gentle.

It is much better to take control of your own body and manage a back problem yourself. Someone else can repeatedly crack your back, but it is not going to give you a long term solution.