Clinical Pilates with a Pelvic Health Perspective

Background

Pilates is a functional form of exercise that integrates breathing principles, spine alignment, postural strength, and pelvic floor function. It can be strategically used to build body awareness, motor control, and kinesthesia.

Pilates is a safe form of prenatal exercise and pelvic floor rehabilitation when positional cues and modifications are integrated. Additional populations that can benefit from Pilates practice are athletes, individuals with persistent pain, post-abdominal surgery, and men’s pelvic health.

Often forms of fitness are viewed as separate from the practice of physiotherapy; however, Clinical Pilates is an example of how two methods can be seamlessly blended to promote health and wellness.

Physiotherapists are experts in exercise prescription and applying critical thinking into guided movement. Therefore it is within our scope to promote and practice Pilates as a component of our care.

Relevance to Physiotherapy Practice

A clinical problem that exists in the orthopaedic and sports medicine world is how to integrate pelvic floor cueing into exercise prescription. This webinar will teach the foundations of Clinical Pilates, pelvic floor cueing, prenatal techniques, and modifications for specific post-partum considerations such as pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence, and diastasis rectii.

Resources will be provided to advocate for the standards of care in pelvic health physiotherapy, including prenatal exercise guidelines, lifelong learning pathways, and recommendations as to when to refer to pelvic floor physiotherapy. The information presented in this session is applicable to musculoskeletal, pelvic health, and community-focused physiotherapists. 

Upon completion of this workshop participants will be able to:

1. Apply pelvic specific cues, positioning techniques, and modifications into Pilates exercise prescription
2. Select and prescribe appropriate Pilates exercises for prenatal and post-partum populations
3. Access resources to continue lifelong learning in Pilates and pelvic health

This course is brought to you by the Women's Health Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA).