Pilates May Not Be The Best Exercise for Parkinson

Pilates May Not Be The Best Exercise for
Parkinson's Disease Patients
The conclusions of a recent article from NBC6.Net stating that Pilates may help relieve the
symptoms of Parkinson’s disease is, I believe, misleading and possibly even detrimental to
Parkinsons patients, despite short-term anecdotal evidence cited in the original article.
Once past the sensational headline about Pilates, we find that exercise apparently is what helps
Parkinson’s patients, not Pilates in particular. As one of the people interviewed in that article said,
“It could be any exercise” that might help people, said Kristi Sesso, owner of the Harmony Group
Pilates and Gyrotonics studio in Englewood, N.J. “But Pilates is a great point of access.”
I disagree. Almost any form of exercise would be a better point of access than Pilates for
Parkinson’s patients because of the key Pilates concept of how to breathe.
Parkinson’s is a disease of the brain and is considered a neurological disorder. That means the
nervous system is involved. Joseph Pilates states clearly in his book that we should all keep tight
abdominal muscles and breathe thoracically as much of the time as possible to develop the core
strength he feels is so important.
But tight abs restrict movement of the diaphragm, which makes abdominal breathing impossible.
Abdominal breathing has been shown to have beneficial effects on all neurological conditions
because abdominal breathing harmonizes the functioning of the central nervous system. It does this
by correcting imbalances caused by excessive sympathetic arousal.
The sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system triggers our fight or flight response in a
crisis. The parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is what returns our system to
balance when the crisis is over. Abdominal breathing triggers the parasympathetic, quickly halting
the flow of stress hormones like adrenalin and cortisol, reducing high blood pressure, lowering the
heart rate, and reactivating essential metabolic processes like digestion that go “on hold” during the
stress response.
Because of Pilates’ strict injunction against abdominal breathing, which is so important to health
and well-being for everyone but especially for patients of neurological disorders, Pilates may be
less advantageous for patients of Parkinson’s disease than other forms of exercise.
Steve Ross, MA, MFT
Tratto da www.medecine.org
COMMENTO di Silvia Raneri Ft., Pilates Fisios Teacher
Questo articolo sottolinea come il metodo Pilates originale sia spesso inadatto e anche
controproducente in riabilitazione se utilizzato in maniera integrale. Attivare i muscoli addominali
con contrazioni massimali senza considerare i ruoli funzionali dei singoli muscoli (traverso addome,
obliqui, retto addome) produce effettivamente una restrizione dei movimenti del diaframma che non
è assolutamente funzionale nemmeno in soggetti sani. Il metodo Pilates Fisios® che propongo io,
richiede l’attivazione della muscolatura addominale in relazione al proprio ruolo funzionale e
permette di sviluppare una respirazione libera a carico del diaframma e costale.
Purtroppo ancora troppe persone non specializzate in riabilitazione insegnano la tecnica Pilates a
pazienti con patologie serie come il Parkinson chiedendo di “tirare la pancia in dentro” più che
possono per rinforzare gli addominali senza nemmeno sapere che cosa stanno facendo veramente.
Per questo motivo consiglio a tutti i pazienti che vogliono praticare il metodo Pilates per migliorare
la propria condizione patologica di rivolgersi ad un fisioterapista che abbia seguito un corso di
specializzazione nella tecnica Pilates applicata in ambito riabilitativo.