How often should I practice Pilates if I have an injury?

At Innerstellar, most of our Pilates students are working with injuries and chronic pain - or at least, they were when they first started their practice!

So folks sometimes ask us: how often should I practice if I want to heal my injury?

Good question - and though it’s highly personal, as long as you’ve been cleared for exercise by your doctor or PT, we’re happy to give some guidance!

If you’ve been sedentary for a long time and are just starting a movement practice, once a week is a great place to start! You might feel sore for a few days - your body takes longer to recover when you haven’t exercised in a while, but it WILL get easier over time.

And when it does, you’ll want to work up to practicing two to four times a week! That’s what it takes to build muscle and increase your strength, which is one of the keys to reducing pain and preventing injury.

Can I practice every day if I want to?

Good question - and yes, you CAN practice 6-7 days a week, as long as it feels good to your body, but we recommend working up to it slowly. If you are finding you’re consistently sore, tired, you go into a pain flare, or you're having a hard time getting yourself on the mat, your body may be telling you it’s time for a rest day.

And since mental health has a HUGE impact on your pain levels, we encourage you to be kind to yourself. If you’re feeling sick, you have an overwhelming to-do list, or you just don’t feel like working out, give yourself a day off.

You do NOT have to practice every day to get great results - and if you want to stay committed, you’ve got to keep it fun!

We’ve got two specialized 8-Week Pilates Series coming up starting in February, and we’ve designed them with these principles in mind.

With each series - Pilates for Low Back Pain and Pilates for Strong Bones and Healthy Joints, you’ll get one live class (online via Zoom) with movement expert Megan Fenske every week.

Then, you’ll have access to the recording of that class for seven days. We encourage you to repeat the class throughout the week, however many times it feels right for your body and fits into your schedule.

On days when you’re not feeling 100% or you just don’t have time, you can just turn on the recording and spend ten minutes on the warm-up - a great way to get yourself moving and breathing without over-taxing your system.

So by signing up for just one series, you’ll get access to the resources you need to develop a weekly Pilates practice that will meet you right where you’re at and help you build strength and confidence and ease pain.

Each series has all the building blocks for a complete Pilates practice - whether once a week or every day!

Click here to learn about each and sign up.