Keep building strength and health despite injury

If you’re an athlete of any kind, it can be frustrating to be set back by an injury. The unique thing about clinical Pilates is that it helps you recover from injuries,  improve strength, tone, flexibility and overall health simultaneously. You don’t have to lose months of work just because of a sprained ankle or low back pain.   Clinical Pilates will help recondition and tone your body and get you back to the track, the field, the court, or the boat , and work feeling better than ever.

Highly effective workout without worry

Clinical Pilates is an excellent way to maintain overall health and fitness without worry if you are an expecting mother or a person with a history of injury or surgery. It’s incredibly gentle for expectant mothers and their babies. Cheryl Smith, your physical therapist and pilates instructor, has been a physical therapist for 30 years and knows just how to construct a personalized training program to help you not only avoid injury but build resiliency and balance.

Faster, more targeted results than a class

Clinical Pilates is very different from a generic Pilates class (even a class led by an experienced instructor). With clinical Pilates, you get personalized attention and a specially formulated exercise regime based on your movement needs, imbalances, goals, and favorite activities. No matter the results you’re looking for – you’ll see them faster with Cheryl Smith and Synergy Healthcare. 

Clinical Pilates has been life-changing for me!

“I did Clinical Pilates with Cheryl Smith to prepare for two total knee replacements and a total hip replacement. Four years ago, I had both my knees replaced six weeks apart. We used Clinical Pilates to “pre-hab” both legs before the first surgery. Cheryl adapted Pilates exercises to accommodate my damaged joints while maximizing my strength. As a result, my rehab in physical therapy went very well and I was able to meet all my post-surgical range of motion goals within two weeks after each surgery. My surgeon was astounded!

As I continued Clinical Pilates in my recovery, Cheryl even taught me to be comfortable doing exercises while on my knees – something I never thought I would be able to do with two knee replacements! When I needed a total hip replacement recently, I turned to Cheryl and Clinical Pilates again to help me gain strength and flexibility in preparation for surgery and recovery. Once again, my rehab in physical therapy went smoothly and I am back to enjoying an active lifestyle. Clinical Pilates has been life-changing for me!”

Ann

Clinical Pilates has made a huge difference!

I was introduced to Cheryl Smith about 8 years ago following colon/prolapse surgery. Cheryl’s gracious and welcoming demeanor put me at ease right away! I had never done much regular exercise besides walking, and had no experience with Pilates. Cheryl encouraged me to learn and patiently helped me develop a complete exercise program with clinical Pilates and weight bearing exercise for my osteoporosis. With her PT background, she tailored the workouts to build up my weak core muscles and develop better posture, balance, and more graceful movement. 

Cheryl has made a huge difference in my life. I heartily recommend her!

Marie

Clinical Pilates has been life-changing for me!

“I did Clinical Pilates with Cheryl Smith to prepare for two total knee replacements and a total hip replacement. Four years ago, I had both my knees replaced six weeks apart. We used Clinical Pilates to “pre-hab” both legs before the first surgery. Cheryl adapted Pilates exercises to accommodate my damaged joints while maximizing my strength. As a result, my rehab in physical therapy went very well and I was able to meet all my post-surgical range of motion goals within two weeks after each surgery. My surgeon was astounded!

As I continued Clinical Pilates in my recovery, Cheryl even taught me to be comfortable doing exercises while on my knees – something I never thought I would be able to do with two knee replacements! When I needed a total hip replacement recently, I turned to Cheryl and Clinical Pilates again to help me gain strength and flexibility in preparation for surgery and recovery. Once again, my rehab in physical therapy went smoothly and I am back to enjoying an active lifestyle. Clinical Pilates has been life-changing for me!”

Ann

FAQs

What is Clinical Pilates?

Pilates is a mind-body exercise system designed to strengthen the weak, challenge the strong, and stabilize the hypermobile. It’s a gentle method of exercise addressing muscle strength, flexibility, and stability. By targeting muscle imbalances, it helps to improve postural alignment, balance, and coordination.

Pilates at Synergy is a holistic approach to exercise that incorporates mindful movement focusing on the details of movement while considering the balance of the entire person to help you rehabilitate from an injury, prepare for a birth, or relieve neck and back pain. The unique thing about clinical Pilates is that you’ll achieve these healing outcomes while simultaneously improving your overall fitness level. 

When you sign up for a clinical Pilates session at Spokane Valley Physical Therapy Clinic, Synergy Healthcare, you’ll work with a physical therapist and SOTT-certified Pilates instructor, Cheryl Smith. Together, you’ll focus on retraining movement patterns with improved abdominal control, body awareness, and proper breathing. Together we’ll achieve optimal movement for your specific movement needs. Clinical Pilates is extra-gentle, with a hyper-focus on the quality of each posture/movement and the integration of the whole body. Unlike a generic class at a gym, you’ll be guided by a physical therapist every step of the way. 

How is Clinical Pilates at Spokane Valley Physical Therapy Clinic, Synergy Healthcare, different from a regular Pilates class?

Clinical Pilates is built on the same principles of the now-very-popular Pilates classes. But clinical Pilates is slightly different, especially at Synergy Healthcare in Spokane. A session will start with physical therapist Cheryl Smith carefully assessing your injuries, goals, and movement concerns. Based on this assessment, she’ll create a highly-personalized exercise program. Then, you’ll work with Cheryl to practice the pilates exercises, and she’ll carefully monitor your progress to ensure you achieve your desired results.

Pilates classes are a one-size-fits-all workout experience. Clinical Pilates incorporates anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology knowledge to transform exercises used for a workout into highly-effective rehabilitation tools. With the help and attention of certified STOTT Pilates® instructor and licensed physical therapist Cheryl Smith, you will see the results you want much faster. 

When Pilates is used as a rehabilitation program, it will take the form of gentle, targeted strengthening exercises for the injured body part and the weaker body areas that predisposed the body to the injury in the first place, as well as rebalancing exercises for the other areas of the body as required.

Who should seek Clinical Pilates? You may be surprised!

1. Seek Clinical Pilates if you are a pre-natal or post-natal woman and want to strengthen your pelvic floor. 

Clinical Pilates is an excellent fit for expecting mothers. Clinical Pilates will increase pelvic floor strength and flexibility to prevent and relieve lower back and pelvic pain. The exercises you experience in your clinical pilates work will also form a solid foundation to aid the birth process.

It is also great for reshaping and toning post-partum and recovering from diastasis rectus, tearing, or incontinence issues.

There are specific limitations around physical activity during pre-natal and post-natal periods. However, Cheryl Smith has been a physical therapist for 30+ years, and she’s deeply knowledgeable about how to keep you safe and healthy along the way. Clinical Pilates is both safe and highly gentle for mother and baby. Many pregnant women can do Clinical Pilates right up until their due date! 

2)  Try it if you’d like to improve joint stability 

By exercising the primary stabilizers and movers in the hips, shoulders, and ankles, Clinical Pilates can strengthen the muscles around those commonly injured joints and help with overall stability and movement, which is essential for keeping the body functioning correctly.

3) Consider Clinical Pilates if you’re a woman or a man who’d like to strengthen their pelvic floor

As we age or after giving birth, women hear more and more about the need to strengthen the pelvic floor. However, maintaining the pelvic floor is essential for men as well. A weak or tight pelvic floor can sometimes lead to incontinence, hernias, hemorrhoids, coccyx pain, difficulty standing up from a seated position, and many other issues. As such, strengthening and retraining the core and pelvic floor becomes extremely important should these symptoms arise.

4) Give us a call if you’re an athlete rehabilitating after an injury

Guided 1:1 clinical Pilates assists in injury rehabilitation, especially for athletes who want to keep improving body conditioning despite their injury. At Spokane Valley physical therapy clinic, Synergy Healthcare, your physical therapist will first take the time to assess your injury and injury and then develop the most appropriate exercises tailored around that injury, your safety, and your recovery goals. Unlike a general pilates class, every session will progress at a safe and effective pace needed for your injury recovery. Through clinical pilates training, you’ll also learn how to improve movement patterns and prevent further injury to your body. 

5) Try Clinical Pilates at Spokane Valley physical therapy clinic, Synergy Healthcare if you’d like to strengthen your posture 

Your posture significantly affects your overall health, strength, injury resistance, flexibility, and balance. With smartphones and computers come poor posture habits that can affect you long term. Clinical Pilates, led by a physical therapist, ensures that your muscles have adequate length and strength for proper posture and helps you address issues impacting posture perfection. 

6) Consider Clinical Pilates if you have neck or lower back pain 

Clinical Pilates is highly effective in addressing neck pain. It also targets inactive or atrophying lower back muscles, with is particularly helpful if you have a sedentary lifestyle or a desk job that doesn’t require a lot of physical activity during the day. Clinical Pilates strengthens weak muscles that are affected by sitting for a prolonged time, stooping, or bending your neck to watch images and videos on your cell phone. Strong, well-trained muscles are more resilient to muscle strain and injury.

7) Give us a call if you’d like to improve your flexibility

If you have a  desk job or less active lifestyle, you may be concerned about poor flexibility or experiencing weak muscles. Joints and tissues that have good flexibility are more resilient and less prone to injury. Clinical Pilates balances the task of gaining flexibility paired with strength so that your body can handle any load you throw at it!

8) Seek out clinical Pilates if you’d like to tone muscles

A stronger core is supportive for your whole body. If you’re chasing a more robust core or a more toned midriff, a study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that after 36 weeks of Pilates training, women had managed to strengthen their rectus abdominis (abs) by an average of 21%. It doesn’t hurt that celebrities like Cameron Diaz, Miranda Kerr, and Kate Hudson are fans of the workout.

9) Consider the practice to improve overall health

Not only is Clinical Pilates great for strengthening your core muscles, but it also stretches and tones other muscle groups to improve your overall health and fitness. It will also aid in building up your cardiovascular health, which in turn increases your overall endurance and fitness level. Pilates conditions your whole body, even your ankles and feet. Because of the nature and philosophy of pilates –  this unique system trains your entire musculature in an even way. The result is that all muscle groups are balanced and conditioned, helping you enjoy daily activities – no muscle group is overtrained or undertrained. This is one of the reasons so many professional athletes swear by Clinical Pilates for better overall performance and injury prevention. 

10) Give us a call if you’d like to improve sports performance

By training your body to move correctly, clinical Pilates minimizes stress and strain felt by your body when it moves and maximizes the efficiency at which your body works to give you greater strength, speed, and flexibility. This can mean the difference between gaining a personal best on your next 10K or having a lackluster performance. 

11) Seek clinical Pilates if you need to improve body awareness 

Clinical Pilates ensures that you pay attention to the movements that you are making while regulating your breathing and stability. As you do more Clinical Pilates, you will pay more attention to what your body is feeling and communicating to you. This awareness of your body is carried throughout the day, outside your Clinical Pilates sessions in the clinic, and eventually becomes second nature to you. The benefits of this greater awareness include better balance and more grace. 

In a nutshell, clinical Pilates: 

• Builds core strength and stability
• Improves posture and alignment
• Increases flexibility, balance and coordination
• Improves muscular balance and strength
• Increases endurance and muscular tone
• Prevents injury and heightens body awareness
• Enhances athletic performance
• Relieves stress and back pain

Is clinical Pilates effective?

Yes! – Studies have shown that clinical Pilates is effective for postural disorders, cervical range of motion, low back pain and more.

What to Expect

Pilates exercises incorporates mindful movement, breath, and core. It is a full-body workout. At our Clinic for Pilates in Spokane Valley, we carefully focus on correct pelvis, rib cage, neck, scapula, and spine alignment. The workouts at Synergy will be mat-based, using a system of therabands, balls, weights, and your body weight.

Cheryl Smith, a Physical Therapist and certified STOTT Pilates® instructor will instruct your Pilates practice. Cheryl specializes in movement, alignment, and posture. When you start a clinical pilates program with Cheryl, she’ll first consult with you to ascertain your goals. She’ll then tailor training for your body, movement need, injuries, and activities. Your Pilates session will include a warm-up, core strengthening, exercises to target the overall strength and stabilization of the upper and lower body, and exercises for balance. You will flow through a series of movements that is dynamic, systematic, and anatomically-based, incorporating resistance equipment to help strengthen your postural muscles while achieving optimal fitness.

History of Pilates

Joseph Pilates pioneered Pilates in the early 1900s when he worked in a hospital in Europe during WWI, rehabilitating his patients by attaching springs and pulleys to their hospital beds. When he immigrated to New York with his wife Clara, they developed a “body conditioning gym,” which became popular in the dance community as it offered dancers a place to improve their technique and recover from injuries. His clients included Martha Graham, George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins. Pilates has become popular in the last decade as it has shown success in various use cases—everything from rehabilitation for Olympic athletes to improved functioning for Parkinson’s patients.

Who Benefits

Everyone! As long as your physician clears you to exercise, you can benefit from Pilates in Spokane Valley. At Synergy Healthcare, we see various patients who would benefit from Pilates, including back pain, post-surgical rehab, athletics, EDS, strokes, Parkinson’s, prenatal, post-partum, and octogenarians, to name a few. The low-impact nature of Pilates makes it safe for everyone.

How do I begin?

Book a discovery call with Spokane Valley physical therapy clinic, Synergy Healthcare. We’ll help you start your path toward personalizing your fitness, athletic, and rehabilitation goals through Pilates. Begin to supplement your fitness plan, help recover from an injury or surgery, or start a new exercise routine.