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Pilates for Endurance Athletes

While we may be capable of finishing 140.6 miles of competition in an Ironman triathlon, we place ourselves in a perpetually inefficient and unsafe environment of quantity over quality for our training. Mobility at the hip and ankle are common sites of restriction leading to limitation in power, compensation strategies and injury for endurance athletes. Without sufficient stability, we are predisposed to knee and low back injuries while also decreasing efficiency. Proper muscle re-education and strength provides us with the ability to improve performance by minimizing risk of tissue injury while also improving muscular efficiency through biomechanics.

At Rose Physical Therapy in Washington, DC, one of our tools for helping endurance athletes is Pilates. Pilates affords endurance athletes the ability to reduce areas of vulnerability and rehabilitate any current injuries. Whether training for a 10K, marathon, triathlon or ultra-distance race, the number of hours dedicated to your sport and performance accumulate and that makes injuries more likely. But with an exercise regimen based on body, mind and spirit, injury is treatable and even preventable.

Common injuries we see here in the District for endurance athletes include iliotibial band (IT band) syndrome, patellofemoral pain (pain in the front of your knee), medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints), Achilles tendinopathy, plantar fasciitis and other injuries related to the lower extremities and pain in your legs and feet. Due to the nature of endurance sport, we find ourselves repetitively loading our muscles, joints and tissues. A 4-hour marathon at a 180 cadence for your foot strike has this athlete hitting the ground over 43,000 times throughout the course of 26.2 miles. That is a significant amount of stress for any body to handle without injury so training must be adapted to compensate.

Endurance sports create a vulnerability throughout our bodies due to its repetitive nature. To minimize risk of injury and progress performance, Pilates addresses three contributing factors to this vulnerability: mobility, stability and strength.

"Pilates practices low impact and intelligent movement, proper diet, sufficient sleep, correct breathing, uniform muscle development, spinal alignment and thorough hygiene." – Polestar Pilates

Pilates exercises help with mobility through exercises that require flexibility and helps with range of motion necessary to properly complete movements without stressing tissues. For endurance athletes who are stretching their tissues repeatedly throughout a long event, this is all the more important. Pilates exercises also enhance stability through activation of smaller muscles that are essential for fine tuning of movement. Big muscles give you powerful movement, but the stability provided by smaller muscles is essential because it takes some of the stress off of larger muscles. In addition to preventing injury through increased stability, the combination of stronger small muscles with larger muscle groups can create a more efficient and precise movement.

It is important to note that you do not need a reformer to do pilates. In fact, Pilates mat work is the basis for the entire Pilates system of exercises. In general, a traditional Pilates mat class will work your legs, stomach, lower and upper back muscles. On the mat, your body weight provides resistance against gravity, making the workout more challenging in many cases. A reformer merely allows you to vary the resistance in a different way, using bands attached to the reformer's sled. At Rose we currently have a reformer at our office at the Navy Yard metro stop and we teach mat Pilates exercises at both our downtown location by Dupont Circle and our Capitol Riverfront location near Navy Yard.

Whether you are on a mat or a reformer, all Pilates exercises strengthen muscles, particularly in the core muscle groups that affect all movement of the body. For endurance athletes competing over many arduous miles, maintaining a strong core is essential to prevent injury from the repeated movement over a long period of time.