What is it, and when do you need it?

You will have heard the term Clinical Pilates, or even been referred to do it by your allied health professional at one point or another if recovering from an injury. Because of this, it’s often assumed that Clinical Pilates is only with a physio/osteo/myotherapist etc. In reality, that’s not the case, but it is a pretty broad term which can make it tricky to understand what it actually is, and how it differs to other forms of Pilates e.g. Reformer Pilates, Studio Pilates, Mat Pilates, Group Physiotherapy etc!

What is Clinical Pilates?

The Pilates Alliance Australasia is the governing board we subscribe to for meeting professional standards, and it broadly defines Clinical Pilates as providing exercises that are specific to a clients requests and needs. So with that in mind, any session where a practitioner focuses on your specific needs would fall under the bracket of Clinical Pilates. This may come as a surprise for many of you who have only ever done Clinical Pilates in a Physio clinic, but its a key definition for ensuring that government accredited Pilates practitioners aren’t assumed to be only good for providing a ‘burn and firm’ workout - although they can be pretty handy for that too!

But isn’t Clinical Pilates only with Physio’s?

Not at all - Physio’s and other allied health practitioners also provide clinical Pilates often within the scope of their rebranded group exercise classes (read more through our private health reform blog) but it’s not solely connected to allied health professionals. Majority of health clinic’s will actually employ specific Pilates practitioners to run their Clinical Pilates sessions under the banner of a treatment, which has lead the idea that Clinical Pilates in with an allied health professional only. However, remember that any session that focuses on delivering specific exercises based on the clients requirements is clinical, regardless of whether it’s lead by an allied health professional.

So which practitioner is best for delivering Clinical Pilates?

There’s no simple answer to that one unfortunately. Every client has a different experience and to strictly say one kind of practitioner is best would be unfair. Generally speaking, government accredited Pilates practitioners (those with a Diploma qualification or above) have actually put in the hard yards to understand the system properly and how best to utilise it. And like any other allied health practitioner, they also have to participate in regular training and development to keep up to date with the industry standard. But when we are talking strictly Pilates, most allied health professionals don’t actually have to do any training whatsoever to run group exercise and Pilates classes. Because they have gone through their Bachelors degree, there is an assumption made by the government that they should know what they are talking about. And although this may be true sometimes, we’ve found that more often than not that particularly physiotherapists delivering Pilates sessions fall short of their clients expectations. This can be due to a number of factors, the common ones being that there are too many people in a session at one time; sessions only running for 45 minutes; and the practitioner not actually explaining what they are meant to be doing and why - a key pillar of training for any Pilates professional. So personally, we’d be asking some questions about the qualifications of the practitioner before we’d sign up to Clinical Pilates with them.

How many people should be in a Clinical Pilates session?

That really comes down to the business and how they define what a small session looks like - for us at Movementality we have 3 in a clinical session, and then 8 in our group classes. This is below industry standard of 4 in a clinical session, and up to 12 in a group class. But in reality there is no one who really keeps an eye on the numbers in a class. Most businesses will work on finding the sweet spot between what a client is willing to pay for a session, and how many people are willing to share that practitioners attention. That’s why most city centre studios will offer up to four people in a Clinical Pilates session, with prices ranging between $40 and $60. An allied health clinic will often be at the higher end of the market as they will assume their clients will use private health insurance to pay, where as Pilates Studio who cannot provide reimbursements will often be in the middle or at the cheaper end of the scale to provide a service that is affordable for those who pay privately.

So then when do you actually need Clinical Pilates?

It’s something that we’d recommend everyone starting Pilates for the first time begin with, as it’s been incredibly beneficial for thousands of people around the world for injury rehabilitation and management, or working towards specific movement goals - for example it’s pretty much a guarantee that any professional sporting team will have Clinical Pilates as part of their player preparation (Rob used to work for Brentford FC, a professional team in London). For us at Movementality, we use Rob and Ash take on majority of Clinical Pilates work as lead practitioners to ensure that injuries are looked after and rehabilitated properly, before moving in to our more general Studio Sessions or group classes. Clinical Pilates is also often delivered by an allied health practitioner which is great for using your private heath insurance, but you may want to read our previous blog around the PHI reforms from April 2019 to understand this better.

Generally we recommend Clinical Pilates for all injuries, most new clients and anyone wanting to work towards really specific goals. If you’re a bit more general, then you can still enjoy our Clinical Pilates sessions but they are a more expensive option due to the experience of Rob and Ash. We’d generally recommend instead out semi-private Studio sessions or our group classes with the remainder of the team who are also great, and more than capable of giving you a great workout. If you’re still not sure which is right for you, just reach out and we’ll discuss what you’re looking for in more detail.