Pain in your body limits your ability to move, enjoy life and maybe even sleep. You wish you could be rid of it, to regain your preferred lifestyle, hopefully without surgery or medicines. For over 10 years, Alona Casanave, owner of Smart Bodies Pilates LLC, has been promoting “intelligent exercise” in order to achieve significant results in resolving pain.
“Intelligent exercise” is a key element of the approach used by Smart Bodies Pilates LLC. Alona taps into her extensive knowledge about the body’s musculature and pain centers and then imparts that knowledge to her clients. With this transfer of knowledge, you, as the client, will do a better job with your assigned movements and obtain relief from your pain more effectively.
Alona describes her working relationship with each client in this way: “I act as your GPS to give you directions to reach your destination, and I expect you to resolve to follow those directions so you don’t miss achieving your goal.”
The greatest source of pain is the spine, where muscle strain and spinal injury may lead to pains felt in the neck and all the way down your extremities and into your body’s core. Think of that pain as a warning for you to take action.
At Smart Bodies Pilates LLC, the first step is a comprehensive postural analysis. “Each person has a different way of holding their body,” says Alona. “I need to identify imperfections in your posture that are creating strains in your muscles, so that I can prescribe the precise movements to relieve the identified strains in those muscles. I have over 500 exercises to choose from.”
Alona’s Pilates program is more than an exercise routine — it is a means to correct lifelong habits that the client may be unaware of. Bad habits can lead to poor posture, shallow breathing, restricted movement and in many instances, severe pain.
Another very important aspect to the treatment regimen is being aware of relevant medical history. Alona specializes in rehabilitation after injury, scoliosis, sciatica, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions.
As a client, you will provide the critical action input to your program: Resolve to learn from Alona and to perform your Pilates movements 10 minutes each day without fail.
With the onset of the new year, many people are thinking about resolutions. If you resolve now to decrease your pain with Alona’s help, you can expect to see improvements that will pave the way for living a more normal and comfortable lifestyle.
Smart Bodies Pilates LLC offers a variety of services, including one-, five- and 10-visit package sessions, postural analysis and 30-minute and one-hour massages. This year, Alona also plans on offering “duet” sessions, in which two people can meet with her at one time.
“I am an aging baby boomer. Since I have developed severe degenerative arthritis of the spine, I have been encouraged to participate in Pilates for core strengthening to improve posture and reduce pain. After a few months of Alona’s classes, twice a week, I can already see improvements. When I was younger, I wish I had the level of instruction that Alona provides to avoid the problems I have been experiencing.” — K
“Alona has an encyclopedic knowledge of anatomy and knows how muscles and joints work together in movement. She is detail-oriented and gives explicit instructions for performing an exercise to avoid injury. Her emphasis is always on the quality of the movement, not the quantity of repetitions. She readily answers questions and continually asks for feedback to improve meeting my needs. I enthusiastically recommend her without reservation. I trust her with my well-being.” — K