Does this headline scream "inspiration"? Probably not.

But hear me out:

Physical pain and discomfort are a fact of life. Thankfully, there are some types of pain we can address with Pilates and deliberate movement.

This includes things like chronic back pain, tightness, joint pain and tension headaches.

How Pilates helps with pain

A lot of this type of pain is actually caused by overly tight muscles, poor alignment and just simply lack of movement. That's where the magic of Pilates comes in:

Through proper alignment, segmental movement of the spine, moving in all planes of motion and mobility work through the entire (controlled) range of motion of the joints, we achieve three things all at once:

• releasing tightness

• increasing strength, stability and control

• lubricating the joints and increasing blood flow

In case you're wondering, yes, this also applies if you are among the many people living with arthritis (OA, RA, or any other kind). If you want to read more, here's a blog post I wrote about it a while back. (If you're a teacher reading this, you may also want to check out this article and this one by yours truly.)

Give it a try sometime.

Because you DON'T have to be an athlete.

You just have to MOVE.

That's it for today - have a great week and hey, cause some GOOD TROUBLE while you're at it, will ya? Because it's easier to be active in your community when you're not hunched over in pain:)