BJ! Great News! You like the Pilates!! That's excellent because their so effective!!
You go girl!

Thanks, Ev. I will definitely do that.

It's so exciting to see progress so quickly. I feel like I'm doing much better with the workout than when I started Monday. thumb

BJ, It's hard to tell. What KIND of soreness is it? Does it feel stiff and achy like you slept on it wrong? Because that could indeed be holding your neck wrong. But if it just feels like mildly sore and constant but not too stiff you might have just used muscles in your neck in ways they aren't used to. Your neck does have muscles and they are capable of feeling DOMS as is every other muscle group.

Advice on sore muscles
 

Today is my second day doing Winsor Pilates. It's quite a workout for me. I'm feeling a bit sore in my buttocks and my tummy area which is great. I feel like I must be accomplishing something but they're not so sore that I feel I'm overdoing it.

My question is. . . My neck is sore too. Is that a sign that I'm doing something wrong - holding my neck wrong, using the wrong muscles when exercising, etc ?

Anybody know?

I would say probably the second description. Not real sore but definite pulling feeling when I turn my neck.

Most of the pilates exercise require you to hold your head off the floor so I can certainly see why it uses muscles in the neck. I just want to be sure I'm using the right muscles.

I'm also feeling the effects of the workout around the lower section of my ribs and just below.

It's a great workout for me. I'm not very good at keeping up with aerobics (sp) so I'm glad to have found something that I think is going to be effective! http://www.lowcarbsite.com/images/sm...on_biggrin.gif

Thanks for the advice!

first of all congratulations BJ on doing pilates. I know from personal experience, it's not as easy as it looks.

In the Windsor Pilates tapes, the instructor mentions many times about the neck. I believe she mentions keeping your head down on the ground until you build more strength.

Until then, take a hot bath, throw on some Bengay and the soreness will eventually go away.

I've never done pilates, but it could definately be a problem in your form if your neck muscles are sore. Maybe you could take an instructor led course once or twice to get some feedback. They usually offer trial classes for people.

There are so many tips that I remember from my gym days that the videos just don't mention. If I didn't have that past experience, I would definately be doing my videos wrong.

Yes, today I did some of the exercises keeping my head on the floor. My neck does feel better today. Going to play some volleyball tonight with my youth group - fun exercise! http://www.lowcarbsite.com/images/sm...on_biggrin.gif

How's that neck feeling??

I have constant problems with my neck, and now that I"m standing on my head all the time it just seems to be getting worse. My gymnastics coach found a huge not up by my ocipital bone yesterday and tried to rub it out. He says that it seemed more like a tension knot and then with the added strain from all the neck work, it just got worse..

Before doing your exercises, make sure you stretch your neck out. Do head rolls in both directions, and then touch your ear to your shoulder, then chin to armpit,, and hold for a short time.. this might help.. also like you said, leave your head on the floor until your abs get stronger and take the strain off of your neck. When a muscle is over strained it will rely on other muscles to help out with the load. Unfortunately, when it comes to ab exercises and the like, your neck will end up taking the load and cause problems.

Hope you feel better.

Hi BJ,

On my tape for my machine which has an adjustable headrest there are some excercises that state clearly are to be done with your headrest down so maybe that applies to you as well? I believe these were some of the tougher abdomen ones.