The Difference Between Pilates vs Clinical Pilates

Physiotherapist and former professional dancer with the Australian Ballet, Craig Phillips, pioneered the Clinical Pilates process over 30 years ago by linking the emerging  spinal stability research to the work of Joseph Pilates and his contemporaries.

With exercise growing as the co-treatment of choice with the majority of medical conditions, Clinical Pilates has evolved as a “Movement Based Classification & Treatment” (MBCT) approach aimed at managing the more costly chronic and recurrent injury problems. With research evidence moving away from “Structure Based Classification” and dwindling support for “structural” tests (such as shoulder impingement’s, knee and hip structure tests, and spinal tests) the MBCT process allows a clinical pathway  to include / exclude differential diagnoses and compare clinical findings against radiological findings.

The current focus on reducing surgical interventions and hospitalisation can also be addressed as recent research published on Clinical Pilates involving randomized controlled trials, (Wajswelner 2012)  inter-rater reliability (Yu K 2015) and pilot studies, (Lewis A 2010) now shows its efficacy as a valid assessment and treatment tool. Patients can be subgrouped on functional measures via a validated and reliable prediction model (Tulloch 2012).

This is not an homogeneous exercise protocol approach, it’s a cutting edge pathology treatment tool.

Clinical Pilates is unique, being the only Pilates approach use heuristics to “distill” the exercise repertoire into a clinical package related to the translational evidence model. This focuses the broad pathology knowledge base of physiotherapists, where the links to other treatment philosophies taught at the post graduate level can be demonstrated.

DMA Clinical Pilates Certification Series course (Unit A and Unit B and Unit C) consists of an online eLearning component, 2 x three day practical components, followed by the Certification exam