More men seem to find their way to Pilates. Cees Sinke will tell you his story about how and why he started doing Pilates. Cees Sinke, build in 1963 (so he’s 51 years old), 100+ kg, married and father to two daughters, construction contractor and dealer in electric parts.
Pilates veteran
I think you could say I’m a Pilates veteran, because I’ve been doing this since 2008. “But how does a construction worker end up doing Pilates?”, you might wonder. I’ve had back problems since I was 25 years old; at one point it got to be so bad that I could no longer work, but somehow I always managed to keep working. It meant I had to get physiotherapy quite often, and that helped to keep me going.
Chiropractor
But my problems worsened every year. I felt it was something I had to live with, and if I just kept moving it would be okay. Then I was introduced to a chiropractor through my daughter, who practices horseback riding and needed it for her horse. My daughter didn’t have the time to see him, so I went and helped him with the horse. The first few times I thought “yeah right” but after he had treated the horse 3 times I could see visible improvements on the horse. So I asked him if they treated people as well. “If it can help a horse, maybe it’ll help me as well”. So I decided to meet up with a chiropractor and underwent the treatment, with very good results. I could do more and my back became more stable, so I performed better at work. I did this for a few years, but although it helped, there wasn’t any positive progress either. I felt 10 times better than before, but sometimes my back froze and I was unable to move. It was then that I asked my chiropractor if there was anything else that could help me.
Classic Pilates
“Of course”, she said. “you should try classic Pilates with Naomi Vos. I wasn’t convinced but I trust my chiropractor and her judgement. So I decided to take the plunge and that’s how I ended up doing Pilates. For the first two years I went every week en after about 3 months I felt my body getting more flexible and I felt better in my own skin. Even after 6 years I feel like this progress is still continuing. I have to say, it’s not my favorite activity of the week – I do it every other week now- but as far as I’m concerned I’ll keep doing this until the day I die!
Recommended combination
I can recommend classic Pilates combined with chiropracy to anyone with back problems. It’s not an immediate solution, but the longer you do it, the better you’ll feel. I’ve recommended Pilates to my daughter (22y/o) and my sister (43y/o) and both of them find it very helpful.
©Cees Sinke
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