For Averil Mohammad, 72, from Barnet, classical reformer Pilates has become a panacea for the pain from a torn rotator cuff. Here, she shares how the exercise has helped her rebuild her relationship with her body.
This time two years ago, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t shower and I couldn’t pull up my trousers. At least not without excruciating pain. Since tearing my right rotator cuff – the group of muscles and tendons that surround the shoulder joint – in 2021, while throwing a ball for my daughter’s dog, I’d been a shell of myself. That the simple act of picking up a coffee could leave me crying out in pain made it easier to stay home – so I often did.
It hadn’t always been this way. Before the injury, I was lifting light weights at the gym five or six times a week – a routine I’d maintained for three decades. It meant that, after the injury, I couldn’t wait to move my body again. And after a month of rest – on doctor’s orders – I couldn’t wait to start doing my daily physio. But while taking a meticulous approach to moves like resistance band pulls and lateral raises strengthened my shoulder muscles, I was still taking the maximum doses of paracetamol and ibuprofen just to get through each day.
It was a gift voucher from my daughter for a classical reformer Pilates class that marked the first step back to myself. Having heard that the practise could help people recover from injury, she booked me two one-to-one sessions at Exhale Pilates London. In the end, one was all it took to convince me that I’d found the thing that would make me feel better. My pain was only marginally better after that first 50-minute session, but a cloud had lifted.
After four sessions, I could lay on my right arm again. After a year of going twice a week, my pain had gone from being unbearable to being barely a one out of ten. Two years in, I feel 30 years younger – and I credit my recovery completely with classical reformer Pilates. That doesn’t mean it’s always been easy. Pushing the pain too far can set you back, while stopping all activity increases stiffness; my teachers – all of whom have 600 hours of training – help me find my sweet spot, giving me modifications like reducing my range of motion when raising my arms overhead.
I still go to Pilates weekly. I’ve also introduced 30 minutes of strength training every morning, including squats, sit ups, and a one-minute plank and I walk a minimum of 6,500 steps a day. I’m grateful I can lift weights and walk with ease again, but it’s the little things I don’t take for granted anymore: I can put on my own shoes, dress myself, and enjoy life without pain.
After five years, I’m expecting to come off my blood pressure medication soon, as it has significantly lowered. It means, at 72, the only ‘tablets’ I take are a magnesium and vitamin D supplement. A balanced diet helps – breakfast might be yoghurt and fruit; lunch a protein shake; dinner fish, rice and vegetables – but Pilates has given me benefits beyond relieving my pain and strengthening my muscles. I’ll do it as long as I live.
My favourite Pilates exercise: The hundred. I never believed I’d be able to do it.
My top Pilates advice: At £20-£30 a session, classes are an investment – but it’s the best money I’ve ever spent.
Rest day ritual: Meeting up with my walking group. It’s a privilege to live in London – and to see it on foot.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director (and a qualified yoga teacher), Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism. She secured her first role at Look Magazine, where her obsession with fitness began and she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!. Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red.
Now, she oversees all fitness content across womenshealthmag.com.uk and the print magazine, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, where we showcase the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise. She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how.
Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
