Regaining a stable foundation, regaining freedom
Là où tout a commencé…
I’d like to share my story with you here—my journey with back pain—because before it became a subject of biomechanical study, it was a very personal reality. It all began after the birth of my two children, the wonders of my life, whom I had very young—in my early twenties—and just sixteen months apart. Between the closely spaced pregnancies, two babies in my arms, short nights, and the daily grind, my body held up… until the day my back said “enough.”
The pain became regular, almost constant. A few years later, while living in Los Angeles, I was making frequent appointments with an osteopath. It was he who told me about Pilates on machines. I knew absolutely nothing about this method. Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair… these names meant nothing to me.
And yet, after just a few sessions, something changed. My pain began to disappear. Not because we had “strengthened my back,” but because my body was learning to reorganize itself. This discovery was a
revelation. Fifteen years ago, Pilates literally saved me, and even today, my back thanks me for it.
It is this experience that I now share in the heart of the Carré d’Or in Nice.
When the Back Compensates
Back pain is rarely a sign of a weak back. It is often a sign of a body out of balance. The spine is designed to move, absorb, and transmit. However, it depends on a precise balance between mobility and stability. When the core—that deep cylinder composed of the transverse abdominis, the multifidus muscles, and the diaphragm—no longer fulfills its role, the lower back compensates. It contracts to maintain balance. By constantly compensating, it becomes fatigued.
Pain then appears as a warning signal. Modern life exacerbates this disorganization. Hours spent sitting, shallow breathing linked to stress, and loss of gluteal activation gradually alter
the natural alignment. The body adapts… until it can no longer cope.
Rebuilding Rather Than Forcing
The method developed by Joseph Pilates is based on a simple idea: deep stabilization to unlock movement.
When I started Pilates in Los Angeles, I didn’t focus primarily on my lower back. I learned to engage my core. To breathe differently. To feel the alignment of my pelvis. To coordinate my movements.
The change was gradual but lasting. The Reformer, with its sliding carriage, forces the body to organize itself during movement. It doesn’t allow for cheating. If the pelvis tilts, you feel it immediately. If the core relaxes, stability disappears. This controlled instability reactivates the deep muscles without creating compression.
The Reformer Tower, used in group sessions at Reformer Factory in Nice, adds a vertical dimension that allows for work on decompression, chest expansion, and segmental precision. The body strengthens without becoming rigid.
The Invisible Role of Breathing
What I’ve come to realize over the years is that breathing changes everything. Shallow, upper-chest breathing maintains tension. Conscious, deep rib-cage breathing stabilizes the spine from within. It also regulates the nervous system, reducing
that constant tension we accumulate without even realizing it.
When breathing becomes organized, the back stops struggling.
Rediscovering Freedom
Today, fifteen years later, I still practice regularly. Not out of obligation, but because I know what it does for me. Pilates didn’t just eliminate my pain. It changed the way I move, hold myself, and breathe. What I discovered fifteen years ago wasn’t just about the disappearance of my
pain. I regained the freedom to bend, to carry, to move without fear.
I realized that back pain wasn’t inevitable, but a signal that a structure needed to be rebuilt.
Today, in the New York-style loft of Reformer Factory in Nice, the red bricks and structured lines evoke this architectural vision of the body. Each session is a gradual reconstruction, an inner elevation.
Pilates doesn’t promise a lifetime of total freedom from tension. It offers the tools for the body to support itself intelligently. Because when the structure is right, movement becomes natural.
And at Reformer Factory, movement is structured and elegance becomes natural. 🖤
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