When the Body Hurts…
Movement Is the Last Thing You Want to Do. It Might Also Be the Most Important.
Around a quarter of the world's adults live with recurring pain. If that number includes you, there's a good chance you've been told — directly or indirectly — that you need to move more. And if you're honest, that advice probably makes you want to scream.
Because here's what no one says out loud: when your body hurts, movement doesn't feel like medicine. It feels like a threat.
That's the starting point of a book we've been reading at EQ — You're Meant to Move by Dana Karen Ciccone, a Pilates teacher, researcher, and chronic pain specialist based in Edinburgh who has been living with back pain since she was thirteen. It's one of the more honest things we've come across in a long time, and we think a lot of our clients need to hear what's in it.
Pain is not just a body problem.
One of the most important things DK puts on the table early in the book is that pain is not simply the result of physical damage. It's a signal generated by the brain in response to perceived threat — and once that signal has been on long enough, it can persist long after the original injury has healed. Which is why telling someone to just get moving, without addressing the fear underneath, doesn't work. The pain doesn't go away just because you've decided to push through it.
What DK calls kinesiophobia — fear of movement due to pain — is one of the biggest barriers her clients face. The body has learned that movement equals danger, and no amount of willpower overrides a nervous system that's been trained to protect you.
The stories we carry about our bodies matter.
This is where the book gets particularly interesting. DK draws a direct line between the narratives we've built around our pain — often shaped by years of conflicting advice, unhelpful diagnoses, and healthcare experiences that left us feeling broken or dismissed — and our actual capacity to move. The beliefs we hold about what our bodies can and can't do directly influence the choices we make.
That's not woo. That's increasingly well-supported by research in pain science, and it changes what good coaching looks like in the room. It's not about finding the right exercise and applying it to the right joint. It's about understanding the whole picture — and helping someone find what DK calls a "refuge": a movement or context in which they feel safe enough to begin.
Why this matters at EQ.
We've been teaching people with pain, injury histories, and complex medical backgrounds for twenty-five years. Our clients include people in their eighties and nineties who are still moving, still strong, and still here — not in spite of what their bodies have been through, but partly because they kept coming. What DK puts language to in her book is something we've long understood practically: the relationship between a teacher and a client with pain requires more than good repertoire. It requires trust, patience, and a willingness to work with fear rather than around it.
The Pilates system — particularly the apparatus — is exceptionally well-suited to this. The support the apparatus provides, the ability to modify load and range, the fact that sessions are one-to-one or very small group — these aren't just nice-to-haves. For someone navigating pain, they're the whole point.
Coming to EQ in May.
We're excited to welcome DK to the studio for two events this May.
On 15 May, she's running a 90-minute workshop open to anyone living with recurring or persistent pain — not a class, but an experiential session exploring the science of pain, movement fear, and how to start building a practice that actually works for your body. £65, including a signed copy of the book.
If you'd like to work with DK one-to-one before the workshop, we also have a small number of individual sessions available at lunchtime/early afternoon of Friday 15 May. It's a rare opportunity to work privately with someone who has spent years specialising in exactly this area. Spaces are limited so get in touch to book.
On 16 May, she's running Cultivating Courage — her half-day CPD course for Pilates teachers on how to work confidently with chronic pain clients. The Glasgow date sold out. Early bird pricing for the EQ date closes 15 April.
Details and booking for both in the links below.
If you're a client reading this who recognises something of yourself in what we've described — someone who has been told to move more and found that advice more frustrating than useful — the 15 May workshop is for you. And if you know someone who's been struggling, quietly, with a body that feels like it's working against them, send this to them.
The book is also very much worth your time regardless.
Links:
Client workshop (15 May 3.30 - 4.30pm): [booking link]
Teacher CPD (16 May 1.00 - 5.00pm): movementremedies.as.me/cultivatingcourageEQpilates
You're Meant to Moveon Amazon