Pilates and Muscle Update

My next update is an observation on how my muscle strength is changing over time. Readers may remember me describing this back in April https://hspjourney.blogspot.com/2025/04/symptoms-update-muscle-weakness-quads.html.

The latest update is to note that when I'm sitting down and wanting to raise my foot, I'll often grab my knee and use my arm to assist in moving my leg up. I'm also noting that its getting a bit more tricky to life my foot up when putting my socks on in the morning.

However, the place where I'm putting my body in the most unusual/distinctive postures is during Pilates. Over recent months I'm evolving my adaptions to help me make the movements. So, for seated movements I've been sitting on a block to allow my spine to be more upright. Here, I'm using another block in front of me or to the side of me so that I can more easily reach the ground. 

There are also extended positions where I can get my body into the position, but then find it difficult to move either those extended parts or other parts of my body. In this situation I have the choice either to hold the extended position, or to relax the extension and focus on the movement aspect.

Observing this about myself, and reminding myself that quads are important in walking, is beginning to let me see that it's not going to be too long until I'm going to need wheels to allow me to move about more freely. I'm not yet clear about what style wheels I'll go for first.

In the slightly longer term, my Pilates instructor also does seated Pilates classes, so I will be able to carry on with that even after the mat classes I attend become too difficult. 

Decreased muscle strength also means that my stair-climbing ability changes, and my falls risk increases, so those thoughts are beginning to move forwards in my mind. These thoughts now echo with my recent conversations with the occupational therapist. https://hspjourney.blogspot.com/2025/12/occupational-therapy-visit.html

I also need to consider muscle changes in my weight monitoring. Historically my muscles have been fairly stable, and my weight variation is entirely down to how much fat I carry around my midriff. If my muscles are beginning to shrink, that might be a weight change factor.