Evidence library · Joint pain

Does pilates affect joint pain in menopause? What 5 studies found

Studies of pilates in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured joint pain. 5 reported an improvement and 0 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. A meta-analysis of 23 trials in people with osteoporosis, 95 percent female with an average age of 67, found exercise such as resistance training, balance training and Pilates improved mental health, quality of life and pain.

    Reported an improvementMeta-analysis · 2,120 participants pooled · 19 weeks · 2026PostmenopausalCited 1 timesPubMed

  2. Women with postmenopausal osteoporosis did one year of Pilates or home exercise, and researchers found greater improvement in pain, function and quality of life with Pilates.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 60 women · 52 weeks · 2013PostmenopausalCited 46 timesPubMed

  3. Postmenopausal women with chronic low back pain did 6 weeks of Pilates plus physical therapy or physical therapy alone, with the Pilates group reporting better pain and disability scores at 6 weeks and 1 year.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 101 women · 6 weeks · 2016PostmenopausalCited 22 timesPubMed

  4. In a trial of 128 postmenopausal women with low back pain, Pilates exercises produced greater improvements in pain, endurance, quality of life and disability than conventional physical therapy.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 128 women · 2025PostmenopausalCited 3 timesPubMed

  5. Postmenopausal women with chronic low back pain did Pilates with or without elastic resistance for 8 weeks and both groups reported less pain and more lumbar strength afterward.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 22 women · 8 weeks · 2022PostmenopausalCited 5 timesPubMed

How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.

Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.

Other exercise types and joint pain