Pregnancy is imagined to be all about green juices, obsessing over the glow and feeling connected to others like you’d never experienced before.
Real life – You might feel more guarded and protective than ever before. You’re unable to move and you just want to get your body back after it being a shared department for 9 months. How uncomfortable!
Lucky for you, Pilates might be the tool to help you gain your strength back, and losing weight would be a welcomed byproduct. Learn How.
Pilates For Pregnancy: The Benefits
Pregnancy can rob you of your energy, leaving you sleepy and restless almost everyday. Sleep would eventually elude you and might cause lower back pain. Your tummy and pelvic floor muscles are put under increasing strain as your baby grows. Due to these weakened tummy and pelvic floor muscles, undesirable secretions occur sometimes when you cough or sneeze. Who wants that!
Working out, in general, is a great way to alleviate stress and improve muscle tone.
Pilates is a gentle and safe exercise. It involves a series of controlled movements that are easily modified around any discomfort or pains you may have. Pilates keeps you strong and focuses on the muscles – core and pelvic floor muscles – that are really important when carrying and delivering a baby.
Prenatal Pilates: What It Means For Expecting Mothers
Prenatal Pilates is encouraged for soon-to-be moms to do in every trimester. Not only does it build strength, stamina and balance, you can have an easier labor too.
“Doing Pilates throughout your pregnancy will help keep you relaxed during delivery”
Dr. Jarrod Alivizatos
As Pilates primarily target core muscles, you feel a burn in your body after a few repetitions. Talk about efficiency! The strain your body goes through during pregnancy is extremely harsh. Pilates is an active routine that activates your muscles and has a low impact on joints.
You feel a significant change in posture and strength, which is important for pregnancy.
Pregnancy Pilates Exercises: Simple Moves To Get You Started
Before trying out these pregnancy Pilates exercises, consult with your doctor to get his/her green light.
Some of these exercises may be complex, so don’t fret if you get it wrong, as one of our practitioners are more than happy to extend a hand & guide you before you embark on this journey.
1- The Sword
- Stand with feet wider than your hips, knees bent and feet turned out. Put your hands on your hips and move your right hand on your left knee, as you look left.
- Sweep your right hand upward and to the right as though you are drawing a sword out of a hip belt. At the same time, push off from your knees and look upwards.
- Switch sides.
BENEFITS:
Strengthens: Legs, back and abs
Improves Balance
2- Wag The Tail
- Get down on all fours and make sure your hands are directly below your shoulders. Draw your belly in and lift your left knee up and to the side. Keep your shoulders away from your ears at all times.
- Draw 3 circles with your left knee while holding your abs in.
- Switch sides.
BENEFITS:
Strengthens: Lower back and abs
Builds Flexibility & Stability
3- Sword Arm
- Kneel on your right knee and place your right hand directly below your shoulder. Extend your left leg, foot on floor and out to the side. Hips facing front and abs pulled in. Reach your left hand to the floor as you look down.
- Inhale, as you slowly draw your arm up to the sky, opening your chest and looking up at your hand. Exhale, as you lower your arm to starting position.
- Switch sides.
BENEFITS:
Strengthens: Lower back, abs, hips and abs
Builds Stability & Balance
Stop any of them immediately, should you feel any pain. Consult our Pilates studio timetable if you’d like to get an assessment.
Pilates For Weight Loss
Following pregnancy and childbirth, your tummy and pelvic floor muscles have stretched and weakened. Pilates is great for recovering and get back to your pre-pregnancy body! #winning
Most mothers feel discouraged in the early postnatal period due to change in lifestyle, adjusting hormones and sleep deprivation.
Exercising releases endorphins and makes you feel positive about yourself. Pilates exercises are a good way to allow new mothers to have a timeout, which is crucial for her wellbeing.
As Joseph Pilates said, “You will feel better in ten sessions, look better in twenty, and have a completely new body in thirty!”
We always encourage you to consult your GP or our expert practitioners for a proper examination before you start with Pilates.
The Team at Northern Spinal Clinic.
