Why you should do Pilates when you are Pregnant?
From the beginning of your pregnancy to the end, your body experiences the most amazing changes that are designed to help you carry your baby and eventually delivery your baby. With these changes, your body will become stretched, strained, weakened, tight and/or overused. These adaptations can be very tiring for your body and can often increase over the length of your pregnancy. By maintaining good postural and body awareness from the start of your pregnancy can help to support and maintain your changing body over the different trimesters.
Pilates is the perfect low impact workout to do during pregnancy. Pilates is the type of exercise that involves using your core (the abdominals, pelvic floor, back muscles and diaphragm) to help you move efficiently and promotes restoring correct posture and alignment. (This is important during pregnancy but REALLY IMPORTANT for your post- natal recovery especially if you have a diastasis recti separation.) It links movement exercises with your pelvic floor and this is greatly needed as a mum when your body is in such great demand to feed, carry, lift, push and care for your baby.
What physical changes take place in pregnancy?
At the end of your first trimester, the hormone, Relaxin is released into your body; however it can be present earlier. Relaxin’s main role is to loosen and relax the pelvic floor muscles making it ready for a vaginal delivery. Relaxin affects most of your ligaments and connective tissues in your body due to its ‘loosening’ affect and therefore helps to stretch your abdominals to accommodate the growing baby; and your ribcage so that your body can adjust to the pressure of the diaphragm from your growing uterus.
Pilates exercises will;
Physically-fit Pilates is a fantastic class that will continue teach you about your posture, create awareness about your posture, teach you how to perform your pelvic floor exercises correctly, build body confidence during and after your pregnancy, breathe for abdominal strength as well as relaxation, teach you functional mum movements to get you strong for all the lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling you will be doing as a mum and of course a great place to meet other like minded mums and be yourself! I look forward to seeing you at a pilates class!