We take over 20,000 breaths a day and the breath is one of the primary restorative influencers in post-natal core recovery. For many post-natal ladies we need to re-learn how to breathe the right way as the rigours of pregnancy and delivery can cause a mis-firing of these muscles in the right order. Faulty breathing can totally hinder your healing of the pelvic floor and diastasis. This is where stretching and massage can really help to release tight areas/muscles so that you can be re-aligned for function and ready to ‘exercise’ again.
How to breathe correctly
2. Breathe into your belly and into the side of the ribcage
3. Feel belly lift and feel ribcage expand wide
4. As you breathe out, feel belly soften down and ribcage draw in and down
5. Breathe out through your lips to deepen this connection and to help aid the pelvic floor engagement during this breathing
6. Once you have mastered this you can move onto movement based exercises
What to stretch?
Hip flexors, chest, neck, Lower back to start with a few.
Get into good alignment!
Have a tall upper body, growing through
the crown of your head
Weight even through your fee
Stack your ribcage over your pelvis
Feel that your shoulder blades are softening down towards your back pockets
Feel your collar bones are wide like they are smiling at you
Think of ears, middle of shoulders, middle of hips and middle of knees and ankles are in a vertical line
So now with a more functional breathe pattern, released muscles that were tight from carrying baby, and from the rigours of delivery you can then align your pelvis and body correctly ready for the next phase of your post-natal rehabilitation, body weight loading…..
