So yesterday was all about pregnancy and Pilates. Overnight, we’ve all had imaginary babies, so now it’s time for a crash course in postnatal Pilates – get back on the mat, and get your baby involved.
As with exercising during
pregnancy, going back to Pilates after giving birth should be done with the
advice of your doctor. The general guideline is beginning again four to six
week after a ‘normal’ birth, or considerably longer if there have been complications
or if you’ve had C-section – perhaps eight to twelve weeks. Once you’re given
the all clear though, Pilates is really good for helping you regain your
posture, and particularly retrain your pelvic floor.
There are several issues to
consider and look out for when taking up Pilates following childbirth. These
include:
Incontinence: the pelvic floor
will have become stretched and weakened by pregnancy and birth (even if you’ve
had a C-section), and ‘leakage’ may occur, particularly with strenuous
movement. You can use Pilates to strengthen your pelvic floor again, in
conjunction with the exercises you will have been given by your midwife or
other medical professionals.
Joint laxity: Relaxin (the hormone
which increases the stretchiness of your ligaments, to allow your pelvis to
expand during childbirth) will still be present in your system for up to a year
after pregnancy. This means you should avoid holding stretches for longer than
10-15 seconds, as you risk stretching the ligaments rather than the muscles. Limit
your range of movement to a ‘safe’ level until hormone levels return to normal.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: common
during and after pregnancy due to joint hypermobility and fluid build-up caused
by the hormones associated with pregnancy. Pilates exercises can be modified to
reduce the pressure on the wrists, for example by using special props to go
under your hands when you’re on all-fours. These decrease the angle of your
wrist and allow you to exercise with less pressure on the joint.
Breast tenderness: particularly in
the early stages of breastfeeding. Again, props such as boxes are available so
that you don’t need to put pressure on your chest when lying on your front. You
may wish to avoid lying on your front all together to start with, and expressing
before exercising can also help.
Diastasis Recti: this is the
separation of the ab muscles down the centre line of the belly. It can occur
during pregnancy, and last for up to two years afterwards. To check if this has
happened, lie on your back and raise your head and shoulders off the mat
(coming into an ab curl position). Feel for a groove along your midline, just
above or below the belly button. Avoid exercising if you can fit more than two
fingers in this gap – the muscles aren’t in the right place for strengthening
exercises to be of benefit, and you risk hernia if you try to work this area.
Seek the advice of your doctor if you think separation has occurred.
Fatigue: it will come as no
surprise to anyone with a small child, or even anyone who knows someone with a
small child, that you’re probably sleep-deprived and exhausted most of the
time. Start with shorter bursts of exercise and build these up as you get
stronger. Lessons of 20-30 minutes may be long enough to start with, and interval
training with frequent breaks is a good way of maximising the impact of the
time you spend exercising.
Posture: pregnancy is likely to
have knocked you posture out of its ideal alignment. Caring for a small baby
tends to reinforce these bad postural habits – for example hunching over with
your upper back, shoulders and neck. Pilates is great for retraining your
muscles to bring your spine back to its natural curves and increase the range
of movement you have through many of your joints.
So – assuming you’re watching out
for these things (don’t worry, your instructor will be too!), then getting back
to Pilates will not only help you reduce the likelihood of back, neck and
shoulder pain, it will also give you an intriguing new challenge – how to
incorporate your baby into all your favourite Pilates moves. Believe me, your
powers of invention will be tested, but hopefully your baby will enjoy the
experience as much as you do!
One of the best baby-smiles I’ve
ever seen was from three month old Mia with her mum push up-ing over her
during a mum-and-baby class. You can also have your baby sitting on your
stomach or legs while you’re on your back, and holding them in your arms as you
do seated rotational exercises is also great.
I run a parent and baby group
class in Clapham on Wednesday mornings – come along and learn some new moves if
you’re interested in finding out more! Class details are here: http://www.flexpilates.co.uk/group.html
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