Day 10: Return of the abs

If you’ve been away for the weekend (and avoiding baby-related posts) then welcome back. Due to the popularity of the previous ‘abs of steel’ post, I thought I’d throw a few more your way today.

Roll up - This is a slo-mo version of the move you pull when you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat after THAT naked-in-the-exam-you-haven’t-revised-for dream. Start by lying on your back, with your arms overhead, tuck your chin in and peel your spine up off the mat, bone by bone. Ground your heels down into the mat for support – you’re trying not jerk up with momentum, but rise up slowly and with control. You want to end sitting up, reaching towards your toes. Roll back down with control, one vertebra at a time, back into the start position. Repeat 5 times. Video tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMg6xYMl8sU

Single leg stretch - starting with an imprinted spine (i.e. lower back stabilised on the mat), chin tucked in and knees at table top (up at right angles), bring your head and shoulders off the mat, and reach your arms forward. Take a moment to check that you’re pulling in with your belly button to make sure you’re flat through the abs. Now extend each leg away from you in turn. Exhale as you shoot the leg away, pointing the toe, straightening the leg. The other knee comes in towards you, and your hands come to this knee. The closer you bring the bent knee to your chest, the easier the exercise is.  Inhale as your knees pass each other. Repeat 10 times on each side, slowly and with control. Bring one hand behind your head if you feel strain in your neck. Video tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5KKgeRoG74

Obliques - this is a modified version of single leg stretch, and your legs are still doing the same thing. This time, bring your fingertips to your ears and rotate your armpit towards the opposite hip, keeping your shoulder blade up off the mat. Stay flat through the abs and concentrate on the twisting of the torso, rather than elbow and knee touching. Repeat 10 times on each side. Video tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4p0B3oRynQ

Scissors – again, lying on your back, chin tucked in, pelvis imprinted, bring your head and shoulders off the mat. Legs come to table top, then straighten to ceiling. Drop one leg down to the floor and draw the other towards you, pulling on your calf or ankles with your hands and exhaling as you do so. Inhale as your knees pass each other when you switch legs. Your belly button should stay pulled in towards spine, and your eyeline should be towards your knees. Toes stay be pointed, legs are actively reaching away, and you should be drawing up on your kneecaps to engage the quads. This can also be done with slightly bent knees if you have tight hamstrings.  Repeat 10 times on each side. Video tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKBn835xVhk

Double leg stretch – this is a great exercise to test your coordination as well as your strength, and also gets some good rotational movement going through your shoulders. Start with your legs in tabletop, with an imprinted spine. Tuck your chin down and lift your head and shoulders off the mat. Exhale as you straighten your legs out together (only as low as you can keep your lower back in contact with the mat), and extend your arms over your head (only as far back as you can keep your head and shoulders up off the mat). Inhale to sweep your arms out the side and bring them back to your shins, as you bring your knees back to the starting position. Repeat 8 times. Video tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLbV00EkL64

That should be plenty for a sunny bank holiday, enjoy!

Day 9: Work it, baby...

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