Four things to keep in mind for a pain-free pregnancy
In pregnancy certain parts of our body get really tight because of the shift in our posture. What most women don’t know is that they can avoid many pregnancy-related aches and pain by keeping the following 4 rules in mind.
1- Sit up straight and roll your shoulders back
2- Shake those hips daily
3- Hip hinge often
4- Point and flex as often as you can
I explain why and give you easy exercise ideas below.
Sit up straight and roll your shoulders back
In pregnancy our upper back tends to round, our shoulders drop forward, our chest muscles tighten and our shoulder blades are pulled forward on the sides of our ribcage.
To prevent all these areas from getting really tight and stuck all you need to do is move them in the opposite direction: sit up straight and avoid slouching, open and stretch your chest muscles, move your shoulder blades in all directions, pull your shoulders back and make sure they retain their mobility in all directions.
Try this: sit on the floor with your back against a wall, arms in a W position, as close to the wall as possible. Keep your upper back in contact with the wall. Now try stretching your arms so you are now in a Y position. Bend them again to a W position – make sure you keep some parts of your arms in contact with the wall! Keep going and do this often.
Shake those hips
The same goes for our pelvis as for our shoulders: it is pulled forward and literally tilts forward as the weight of the growing belly shifts our centre of gravity forward. And because of this our back muscles are pulled into a shortened position. They become tight and our lower back hurts.
Try this: To alleviate the tension and keep our pelvis mobile, the best exercise is what we call “pelvic tilts” – seated on a big birth ball, tilt your pelvis back and forth and side to side and in then in circles. Have fun! Put sexy music on and get that pelvis moving!
Lengthen and strengthen your glutes
Women often come out of pregnancy and postpartum with absolutely no glute muscles left and a pelvis tilted in the opposite direction to the pregnant tilt. That’s a compensation mechanism. It can result in pelvic floor issues, deep butt pain, incontinence.
To avoid it, during pregnancy make sure to use your glutes through their full range of motion. Deep squat, and then come back up to standing – that’s the full range. If deep squatting is too much for you, just squat to your maximum and then stand straight as you extend your hips to their maximum. But you don’t have to do squats if you don’t like squats.
Try this: My favourite exercise is actually what we call hip hinges – stagger your feet by putting one foot forward, bend at the hips keeping a straight back and knees slightly bent, and then come back up to standing- that’s it. Do it daily on both sides for healthy glutes.
Point and flex
The change in pelvis positioning and the loss of glute strength can put extra pressure on the muscles at the back of the legs – the hamstrings and calf muscles.
In addition, because of the hormone relaxin, all the ligaments in our body become more lax in pregnancy, including those of the feet. This can cause the feet to widen and the arch to collapse, which can then result in pain. Not only in the foot, but also further up the leg all the way to the hip.
Barre-like exercises like heel lifts are fantastic to strengthen and stretch the back of your legs, keep your ankles mobile and feet happy.
Try this: Place one hand on a wall or chair, stand straight and lift your heels up and down ten times. Repeat often.
How Pilates can help
The 4 pillars of movement in pregnancy presented above are all integral to my Prenatal Pilates classes – every single one of my Prenatal classes includes all 4 principles.
In all my classes we work on our posture, we strengthen our glutes going through teh full range of motion. We also work the whole of our legs, including the ankles and feet – we release, we stretch, we strengthen- because all these things are important in pregnancy.
Join me for Prenatal Pilates – get in touch now.