Pilates and pregnancy – Why it is good for pregnant women

Although pregnancy is a delicate process, exercise can not be ruled out from the life of a pregnant woman for three important reasons:

• Makes your mom-to-be body stronger.
• Gets your body ready for an easier delivery.
• Helps you get a faster and better recovery after birth.

Pilates for pregnancy focuses on three main areas: back strength, pelvic floor strength and posture. As your body grows over the months the weight the baby adds is going to put strain and pulls on your back, shoulders and legs.

In addition to this, relaxin (hormone released during pregnancy) and belly growth produce weakening and loosening of muscles and joints in the pelvic area, the key delivery area. So, if you keep your muscles and joints strong throughout pregnancy you will have an easier birth and a faster recovery.

And what are the best Pilates exercises for mom, then?

The most suitable pregnancy exercises are gentle movements with a safe range of motion that help strengthening the abdomen. The results: your enhanced core muscles will give adequate support to your organs and back, so as to make your pregnancy more bearable.

Caution

Before you get ready to hit the Pilates studio, consult your physician first if there are any factors that may interfere in your workout routine.

In case you are a sporty mom already it is advisable you slow down your pace due to the fact that high level fitness can result into more blood flow diverted into the fetus and the possibility of having a low-weight baby. But if your want to keep up your training, light cardio, swimming, walking and Pilates pregnancy exercises will do you good.

Can Pilates cure back pain, the chronic disease of our days?

Yes, it can. This has a logic explanation, which is the base of the Pilates method. The reason is that it is the only method that does not consider the spinal cord as a block but as a group of joints independent among each other.

Each vertebra is an independent bone with a joint that unites it to the femur, knee and leg bone (fibula). The cause of back pain is because the paravertebral muscles accumulate too much tension because they never get stretched or work out adequately because of inactivity and wrong positions.

Externally, this tension is shown in the trapezoid area, which is what the massager or physiotherapist deals with when we go to consultation, but never reaches those deep muscles, which makes back pain come back again.

Of each vertebra come out tiny rope-like muscles, the multifidus, the deepest muscles of the spinal cord. Over them, there are other overlapping rope-like muscles that reach the trapezoids or dorsal muscles.

With mobilization exercises, our spinal cord achieves flexibility and releasing the tension of the multifidus, which is spread immediately all through our muscle system.

The problems of being sitting down too much

When we face the problem that our bodies can not perform the activities they are meant for and cause us weakness, injuries and pain, it would be good to take a look at what we are asking our body every day to do.

Question: What is the activity you realize the most any single day? Unless you are a professional athlete, a dancer or a personal trainer, you would answer: Sitting down.

Most of us spend great part of the day sitting down in front of the computer, watching TV, having dinner; in the car…we are stuck to the seat.
Let’s not confuse resting with being sitting down!

For sitting down well, you have to use certain torso muscles. Otherwise, if you are curve during long time, you will be training incorrectly your muscles.

Therefore, this helps you realize that every time we perform correctly with our bodies a determined action; we are training it to improve determined position.
People who walk erected and perfectly stretched have been training for that for years!

If we ask our bodies to lift boxes, take out the shirt or holding the baby, we are exposing it to possible injuries. For this, it is necessary a training, as fro any other activity. Yeah, you guess right, for sitting down too.

As we all know, most chairs have a back support, thus the process of training has almost disappeared. What brings to our minds: The Japanese. By getting their muscles used to sitting in an upright position, they can keep a right position whatever they do. That would explain the reduced percentage of back problems in Japan – 80% less- than in the Occidental world.