Benefits of Pilates
Pilates is one of the safe methods to make sure that your pelvic floor, core and glute muscles stay stronger during pregnancy. Relaxin is a hormone that is released in your body during pregnancy. It usually comes at the end of the first trimester and stays until the birth of the baby. This hormone helps the ligaments around the pelvis relax during birth. However, for some women, the ligaments would relax too much and this is where problems such as back pain and pelvic girdle pain begin to increase. Clinical Pilates could be easily tailored based on the needs of each individual. It helps in keeping you strong throughout the pregnancy so that you could avoid many ailments and symptoms.
What could Pilates do for you?
Strengthen the pelvic floor and core
In the first trimester, you would either have nausea and vomiting or you would feel fine and would be ready to exercise. If you feel sick, then it is important to listen to your body and take enough rest. If you are not feeling sick you could start with Pilates which would help in strengthening the deep core. In the second and third trimesters, as the baby bump grows, the focus would be more on the pelvic floor. Your core becomes your greeting as it would help in connecting the deeper abdominal muscles and not the superficial muscles. It is very important to give stress to pelvic floor exercises and core exercises. It helps you keep strong as the weight would get heavier month after month and bears down on the pelvic floor. A pelvic floor is a group of muscles that holds your bowels, uterus and bladder. As it weakens, it would affect the organs.
Strengthens the Pelvis & Lower Back
Laxity of ligaments continues throughout the pregnancy. So, it is very important to keep the muscles around the pelvis strong to prevent lower back pain. Pilates focuses on strengthening the muscles of the lower legs, the glute muscles, pelvic floor and core to assess the body to hold the weight of the baby.
Helps Support Spine & Upper Back
As the curve of your spine begins to change, to make room for the baby, this would increase the tension in the upper back and neck. Pilates increases the strength of the upper thoracic spine and arms that improve the posture and supports to help you throughout the pregnancy and postnatal to carry a heavy baby.
Breathing techniques and self-care during and after labour
It is very important to provide the self-care you need before the baby arrives and also to keep giving you self-care after the birth of the baby. If you do postnatal Pilates, it would help you to breathe properly and get back to shape by tightening the pelvic floor muscles post-delivery.
Helps Maintain a Healthy Weight and help with day-to-day Activities
As you progress with the pregnancy, the baby bump would make your everyday activities harder like standing for a longer time, walking or even wearing clothes. Pilates gives importance to functional exercises, including weight-bearing exercises. It helps you maintain a healthy weight throughout the pregnancy and get you through labour.
