Priya Tew | Pilates with Priya

Pilates with Priya: Post Natal Pilates Class

Abdominal Seperation can be Fixed!

4 November, 2012 Priya Tew

I love working with my post-natal mummies (and that’s not just because I sometimes get a baby to cuddle), one of the key things we focus on is strengthening the core post-birth.

As part of these classes I often perform “rec checks” on mummies to see how their tummy muscles are, that also means we get exciting moments when we realise Pilates has done it’s job and the muscles are back in line again – WHOOP WHOOP!

Here we are in action:

Here’s some more info on what I mean:

The six-pack muscle (Rectus Abdominis) runs from your breast bone to your pubic bone and is joined together with a strong fibrous sheath called the Linea Alba. In some pregnancies, the Linea Alba becomes a little darker in colour and is visible on your stomach. This is called Linea Negra which simply means “dark line”.

You may have heard people talk about your abdominal muscles “splitting”. Your muscles don’t “split”, because they’re already in a separated state, as they’re held together by the Linea Alba which I mentioned above. A split muscle is like a torn muscle, so if you’ve ever torn your hamstring, for example, you’ll know what this pain is like! What happens to the abdominal muscles during pregnancy, is completely painless, you aren’t aware of it, and I like to refer to it simply as abdominal “separation”.

The Rectus Abdominis stretches vertically (up and down your stomach) to accommodate baby bump at your front, and when it can’t stretch any further up and down, it then starts to separate horizontally (from left to right).

I guess it’s a little bit like the Linea Alba is heavy duty cling film stretching apart. The muscles don’t separate in every pregnancy. It depends on a number of factors. The separation can take place above the belly button, below the belly button, or both.

Doing Pilates-based exercise and lots of pelvic floor work during pregnancy and immediately after birth is the best thing you can do to help your muscles re-align.

Why not do 5 “draw up and hold” abdominal/pelvic floor exercises now? Breathe in, filling your belly with air to prepare. Breathe out, draw your tummy muscles in and draw your pelvic floor up slowly and keep holding on (like you’re stopping yourself going for a wee). Stay there and breathe in to hold. Then breathe out and slowly relax the pelvic floor/ab muscles. Repeat this again, throughout the day.

Why do Pilates?

18 October, 2012 Priya Tew

What are the advantages of taking up pilates?

Pilates is an excellent form of gentle exercise which has many physical and mental health benefits. Not only does it help to keep you strong and supple, but it is a great way to relax after a hectic or busy day.

With obesity on the rise and fast-food becoming ever cheaper, there’s no better time than now to kick-start a healthy lifestyle by joining a fitness class. If after seeing an advert for Weight Watchers or Aviva Life, you’ve decided to lead a more healthy lifestyle so you’ve joined your local gym, then why not read about all the great advantages of taking up pilates?

Pilates is an all-body workout

Pilates does not simply focus on one part of the body like many exercises do. It provides an all-body workout which helps to keep you more supple and fit. Pilates develops your inner core strength by training the body as an integrated whole. Regular pilates classes will improve your overall strength, as well as promoting healthy muscle development.

Anyone can do pilates, any age, any type of person. Pilates is one of the most versatile and adaptable forms of exercise, so whether you’re a senior who’s just starting to exercise or you are a fitness-fanatic, the foundations of pilates still applies to you. There are umpteen possible exercises and modifications, which means you can tailor pilates poses to suit your individual needs.

Pilates tones your body rather than building muscle

Pilates develops long, lean muscles rather than bulking you out. The ‘eccentric contraction’ stretch helps you to develop long and lean muscles which helps you to stretch and bend more easily.

Pilates builds on your core strength

By developing your core muscles, you will improve your posture and maintain a supple back. In addition, core training promotes the development of flat abs.

NB: This post is a sponsored blog post.

Pilates with Priya: Pilates helps Waterskiing

Pilates IS for Men, Olympics, Diving and WaterSkiing.

6 October, 2012 Priya Tew

Why do people do Pilates with me? It can be for all kinds of reasons, but one of the most common is back ache or being told to by an osteopath/chiropracter/physiotherapist. I find the men tend to creep into classes looking slightly embarassed about it, but after a few weeks realise it’s actually quite hard work and really helps.

What I then love about Pilates is how it gives unexpected results by helping people in other areas too… like in this story below. The man in question came due to back pain but is finding it helps his waterskiing. Which it should 🙂 Yay!

Did you know the GB 2012 Olympic Diving team have a Pilates instructor? True Fact, I met someone who worked with them on the team who was telling me all about it.

Here’s a little testimonial from a man who does Pilates with me, I think it’s a pretty good advert for Pilates 🙂

“A little over a year ago I was seeing an osteopath because of back ache that had been troubling me for several months. One of the first things that he said to me was that I would really benefit from doing pilates. Very soon after I started classes with Priya. Since starting pilates I can honestly say that I have not suffered any significant back pain at all.”

I am a qualified waterski coach and I slalom ski three or four times a week in the summer. This is an extremely demanding sport, which involves high stresses and strains on the body as one is pulled from around 34mph to 60mph and back to 34mph in just over 2 seconds. This requires a great deal of core stability and I have to say that pilates has been the perfect compliment for it. I regularly use pilates exercises for warming up and warming down. I would say, in fact, that pilates would be a very helpful aid in training for almost any sport.

I only took up pilates in an attempt to address a long standing problem but to be quite honest, as well as really significant increase in my flexibility, and core strength, I have been very surprised about the impact that pilates has had on my performance, fitness and recovery from injury and I would, and in fact do, recommend it to anyone who will listen! “

Pilates on Holidays

27 September, 2012 Priya Tew

We’ve just been on holidays – 2 weeks in sunnier climates, time to eat well, relax well and almost sleep (I have a toddler – enough said). For some people holidays are all about switching off and lazing around. My body can only take so much of that so I travelled half way round the world with: my trainers, running kit, some Pilates DVD’s and a resistance band. My husband rolled his eyes. I ignored him.

I spent a lovely afternoon playing around in a gym, with my laptop and reistance band. Watching other instructors teach always gives me fresh ideas and makes me question why I teach things in certain ways. I love to learn, develop and keep things alive. Not only did I get more inspiration but I got a workout and relaxed all at the same time. WIN WIN.

Now I’ll admit I didn’t go for a run – I usually do on holidays, but I don’t usually have a toddler with me. This particular toddler gave me workout enough, my arms should be super strong from much carrying, dancing and rocking. We also had an active holiday with crazy train journeys, much, much swimming, jumping, chasing and playing.

What I did enjoy was a few snatched moments of making up new Step Aerobics routines in the bar, trying out Pilates exercises with variations on very hard floors and using my core whilst stood rocking a small, yet heavy one to sleep.

Do you exercise whilst on holiday? Or am I just mad?

Pilates Classes Over Holidays

23 August, 2012 Priya Tew

Most of you who attend classes should be aware that I’m off on holidays very soon (4th Sept). I can’t wait!!!

There will be classes continuing to run on a Monday, Wednesday and Sunday whilst I am away. Also don’t forget our DVD which can be used if your usual class is not running or for some extra practice between sessions.

September 4th-22nd Classes:

Monday Post Natal Classes will be cancelled

Monday 5.30 Beginners, 6.30 Intermediates and 7.45 Ante-Natal will be
running, covered by Maxine

Wednesday 6pm and 7pm Beginners will run, covered by Faye

Thursday 10am and 8pm Mixed Ability Classes will be cancelled (please
book onto Wed 8pm or another class)

Friday 8.15pm Mixed Ability class will be cancelled (please book onto
Wed 8pm or another class)

Saturday 9.15 Mixed Ability class will be moved to Sunday 9.15, covered
by Faye

Sunday 9.30 Ante-Natal will move to a 10.15 start, covered by Faye.

Any questions please contact us and we’d be happy to help!

Priya

Pilates makes you taller!

5 August, 2012 Priya Tew

I’ve had a couple of people mention to me lately that since starting Pilates they have grown from 1cm to 1.5 inches taller. Initially I laughed at this, but then I happened to re-height myself and guess what? I’ve grown too, one whole centimetre.

It got me thinking. What’s this about?

Pilates helps with alignment and posture. Over time either the principles of neutral alignment become a bit like second nature or you end up with my voice nagging in your head…. “stand up tall with a piece of string pulling you up towards the ceiling, shoulder pulled round and down in your back, pelvis in neutral, core engaged….” So it does make sense that over time, the practise of standing tall whilst using your core can make you taller.

The normal ageing process affects our height, as the disks in the spine lose hydration and elasticity they start to shrink. Sitting at a desk hunched over a computer screen leads to the back becoming stretched, the shoulders and chest tight and the hamstrings shortened. To me this shows how much we need to focus on stretching and on proper alignment. If your muscles are tight and short it leads to pain.

Strengthening the back and stretching the shoulders and chest whilst remembering to lengthen through the neck can correct this and make you taller!

Toddler Ballerina’s

20 July, 2012 Priya Tew

I can’t quite believe it but I now have a toddler girl and when I say girl I mean one who likes pretty things, jewellery, calls things Preeeeety and has the most adorable smile in the world – she likes to think she is in charge too…..she’s not but I let her think so some of the time. Here she is:

So when Chrissy, our resident ballet teacher suggested we ran a toddler ballet class I scratched my head, slept on it, then thought, what the heck, it could work. We’ve been running classes for a few weeks and it’s been a whole heap of toddler tantrums, cuddles, smiles, loud music and cups of tea! I’ll be honest my small one often does her own thing, she appears to have my independant streak 😉 but you know what, thats all allowed in my studio. What I find is that small girl may not participate in 100% of the class but she certainly takes it in and practises later on. Suddenly she’ll start doing her plies and stretching up to the sky and before I know it she has done half her ballet class whilst I’m cooking dinner.

During classes we point our toes, practise plies, go to the jungle, pretend to be starfish on the floor, act like puppets, use hoops, wands and musical instruments, march like soldiers and my toddlers favourite: gallop like horses. It’s a mix of ballet exercises, animal noises, musical fun and a lot of chatter. At present it’s all girls in the class but we’d love some boys!

This class is not just for the toddlers, parental involvement is needed, so yes you get a bit of a workout yourself. Chrissy is great at encouraging us all to move and feel the ballet love.

Afterwards we all migrate to the lounge for a cuppa, some chat and let the toddlers loose on the toys. This is often the best bit, a chance to unwind, chat about how awful or wonderful your week has been and get some support, that’s what we are all about.

Sometimes I’m a little bit clever…. the Multifidus and Me.

28 June, 2012 Priya Tew

I’ve got a great friend who is a GP who comes to my Pilates classes and we often discuss the muscles being used in an exercise. Last week we were doing just this and I mentioned the Multifidus to which her response was “The what?” She was convinced I was making it up so this week pulled my muscle atlas off the shelf and asked me to show her….which I did 🙂

So this post is for her…

The Multifidus:

The multifidus muscles help to take pressure off the vertebral discs so that our body weight can be well distributed along the spine. These muscles are recruited during many actions in our daily living, which includes bending backward and sideways.

It works it’s way up the spine, attaching from one vertbrae to another, providing support for the spine and aiding our posture. If I was clever enough I’d draw you a picture….but I’m not, so instead try googling it!

Studies have shown that the multifidus muscles get activated before any action is carried out so to protect our spine from injury. Take for example when you are about to carry an item or before moving your arm, the mutifidus muscles will start contracting prior to the actual movement of the body and the arm so as to prepare the spine for the movement and prevent it from getting hurt.

Guess what…Pilates can help strengthen this muscle. Some of the exercises we do lying on our tummies definitely will strengthen the Multifidus muscles, meaning a stronger back and less back pain!

New Ante-Natal Class Starts

8 June, 2012 Priya Tew

May saw the launch of a New Ante-Natal Pilates class for our little studio. Taught by Priya this is now our second Ante-Natal Class and is already full of lovelies mums to be. It’s lovely to be getting such an influx of pregnant ladies that a second class has had been put on to cater for demand. We only take a maximum of 7 people so there is plenty of time for individual help. In fact that’s one thing Priya loves to do, go round the class and advise.

All the ladies tonight turned up with their own birthing balls, ready for action. These classes are designed to help strengthen your core, stretch out your upper back, correct postural imbalances and prepare you for not only labour but life afterwards too.

So now we have 2 Ante-Natal classes plus we have a fabulous Post Natal Class for after baby comes so you can come along with baby, do some Pilates and have a cuppa and chat afterwards 😉

Pelvic Floor, use it or lose it.

8 June, 2012 Priya Tew

This week in my classes, the pelvic floor has come up a few times. Now as a dietitian I end up talking about bowels a lot and as a Pilates instructor I now get to talk about pelvic floors – you can see how glam I am 😉 , I thought I’d add a quick blog post on it to help you out.

In Pilates we use the “CORE” muscles these include the “transversus abdominis” (TA) muscle, which is similar to a corset, wrapping round the body, I describe it as being below the belly button, and the pelvic floor.

The muscles of the pelvic floor can be thought of as being like a hammock going from your front to your back passage, holding everything in! When these muscles are weak most people know it can result in stress incontinence, but did you also know the pelvic floor muscles aid the emptying of your bowel and bladder, and they can make sex more enjoyable!

So how do you find these muscles? It sounds crude but I’d suggest when you go for a wee try stopping the slow of urine part way through and this will show you were there muscles are. Or think about going on a long car journey and being desperate for a wee but having a husband (like mine) who refuses to pull into the services 😉 It’s those muscles you have to use to hold it in!

Your pelvic floor is pretty much like the foundation of a house, if that is strong you’ll function better. After a while in Pilates you learn to get both your TA and pelvic floor muscles firing when you are doing exercises, but in the early stages you may need to remember to engage both of these seperately. What will end up happening is when you contract one the other will co-contract.

So I’d encourage you to start training your pelvic floor and keep using my reminders in class to check you’ve got your CORE engaged. Use it or Lose it 😉

Author: Priya Tew