Author: Priya Tew

Sleeping babies and Pilates.

Priya TewLeave a Comment on Sleeping babies and Pilates.

Finally the day came when my beautiful baby slept all the way through a post-natal Pilates class NOT in a sling but on a bed! As much as I totally love my baby girl, it did feel good to have the freedom to teach the class and take part a little bit without having a baby attached to me restricting my movement. Plus, Pilates with a baby in a sling is HARD WORK! I wouldn’t recommend it as it definately alters your posture and puts extra strain on your back. I only demonstrate 1 example of the exercises and in some cases don’t demo at all but talk the exercise through and correct people as we go.

Even more amazingly all the babies who came to the class yesterday were angels and happily played in the lounge with Mr Daddy day-care (James). He does an amazing job keeping the babies happy, changing nappies, giving cuddles, helping them sleep, wearing them in a sling, singing, whatever is needed! It was lovely to hear a few notes of a song and gurgling babes. This meant the mummies were happily able to do do a whole hours Pilates session with no interruptions and I was able to work them quite hard (I hope they are all feeling ok today!). Mummies you all did a excellent job. Let’s remember this session when we get a week when all the babies are grizzling!!!

Challenging yet fun.

Priya TewLeave a Comment on Challenging yet fun.

I so enjoyed teaching this evenings class. It’s great working with a bunch of people who I know well enough to be able to push that little bit further and who enjoy having a giggle together, but who also work hard. Tonight we tried a roll up with bent legs from the floor….this is where you start lying on your back with feet on the floor knees bent, feet  further away from you than a sit up position. You inhale and take your arms over your head then as you exhale you slowly curl your spine off the mat to end up in a seated position (Don’t try this unless you’ve been shown how please as my explanation is not a full one!). It ended up in giggles as I was the only one who could manage it, but its a good thing to work towards and I was pleased to see people realised they couldn’t do it as they knew their bodies limits rather than hauling themselves up without using their core muscles properly. I class that as a success 🙂

We also tried some preparation work for a roll over. A slightly crazy exercise that we will never attempt in its truest, fullest form, but the variation we did was a great challenge and add some spice to the class as well as working the triceps for us. The quote of the night for me was in response to my demo of the roll over….”You wouldn’t be able to do that with a flabby tummy as the flab would get in the way”. This certainly caused some amusement 🙂 Who says exercise has to be dull?

Pelvic Floor Exercises….are they needed?

Priya TewLeave a Comment on Pelvic Floor Exercises….are they needed?

Now this is an interesting one…some people seemed just obsessed with the idea of strengthening their pelvic floor, others don’t even know what that means. In Pilates its often one of the things we go on about as is part of our “core” muscles. The pelvic diaphragm, the floor of the pelvis, is the lower support of the abdominal cavity and assists in respiration as well as spine support. These muscles connect to the pubic bone in front and attach to the tailbone in back so they are extremely important for lower back health. Contraction of the deep pelvic floor muscles will also help to fire the transversus abdominis or T.A, this is the stomach muscle that runs round your middle a bit like a corset  (I call it the belt in our classes), which is an extremely important stabilizer for the lower back and spine.

But can you over-strengthen it? Well you can overwork other muscles so I don’t see why not! Over working a muscle leads to it becoming too tight and short which can be as much of a problem as having a weak and long muscle. One of the biggest misnomers is that tight muscles are “strong” and loose muscles are “weak.” In actuality, the strongest muscle is one that is the perfect length. The pelvic floor has to support the weight of the organs above it, it needs to be strong enough to do this but not too strong…a balance is needed.

So should we stop activating our pelvic floor in Pilates? My answer would be that we only activate it as much as we need to based on which exercise we are doing.  Some exercises could damage the lower spine unless the pelvic floor is activated, others won’t work if the pelvic floor is held too tight. At the end of the day 1 class of Pilates is not going to overstrengthen the pelvic floor, its what you do the rest of the time too! My other thought it that really we need to be strengthening the gluts as these muscles pull the pelvic floor taunt, if they are weak your pelvic floor will overtighten. Its about having the body in balance, which is what Pilates sets out to achieve. So squats and glut strengthening exercises are a definate yes. I did these all the way through pregnancy as I was teaching classes (and I LOVE squats!) and they certainly helped me.

So those are my thoughts today, you may see a few more squats in classes, not just in the warm up.

New Thursday morning class

Priya TewLeave a Comment on New Thursday morning class

Due to a number of people asking I am happy to say I’ll be running a Thursday morning mixed ability pilates class, 9.55-10.40. This class will suit beginners as well as those with some previous pilates experience. As I only take 6 people per class the sessions will be tailored to you.

Cost £20 for 4 weeks or £5.50 per class.

I currently have 2 spaces left for June so let me know if you’d like to attend and I’ll help you get those core muscles working, toning and fat burning!

Prams, Pushing and Pilates.

Priya TewLeave a Comment on Prams, Pushing and Pilates.

So having a baby can mean its harder to fit in time to exercise….however it’s usually possible to multi-task and exercise with the baby. Today myself and baby went for a buggy run, we managed 6km, running slightly slower than my usual pace but I worked out that this was probably due to the fact I wasn’t able to use my arms to help propel myself forward as I had to push the buggy. It was certainly harder work as well, which made it all the more of a challenge for  me and appealed to my competitive streak! Baby enjoyed it immensely sleeping the whole time. At the end of my run I used the buggy as an aid and squeezed in some lunges, squats and then laying on the grass enjoyed a little bit of pilates! I’m not sure what all the passers by thought but I certainly enjoyed exercising in the outdoors and got a great workout. I hope you’ve managed to squeeze in your exercise today….

Bank Holiday and I’m missing Pilates.

Priya Tew1 Comment on Bank Holiday and I’m missing Pilates.

So the past 2 weeks has had rather a lot of bank holidays leading to lots of people being away and lots of cancelled classes. Also a bout of sickness meant both my post natal pilates class was cancelled and one of my regular one to one clients had to cancel her session. It’s therefore been a very odd week with no pilates being taught in my little studio. However it has meant I’ve had more of a chance to do Pilates myself as well as some dance practise, which has been just so enjoyable. Personally I find Pilates refreshes me, strengthens me and challenges me yet leaves me more relaxed and ready to face the world than when I started. It’s a great way to exercise, listen to some great music and unwind all at the same time. Dancing is a little more energetic if you are me and is something I do as part of worship. It helps me express what is inside of me. Having said that I love any form of dancing and movement.Thinking about movement, Saturday morning saw my first return to an aerobics class (by that I mean one not taught by myself!).  Usually I can’t leave the baby on a weekend but had a window of opportunity….it gave me great pleasure to find I can still more than keep up with a fast paced class taught by a good instructor, my fitness levels seem to be back up to their normal levels. I’ve also managed to fit in 2 runs, 1 with the baby in her pram, our first run together…she slept, I ran, it was all good. The second a slightly faster paced version minus pram and baby on Good Friday. It was lovely running in the early morning, watching all the other runners out in the park and  enjoying the beauty of the trees and river.

So what have you been up to over the bank holidays?

Spaces available in Post-Natal Pilates class

Priya TewLeave a Comment on Spaces available in Post-Natal Pilates class

Due to a couple of mums moving on and moving away I now have a couple of spaces available on the post-natal class. This is a fun-filled fantastic class for mums who are looking to tone up and strengthen their core muscles after having babies. Pilates helped me tremendously both during my pregnancy and post-birth, it meant my core strength returned very quickly helping with all the lifting and fun of early motherhood 🙂

Babies come along to this class too, best suited to non-crawlers. We have our very own “Daddy daycare” to help look after babies, he does a fantastic job and being a Daddy is experienced at nappy changing, feeding, playing, singing, rocking and carrying babies! He has been seen lining up and rocking 4 car seats one after the other keeping all the babes asleep.

Let me know if you would like to try it out.