Today we had a trade stand at the Southampton Nearly New Sale…. probably doesn’t sound that exciting, but it was the first time we had done something like this.
I’ll be honest….James did all the hard work, he got all the literature, DVD’s and forms together. I just turned up with a toddler and a smile on my face, did my thing of chatting, demonstrating moves and chasing a small girl around.
We’re such a small business, we don’t yet have lots of fancy giant posters, stands or amazing things to give away, but we do love to talk to people and help them. This morning it was lots of chatter about pelvic girdle pain, weaning and tummies!
As a result it looks like our antenatal classes will be full and overflowing, great news as a lot of our current mummies to be are about to give birth. I also sold a few DVD’s and hopefully we may have got some interested in our Weaning EBook – Baby Breakfasts.
A lovely morning, talking to lovely people. Thankyou to all who said Hello. The added bonus – meeting some of our Pilates babies and seeing their mummies!!
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:
Pilates with Priya: Post Natal Pilates Class
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.
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 😉
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!
Pelvic Floor Muscles
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 😉
It’s now been 16 months since my bump became a baby and just 2 months since I started teaching AnteNatal Pilates. Teaching this class has reminded me how much Pilates helped me when I was pregnant. All those aches and pains were so helped by some simple exercises such as standing in a neutral spine position, shoulder bridges, pelvic tilts and side lying exercises.
Pilates can also help strengthen the pelvic floor, strengthen the core muscles and help you prepare for birth. We practise strengthening and relaxing the core muscles. The exercises also help you focus on your breathing and build your body awareness. Bands and upper body strength are also worked on to prepare you for when baby arrives 🙂
Currently I have 2 ladies who are both around the 37 week mark, those babies will be making an entrance to the world very shortly, and it’s exciting to work with these mummies to be. Last week we focused more on standing Pilates and then moved to the Birthing Balls. Most pregnant ladies seem to have these balls but few really know how to use them.
Here’s a photo of the beautiful ladies, bumps and balls. I’m hoping some of them will move into my post natal class later on so I can meet the beautiful babies too.
Ladies, Bumps and Balls
So if you you are pregnant or know anyone who is, why not suggest some Pilates to them?
I’ve just realised that February saw the Birthday of my post-natal Pilates class. I know it’s now March but it felt like this needed marking.
This class came about because I had a baby…. which highlighted to me how difficult (but not impossible) it can be to exercise with your little one in tow. I knew I needed to get back into Pilates for my health, fitness and peace of mind, so why not do it with other mummies. Also having received an extremely poor information sheet in hospital about how to do pelvic floor exercises, I felt I could do better myself!
Our first few classes were held in a community centre with the babies at one end of the room with Daddy day-care rocking them in their car seats. All except my little one who tended to fall asleep in the sling before class started and I taught with her attached. (Health and Safety Note – do not do this yourself unless you know what you are doing, it’s a lot harder!!). I’ll admit it, these first few classes were hard, I was tired, my baby was 3 months old and a breast feeding milk monster so sleep was not forthcoming, but I was also determined and teaching classes kinda keeps me going 😉
Moving venue in April to our new home based studio was such a relief. Even though my studio is tiny, we suddenly we had more space as the babies hang out in the lounge with Daddy day-care. We have access to lots of toys, all manner of baby bits so if anyone forgets anything we can help out and there’s no pressure to rush away so the kettle goes on at the end of class. This has led to lovely moments of mummies supporting each other, sharing tips, books, sling demonstrations, many baby cuddles and even weaning talks from the dietitian who happens to be there every week (that’s me – Dietitian UK). It literally becomes a community of it’s own and many mummies transition into evening classes when they go back to work.
I have absolutely LOVED this class over the past year and look forward to many more classes, baby cuddles and cups of tea.
A new exciting development for Pilates with Priya in 2012…. we will be running not just Post -Natal Pilates classes but also Ante-Natal classes. Pilates was a complete saviour to me not only during pregnancy but also during labour and very much so post-birth. All those pregnancy aches and pains were minimised through Pilates. So I am so looking forward to being able to work with some mummies to be and help them with their pregnancy and prepare with labour and beyond. We will be doing exercises that are safe for your stage of pregnancy, using relaxation and breathing techniques that can help you in labour, and preparing your body for post-birth too. Pilates is safe to do all through pregnancy.
These classes will be supporting the Southampton branch of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT). This branch has done so much for me….we attended an NCT ante-natal course and then in the past year have been so well supported by the NCT groups and community. I have made some great new friends, been helped so much with my journey into mummyhood and am amazed at how much work my local branch does….so this is one way I can help give something back to help them do even more.
You do not have to be a member of the NCT to attend these classes or in fact any of the NCT groups that run across the city.
Classes will be Sundays 9.30am starting in January, please let me know if you would like to come along, £25 for 4 weeks.
After about 6 months of having a certain 3 mummies and their babies in my post natal class the time has come for them to return to work 🙁 Its been such a pleasure having them in the class and learning with them as our babies grow and as the class moved location and developed. In the early stages the babies all sat in their car seats and slept (well mine was in a sling), and over the months they have progressed to laying on mats, rolling over, sitting up and now crawling and standing. We have had classes where its been feed, feed, feed, other memorable moments where there have been epic dirty nappies (!) and times when all the babies have cried at once 🙁 then occasionally, and more frequently as they have got older, there have been times of peace. In those moments we have often looked at each other, savoured the time and wondered how long it would last! These 3 mummies and babies have become firm friends of mine and of each others, showing how friendships can blossom as you exercise, especially in a small class. Special thanks must go to them for supporting me and coming along, sharing their top tips and to their babies for being stars! Extra mention must go to the fabulous Daddy day-care for his expert care of our babies too.
It seems I’ve got these mummies hooked on Pilates as they have all transferred over into different classes, in fact I put new classes on to cater for them 🙂 and they are enjoying the difference of Pilates without babies.
So although it is very sad to see faces leave post natal Pilates I’m pleased to see these ladies progress and move forward, plus I have been able to take new mummies and gorgeous babies into the class. Today saw 3 new mummies come along and I got to have lovely cuddles. I’m looking forward to getting to know them and help them strengthen their bodies and tone up their core.
Here are a few photos of the babies who have moved on….
So I’ve certainly noticed that as my baby is getting older she is getting bigger and heavier. Those of you who know me may well smile at this as it’s a well known fact that I have a petite baby who really isn’t heavy compared to others her age 😉 But the fact remains she is getting bigger and I have been very aware that I need to be using proper alignment to carry her safely and protect my back, pelvis and shoulders. Pilates is so good at helping train your brain to think about correct alignment, it also strengthens your core so helping you lift safely and in my post natal classes we target the shoulders and arms as well. So if you manage to get to a Pilates class you will certainly be helping your body out.
The very lovely Katy Bowman has done a fab video post on how to carry your baby safely and so here it is for all of you, it made me think, hopefully it will help you too:
This week I’ve had a teething baby which has meant little sleep and lots of energy exerted in looking after a grizzly one. You’d think with all of that teaching Pilates would seem like a chore. But not at all. Its totally revived and refreshed me.
And its not just me, I quote a lady from my post-natal class:
It seems that Pilates also cures headaches – feeling so much better now. Thank you Priya .
So if you’re feeling in need of a little pick me up Pilates could be the perfect tonic for you!
After another night of little sleep I’m looking forward to a Pilates and stretching session all of my own later on.
Contact Us
To book onto a class or for massage please contact Priya (best by text/email).
