Tag: pelvic floor

Pilates for Bumps.

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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 🙂

Ante Natal Pilates

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?

Amazing improvements in people with Pilates.

Priya Tew1 Comment on Amazing improvements in people with Pilates.

Here’s some feedback from one of my Pilates ladies…. Pilates has been pretty amazing for her, not only has her pain reduced and her mobility improved but she has lost toned up and her pelvic floor muscles have strengthened.

“With regards my back, I have been suffering with problems since July 2003.  I initially hurt it bending over to lift up a laptop at work, and on other occasions, just simply getting up from a sofa, sneezing, getting washing out of the washing machine or just turning have been enough to start an episode.  In the past, I have also suffered with a trapped nerve, leading to sciatica down my left leg and have often found myself laid up for a week, unable to go to work as the pain was so intense. The chiropractor diagnosed it as sacroiliac joint injury and I have attended whenever problems have flared up ever since 2003.

The most recent episode was last February, when I hurt my back loading A3 photocopier paper into the lowest drawer on the machine.  I was unable to move without assistance, was taken home and had to have 3 days off work on painkillers.  After this, I was seeing the chiropractor every week fortnightly, the chiropractor felt that there was a need for further action.  She suggested I start Pilates classes and that if this didn’t help after a few weeks, she would book me in for an x-ray to see if there was any obvious damage to my lower spine. At this point, although I was not experiencing acute pain, I had low-level pain on a daily basis, coupled with regular painful muscle spasms in my back which seemed to occur for no reason and was unable to perform routine tasks, such as dressing, unaided.

I then started Pilates with Priya.  Within two weeks, I was noticing an effect and was able to bend / lift my legs more easily.  I am now able to dress myself and can (with care) do tasks such as loading and unloading the washing machine / dishwasher.  I am no longer seeing the Chiropractor at all. I have also noticed a big improvement in my pelvic floor muscles and no longer have ’embarrassments’ when I cough or sneeze!  My husband has commented on the reduction in size of my stomach and I have begun to notice a line of muscle running down my abdomen that I have never seen before!”

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.