Why do Preggy Pilates?
Pilates strengthens your tummy, back, and pelvic floor muscles without causing more strain on your joints, as your joints are much looser during pregnancy due to the increased hormone relaxation which makes it a lot easier to hurt yourself.
What are the benefits of doing Pilates whilst pregnant?
- You strengthen your tummy muscles, which equips your body better to cope with all the strains caused by the increased weight of your growing baby.
- Helps reduce back pain, by exercising the deepest tummy muscles that stabilize your back and pelvis.
- Strengthen your pelvic floor, which will help to support your bowel, bladder, and uterus as your baby grows and moves down. Strengthening your pelvic floor will help prevent you from leaking when you cough or sneeze and even laugh.
- Helps with balance, you often feel more clumsy or off balance during your pregnancy but by doing Pilates you strengthen your core which can help you be more stable as your baby bump grows.
- Takes the strain off your back and pelvis, by using positions on your hands and knees, this is also a great position during as pregnancy it can also help towards the end of the pregnancy to get the baby into position for birth.
- Helps you relax and control your breathing which is important for your self as well as your baby. It also helps preparing you for Labor Day.
- Pilates promotes good recovery from labor and the birth, giving you the basis to regain your former figure with our post-natal program.
Why do Preggy Yoga?
Doing yoga during your pregnancy helps you breathe correctly and relax, which in turn can help you adjust to the physical demands of pregnancy, labor, and motherhood. It helps you calm both your body and mind, providing the physical and emotional stress relief your body needs throughout pregnancy and motherhood.
What are the benefits of doing Yoga whilst pregnant?
- Develops stamina and strength – as your baby grows your body needs more energy and strength. Yoga poses strengthen abdominals, hips, back, arms and shoulders.
- Your balance is challenged as the baby grows. But as well as being physically unbalanced you are also emotionally drained due to the increases in progesterone and estrogen. In each yoga pose, we are able to fine-tune your balance, physically and emotionally.
- As your baby grows you have more stress on your lower back, hips, chest, upper back, neck as well as shoulders. You will develop more of a lower back curve due to the increased size of your belly. Your hips get tighter due to the added pressure of baby’s weight in your bellies. As your breast size increase as well as increases in weight due to milk production – this can cause tension in your upper back as well your chest.
- Through deep breathing, the nervous system goes into parasympathetic mode, which is responsible for relaxation. When our bodies are in that mode, our digestions operate properly, we tend to sleep better, and our immune system is at its optimal.
- You are working with conscious breathing during each yoga pose, which may sometimes be challenging. This transfers into the time of labor, allowing one to practice being “comfortable with the uncomfortable” through our breathwork. As you inhale, you acknowledge the tension that is felt. As you deeply exhale, you let go of it more and more with each breath.
- A prenatal yoga practice allows us to slow down and focus attention on what is going on within our bodies. Through working with our breath and doing each pose, you become more aware of what is going on within and this can help you connect with your baby.
Both Pilates and Yoga will assist you in getting through your pregnancy with more ease and will assist you with getting back into shape after the baby’s birth.