Pregnancy Exercises To Stay Active
Pregnancy Exercises To Have Fun, and Stay Active
So you’re pregnant with your first child, and you’ve been bombarded with information from everyone.
And all you want to do is enjoy your pregnancy without the stress and have a healthy baby at the end of it all.
At Graceville Physiotherapy, our women’s health antenatal programs are safe and fun, run by experienced women’s health physiotherapists. These programs are run with up to date information and exercises that have scientific evidence to back them. Physiotherapists are the trusted health practitioners when it comes to women’s health because their knowledge is based on years of research, the science behind pregnancy and how the body changes during this time.
Not only that, we’re happy to keep your GP or obstetrician up to date with your progress, because working as a team together will mean you get the best results.
There are three key things that first-time mum’s need to know about pregnancy exercises and what a pregnancy physio can tell you.
- Not all advice is useful
Everybody’s body is different, and while your Aunty Margaret may have best intentions in telling you what you should be doing and what you should expect, you’re best to concentrate your energy on one stream of information. This is not to say that you should tell Aunty Margaret that you don’t want to listen to her, but do not take what she says as absolute truth.
Current up-to-date knowledge given to you by practitioners who have seen hundreds of women in your situation is best. Physiotherapists who practice women’s health are also used to seeing thousands of different bodies that all move and respond differently. Your program needs to be about you and needs to suit your ability, fitness level, body shape, strength and of course what you want it to achieve.
- Start your pelvic floor exercises
Everybody who has a baby is going to have their core and pelvic floor muscles affected in some way. Don’t listen to your friend Jane who tells you that her pelvic floor is perfect and that she was able to run or do perfect planks a few weeks after having her baby. Jane may think that she has the perfect body but in reality, it will catch up with her in the end. When it comes to a second pregnancy she may realise that her pelvic floor and abdominal muscles are suddenly not so great.
Starting your exercises soon after having a baby will have an effect on these muscles for some time. You may notice it with subsequent pregnancies or maybe a few years later. Certainly women over 50 think that they develop some of these issues because of age, but a lot of the problem stems from inadequate recovery after having babies. It’s important to trust the experts when it comes to getting your body back into the shape that you want without damaging anything in the process. Luckily, the women’s health physiotherapists at Graceville Physiotherapy are experts at doing this. It takes many years of study to learn about how the body moves, and how this changes through the different stages in life.
- Support your abdomen
Not looking after your body and teaching it how to move again may result in lower back pain and problems that can last a lifetime. After having babies there are a lot of changes that occur in the abdomen, especially for those mums who have had caesarean sections. It’s important that the entire abdominal and pelvic cavities are free from adhesions and scar tissue that can form as a result of giving birth and having caesarean sections.
The entire stabilising centre of your body has been affected by pregnancy and birth, which can leave your lower back and pelvic region unstable. It’s essential that we get your back and pelvis moving normally again and retrain the muscles safely so that you avoid ongoing back and pelvic pain – and the difficulties that arise from this.
Physiotherapy-designed programs focus on all three areas above so that you can get safely back into exercise again.
What if I have never exercised or done pilates before. Will these pregnancy exercise programs be a waste of time and money for me?
This is a question that we often get. All of our programs are designed for the individual, meaning you do not need to have any knowledge of any exercise whatsoever. We’ll teach you! Our women’s health physiotherapists are experts in assessing different bodies and teaching people how to move.
Will I get enough attention if I attend a class? I’m worried that I won’t be able to follow the exercises and won’t be as good as the other women in the class.
Our classes are small, with often only 3 to 4 participants. Both of our women’s health physiotherapists help with each class so there is always plenty of one on one attention. Every woman is assessed prior to attending class and we check your abdominal and pelvic floor control using a Real-Time Ultrasound Machine that will give us a baseline so that we can ensure your progression in the classes.
Can I claim it on my health fund even though pilates is unable to be claimed now?
We get this question a lot. Because all of our programs are designed by physiotherapists and involve Clinical Exercise prescription you are then able to get a refund on your private health insurance.
Clinical Exercise Prescription, Expert Movement Assessment and Scientific Background. These are the important things to know when you want to get your body back to the best that it can be after delivering your precious baby. Physiotherapists doing Women’s Health Services are the trusted choice to ensure the safety of your recovery.
