Pilates During Pregnancy
If in good health, women who are pregnant can usually exercise through to and including their third trimester. Pilates is often one of the recommended forms of exercise and is known for its gentle yet effective movement and its ability to improve posture and reduce stress and pains. However, not all Pilates exercises are appropriate during pregnancy. Exercises that are done on your back or stomach may cause discomfort or potentially cause injuries to your body.
I exercised very actively through all 3 of my pregnacies, but I had always exercised. However, I found Pilates quite challenging at times. Hopefully these tips will help.
Supine Exercises
The rectus abdominus, or the six-pack, tends to separate during pregnancy. Therefore, it is important for pregnant women to prevent any further damage to this area of their abdomen. Many Pilates exercises that contract the rectus abdominus should be avoided, according to Pilates Pro. These include exercises where you are lying on your back, such as the double leg stretch. This and other similar exercises require that you lie on your back and bring your knees and head together over your chest. Then, while pulling your abs in to your back, extend your legs out in front of you and your arms over your head. You then use your abdominals to circle back around to the starting position.
Around the middle of the second trimester, the baby will have grown large enough so that when the mother is lying supine, the uterine weight can collapse the mother’s veins and arteries that lie beneath the uterus. When these veins collapse there is a positional low blood pressure that may result in the mother becoming dizzy and possibly passing out. Although true Supine Hypotensive Disorder occurs in less than 10% of all pregnancies, a good, safe rule of thumb is to avoid supine exercise after the first trimester. In order to avoid SHD when exercising, pregnant women should only exercise on their back for short durations only (a few minutes at a time) and watch for feelings of dizziness. Women who experience these symptoms always feel an urgent need to either roll over or sit up, which quickly relieves symptoms. Pilates exercises that are done supine can be modified by incorporating something soft under your upper back while they are exercising so that they are then at an angle of about 45 degrees instead of being flat.
This positional low blood pressure can also occur during prolonged periods of standing while not exercising where the blood can pool in the legs which can be even more dangerous because of the risk of falling when passing out. Pilates can help prevent this with its focus on increased circulation and the many varied positions to exercise in. It is helpful to warn pregnant mums to be about this possibility and encourage them to change positions and to elevate their feet above their heart if they are having problems with this or excessive edema.
While every woman consciously knows that their belly is going to expand during pregnancy, some women worry that it may not go back the way it was before or fight this inevitable truth by insisting on doing a lot of hard abdominal work. This should be avoided from the beginning of the pregnancy as it will contribute to the occurrence of a diastasis recti which will ironically cause them to keep the pregnant look after they’ve had the baby. In conjunction with the Relaxin that is softening the connective tissue, there is often times an over stretching or even a split in the linea alba which is the connective tissue that connects the two sides of the abdominals together. When this happens it is called a diastasis recti and there is a weakness in the support system for the back and the organs causing back pain and a “mummy tummy.” This occurs in one-third of all pregnancies to one degree or another but is exacerbated and/or caused by heavy abdominal work. This separation can possibly be prevented or at least minimized by working the deep layer of the transversus abdominis which supports the new weight in the midsection instead of working the muscle of flexion, the rectus abdominis. If this separation is not closed after the first baby it will continue to get larger with each subsequent baby which is why many women “show” faster in their second pregnancy. Pilates exercises that should be avoided while pregnant would include any “crunch” type exercise, the famous Hundred, the Series of 5 (Single Leg Stretch, Double Leg Stretch, Single Straight Leg Stretch, Double leg Stretch).
Lying Face Down
Pilates exercises that require you to lie on your stomach or engage in some form of face-down plank positions are not recommended for women who are pregnant, as lying on their stomach is not an optimal position. These include exercises such as the X, which requires you to lie on your stomach and extend your arms and legs, as if you are forming an X with your body. As you inhale, lift your arms and legs up. As you exhale, bring your elbows back towards your waist while you simultaneously bring your legs together. It is better for pregnant women to modify these poses by lying on their side and performing a similar movement, one side at a time.
Deep Stretching
While gentle stretching can be soothing and relaxing during pregnancy, deep stretching may cause injuries and should be avoided, according to Everything About Pilates. This includes the common Pilates hamstring stretch, which is executed while lying on your back and bringing one leg perpendicular to your body. You would then take hold of your foot, shin or hamstring to pull your leg further towards your chest. Instead, sit upright on the floor with your legs stretched in front of you. Wrap a Pilates or yoga strap around the sole of your foot and very gently pull on the strap until you feel a comfortable stretch in your hamstring.