Pilates Exercises For Pregnant Women: Testing The Safety Quotient

Pilates is an exercise form that effectively merges suppleness and strength training along with body alertness, breathing and loosening up. Pilates exercises are basically particular movement styles done employing the abdomen and the muscles of the pelvic floor dubbed as the base or stable core or deep stabilizing muscles.

The nine-month long gestation period would lead to stretching of the ab muscles by more than fifty percent from what it originally was. Hence, the abdominal muscles need to be strengthened when pregnant to provide support for the enlarging uterus. Women that practiced Safe Pilates exercises to strengthen their abdominal muscles experienced lesser extent of lower back discomfort, pelvic pain, were more mobile, had uncomplicated birthing process and quicker recuperation periods.

Prior to attempting any form of Pilates exercises, it is imperative to ascertain that one could do a pelvic floor contraction exercise. This could be performed by compressing the pelvic floor muscles and hold this for no less than ten seconds. In case one fails in maintaining a stable core by constricting the muscles of the pelvic floor and the lower portion of the abdomen, then one is likely to overstress the joints and tendons while exercising.

A good way to check how stable one’s core is:

1. Getting down on the paws and knee joints and levelling the back till it is more or less flattish.
2. Inhaling and then exhaling as one is breathing out, performing a pelvic floor exercise and during the analogous instant pulling inwards and upwards the belly button. Attempting to retain this contraction for a time span of ten seconds in such a way that the breathing is not withheld and the back is maintained in stationary posture. Gradually relaxing the muscles on the conclusion of the exercise.

In case this exercise could be performed with ease and could be repeated ten times, then the muscles of the pelvic floor and the lower abdomen are functioning properly. This form of exercise could be safely performed during any of the trimesters of pregnancy.

One must take safety measures at the time of performing supine exercises which comprise of raising the head and shoulders up from the floor or raising both of the lower extremities up from the exercise mat, and at the time one does plank or push-up postures. Hence, several of the conventional Pilates exercises would be inapt and hold potential danger during pregnancy.

Hence, it is imperative to perform Pilates exercises under the supervision of experienced Pilates instructors.