Shaping Up

Posture points

• Allow the weight to be evenly balanced through three points in the foot – the heel, the base of the big toe and the base of the little toe – felt mainly through the ball of the foot. Hips level and facing forward.
• Weight evenly balanced between the legs, bend knees slightly to ease body weight, pull up the muscles through the front of the thighs.
• Tuck buttocks under and tighten. Tilt pelvis and lengthen lower back. You can reduce backache by aligning the pelvic basin and the spine, which lengthens and straightens the muscles of the back.
• Encourage the return of a flatter abdomen by pulling in your deep tummy muscles (called transversus muscles) whenever you think about them, when walking along, when driving and stopping at the traffic lights, whenever you feed your baby.
• Lift up through the rib cage. Proper alignment of the spine and a lifted rib cage improve breathing.
• Shoulders back and down. Improved posture relieves the neck ache, dizziness & upper back tension that accompany a round-shouldered posture.
• Roll arms out, thumbs forward – this can help to open out the chest and counteract round shoulders.

Aim to do at least five short-hold pelvic floor lifts and five longer-hold lifts (4 – 6 seconds). Once they become easy, try and increase the number of repetitions and the length of the long hold building up the strength of these muscles.

Try and take the baby for a walk in the pram or carry papoose and ‘power’ walk, while thinking ‘tall’, and tightening your abdominal muscles in towards your spine as you walk, until you feel warm and your breathing is a little faster than normal.