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Pilates for pregnancy
Pilates is the ideal exercise system to use in the months leading up to your baby's birth and in the weeks following to get your body back in shape
In Pilates for Pregnancy Anna Selby has carefully selected exercises for each trimester to help maintain strength and flexibility.
The principles
Before you begin the exercises, it is important to understand the theory that underlines the Pilates method. These are the essential principles to bear in mind whenever you exercise:
1. Concentration: Concentration is fundamental to this way of exercising. This is not only because it is important that every part of your body is moving or positioned correctly - a part of a synchronised whole. It is also because when you concentrate on your body in this way, it actually leads your mind away from any immediate concerns or anxieties, and is profoundly relaxing.
2. The breath: The way you breathe is vitally important within the Pilates method. In Pilates exercises, you breathe out with the effort. This helps you to relax into a movement. If you breathe in for the effort of an exercise, you will automatically tense up.
3. The 'girdle of strength': This incorporates three main areas - the back, the abdomen and the buttocks. The upper back can be a major seat of tension but when you learn to move the arms correctly (from the middle of the back rather than the shoulders), this tension will disappear. Nearly every Pilates exercise begins by drawing the navel gently towards the spine. This both strengthens the traverse abdominal muscles so that you will - eventually! - regain a flat stomach, and protects the back against undue strain during the exercise. The third element in this girdle of strength is the buttock muscles. By engaging and squeezing these during the exercises, you not only tone the muscles themselves, you also bring the body into perfect alignment, improving the posture and protecting the back from strain or injury.
4. Flowing movements: Pilates is not based on sudden, jerky movements. Instead, one position flows as slowly and naturally as possible into the next. You move rhythmically, your pace set by your own breathing and this warms the muscles and makes them lengthen out rather than bunch and bulk up. Moving slowly also gives you time to become aware of each part of your body so that you perform all the exercises with precision.
5. Relaxation: This is an important element of the method at any time but none more so than during pregnancy. The warm-up exercises that you should do before all of your exercise sessions - both during and after pregnancy - help to reduce and remove the most common areas of tension in the body, slow down the breathing and focus the mind. The relaxation exercises at the end of the session are also important. During pregnancy, you are often overwhelmed with feelings of tiredness. This final relaxation will help to restore flagging energy levels and, just as crucially, to induce a more tranquil state of mind.
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