Posts Tagged ‘Exercise’

The most important, beneficial exercise you can do while pregnant is the kegal.  This is a contraction of the 5 layers of pelvic floor muscles and fascia that is best described like stopping the flow of urine.  The pelvic floor muscles act as a sling to support a pregnant woman’s uterus and pelvic organs. 

Common pregnancy symptoms such as urinary incontinence and hemorrhoids can be controlled and even prevented by performing pelvic floor exercises throughout your pregnancy.  Kegals also enhance blood flow to the perineum to aid in healing of hemorrhoids and prevent blood pooling in this area after exercise sessions.

While pregnant, progesterone and relaxin hormones relax all smooth muscle in the body, not just the uterus.  This leaves pregnant women vulnerable to smooth muscle issues such as prolapse of the uterus, rectum and bladder.   Pelvic floor muscles are the main structure left to help support these organs and become of key importance.  The pelvic floor muscles are at risk of being stressed from overuse as the uterus grows quickly and therefore strengthening should begin as early as possible to avoid this.   Kegals may also help facilitate labour with the pushing phase during a delivery. 

Many times overlooked as a treatment or prevention for pregnancy related sacroiliac joint and hip joint pain and stress are kegal pelvic floor exercises.   Fascial connections between pelvic floor muscles, sacroiliac ligaments, hip rotator muscles and hamstrings can refer stress and pain into sacroiliac and hip joint when pelvic floor muscles are weak. 

A woman uterus grows from 4ml to 4000ml capacity or less than a teaspoon to 4 litres.  This is a great deal for that pelvic sling to hold up.  This is a 1000x increase, so you better make sure your pelvic floor muscles are 1000x stronger. 

The 3 main types of kegals women can perform are regular 1-2 second contractions, the super kegal which is a 20 second hold maintaining intensity throughout and the elevator kegal that gradually increases in intensity as you pull your pelvic floor muscles up higher in a progressive contraction 3-10x and releasing the contraction slowly.

Therefore kegals can help with sacroiliac and hip joint issues, prolapse of smooth muscle, incontinence, may help facilitate labour and promote recovery and healing in the perineum.

Jacqueline Gradish

BSc, Pre/Post Natal Exercise Specialist

http://jfitpregnancy.blogspot.com

http://jfitmom.blogspot.com

Wouldn’t it be great if during your pregnancy…

You were able to maintain your fitness, your health and (most of all) your figure without piling on unnecessary pounds and losing your motivation to peel yourself off of the sofa? During pregnancy your body experiences dramatic physiological changes that require a carefully designed exercise program. But why should you exercise during pregnancy?

Reason 1: Women who exercise have shorter and easier births at the ?pushing stage?

There is some research that shows that women who exercise have a shorter second stage of labour (pushing stage). However labour is very individual and can last for 1hour up to 2 days. Fitter women cope better with the labour they are given.

Reason 2: Women who exercise reportedly feel more positive and have more energy after the birth. Are you ready to have the healthiest pregnancy possible?

Women who have exercised with us tell us constantly that their labours were so manageable thanks to our Pregnancy Exercise Plan. We love to hear this but also know that it their ability to cope that is improved by exercise so that even a hard labour feels easier when you are fit and strong. Women who exercise do have healthier pregnancies- they gain less weight, suffer less back and pelvic pain, sleep better and eat better. They are happier, less likely to suffer depression and all round healthier.

Reason 3: A strong pelvic floor can assist your birth

If the muscle tone is strong and like a piece of new elastic they will have the ability to stretch to allow a baby to pass through during childbirth and return to normal afterwards. If they are not exercised they may become over stretched and weak; and their ability to contract strongly and quickly reduced or lost. During pregnancy the relaxin hormone will affect the pelvic floor to enable it to stretch adequately during childbirth. After childbirth the pelvic floor muscles are stretched, weakened and bruised, so pelvic floor exercise are important to help tone the muscles to prevent greater damage.

Reason 4: You can benefit from exercising even if you are new to starting a exercise program or if you have exercised very little prior to becoming pregnant.

Provided there are no medical reasons non exercisers may begin our program during pregnancy. The majority of women who exercise in pregnancy are doing so for the first time because they make the decision to begin a healthier life habit now that they are pregnant. Always exercise with a program that is run by correctly qualified trainers who know how to ease you into a new program.

Reason 5: After birth, the babies of women who exercised were slightly leaner than those who did not

A lot of hype in the media has made claims that women who exercise have smaller babies. Is a bigger baby better if it only has more fat? In addition babies born of women who exercise do not differ in their organ size or bone lengths. Studies of the babies (born to women who exercised during their pregnancies) at 1 and five years of age showed at one year of age exercisers babies scored higher on standardised intelligence tests than children of mothers who did not exercise. Their mental and physical performance scored higher as well. At age five children of exercises were less fat and scored much higher on tests of general intelligence and oral language skills than the children born to non-exercisers. Further studies have shown that children born to exercising mothers are less likely to be obese.

What better reason to start exercising than for a better start to life for your child and yourself.

Wondering about Pregnancy Exercise Dvds? These exercise videos are specialized for women who are either pregnant or just gave birth to their baby. Below Ill be discussing some core principles you need to look for to choose the best pregnancy exercise dvd for you.

To begin with, What kinda of results do you want?

This Needs to be the first question you ask yourself when looking for the proper workout video. Depending on what body type you are aiming for should determine which dvd you choose.

Exercising during pregnancy is serious and must be taken so. These dvds will have you in  wonderful shape during the time while your pregnant.

A Few Types of Pregnancy Exercise Dvds are:

– Yoga: a series of stretching and mental techniques
– Pilates: a easy to implement exercise
– Mat Workouts: a series of stretches using mats
– Light Weight Exercises: using light dun bars in series of exercises

That is the basics of finding the best pregnancy video for you!

A Couple highly recommended pregnancy exercise dvds, and the best pregnancy pilates dvd are listed below:

– Prenatal Yoga Dvd
– The Perfect Pregnancy Workout Vol 1
– 10 Minute Solution: Prenatal Pilates
– Pilates During Pregnancy, Vol 1
– Complete Pregnancy Fitness with Erin OBrien

Now that you know a few basic fundamentals about pregnancy exercise dvds it is time for you to find the best for you! Be sure to take your time when reviewing videos.

Remember your health does matter and by exercising and eating healthy you can look and feel great during pregnancy.

As soon as you come across exercise program that you like make sure you take immediate action, because that is the only way you see results.

Want to Know More? Check out this free page for Detailed Pregnancy exercise dvd reviews: http://post-pregnancyworkout.com/Pregnancy-Exercise-Dvd.html

• This Informative and Fun DVD has a Running Time of 3 hours 28 min!
• Studio Instruction – 1 hour 30 min.
• In Depth Interviews with Professionals 30 Min.
• Interviews with Bellydance Mothers 60 min
• Performances 10 min., Plus, more extras!

Product Description
Amira brings the ancient arts of Yoga and Belly Dance together in a modern world, with a program that teaches gentle and effective
techniques to help every woman on the path to one of life’s most profound experiences – motherhood.

Amira’s Bellydance And Yoga For Pregnancy provides a perfect balance of well thought out routines for an expectant mother to prepare herself for the wonderful and challenging journey ahead. Amira gently leads you through warm-ups, exerci… More >>

Amira’s Belly Dance and Yoga for Pregnancy DVD, an Instructional Video for Prenatal Exercise and Workout

By now it’s pretty old news that exercise is beneficial for pregnancy but a new study by the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences has some evidence to suggest that exercising regularly during your pregnancy could reduce the risk of cot death for your developing baby.

The study wanted to find if cardiovascular and respiratory functions were improved in the foetus as a result of exposure to maternal exercise. In particular they were looking for increased “breathing movements” in the foetuses of mothers who exercised during pregnancy as compared with those who did no exercise during pregnancy.

Now obviously your baby doesn’t actually “breathe” whilst he’s snuggled up in your belly as he gets everything he needs through the umbilical cord, but he does practice breathing, which indicates how well his respiratory and nervous system are developing.

What they found was that the breathing movement and the nervous system was better developed in babies of mothers who exercised during pregnancy than those who didn’t.

Dr Linda May explained, that understanding more about how to improve the development of babies’ nervous system could help to learn more about the causes of cot death.

” Some researchers think it has to do with something being wrong in the central nervous system, which affects respiration. Babies aren’t able to wake up and breath for themselves if they need to.”

So with this study showing that babies of mothers who exercise during pregnancy have a more mature and developed respiratory system, it suggests that these babies will be less likely to suffer from cot death after birth.

How Much Exercise Is Enough?

So what do you really need to do to improve your baby’s nervous system and development?

Well firstly movement every day is essential,which means taking at least 15 minutes daily to get up and have a walk or do some other physical activity that gets you moving around continuously for a 15 minute period.

With regards to your planned pregnancy fitness program it is best to break it down into frequent sessions on most days of the week, rather than saving it all up for one or two long borinng sessions at the gym.

One great way to structure your pregnancy exercise routine is to focus on short-sharp-burst training sessions for 15 minutes on 6 days of the week.

15 minutes is long enough to give you a really good pregnancy workout as long as you know how to workout and how to monitor the intensity of your pregnancy exercise routine.

You should be focussing on whole body resistance based exercises like squats and deadlifts which use all 600 odd muscles in the body, as well as targeting the key pregnancy support muscles like the bottom, the midback and the core.

These types of exercises will burn the most energy and get you maximum results from your pregnancy fitness program in the shortest amount of time.

Combining this type of resistance training with 15 -20 minute interval training sessions will soon change your body shape and you should see your pregnancy fitness levels soar in just a few short weeks.