You should be at the peak of your health during pregnancy. This involves eating a well-balanced diet and following a regular fitness regimen. But when you’re pregnant, staying active is not always the easier option.
This is because when you’re pregnant, you experience multiple discomforts such as fatigue, nausea, not to mention an increase in weight. And, no, this doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you, or that you are unhealthy. It just means that your body is working doubly hard to accommodate the growing baby that’s inside you.
With this said, you still cannot put aside the need to stay physically fit. This is where pregnancy-friendly workouts step in, such as prenatal pilates.
Prenatal Pilates
Pilates for pregnant women is not only safe but also highly beneficial. Because pilates targets the whole body without being too vigorous or strenuous, it’s perfect for most low-risk and uncomplicated pregnancies.
And because it helps improve flexibility and your pelvic floor muscles, many believe pregnancy pilates to be the best form of exercise for pregnant women. Let’s discuss its benefits.
5 Benefits of Pilates for Pregnant Women
1. Pilates may help alleviate your pregnancy discomforts.
One unfortunate aspect of pregnancy is the inevitability of various pain and discomfort. These include nausea, fatigue, back pain, and numbness. Prenatal pilates has been found to relieve these sensations and even help improve your posture, which, in turn, improves circulation. Doing pilates may also help you sleep better at night!
2. Pilates helps strengthen your pelvic muscles.
An important part of your body that you should never neglect, especially during pregnancy, is your pelvic floor. Strong pelvic floor muscles make carrying your baby easier and minimizes the risk for incontinence and other related problems. Prenatal pilates strengthens your entire body and targets your core muscles, which include your pelvic muscles.
3. Pilates may help improve your breathing.
Much like prenatal yoga, prenatal pilates also focus on helping improve your breathing, which is beneficial to both your oxygen and blood circulation. Being able to control your breathing also helps prepare you for labor and childbirth, gaining you both balance, mindfulness, and a sense of openness.
4. Pilates helps improve your flexibility.
Prenatal pilates offers pregnant women a safe way to strengthen their muscles. Aside from that, prenatal pilates is a low intensity exercise that also stretches and lengthens the body. This benefits pregnant women by working on areas that need flexibility and mobility, like their core abdominal muscles, upper back, legs, and arms.
5. Pilates may help pregnant women recover more quickly from childbirth.
Finally, one of the most useful benefits of pilates for pregnant women is how it makes labor and delivery easier. Aside from that, many women who did pilates during pregnancy report that they had a much quicker recovery. They also felt energized rather than exhausted after childbirth. All of these can be attributed to the holistic impacts — physical, mental, and emotion — of pilates.
There are many amazing benefits of prenatal pilates, from pregnancy to labor and delivery. As with other forms of exercises, remember to consult your doctor and get their go-signal first before doing pregnancy pilates.