Pilates and Pregnancy: 5 Weeks After Baby and Ready to Work Out

Hello and welcome back to our Pilates and Pregnancy blog. I am five weeks postpartum and feeling ready for some movement! At my doctor’s appointment next week my physician will hopefully clear me for all forms of exercise. For now, Carey prepared a safe session to ease me back into Pilates.

We started with a few Pilates fundamentals: arm circles, knee folds, and knee sways. Then Carey had me do Hundreds. I hadn’t done Hundreds since some time during the second trimester! To start with, I held my legs at table top (which was a lot of work) and pumped my arms with my head down instead of in an upper ab curl. The upper ab curl is great, but I need to work on tightening my abdominal muscles safely. To do that, Carey had me focus on three things: wrapping my abdominal muscles up and in, engaging my pelvic floor muscles, and mentally picturing my stomach muscles reconnecting.

Next, we used the Tower to do Chest Expansion. Chest Expansion is one of my favorite exercises, but I didn’t realize how much it works your abs! Carey had to remind me that I wasn’t competing with my pre-pregnancy self, but instead was trying to regain that strength in as safe and healthy a way as possible. We continued our ab work with single leg and double leg stretches with my head down. Not only was it challenging to engage my abdominal muscles, but my legs felt weak too. Still, it felt good to move.

At the end of our session, Carey gave me homework. Each day, I am to lie on my foam roller and breathe, do arm circles, and knee folds. I have done the homework for a few days now and it’s amazing how difficult it is to find five minutes to myself with a newborn (that aren’t used for brushing my teeth or performing other tasks that require two hands!). I have always been a good student, however, and so I do my best to find the time. The arm circles help to stretch the front of my chest, which gets tight from breastfeeding and holding Finn. The knee folds work my abdominal muscles. The breathing is the best part: for a minute I just lay on the roller and take deep breaths, letting the rest of the day go as my body relaxes around the roller.

Now it’s your turn. Try the homework for yourself. It takes less than 5 minutes and I bet you’ll be feeling better for taking the time to breathe and move.

See you next week,