When a woman becomes pregnant, changes in her body come quickly and can bring discomfort. But did you know that the Pilates Method for pregnant women can help this stage of life?
This is because Pilates exercises for pregnant women help to relax and to improve possible pain that may bother the woman in this period.
In addition, Pilates for pregnant women is a very indicated physical activity because it has low impact and can be adapted to the specific needs of each pregnant woman.
In addition, continuing to practice physical activity during pregnancy will treat health, balance, and comfort for future mothers.
Why practice Pilates for pregnant women?
This is a very frequent question that some moms tend to have, not least because, even though the exercises are soft and light in this period, there are still possible fears about it.
When practicing Pilates during pregnancy, you work on parts of your body as a whole. Not only the muscles that involve childbirth will receive attention, but the training plan will be based on the postural demands and objectives of each student.
In this way, you benefit your body by maintaining a good posture and, consequently, strengthening your pelvic region, which is one of the main responsible for pain in the lower back, in addition to poor posture.
In addition, the practice of Pilates for pregnant women reduces general pain throughout the body, reducing those discomforts that are generated by various reasons such as weight gain.
When you strengthen your pelvic floor, your delivery ends up being facilitated, because in this way, your body awareness is improved and you learn to control that region of the body.
By practicing Pilates, you also start to gain physical endurance, ensuring greater agility and weight control, which is constantly increasing during this period.
Therefore, when you practice Pilates during your gestational period, you prepare your body in the best possible way for the most exciting moment of your life, guaranteeing several benefits for you and your baby.
Applying Pilates principles for pregnant women
Before understanding how each principle of Pilates acts on the body of the pregnant woman, let’s first recap each one of them:
The Method is based on six principles that intend to give back to the human being a more spontaneous and conscious movement being:
Center of the Force: it can also be known as “Power House”, powerhouse or simply center.
It is a set of muscles that are responsible for supporting the spine and internal organs.
When you strengthen these muscles, you provide trunk stabilization and biomechanical alignment with less energy expenditure.
The muscles that gain this strengthening are: the four layers of the abdomen (rectus abdominis, external oblique, internal oblique and transverse abdomen), pelvic floor, deep spine erectors, hip flexors and extensors.
In addition to the movements themselves, the practice of breathing helps a lot in strengthening this musculature.
Concentration: as said by the creator of Pilates, Joseph Pilates, It is the mind that guides the body, so it is important to give attention and importance to all parts of the body so that the movement is carried out as efficiently as possible.
In this way, when you use concentration, your mind turns a thought into movement, performing the movements of the Method effectively for the body.
Control: this principle is the best recruitment to obtain a desired musculature, since from the moment you have control, your body guarantees a smooth and harmonic pattern of movement.
In addition, motor learning of movements (control) is also part of the objectives and benefits of Pilates and is directly related to the principle of Concentration.
Fluidity: this principle is responsible for helping in the lightness of the movements, allowing the use of only the energy necessary for the movement, without waste.
The movements have no beginning, middle or end. In this way, the body takes advantage of the concentric and eccentric phase of the exercises, resulting in a balanced and functional training and protecting the tissues from possible premature wear.
Precision: this principle concerns the refinement of control and balance of the different muscles involved in a movement, without unnecessary expenditure of energy from inadequate contractions, whether exaggerated or deficient.
Breathing: breathing must always be coordinated with the movement so that the movements can bring all the benefits proposed by the Method.
When you work on breathing in the Pilates Method, exhalation must be forced and the inspiration must be as natural as possible.
The activation of this musculature promotes better stabilization of the lumbopelvic region during exercise.
In addition, adequate breathing favors the organization of the trunk, lumbar-pelvic support and relaxation of the accessory inspiratory muscles of the shoulders and neck.
When applying the principles for pregnant women, it is necessary to keep in mind if you were already a Pilate before pregnancy, or if you started to practice the Method from your pregnancy so that there are no risks during the movements.
By practicing Pilates during pregnancy, you will work on your Power House, that is, the principle called “Center of strength”, which is formed by a belt that comes from the base of the ribs to the lower region of the pelvis.
Working with this principle, you will be helping to maintain concentration during the proposed exercises, helping to correct movement.
Even though this principle is one of the most used during the Pilates Practice for pregnant women, it is important that you work with everyone in order to improve your performance in the Method.
But remember, all of these principles must be worked out with the help of your instructor so that he can assist you in the correct way to activate each of these without any future problems.