5 Key Benefits of Postnatal Pilates
There are many benefits to staying active and continuing your pilates practice during pregnancy, and those benefits continue after you give birth. Postnatal pilates can help you to ease back into regular exercise, as well as help you to heal and repair your body post-pregnancy.
Below we'll discuss the benefits of how Postnatal pilates can help you both physically and mentally.
What is postnatal pilates?
Postnatal pilates is a type of pilates that focuses on helping you regain your fitness, core strength, Pelvic floor and flexibility after having a baby.
Postnatal pilates should be led by a qualified postnatal instructor who will adapt moves and create a workout plan suited for your body.
How long should I wait after childbirth before doing pilates?
It's recommended that if you feel well enough, you can resume gentle physical activity in the days after childbirth, such as pelvic floor exercises or taking slow walks. However, if you've had a difficult birth or are recovering from a c-section, you must check with your physician or wait until your 6-8 week check-up before participating in any activity.
The most important point I always stress to my postnatal pilates students is to take it slow and always listen to your body - everybody is on their own journey. It's important to focus on lower-impact exercises that won't stress your body, try not to rush or push yourself before you’re ready, your body will recover and regain its strength in time.
You should be able to return to postnatal pilates classes roughly six weeks after childbirth.
Benefits of Postnatal Pilates:
1. Improves posture and prevents back pain
As we discussed in our article on prenatal pilates, your body goes through many changes during pregnancy, including weight gain, muscle separation, and spinal curvature, due to the added weight of your bump. During Unfortunately, these changes can leave you suffering from back pain that can often carry on after childbirth.
Couple these postural changes with carrying a baby in your arms, breastfeeding, and hunching over a bassinet, and this can leave your posture crying out for help.
Postnatal pilates helps to alleviate back pain by lengthening your spine, stabilizing your core, strengthening your upper back, and stretching your chest and neck to help you stand straight, reduce stiffness, and restore your posture.
2. Boosts your mood & confidence
Post childbirth, you'll be feeling all the feels. It's common to feel emotional after childbirth. Your hormones are everywhere, which can leave you feeling anxious, emotional, and even scared.
Pilates focuses on bringing awareness to our mind and body, which helps to calm our minds and reduce stress, along with releasing positive mood-boosting endorphins.
Attending postnatal pilates classes is also a great social way to meet new mums who may be experiencing the same feelings.
Whether in a pilates studio or following an online postnatal class, taking time for yourself is crucial to reset your mind and boost your confidence.
3. Repairs abdominal separation
During pregnancy, the muscles in your stomach known as rectus abdominis (commonly known as your "six-pack" abdominals) separate in two as your growing bump pushes the muscles apart; this is referred to as diastasis recti or divarication.
The amount of separation varies, but as the muscles are separated, they become elongated and weaker. Diastasis recti can heal on its own after eight weeks. However, around 40% of those with diastasis recti can still have visible signs six months postpartum.
Postnatal pilates can help reduce diastasis recti by working to strengthen your abdominals with your breath and bring them back together. However, it's essential that when you return to pilates after pregnancy, you don't rush any abdominal work, as this can lead to injury. Instead, postnatal pilates will focus on control rather than speed or reps.
4. Improves pelvic floor strength
Pregnancy and childbirth put a lot of strain on your pelvic floor, and it is common to experience some degree of pelvic floor muscle weakness after delivery.
The weakness comes not only from the added weight of your bump, but from the hormones released during pregnancy (mainly relaxin) which cause your body's ligaments to loosen to prepare your body for childbirth. Unfortunately, this laxity doesn't just stop at the pelvic floor – it affects all your joints and makes your muscles work less efficiently.
Your pelvic floor muscle helps support your bladder, uterus, and rectum; therefore, pelvic floor weakness can lead to incontinence and prolapse, both of which can be debilitating and significantly impact your quality of life.
Pilates focuses on strengthening your pelvic floor by reconnecting your body to your core through breath work and by improving muscle strength to prevent or improve incontinence after childbirth.
You can do many great pilates movements postpartum, like breathing work into your core and gentle pelvic tilts and pelvic lifts to strengthen your pelvic floor slowly.
5. Improvement to your overall strength
During a postnatal pilates class, there will be a lot of focus on strengthening your glutes because, during pregnancy and postpartum, your glutes do not work as efficiently as they should. This is because we tuck our bum, known as ‘Mum Butt’ or ‘Mum Bum Syndrome’ in order to compensate for the added weight from your bump.
It's crucial to restore your glutes to full strength postpartum to assist in correct pelvic alignment and to help you lift your growing baby.
Summary: Benefits of Postnatal Pilates
It's clear that postnatal pilates greatly benefits your overall health and can help your body repair post-childbirth.
Remember, it's important to listen to your body and not rush any exercises before you're ready. As a postnatal pilates instructor, I always encourage my students to take it slow and focus on breath work and control rather than speed.
Image: Taken from Katie Pilates postnatal class in London.
I am a highly experienced pre & postnatal pilates instructor, and I would love to work with you to build back your strength in a safe, effective, and fun way. I offer group and private postnatal pilates classes at home, online, and in the studio.
If you're looking for postnatal pilates in Sydney, I teach weekly postnatal pilates classes at Mode Pilates in Manly, NSW.
I can't wait to see you there,
Bridget x
