Mum & Baby Pilates
Postnatal Pilates
Pilates is the ideal exercise for postnatal ladies. It's gentle yet challenging for your body, and provides so many benefits after you've given birth. It will help you regain your core strength after the abdominal muscles have been stretched, help repair any Diastasis Rectii (abdominal wall separation) and strengthen the all important Pelvic Floor Muscles. Prengancy can take it's toll on our bodies, but giving birth is just the start. Once baby arrives, you'll be carrying them around, plus lugging car seats and prams in and out of cars, and with the addition of the hormone Relaxin in your body, joints are weakened and we can more easily injure ourselves, so Pilates will help build up your strength for these everyday activities. It will help you regain a better posture and help with balance which can be affected during and after pregnancy. It will also provide some much needed 'me' time and help lower stress levels. You can join these classes once you've had your 6 week GP check. Following a C-section it's advisable to wait another 2 weeks after this.
Exercising with babies
Life naturally changes after babies arrive, but it doesn't mean that you can't still do things for yourself. If keeping active, fit and strong is important to you, then come along and join our other Strong Mamas. In these classes, you bring baby (or babies) along with you. There are lots of brilliant classes aimed at babies, (many of which I attend myself!) but my classes are aimed at YOU mamas. I've struggled to exercise as much as I'd like to after my boys were born, and felt uncomfortable taking them along to normal classes for fear of annoying others if they cried or I had to feed them. In our classes, babies are welcomed and everything that goes along with them! So if they cry, squeal, chatter, need changing or feeding-that's all cool! And not to leave anyone out, this is predominantly a postnatal class, but mums who've not physically given birth, dads, grandparents and carers who are at home with baby are most welcome too!
Meet other Strong Mamas!
Being a mum (& dad) can be tough at times, and I've been so grateful for my network of new mum friends who I've been able to share the highs and the lows with, have a laugh, ask stupid questions and make some lovely memories! Most of them I've met at classes, and I hope that in my classes, you'll meet some new friends, be able to share experiences and tips and ask those parenting questions-one of us will have a decent answer!! Our Pilates sessions will be 45 minutes long (as that's about the limit babies will settle for you!) and then 15 minutes at the end for you to chat, feed etc. Like my @StrongMamaPilates Facebook page too for another way to stay in touch and for useful info about Pilates, lots of other parenting related things and a bit of fun!