Abdominal Exercise for Pregnant Women
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By: Tiffany Chambers-Goldberg | Friday, August 10th, 2012 |
Comments 14
Category:
Core, Postnatal Yoga, Pregnancy, Women's Issues, yoga for pregnancy | Tags: abdominal exercises, Core, core exercise, Postnatal Yoga, Pregnancy, Women's Health, Women's Issues, yoga for pregnancy, yoga while pregnant |
My preferred oblique exercises are the Yoga Tune Up® Revolved Abdominal series. I was able to be on my back throughout my pregnancy and did these exercises all the way up until delivery. This is not the case for all women as some experience low blood pressure from the weight on the vena cava. I believe that the more you do this work pre pregnancy, the longer you may be able to do them prenatal. I am also happy to report that I had no back pain during any of my 9 months!
See this exercise below, as well as on the Quick Fix for Lower Back video.
Learn about our solutions for lower back pain.
Read how to Heal Your Aching Pregnant Feet.
Watch our video for lower back pain relief.
Learn about our Therapy Balls Program for your lower back.
Tiffany brings 20 years of experience in various yoga practices. As a teacher, she is influenced by anatomy, dance, movement, psychology, aeriel arts, meditation, hands-on energetic healing and gymnastics. Tiffany brings a caring presence to the classroom, which provides for a supportive and safe environment allowing space for the individual's healing process. Among others, she has studied with Jill Miller, Bryan Kest, Ira Rosen, Heather Tiddens and Ana Forrest. Tiffany's classes are dynamic, challenging, and connect her students to their inner wisdom and ability to heal one's self.
For more about me or to view my Yoga Tune Up® class schedule go
here.
[...] Abdominal Exercise for Pregnant Women [...]
Olbique exercises such as this one, may cause diastasis recti to occur, and are generally NOT recommended for pregnancy.
Helene, Thank You for your comment as it opens up a much needed dialogue for this topic. The oblique muscles targeted in the revolved abdominal series are attached to the ribs, pelvis, lumbodorsal fascia, inguinal ligament, and linea alba. Their prime function is spinal flexion, unilateral contraction. and rotation. In my embodied experience as well as the experience of working with numerous pregnant woman, the benefit of oblique work far outweigh the minimal risk of diastasis. It is mostly the rectus abdominals which are most at risk for tearing/over stretching/over strengthening and should be addresses as such. In truth, we are at physical risk any time we move our bodies. The amount of spinal support as well as belly weight support the oblique muscles give during pregnancy make them extremely valuable.
This conversation is not black and white, as EVERY woman is unique. In my experience I have found a great benefit from pregnant clients performing this revolved abdominal exercise as their backs have been supported, pain free and capable of moving freely throughout their full term.
Risks of developing diastasis are greater in women who:
~are expecting more than one baby
~have had abdominal separation with a previous pregnancy
~genetics (some babies are born with it)
~have a pronounced lordosis (sway back) or poor abdominal muscle tone
Hormones also play a large part which is a predisposition for some! Women who have an overabundance of visceral abdominal fat are also at risk. This is the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears. To find “just the right” amount of abdominal exercises that are appropriate for YOUR specific body one must be individually assessed. A pregnant woman is it risk if she does no strengthening as well as if she does too much. Of course if a women is already experiencing diastasis while pregnant, another set of abdominal rules apply.
The video’s so amazing. Can people with diabetes do yoga??? I have a friend with diabetes type 1 and she desperately wants to join some sport activities to keep fit & healthy. Can you kindly give her some advice?
Thank you,
Stacy W. Grado from fitness instructor training.
HI Stacy! Absolutely people with diabetes can do yoga! One of my first teachers trainings included a women who was just diagnosed with diabetes and was learning along the way how to balance it all. I encourage your friend to try, and remind her of the need to keep healthy snacks right there in case she needs them even in the middle of her practice! I am not a diabetes expert by any means, but what I do know is that the yoga can help us start to make healthier over all decisions in our lives both nutritionally and emotionally which will all benefit keeping diabetes under control.
Thanks so much for your comment!
Blessings~
Tiffany
This is awesome! Definitely important to keep working the “core” during pregnancy, as we can’t ignore them for 9 months and expect them to still support our spine! Glad to hear that this has worked for other moms too, as I am very excited to put it to use!
It seems like it would be really helpful to tone the abdomen during pregnancy. Strong abdominal muscles would be beneficial during labor and delivery, and in the post-partum recovery. My sister is pregnant at the moment and is looking to be healthy by any means necessary. I’m going to see how this works for her. Thanks for the post!
I have taught pre-natal classes for several years now and all of my moms reported back and say the work helped them to have offset potential discomfort as their bodies shifted AND definitely helped them through labor, delivery and recovery. Another important piece to pre-natal work as well is preparing them for After childbirth. I also teach Mommy and Me classes and am always astounded when the moms show up with all their “Gear”. All the lifting- Car seats, and strollers and bags, OH MY! They way a tonne! Ad holding a baby for hours on end and it’s a recipe for injury. The Yoga Tune Up work will be invaluable to keep these women balanced and strong for all the physical demands of taking care of the baby once they have arrived.
Prenatal Yoga is a fascinating and important branch of modern yoga. At my studio Yoga Garden SF, we have an extensive prenatal and postnatal program. Imagine how lucky those little yoga babies are! Practicing starting in the womb and infancy.
One of the most important tips I learned from the director of the prenatal program, Marisa Toriggino, is to think of the pregnant belly as a wet sponge that you do NOT want to ring out. When doing twists during pregnancy it is important to keep from squeezing the belly. So wide twists are ok, and spinal twists where the whole belly moves (turning relative to the pelvis) are healthy as well. But a deep twist such as parivritta parsvakonasana (where the belly crosses the thigh and is deeply rung out) would NOT be appropriate for pregnancy.
I really love the Revolved Abdominal Poses. I find it’s a very efficient way to work the core and to do it safely. I usually only get my clients to do variation 1 because, not only are they unable to do the other variations yet, but they often don’t know how to engage the QL in this pose. Now that I have my nose in my YTU L1 TT Manual reviewing for these blogs, I see that I could do the sidewinder – minivini to help them make the connection and help them with proprioception. I even have a few “broken clients” that are too tight in the adductor group.. Leg Stretch #2 would def help!!
Even though I don’t have clients who are pregnant yet, I will get to work tomorrow morning and share it with a few trainers at work that do! (:
[...] Tune Up® Blog « Get Olympic Inspired Shoulders With a Pranic Bath! Abdominal Exercise for Pregnant Women [...]
[...] Read our post about Ab Exercises for pregnant women. [...]
good help thanks a lot. I would like an opinion regarding something. there is a workout program that is in use with a lot others recently. i’ve been doinglots of investigating onto it and looks like this is a very good training course. people have positive things to say on the program and also i’ve seen it working as now i’ve been giving it a go for 3 weeks now. may somebody tell me what’s your opinion right here is a review on it. At this site should i carry on using it because it’s working out very well.