Your Questions; Answered!

By Celebrity Trainer & Owner of Harmony Studios, Karen Schwalbe-Jones

*Have a Question for Karen about Pilates?
*Email Karen at harmonystudios@harmonystudiosla.com

~ Q: What is it about Pilates that can help a Pregnancy? ~

Karen’s Answer:

From Pilates into Pregnancy…

People often assume that we can exercise and “get in shape” in a few weeks.  You do have to start somewhere for sure!  The reality is, the first thing to happen is that you feel better, then you have more energy and then your body begins to change – if you stick to it.   Getting into good shape (which is really what we’re all talking about isn’t it?) and looking great during and after pregnancy is a bit of a longer process and a bigger commitment beforehand.

To begin getting into shape and readying your body for pregnancy, you really do need to think about exercising for the sheer thought of simply exercising with the exclusion of even the thought of pregnancy.  If you do this and then get pregnant it will all integrate into the pregnancy perfectly!   Of course, I have been working out for over 25 yrs.  While I didn’t exercise the same while I was pregnant, I did integrate what I was doing (running, lifting weights, and Pilates- of course!) into my ever changing body.

Getting into the shape that we see in magazines and looking like Heidi Klum or Jessica Alba while pregnant, requires a commitment to drinking LOADS of water, doing your cardio a few days a week, eating nutrient dense foods, and teaching your body to work structurally -  a heightened sense of awareness, better balance and coordination.  We’ll discuss the last of the list in this chat and the others in later chats, ok?

Pilates demands that we use our brain to coordinate the movement that our muscles are being asked to perform.  Did you get that?  The reason why Pilates is SO much more effective than traditional exercise is precisely for this reason!  Our brains can determine how hard we work out or not.

The quintessential: if you think it, it will happen.
Really!  And I am so not the ‘woowoo‘, esoteric person at all!
So you really should believe me when I tell you this.

As you can imagine, this takes time!  Kind of like teaching an old dog new tricks…
This is why I tell people that they need one year to get in the kind of shape where they’ll pop! right back into shape after pregnancy.  If you’re reading this and working on getting pregnant, you aren’t going to love me huh?  What does one do if a year is out of the question?
PRACTICE ASAP!

Take a few private sessions and learn what good form and good posture is.  Posture is getting the brain to organize the neuromuscular connections and perform the requested duty.  Sound familiar?  YES!  POSTURE IS EXERCISE!

The next thing one would do is practice those sessions by doing more sessions, more classes, living life with good form/posture while walking, sitting, driving, computering  (can we make that a word?) etc.  I ALWAYS tell people that, while I see them for an hour a day, a few days a week,  I’m just not that good!  I really love the kudos when people tell others that it’s all me!  But alas, it simply me repeating myself over and over and over, so that the clients can leave me and absorb what I’ve said.  They can get an “A” in class but then leave me and mess it all up OR they can make it all that much better -it‘s up to them!

Good posture means that your brain has learned good habits.
Good habits mean that your brain has learned to recognize what is right and what isn’t.
It means we have performed the good posture so often that the “bad” feels wrong.

I hope this all makes sense.

Pilates works better than anything I’ve ever seen because of the demands it makes on your neuromuscular system.  Pilates forces you to rethink how you operate through life so that you may bring another one into it healthily and feeling well.

Now if you want to get into the nitty gritty of having a great pregnancy?  That is WAY bigger and I’ll talk more about that in my next few articles.   We’ll chat about: water intake, Kegels, nutrient dense foods, specific exercises that will keep your booty high, duck waddling to a minimum, help with a flatter tummy and a continued happy sex life.

Chat soon!
Karen