Having strength in your arms is important, it helps improve
your posture which means your back is strong, resistance training your arms has
shown that it reduces the risk of musculoskeletal injuries or at least reduce
their severity. But proper form is important.
Strong muscles will enhance your workout. Once
you start concentrating on your upper body, other exercises will seem easier.
Working your arms can help protect your bones.
Every year your bones loose more strength, but the good news is, the more you
work them, the more you help to maintain healthy bones and build density.
Working your arms, gives you that feel good
factor, the satisfaction that you’ve worked something hard and will reap the
rewards. It will help your exercise mindset going forward.
Exercises to try –
If you can do the 2 exercises 2 – 3 times a day. You will
start to feel a noticeable difference in your arm strength.
Forearm pulse: Connect your forearms
together from your elbow all the way up to your fingertips, palms together. Push
the forms arms together to create tension. Pulse your arms up and down,
maintaining contact with no gaps and pressure. Do this for 30 seconds/ pulses.
Ensure your shoulders stay down and your core is still scooped in.
Press ups: You probably thought you might
get away with out these, but no such luck. A few things to remember about press
ups. The further your feet are away the harder it, which means the lower your
arms/ centre of gravity the harder it is too. So bear this in mind when you
choose the level you want to do the press ups at. Place your hands just wider
than your shoulders. Keep your shoulders down and tummy scooped. Make sure your
body is in a straight line, so your bottom is tucked in. inhale on the way
down. Exhale on the way up. Aim for 10 reps.
The quadriceps are one of your power house muscles in your
body (alongside your core), that really need to be strong and stable. The
muscle groups in your legs work together to ensure that your balance and
stability are in the right place when your body needs it, as well ensuring your
knee flexes and extends as needed.
Having strong quads will aid the stability
needed for the knee joints, which can inherently be unstable and depend on
ligaments and muscles to protect them from injury.
The inner thigh muscles also provide internal
rotation, which counterbalances the external rotation from your outer thighs and
glutes.
Like any major muscle groups they require care
and maintenance, stretching in particular is important as no stretching can
lead to a shortened thigh muscle which in turn means your knee won’t be able to
flex effectively.
Exercises to try –
If you can do the 2 exercises 2 – 3 times a day. You will
start to feel a noticeable difference in your quad strength.
Squats – super easy to integrate into
your day when you’re brushing your teeth, making a cup of tea, cooking tea and
more! You need to have you feet hip or shoulder width apart and a straight
back. Remember to scoop in your core and engage it. You want to bend your
knees, ensuring your knees stay behind your toes, and your chest stays higher
than your hips. You have the choice to do normal squats down and up, or add in
a pulse at the bottom before you come up. Aim for 15 reps.
Standing leg raises: Standing up tall
with your tummy scooped in. Raise your leg up in front of you so it is slightly
bent and then lower back down, let your big toe tap the ground but nothing else
and lift leg back up. If you need to hold onto something to keep your balance,
rest your hand lightly on a chair. The lifting of the leg must come from the
thigh not the knee. Aim for 15 reps on each leg.
Our core can be something that we obsess about, what it
looks like, how strong it is and the exercises that we do. During my time as a
dance teacher and Buggyfit trainer I have seen many different exercises to work
the core.
My conclusion, simpler is the better and
conventional is not always best. What I mean by this is that sit ups and burpees
are not the answer, they don’t target our inner core.
Our core is a complicated part of our body, and
many different things impact it. What we forget is that our body is made up of many
different layers. Conventional exercises focus on building strength in the upper
layers, whilst inner core work goes deep down.
Training these muscles is essential for
stability, joint control through motion and ensuring all those inner muscle
work together to propel you forward in the best way.
Exercises to try –
If you can do the 2 exercises 2 – 3 times a day. You will
start to feel a noticeable difference in your core strength.
Box scoop: Kneeling on all fours ensure
your knees are directly below your hips and your wrists are below your
shoulders, have your back in neutral alignment. Relax your tummy, it’s really
important that you really let it all go! Otherwise the exercise won’t work
effectively. Inhale and let your tummy fill with air, as you exhale slowly
scoop your in and up. You want to begin from the top of your pubic bone and
finish at your belly button. Your aim is to create a C scoop as you draw your
tummy in. Take 4 counts to exhale and 4 counts to inhale. You need to have
control through both directions. 5 reps. This can also be done standing up, but
by doing it on your hands and knees, you work against gravity more, so your
muscles work harder!
Candlestick Dipper: This will work your transverse
abdominus and your obliques. Kneel on the ground, with one leg out to the side.
Ensure your back in straight and your hip is stacked above your knee for the
one you’re kneeling on. For the one out to side, keep the toe facing forward
and the heel to the back. Option A is to raise your arms out to the side at
shoulder height, maintaining a straight line with your body tilt to the side
away from the foot that it out. Touch the floor with your fingertips. The
further away you touch the harder it is. Option B join your fingertips together
above your head. Maintain contact with your fingers as you lean to the side and
then bring yourself back up. It’s important to keep yourself aligned for both
these options and don’t allow your bum to out backwards and you reach forward
with you arms. For those who have a weak core or less than 5 months postpartum,
only do option A!
Summer months is always a time when we naturally pick up the pace and move more, whether that’s through day trips out or just because the weather is nicer, we are outside more. I’m someone who needs to go outside and move everyday whatever the weather. But the reality of moving in a specific way apart from day to day tasks can be daunting, we might all think about it lots, but the actual doing of it, can take some extra focus.
Throughout August I want to offer some real quick ways to
integrate movement into your everyday that will allow a daily habit to be
created. I’ll also provide some extra info about why we might want to support
or exercise that part of the body.
Week one: Ankle | 5th August
Why start with the ankles? Ankles are one of our main joins
that take the stress and strain of our whole body as we go about our day. They
help keep us stable, work our core and pivot with changes of direction and
motion as needed. Here’s some other key facts to remember about ankles –
A major function is proprioception, when neutral
transmitters in and around the joint respond to signals from the brain that
enable you to identify where the ankle is and how well balanced you are on it.
Improving the flexibility of your ankle will
significantly help with your strength, squat and reduce injury.
The ankle is a hinge joint and works on one
plane of motion – dorsiflexion and plantarflexion. Plantarflexion is the
movement downwards – pointing your toes like a ballet dancer. Dorsiflexion is
the movement up, when your toes go towards the sky whilst your heel is on the
ground.
Strong dorsiflexion means the front of the shin
can move forward during a movement, which helps with crucial body alignment and
application of force.
Exercises to try –
If you can do the 2 exercises 2 – 3 times a day. You will
start to feel a noticeable difference in your ankle strength.
Flexion
and extension of ankle: sitting on the floor extend your legs out in front
of you, alternately flex your foot to the ceiling and then point it down to the
ground. Push to the point that you feel a stretch. Aim for 10 reps flexing, 10
reps extending. This can also be done on a chair/sofa. What ever you choose,
ensure you’re sat up straight and your shoulders are down.
Heel
raises: ensure you are standing up straight, place your feet hip width
apart and take a slight bend. This is the position that you will hold during
the exercise. Keep your knees and rest of body still, lift up your as far as
you can, pushing the top of your foot forward. Lower back down. Do 10 reps.
This can also be done on a step, by dropping heels below the top of the step
and then raising them up.
I don’t know about you, but from the moment you find out you’re
pregnant all the ‘preparation’ that you are told about, explore, look up seems to
centre on most of these topics – how your pregnancy will develop, how the baby
grows, things you need to be aware of at birth, what to remember at birth, breastfeeding,
bottle feeding, what changes the baby goes through and much more. What isn’t spoken
about enough or made aware to mums enough is the reality of how you and your body feels physically post birth.
When I had my daughter, this was the bit I struggled with
the most, since then I’ve spoken with many mums about how they actually felt
post birth and it’s shocking. It’s the one thing they weren’t prepared for,
hadn’t been told or heard about, and it’s the thing that had one of the
greatest impacts on them as they came to grips with being a new mum.
I want to share with you two things – my post birth pain
story and how you can help yourself to get out moving after birth that will aid
healing in the right way. I recognise everyone’s story is different, and for
some mums, they may be the lucky few that experience a positive birth, with
minimal visible damage and easy movement after. But sadly, there are a lot of
mums that don’t get that.
The birth of my first child wasn’t what I pictured it would
be. To start with she was 10 days late! I was in slow labour, with sporadic contractions
for 5 days. My waters broke but I didn’t have any regular contractions and I
was scheduled to be induced. A high-powered walk eventually shifted things into
regularity. However, in the final pushing stages it all went wrong… very quickly,
and I ended up in theatre with an episiotomy, forceps and a baby not breathing,
after 6 very long minutes we heard our baby. Thank you, God.
In the hours after the birth I eventually managed to get up,
although I could walk, albeit very slowly, I could not sit. What followed as I
attempted to recover, navigate a very painful breastfeeding journey (a story for
another time), go through all the new mum, baby, family processes. Was the
realisation that whilst I was prepared to ‘become a mum’, I most definitely was
not prepared (nor had I read anywhere) for the immense pain, immovability and
recovery of my body. The hardest part was transitions, once standing, or
sitting in a fixed place I was okay, but moving from one to the other, turning
over in bed, getting baby in the night to do feeds, was excruciating, it was at
least 4 weeks if not longer before I could sit comfortably and transition between
standing and sitting comfortably.
Mentally I really struggled with this. I’m a doer, some one who likes to keep busy, and realising that I still needed to be on a ‘go slow’ a lot longer than I thought, I struggled with. It was around 4 months post-partum that my friend invited me to try out Buggyfit. What a God send! By this point I had worked out that sleep and my daughter didn’t mix. But the outdoors and buggy produced a small amount of sleep, hallelujah! Over the next 3 or 4 months with Helena at Buggyfit Farnham, I learnt a lot more about our post-partum bodies and rehabbing them in the right way. Plus, the importance of knowing if we have diastasis recti (tummy gap), and how strong our pelvic floor is (let’s be honest, we all mean to do the exercises, but the reality of actually doing them…?!).
I took a lot longer to recover than I thought I would, in
fact it hadn’t crossed my mind that it would take long to recover – I mean
nothing is said in any of the magazines. But think about it, you’ve taken 9
months to grow your baby, allow it time to recoup, recover and regrow as
needed.
Fast forward to now, I’ve been a Buggyfit instructor for 3 years running classes in Odiham, Hook and Alton (more info here), I love it. I’m passionate about ensuring mum’s get moving in a safe, supportive and fun environment and I love being able to encourage them not only in their fitness journey, but also in being a mum.
So what can you do to help your movement post birth? Here’s
3 things that I would make a priority –
Slow and steady wins
the race – giving birth is equivalent to doing a marathon, not only pace
yourself during your labour, but also after it. No consistent* running, high
impact, jumping, HiiT, Boxercise or similar until you are 5-6 months. This
sounds like you must wait an eternity, but although you might look and feel great
on the outside, there are many layers of muscles and healing that need to take
place deep down. Follow the advice of your postnatal trainer but depending on
your recovery some of these can be started sooner. Walking is the best place to
start.
Little and often –
get out for a walk every day. This might mean on day one, you walk to the end
of the driveway or garden and back and that’s it. But firstly, you’ve moved and
secondly you got outside, win win! Fresh air helps you to regroup, blow away a
little bit of tiredness and help you feel like you’ve done something. Moving,
wakes up your muscles to help them to start contracting back to where they
should normally be. Each time you walk, walk as fast as you can, this might be
like a snail to start with, but you will get quicker!
Remember your breathing – just like during labour, breathing is your lifeline. Taking several lots of deep breaths, a day will not only send more oxygen round the body to your muscles, but also help rebuild your pelvic floor and tummy gap.
If you’re keen to get out and get moving soon after birth,
then I’d recommend heading to a local Buggyfit class where you can get your
outside fresh air fix, baby can go to and all the instructors are postnatally
trained, so you will be in the safest of hands to get your body moving and
active post birth.
When looking for classes postnatally, it is really important
that you check (ask to see certificates if need be), that your class instructor
is qualified to teach postnatally. You will do more damage to your body if you
go back into exercise and begin throwing weights around, doing sit ups, running
sprints and more. There are many other exercises that work more effectively to
rebuild your core, tone your muscles and build strength.
Put your body first, let it recover, know that it might be painful and accept you might need to watch a little more tv whilst you recover!
*Running for short bursts
within for example, a set of circuits can be fine, but isn’t recommended before
12 weeks, at the discretion of the instructor depending on the mum’s recovery.