Quick Links

By Deborah Slade, APOGEE Pilates Instructor 

Yes, and in fact, Pilates is one of the best exercise regimens you can practice during pregnancy. Because Pilates is designed to strengthen the abdominals, back and pelvic floor muscles, it provides wonderful support during the months that your body is changing. Also, the kind of breathing practiced in Pilates (posterior lateral breathing) helps create room for the baby to grow. In fact, Pilates conditions the entire body in a way that can help prepare you for labor and the physical demands of new motherhood. 

While pregnancy is not the time to start a new exercise regimen, if you are already a Pilates student you can work safely right up until delivery. Since you’ll need to adapt your workout somewhat as your body changes, we recommend that you work with a Pilates instructor who has training and experience with working with pregnant women. Here’s what you can expect during your pregnancy Pilates workouts: 

First Trimester
Assuming the pregnancy is healthy, your Pilates workout does not have to change during the first trimester. But, it probably will if you suffer from the fatigue and nausea that so many women experience. The key is to listen to your body. On some days you may be able to handle a vigorous workout, while on others you might need stretching and relaxation. Since the waist is already expanding, abdominal exercises are often more difficult to execute, which may mean modifying your positions or reducing the number of repetitions. You should never exercise to the point of exhaustion since this will diminish the oxygen supply to you and the baby, rest on extremely hot days, and make sure to eat well and stay hydrated. 

Second Trimester
By the second trimester, you may feel better and more energized. If so, your Pilates workout can return to its original intensity, even if positions change. Prone exercises are still safe, but many mothers-to-be feel uncomfortable lying on their stomachs by this time. Since the weight of the fetus can compress a large vein when lying on your back, you’ll do no more than two supine exercises in a row—elevating the head with a small pillow if you experience any dizziness. Toward the fifth and six months, movements that compress the abdomen will be replaced by those that stabilize the hamstrings, gluteus, inner thigh and back muscles. And, you’ll take extra care while stretching since the ligaments are starting to get extremely loose as your hormones prepare your body for labor. 

Third Trimester
Moderation is the key for the third trimester. With a large belly now in the way and lower energy levels, your workout will be restricted. But, it can still include all of the apparatus and be very thorough and effective. Like from the start, it’s all about listening to your body so you don’t over-tax yourself or the baby. The sessions can be shorter and include lots of standing work to improve balance, as well as gentle stretches and relaxation exercises to keep you fit and positive until the big day. 

No two pregnancies are alike. One of the beauties of Pilates is that a workout can accommodate any skill level and change in the body during a normal pregnancy. With the guidance of an experienced instructor, you’ll be in the best shape of your life as you face one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of your life. 

Bridge Pose

By Sarah Landis, APOGEE Yoga Instructor

Backbending has many benefits, not least of which are the uplifting feelings the movement generates. After a backbend, you may feel physically and mentally energized. The pose opens your chest and your lungs, creating more space for the breath. Backbends stretch your  shoulders, abdominals, hips and thighs and the group of abdominal nerves known as the solar plexus. Backbending stimulates the abdominal organs, improving digestion and relieving menstrual discomfort. Depending on the position of the chin, backbends can stimulate or sooth the thyroid gland, which controls metabolism. Practice backbends regularly, and you will strengthen your back and increase mobility in your spine.

If I were to practice only one backbend, it would be setu bandha sarvangasana, bridge pose. This pose can be active, even performed with one leg raised. Or, you can support your hips with a block for a restful, restorative posture. In bridge pose, the lungs are also inverted, making this a beautiful pose for moving out chest colds.

•    To begin, lie on your back with your knees bent and feet on your mat just in front of your sits bones, arms by your sides. Make sure the feet are parallel. If this is difficult, place a block between your big toes and maintain that contact throughout the pose.

•    Press down through the feet and arms to lift the hips until the thighs are approaching parallel to the floor. Your feet should be under your knees. Draw the tailbone toward the backs of the knees and lift the pubic bone in the direction of the navel. These actions will help elongate and protect the lower back.

•    Snuggle one shoulder, then the other, underneath you onto the back. Be mindful not to move the shoulders toward the feet, which could strain the neck. Pressing the back of the skull into the mat will help maintain the natural curve in the neck.

•    Now that you are in the pose, breathe. Imagine you are filling your lungs with helium and let your full, light lungs ascend, bringing the chest a little closer to the chin. Continue to breathe deeply and explore how it feels to breathe with the lungs inverted for the next 30 seconds to one minute.

Restorative Variation
To practice a restorative version of setu bandha, place a block under your sacrum at the base of the pelvis. Notice that by turning the block you can create three levels. Choose the highest level that still allows you to stay in the pose without tenderness in the lower back. Stay in this variation for five minutes.

For more heart-opening yoga poses, join Sarah Landis on Sunday, February 21, for an Open Your Heart yoga workshop, from noon to 2:00 pm at APOGEE Bedford Hills. Details here.

One the most fabulous gifts you can give—or receive—is to touch or be touched.  Hugs, handshakes, taking someone’s arm—simple touches like these have been proven to lower blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol and even boost the immune system.

Massage is one way of systematically touching someone and, with practice, it can release muscle tension as well. APOGEE’s massage therapist Orlando Ocasio recommends sharing a foot massage. It’s nice to give your partner a foot rub; try it with your children as well. Here is Orlando’s recipe for a 20-minute foot massage that anyone can master.

1. Choose a place where your partner can sit or lie down and be warm, relaxed and comfortable. Warm some lotion or massage oil to skin temperature; test the temperature on the inside of your wrist. Put the lotion or oil on your hands so they will glide on your partner’s skin.
2. Begin by holding one of your partner’s feet in your hands; cover the other foot with a blanket or towel. Using long gliding strokes that barely touch the skin, stroke the top of the foot from the ankle toward the toes for about a minute. Then, with the same light touch, stroke the bottom of the foot, from the heel to the toe for another minute.
3. Repeat the same strokes, but apply 10 percent more pressure. After a minute, apply 10 percent more pressure, then increase the pressure a third time.  Each time you begin to apply more pressure, ask permission. You can say something such as, “Is this OK? Does this feel good?” By the third round, you should be pressing beyond the skin layer.
4. Using this deepest pressure, put one thumb on top of the other and press into the ball of the foot, using short upward and downward movements. Move to the arch, using both thumbs to stroke toward the toes.
5. With the palm of your hand, cup your partner’s heel and wave your hand, pressing into the heel with a back and forth motion.
6. With the soft part of your thumb, press the bottom of each toe. Then, with your thumb and forefinger, gently grasp each toe.
7. End with the same long, light strokes that you began with, stroking from ankle to toes, on the top and bottom of the foot.
8. Cover or wrap this foot and then massage the other foot in the same way.

Consider the benefits of being in a relationship: sharing, trust, support, and communication. Now imagine experiencing those advantages in a yoga class—that’s partner yoga. Partner yoga has a long tradition, and while it’s fun for romantic couples and friends, any two people can participate in partner yoga and reap the rewards.

When you practice partner yoga, you and your buddy use each other’s bodies as aids, assists or props. For example, you and your partner may lean on each other for support during a balance pose. Or, as she relaxes against your back as she performs a backbend, your friend’s weight may push you deeper into your own forward bend. The result is the same feelings of awareness, energy and relaxation you get from a yoga class, but shared with another person.

“Certainly the best part of partner yoga is the connectedness with another human being,” says APOGEE yoga instructor Franklin Shire.  As you move and shift your balance and weight, you will be communicating physically. “Support and surrender happen simultaneously,” says Franklin. “There’s a give-and-take element.”

Couples must talk to each other, but in a way that’s conscious and aware. “You must be truly present to really communicate with your partner,” says Franklin. Because awareness is one reason to practice yoga, the challenges of doing it with a partner can add to your practice. Says Franklin, “Partner yoga can take you places you can’t get to by yourself.”

Go further with your Valentine in a partner yoga class at our “Share the Love” APOGEE Awakening on February 11. Learn more here.

Back in October of 1996, LucyAnn Doino had every reason to feel a bit tired—she’d  just delivered a healthy baby boy. But in the days after the birth, LucyAnn’s fatigue was accompanied by dull annoying pain in her upper back. “I just didn’t feel right,” she says. She called her ob-gyn, who sent her to the emergency room and then—a week after her symptoms began—she underwent emergency open-heart surgery at Valhalla Medical Center. LucyAnn had a blood clot and a torn artery; blood had been leaking from her heart for seven days.

“I was lucky,” says LucyAnn, who is a Pilates and yoga instructor at APOGEE White Plains. Not only did the initial tear, caused by a ballooning of the blood vessel called an aneurysm, not kill her but she was aware enough to know that something was wrong.

LucyAnn began taking yoga classes as part of her healing process two years after her surgery. “I had rounded shoulders because I was protecting my chest,” she says. LucyAnn continued, adding weight training to her routine and then Pilates. Now, 13 years after her surgery, LucyAnn has changed in many ways: She has lost 35 pounds and found a career. She teaches 13 Pilates classes a week at APOGEE White Plains.

After instructing her students on the Pilates mats, LucyAnn often brings up information about heart disease. “I see women, especially, put their health last,” she says. She lets the women in her classes know that heart attacks don’t always include the classic pain in the chest or left arm. “It can be dull pain in the upper back, like I had,” LucyAnn says, “or dizziness or heaviness in the chest. If you’re not feeling right, have your doctor check it out.”  Her students believe her: After all, she’s living proof.

Join our celebration of American Heart Month! On Friday, February 5, National Wear Red Day, wear red to classes at APOGEE White Plains and Bedford Hills to show your support for research into and awareness of heart disease and stroke.