Well, I’m at the final stages of my pregnancy so this will be my last post until I’m on the other-side! So to speak. Exercise is not recommended for the first six weeks after childbirth, and as I’m having a section, there will definitely be no exercise! Once the midwife has signed you off then remember to start gently and build back up again. For those of us who have gained more than our baby’s weight, remember to lose this before toning exercises are started. Dieting however should not be your first thoughts, breast feeding is a great way of helping to control your weight. Once you feel alive again, or remotely human, this is when you should consider your return to fitness, not before. Remember there is no pressure, and for me, if I can’t run a marathon next September, then I’ll put it back till November, when my body is ready. There is no point rushing anything as that will only lead to injury.

As the end of this pregnancy is now insight, sleep becomes a thing of the past as does feeling comfortable.  So over the last few weeks a swissball, or fitball, has become my new best friend.  This week I am sharing some very good exercises with you to help keep you mobile, if like me, you are nearing the end of your pregnancy.

Firstly just sitting and bouncing on the ball will help to alleviate back ache by creating movement in the lumber region. This can be progressed to rocking your pelvic forward and backwards to help create movement around the hips and between the vertebra in the lumber and even in the thoracic spine when you rock your pelvic from side to side.  If you are feeling really adventurous you can make circles on the ball with your hips and waist which will really help create some much needed movement, and help reduce stiffness and pain in the pelvic area.  If you have been getting some SPD pain, use the ball to help stretch your hamstrings and adductors (inner thigh muscles) and this will take pressure off your pubic symphysis and again alleviate some of that stiffness and pain.  If you are unsure of any of these exercises send us and email and we can send you an exercise sheet, or book in for some much needed treatment.

At 34 weeks pregnant you feel like your ready to pop. However, it’s not stopped me thinking about good core sessions to start when training begins in about 3 months time.

A good session I’ve been putting together will include lots of exercises on the FK Pro, such as squats, both single and double leg, hamstring curls, quad curls, press ups and overhead side bends.  We have put videos of all of these exercises for you on our website, or click here. These sessions can probably be started two months after I give birth so looking forward to them already! You can remind me of this when I complain bitterly after my first session back!

Well this week has been full of aches and pains many of which have been far too personal to mention. However one thing I do suffer with is pain in my mid back. This has been discussed at length with my friends who are going to give birth around the same time as me.

It’s a common problem which gets forgotten about in pregnancy, but one that hits most of us as time gets closer to due date.  The pain in the mid back will increase as the lordosis increases in the lumber spine through the weight of the growing baby and the adapted postures. The pain is also increased by the growing bust size, and the extra weight some of us carry.  I managed to get in with Tina at our Manchester branch for a half hour deep tissue massage which helped greatly to relieve some of the aches and pains around my mid back and shoulder blades. By sitting in a massage chair you get to feel the benefit of the pressure rather than being laid on your side and just being uncomfortable.  This is probably the best half hour I’ve spent in months!

Even though it’s now cooler, my hands and feet have decided to swell up. This is a common issue in pregnancy and it can be quite painful. Many ladies suffer with swollen feet and ankles which can be exceptionally painful. It can be painful to walk if the ligaments also loosen off. This can be helped by wearing lace up shoes such as trainers (if you can still bend down to do them up) and tying them tightly to give the foot support. Alternatively taping the arch of the foot can also help through using k-tape or rock tape to proved the support and help prevent the pain on weight bearing.

This week I’ve been giving quite a lot of thought to the types of training sessions I will need to start doing.  Interval training such as one mile reps will need to feature. For this I need to decide on my target time.  I have been thinking that three and a half hours is a good starting point, and if I manage anything quicker then it will be a bonus.  The idea is that you run one mile faster than your expected pace, and then alternate it with a mile that is slower than your expected pace.  This is also a good tactic if you are feeling tired in a race and you want to break it up a little.   Obviously to start with I will be running a minute fast, alternated with a slow minute, but as I get fitter and further into the training programme the time intervals will get longer.  I will also need to add in strength sessions.  These will include exercises such as squats and dead lifts, as well as lots of core and upper body work.  Strength is important in long distance running to help improve stamina, however it is the one part of a training plan many athletes will miss out.

This week I get to start counting down in single figures until my expected due date!  It also means that I am finding everyday tasks hard, especially with the current heat. I’ve given quite a lot of thought to the training plan I will need to follow over the next year for when I return to running.  I also realise I can’t start this until the new year but it is good to have something to think about whist I am far from my normal active self.  It is important not to take on too much too soon and it will involve a very slow build-up of mileage.  It is recommended that when you start your training plan, you are not to increase mileage by more than 10% a week to help avoid overuse injuries.  It is also important to develop the speed element of running before stamina.  This means that from the beginning of my training plan I must include interval training sessions as well as strength sessions before I can contemplate increasing millage to any distance that will help with marathon running.

This week I get to start counting down in single figures until my expected due date!  It also means that I am finding everyday tasks hard, especially with the current heat. I’ve given quite a lot of thought to the training plan I will need to follow over the next year for when I return to running.  I also realise I can’t start this until the new year but it is good to have something to think about whist I am far from my normal active self.  It is important not to take on too much too soon and it will involve a very slow build-up of mileage.  It is recommended that when you start your training plan, you are not to increase mileage by more than 10% a week to help avoid overuse injuries.  It is also important to develop the speed element of running before stamina.  This means that from the beginning of my training plan I must include interval training sessions as well as strength sessions before I can contemplate increasing millage to any distance that will help with marathon running.

This week I’ve tried to walk most days but I can really feel myself slowing down.  Even working has started to become tiring.  Tiredness effects us all eventually at different times, I can’t remember being this tired with my daughter, but I am assured I was.  I am also assured that I am trying to do much more this time around!  Many ladies suffer from pubic symphysis disorder (SPD) during their pregnancies.  I’ve been lucky so far with both of mine not to have suffered with this (touch wood).  It is a painful condition affecting the pelvic area which can be at the front of the pelvis or the rear, or both if you are really unlucky!  As the pregnancy progresses, hormones that help with the birthing process relax of the smooth muscle and ligamentous tissue in the body, allowing the pelvic girdle to widen to allow the baby to pass through at birth.  However this can cause a great deal of discomfort in the lead up to the birth, and in the worst cases it can leave the mother immobile and in a lot of pain, making it hard to carry out the simplest of tasks such as walking.  There are many different techniques we as therapists can do to help with these issues.  Mobilisations to the back and sacrum can help. Simple stretching can also help take the strain out of the adductors to reduce the pain at the front of the pubic bone.  We can also apply various tapping techniques with k-tape or rock tape to help lift the bump, which are much more comfortable that the belts provided by the NHS.  We can also provide you with the correct and gentile exercises to help with this terrible condition. I’ve got my staff on standby but hopefully I won’t need them for this!

This week I was devastated to find out that my daily two mile walk was actually only 1.75 miles. And as it takes me 45 minutes at the moment, I am starting to think it’s almost better for the dogs to run around in the garden as they would get more exercise! That aside, it’s better than sitting on the sofa.  Plus it’s helping with my restless leg syndrome that many pregnant women get.

I also encountered the “strangers walking up to you and touching the bump syndrome”! For those of you who have been there, you know what I am talking about. For those of you who haven’t, let me explain. It’s when a total stranger walks up to you, touches your bump and then comments of your size. This isn’t always welcome, and as most pregnant women know, you feel insecure, highly emotional, and probably slightly neurotic! So total strangers walking up to you, touching you, then commenting on how big you are, isn’t the best feeling. I’m hoping the grumpy phase passes soon…….

This week I’ve still managed my two mile walk on most days. I’m starting to feel the need to slow down as I enter the third trimester and find myself growing larger. A back, neck and shoulder massage helped greatly from Kate at the Chester branch, but I’m still feeling quite a few aches and pains as most pregnant people do.

This week I’ve given a lot of thought to running the marathon next year. There is also a lot of mental preparation that goes into running as well as the physical exertion – 26 miles is a long way! There is no kidding the body that it’s just a short trip around the block, the mind must be prepared for the long and mental battle that a marathon brings. The last two long races I did back in 2007 I approached very differently. The 20 miles I ran in 2hours 15minutes, I broke down into two mile segments, which mentally worked wonders for me.  With the marathon however, I was already plagued with injury and didn’t approach it in such a positive way, which left me struggling towards the end. The mind wanders a lot when running, and focusing it really helps!  There are many different mental techniques all of which we can help you with here at Anatomy, and working out what went wrong in your last race is one of them!

This week, I’m starting to feel like the size of house. That said, I still managed my 2 mile walk each day and swimming on Tuesday.  I’ve managed to eat healthily all week, making sure I have at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.  I’m starting to find it difficult to eat big meals so by making them smaller and adding in healthy snacks I’m making sure me and the baby get the right nutritional intake.  My mid morning snack has become mixed berries and yogurt giving me at least two portions of fruit added into my diet, as well as it being a good source of antioxidants.

I’ve also been experiencing bad headaches again this week.  This is something I normally suffer with but with the hormones and the heat they have been out of control again!  As medication is limited, I saw Tina the acupuncturist in our Manchester branch.  With a few needles in my face, arms and feet she managed to clear the constant banging feeling in my head after 20 minutes. It doesn’t work this quickly for most people, a few sessions is always needed, but it is an amazing alternative to western medicine with some brilliant non-contraindicated results in pregnancy.

Well, I’m guessing I started this blog at a silly time, right after my holiday. The first holiday for 3 years that is.  Apart from eating half a stone of pancakes (they were for the baby honest) I still managed to walk most days trying to get my 30 minutes of exercise in – the amount they recommend during pregnancy.  I’ve been suffering with very painful thighs and some sciatic back pain.  After a couple of sessions of gentle mobilisation and soft tissue massage from the girls at Anatomy I was able to sleep much better.  Its recommended that you don’t sleep on your back but on your side, but so far the extra two stone I’ve put on doesn’t quite agree to sleeping on my side for very long, but the massages definitely helped.

Since returning from holiday I’ve been walking two miles a day at a steady pace.  It’s a mixture of trying to keep fit, balanced with not over doing it, especially in this heat.  All contact sport and impact sport is out so trying to find something gentle, fun and that leaves you slightly out of breath is quite hard (I’m not a yoga type of person).  Swimming is a great exercise, I tried it on Tuesday however I found it quite hard to stretch out and I ended up sinking!  They do many Aqua-natal aerobic classes around my area, next week I intend to try this.  As for my marathon choice, I’m looking to you for ideas?  I’m thinking Berlin in 2015.  What would you suggest?