Pregnancy Workout Plan Tips

Pregnancy workouts come in every shape and size, so I put together my top 5 tips I have found have helped me during my pregnancy. They cover everything from strength to posture and are handy additions to any pregnancy workout. As a physiotherapist, I’ve worked with plenty of women during their pregnancies, but going through it has given me so much more insight into how it actually feels to work out while pregnant. Some days it’s really hard to get motivated, but even 5 minutes can help you feel good. Plus, on days when I’ve been really exhausted, a quick workout has helped give me energy!

Note: Always check with your health practitioner that exercise is safe for you during pregnancy.

Benefits of Exercise During Pregnancy

As a physiotherapist, what I recommend needs to have an evidence-base. So let’s take a look at the handy benefits of pregnancy workouts. Other than being great for your general well being, staying fit while pregnant is also proven to:

• Improve your muscular strength and endurance

• Improve your cardiovascular function and physical fitness

• Decrease your risk of pregnancy related complications such as pregnancy-induced hypertension and pre-eclampsia

• Reduce your incidence of back and pelvic pain

• Reduce your fatigue, stress, anxiety and depression

• Decrease excessive gestational weight gain and post-partum weight retention

• Reduce the incidence of delivery complications in women who are active during pregnancy

• Prevent and management of urinary incontinence

Gone are the days when women were told not to exercise during pregnancy (unless there are medical reasons of course) Luckily, now we’re encouraged to stay moving and active to help boost maternal and your baby’s health. Let’s face it though, squeezing into your pre-pregnancy tights doesn’t work. Luckily I’ve found the comfiest options for you!

Best Activewear for Pregnancy

Thanks to Active Truth Maternity, I was able to trial their Mama 7/8th Length Pregnancy Tights in grey and black, plus matching crops. As a physio, I work in active wear full time, and after 15 weeks I was finding the waistbands of my pre-pregnancy tights too uncomfortable on my tummy. So Active Truth came to the rescue and I wore their tights almost everyday.

See more on the @activetruthmaternity Instagram: www.instagram.com/activetruthmaternity

I love that they don’t fall down, they have a really comfy and long tummy band for comfort, they fit really well, and they’re thick so you don’t need to worry about awkward see-through moments doing child’s pose. The crops are great too, especially in the last trimester when I’ve been told not to wear underwire to protect milk ducts! The only downside to the active truth tights is they’re not very breathable, but like most active wear, this just means you shouldn’t wear then 24/7, and wear natural fibres like cotton in your downtime.

So! Check out the GIFS below with my favourite antenatal workout moves in my Active Truth Maternity tights!

1. Pregnancy Core Exercise: The Hover

This handy exercise works your core without stretching it, helping create stability through your torso, pelvis and engaging your pelvic floor. Plus, it’s great for postural muscle strength you’ll need for constant lifting, breastfeeding and carrying your little one. Here’s how:

• Kneel on hands and knees, shoulders over hands, knees under hips

• Press the ground away so your head lifts up and away from the ground

• Keep your eye gaze straight down between your hands (don’t look up)

• Engage your core, lift your pelvic floor then float the knees one inch off the ground

  5 x 10 second holds

  Tip: Look down at your bump and if you see a ‘tenting’ or Toblerone shape down the centre of your tummy, your abs are working too hard. This means your abs aren’t ready for this exercise.

2. Watch Your Posture

Posture matters during pregnancy, as back and neck pain can worsen if you’re not sitting and standing well. With extra weight pulling your lower back into a sway position, plus your heavier chest pulling your downwards, kneeling in poor posture for your workout can get sore. Don’t let gravity win! Engage your deep postural muscles like your transversus and shoulder girdle muscles and lift up and away from the ground when you’re in kneeling. Strong postural muscles can help:

• Decrease back and neck pain during pregnancy

• Decrease back and neck pain after birth

• Decrease your risk of developing neck soreness and headaches during breastfeeding and lifting.

In the gif below, I demonstrate what ‘not to do’ by collapsing towards the ground. Prevent this by pressing that ground away!

3. Glute Exercises During Pregnancy

The clam is one of my favourite glute exercises during pregnancy. It’s a Pilates exercise that works the glute max and medius to help with pelvic stability; an important part of pregnancy when your pelvis is so much more mobile! Here’s how:

• Lie on your side and cradle the head on the arm

• Roll far forward so your top elbow is on the ground and your top hip rolls forward

• Tuck the top toe behind the bottom knee and open the top knee without rolling your hip backwards

• Lift your waist up from underneath. Pretend you’re making room for a little mouse to pass through.

  2 x 20

4. Squats During Pregnancy

Squats can feel tough when you’re in your third trimester when your bump gets big. I’m 34 weeks pregnant in this gif. and my belly really does get in the way. So I turned my hips out slightly and added a band to help activate my glutes. Remember to keep shoulders soft, knees bending over toes (no knock knees) and tuck your tailbone under instead of sticking your bottom out. This helps the glutes ‘switch on.’

See how many you can do in 1 minute!

5. Side Planks During Pregnancy

If you’re feeling strong and well, and you’ve done side planks before pregnancy, you can try side planks during pregnancy. They’re a great way to improve shoulder strength, glute strength and core. If you’re feeling really strong, you can lift the top leg. Here’s how:

• Ensure your bottom elbow is right underneath the lower shoulder

• Extend the top arm to help you feel like you’re lifting up more

• Keep the top hip forwards

• Don’t let yourself collapse onto the bottom arm, press the ground away through the elbow and lift up up up!

  3 x 10s hold each side

Pelvic Floor Exercises During Pregnancy

Don’t forget these handy exercises to increase the strength, endurance and activation of these special muscles. From fast lifts to long holds, change up the way you engage your pelvic floor. If you’re not sure if you’re doing it right, see a pelvic floor physio. They’re amazing at what they can check and teach you!

Pregnancy Exercises at Home

Pregnancy workouts at home might be the easiest way to help you stay well during pregnancy. Whether you’re exhausted during your first trimester and struggling for motivation, or you’re in your third trimester and juggling work with the exhaustion of late pregnancy, or in lockdown or quarantine, at-home workouts are easily accessible. Even 10 minutes count! Research shows working out when you’re exhausted can boost energy levels actually helping you feel brighter.

Try My Full 40 Minute Prenatal Pilates Workout Below

How to Add Wellness to Your Resort

Offering wellness to your customers has never been more important. Across countless industries from food retailers to luxury hotels, wellness programs and wellness products are no longer optional. Here’s everything you need to know about adding wellness to your brand.

Everyone wants more wellness in 2021

It’s been an extremely difficult year this year, and the threat to human health has led to an increase in the individual and global search to be well. Never in most of our lifetimes has there been such a focus on health at such a large scale. While wellness has been a trend for years, now it’s personal. Customers of the luxury sector through to daily food chains are demanding brands consider their wellbeing.

An Ogilvy global survey of 7,000 consumers in 14 countries found:

• 77% of people say wellness is very or extremely important to them.

• 80% want to improve their wellness.

• Only 46% feel that brands prioritise their wellness; the number is 41% for the food sector and 53% for skin-care brands.

• 67% say there should be more wellness options, regardless of what they’re shopping for; more than 50% expect car, banking, airline and snack-food brands to offer wellness options.

• 59% agree it’s worth paying more for wellness options.

• 73% say all brands need a wellness strategy as part of their core mission.

As the results above demonstrate, showing your customers you care about their health, both mental health and physical health, is imperative in today’s world. Before 2020, genuine workplace wellness programs were rarely implemented and wellness products were restricted to the health and wellness industry. But no more.

With social media ever-present now, wellness offers have to be authentic and meaningful. 

Wellness is more than healthy food and spa treatments

Many brands have started wellness programs in the past 12 months to cater to the demands of both their customers and employees. This has come in the form of wellness to support mental health, employee health or even by adding wellness to an existing brand offering. When these offerings are done in a meaningful way, these brands should be applauded. 

However, some brands think providing spa treatments and a few menu items with healthy food serve as wellness programs or products. But they don’t. 

The new consumer wants to know their health is a priority, not a second thought.

If you wish to offer wellness experiences and treatments, they need to have a human-centred goal behind them. That can be lightness and laughter, building connection, creating calm, boosting immunity or even creating a moment of wonder and awe which is shown to boost well being too. Regardless of what you wish to offer, it needs to have a clear goal that shows insight into your unique customer base. 

Luxury brands need to focus on these goals when offering luxury wellness too, as an opulent spa no longer qualifies a hotel as a luxury wellness retreat. The world’s top wellness retreats have known this for years, but now the rest of the world is taking note.

All industries can offer wellness products

Wellness isn’t reserved for retreats, yoga studios and healthy food chains either. Any industry can get involved; It’s about catering to real people and their needs to have their health prioritised.

Whether you’re a hotel chain looking to add wellness retreats, a medical clinic looking to add fitness classes, or a ferry company looking to offer healthier, locally sourced food options, there are simple ways you can help your customers feel like you value their well being. It all starts with that human-centred goal to make the product meaningful to your customers.

What makes a wellness product meaningful?

Considering your customers in a holistic way can help create a meaningful wellness product. One of the easiest, most tangible ways to do this is to consider Maslow’s pyramid of needs.

The pyramid is as follows: Physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation. Once the initial two needs have been met, wellness can attempt to address the last three: Love and belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. 

Belonging

After a year of isolation, quarantine, lack of touch and loss of community for many, many people are craving a sense of belonging. Brands, luxury hotels and wellness retreats can all help create this with meaningful, in-person events and community initiatives. 

Esteem

Building a customer’s esteem is well within the reach of wellness products. Whether your customer’s goal is weight loss, detox, boosting their health or just trying yoga for the first time, esteem-building is crucial.

There are countless elements that influence building self-esteem, from everything from staff interactions to the user experience of digital fitness tools and trackers.

Self-actualisation

Self-actualisation is an important part of any meaningful wellness initiative and a pillar of any world-class wellness resort.

In fact, helping a customer live their best life is the key goal of any wellness brand, product or wellness retreat.

Whether this is done through a philosophical, spiritual or scientific lens, self-actualisation is the reason customers will rave about your wellness product and keep coming back. 

How to add wellness to your hotel or brand

Creating an authentic, relatable and meaningful wellness product in 2021 means thinking beyond the old ideas. While holistic treatments, yoga and daily wellness programs are great, they’re not enough.

New customers want to know brands have considered their wellness, which includes everything from saving them time to decreasing stress levels, boosting immunity and building connection.

While it sounds like a mammoth task to weave all these elements into a product, it can be done. From luxury wellness through to wellness programs and initiatives; authentic, personalised products are key.

Adding wellness to your brand

As a health professional and wellness consultant, I have the unique, ongoing opportunity to watch which wellness strategies work, and which don’t resonate with real people in real settings. I’m so grateful to have worked with some of the world’s best wellness resorts and brands from retreats to hotels fitness brands, and I love to help brands offering meaningful luxury wellness programs and products to their customers.

If you’re looking to add wellness to your brand but you’re not sure how to start, contact me now. 

Brand I’ve Worked With:

• Liv Nordic & Viking Cruises

• Six Senses, Worldwide

• Chiva Som, Thailand

• Ananda, India

• Current Wellness Product Creation for 2 brands: Names protected by NDA.

Get in touch now!

Pilates Moves To Master Now

Pilates is for everyone of all ages - yep that means you too boys! Pilates is a really great way to enhance your posture, tone up and work your core. Here are the top Pilates moves you need to try now!

1. Scissors - Great for deep core activation

This exercise is a good core workout, plus it works to strengthen the deep neck flexors to improve your posture!

• Lie on your back and float your legs up to tabletop

• Tap one toe to the ground, then lift it back up

• Tap the other toe to the ground

• For more of a challenge, tap the toe further away from you

• 2 x 12

2. Walking Plank - Great for improving your posture

Planks can get a bit static, so make yours a walking plank!

• From your hands and knees, press up into a hover lifting your knees 1 inch up off the ground

• Press the ground away and lift your head and neck away from the ground

• Step your legs back to a plank one by one

• Then step back to your hover. Resist the urge to hang your head, this is how you improve your head and neck posture!

• Try 2 sets of 5 steps. You got this!

3. Ab Roll Up - A great ab workout

This one is tough!

• Lie on your back with your arms out long and your legs stretched out

• Float your hands up above your face

• Use your abs to roll you all the way up to sitting

• Try to keep your shoulders relaxed and away from your ears! You can do it!

• Try 5 roll ups.

4. Book Openings - Relieves stiffness in the middle back

If you get tight in the thoracic spine (middle back) you’re not alone. Sitting all day at a computer creates so much stiffness in the middle back. The best remedy is a gentle rotation.

• Lie on your side and glute your knees together

• Put your hands on top of each other (like a crocodile mouth) and open one arm all the way out, then back in.

• If you feel any pins and needles in your hands, bend your elbow and open with the elbow instead of a straight arm.

• 1 set of 8 on each side.

5. Pelvic Tilts - Great to release stiffness in the lower back

• Lie on your back and plant your feet hip-width apart

• Imagine you have flashlights on your pelvic bones and roll your pelvis forwards and backwards

• You’ll feel your pelvis rolling which also mobilises the joints in your lumbar spine

• 2 x 5 slowly

Wanna try a Pilates class for Free? Check out my Youtube channel! It’s full of free classes covering everything from how to improve your posture to how to strengthen your glutes.

3 Wellness Tips For Isolation and Lockdown When You've Lost Motivation

If you've lost your usual motivation during lockdown and quarantine, that's OK.

With so many people sharing their new workouts and run times, it can feel like you're the only one who's feeling flat. But you're not!

Most people are just trying to get through each day stuck at home, let alone achieve new goals. Here are a few healthy moves you can make even when you're feeling stuck in a rut.

Easy movements to ease back stiffness when you're in self-isolation

How to combat low back stiffness when working from home during Corona Virus

If you’re working from home or stuck in a hotel due to self-isolation and Corona virus quarantine but you’re not sick, you’re probably feeling stiffness you never knew you had!

Sitting and working all day on the couch, your bed, or even your dining table means you’re probably not sitting well, and your back isn’t going to like it. Sitting in great chairs with supportive pillows can help, but you really need to get your spine moving!

Here are 3 handy movements you can do at home or in your hotel to help you avoid developing stiffness and soreness during self-isolation.

1. Cat Stretch for spinal mobility (1 x 10 reps slowly)

   Get your middle and lower back moving with this easy exercise. It works on a yoga mat on the floor, or on your bed, so you can even do it in your hotel room!

2. Spinal Roll Down (1 x 4 reps slowly)

By moving your vertebrae slowly, one by one, you can ease stiffness in your lower and middle back. Plus it feel great!

Handy tip: Don’t try this roll down if you have any acute low back pain though, as it can irritate your soreness.

3. Cycling Ab Exercise (2 x 12 reps)

This Pilates exercise is a great way to get your deep and superficial abs working. These muscles are handy to support your lower back and strengthen your torso, plus it’s a great way to sweat!

I want you to live, move and feel great even when you’re stuck at home. It can be hard to come up with new ideas though! So!

If you want more ideas on how to maximise your health while stuck at home, join my April Wellness Challenge! You’ll receive simple challenges via email every week in April to help you try new ways to stay well during the Corona Virus pandemic.

Is self care a justification for self indulgence?

The term ‘self care’ has enjoyed the spot light since the wellness trend exploded five years ago, but has the term ‘self care’ become a justification for self-indulgence? No, not according to its true meaning, but what does self care really mean in 2020?

In its truest form, self care is essential to staying sane. Sadly though, self-care has become a justification for materialistic whims that don’t provide any lasting boost to our health or wellbeing, and may even worsen them.

Self care doesn’t mean life is ‘all about me.’

What’s the difference between self care and self absorption?

True self care, under the wellness umbrella, needs to have substance and actuate a meaningful mental or physical wellbeing result. Going to yoga, taking five minutes to breathe or meditate before bed or going for a walk all create an obvious outcome thanks to physiological processes underpinning these activities. 

For a busy Mum of two who hires a babysitter every Wednesday so she can go to Pilates helps her pelvic floor recover, while giving her an hour of ‘adult time.’ It provides objective physical and mental outcomes.

In general, most true self-care activities are proactive, rather than passive.

Self absorption disguised as self care creates a focus on indulgence and hedonism, rather than offering a true wellbeing outcome. Claiming your newest purchases of French champagne and a new dress are ‘self care’ is more than a far reach. 

The search to ‘live well’ has led to many people getting distracted by hedonism that have somehow ended up under the wellness umbrella. 

Too much focus on ourselves leads to discontent

It’s not news that pursuing a life of “feeling good” or hedonism leads to a sense of meaninglessness. Anyone who’s ever been hungover after drinking champagne knows what I mean. Chasing that ‘good feeling’ is an empty pursuit. Do these things if you like: Drink the champagne! But don’t confuse it with ‘self care.’

Positive psychologists agree, they’re well-known for saying having a “good time” in the present moment doesn’t create a life filled with well-being. In fact, they agree factors that positively influence well-being range from finding a sense of purpose and meaning right through the practising the act of altruism and development.

So if yoga and massages are forms of self care, but so are other things like self-development, what is self care?

The real meaning of self care

What do you consider self care? Is it a massage, a bath or a luxurious walk on the beach? If it is, you’re not alone. These things are absolutely included as self care as they feel gorgeous and make you spend valuable time on yourself, but there’s more to effective self care. 

The goal of self care is to boost your health and well being, so not every self care strategy feels great in the moment.

Dr Libby, PhD Biochemist and Wellness pro says it well:

“Sometimes self-care is uncomfortable, sometimes it’s:

- Speaking up when you are worried about what others might think of you.

- Having a tricky conversation with someone you care about.

- Making the effort to prepare nutritious food for yourself, even though you’d rather sit on the couch.

- Getting up from your desk, even when you don’t have the time.”

These things aren’t delicious and decadent at all! In fact, they don't feel good at the time, especially the tricky conversations. If you're not so sure self care involves difficult situations like the one above, think of it as self-compassion. 

Emma Seppala, Ph.D and Science Director, Stanford Center For Compassion And Altruism Research And Education agrees:

“Taking it easy on yourself may be appropriate in some situations, but in times of over-indulgence and laziness, self-compassion involves toughening up and taking responsibility.”

We need to focus on others when it comes to self care too

So self care isn’t actually about making ourselves feel good, it’s about boosting health and well being, and science says helping other is an effective way to do that. 

Real self care ideas, such as fixing a relationship with a loved one, leaves you both feeling good! It helps both of you! So why not try it, then have a bubble bath afterwards?

Sarah Wilson, known for her recent diversion from her health food business I Quit Sugar, agrees we need to broaden our scope when considering wellness. Wilson told Meg Mason in Elle Australia: 

“I don’t think the focus should be ourselves and our ego and a bottomless desire for more. It should be our contribution. We have a generation of women focused on their gut health and green smoothies rather than humanity.” -Sarah Wilson

I’m not saying you need to stop drinking your green smoothies, trust me, they’re amazing! But I do think we need to understand what’s self care and when we might need to think of people other than ourselves when it comes to wellness. This means fixing a relationship could be a valuable self care effort for you.

How do we balance self indulgence and self care effectively?

It’s all about self awareness. 

1. Abolishing terms like ‘I deserve’ or ‘I’m entitled’ from Your vocabulary is a good start.

After all, the notion of people getting what they deserve is a dangerous one. While you may hope the guy who hip and shoulders you on the footpath steps in gum, it’s more troubling when considering those battling with life’s hardships. Thinking about ‘what you deserve’ is the kindling for discontent and self absorption. This is the opposite of ‘living well,’ and the polar opposite of self care’s goal.

2. Being aware of what genuinely boosts your mental and physical health helps you avoid justifying enjoyment with the label of self care.

There are cross overs of course, like going for a massage, but generally focusing on proactive self care is more useful than passive activities.

3. Weigh up your ‘buckets’ of self care vs. self indulgence.

If your self indulgent bucket is far heavier than your true self care wellness bucket, you may have veered off the wellness path and into the ‘it’s all about me’ road.

So no. Self care isn’t selfish when it’s done right. 

What do you do for self care?