Firstly, congratulations on your pregnancy

It is both an exciting and busy time. I know how difficult it can be exercising prenatally. There can be so many obstacles to overcome, including tiredness, pelvic health issues, not to mention for some other little ones running around! But finding time for you is so important and staying fit and healthy and strengthening your pelvic floor can really help to aid recovery after birth.

There are a few top tips to consider when exercising during pregnancy:

• Keep the exercise you are doing low impact or to a low intensity.
• Keep safe i.e not horse riding/ consider when to stop riding a bike
• Keep your environment cool – your temperature increased by 0/5-1% in pregnancy
• Stop exercising if you feel unwell, dizzy or have reduced foetal movements and seek help from a medical professional .

We have designed three prenatal classes suitable to do throughout your pregnancy and aim to help engage your pelvic floor and deep abdominal muscles as well as working on your spinal mobility and posture.

If you are unsure if you are able to exercises or if you experience any pain or discomfort when exercising then please seek advice from a health professional before continuing.

Prenatal Pilates class one

In the first in our prenatal class series. You will need a mat and extra pillow to use between your knees for this class. We begin in standing by mobilising our spines and warming up our legs.

We then move down onto the mat into four-point kneeling and challenge our pelvic floor and deep abdominal core muscles and continuing to stretch out our spines.

We also work our gluteal muscles on our sides with a clam exercise.

Prenatal Pilates class two

For this class you will need a mat and either a Pilates soft ball or small rolled towel or small pillow to use for some of the exercises in the class. We start the class in standing to open out through our chests and warm up our spines.

Moving down into four-point kneeling to stretch our spines further and to strengthen our glutes and core muscles.

We then move into high kneeling using the soft ball or small towel/pillow to help engage our pelvic floor muscles and deep abdominal core muscles further. Finishing the class with some gentle stretches.

Prenatal Pilates class three

For this class you need a mat, an extra pillow to use between your knees and either a Pilates weighted ball or bottle of water or tin of beans or something similar from the kitchen cupboard!

We start the class in standing by gently warming up our arms, legs and spines. Moving down into four-point kneeling to work our upper bodies using the small weights and challenge our core with some leg movements.

On our sides we also work our glute muscles with a side kick movement. Finishing the class with some gentle upper body stretches.