As a new mum you will find yourself in positions that you have never been in and sometimes, you can be in this position for a long time. To prevent pain, poor posture habits and ‘getting your tummy’ back, check out our top tips on POSTURE!
5 tips for POSTURE, PREGNANCY and PERFORMANCE
1.CARRYING CHILDREN – Try to avoid or reduce the frequency of carrying an older child or baby on one hip. The hormone relaxin makes joints more supple and ale to move. This can lead to pain, particularly in the pelvis area.
2.POSTURE – When standing and sitting we want to focus on RIBS over HIPS. This is alignment for optimal breathing pattern, pelvic floor strength and core tone.
3. BREATHING – Exhale and execute. When lifting weights, children, anything heavy, take a breath in and exhale as you lift the load.
4. MOVING FROM STANDING TO SITTING/LYING DOWN – to reduce the load on your rectus abdominis (your 6-pack muscles), move from standing position to kneeling, lowering to one side and then using your hands to lay onto your side and roll onto your back. When getting out of bed, roll to one side, use your hands to push yourself up to a seated position and then stand.
5. POSTERIOR CHAIN – the muscles of the back of your body! Focus on strength training your butt and back to help with posture, alignment and changes in your centre of gravity.
*6 This bonus one is for all those new mummas. We can spend LOADS of time feeding, carrying and nursing our baby. Over time, this can lead to tight and shortened muscle groups, pain and poor posture. When standing and rocking/carrying your baby and when feeding it super important to ensure good alignment. This will not only help to ensure the muscles of your abdominals are in great position to come back together and heal any abdominal separation. It will also help to minimise any bad postural habits, aches and pains.
Standing posture
When standing, ensure even pressure is going into your left and right foot.
Your ribs are stacked over your hips like Lego blocks and that you remember to lift your head from looking at down at your baby for too long. Imagine someone is gently pulling the crown of you head up.
Below is an example of good posture with ribs stacked over ribs. The other picture is poor posture where the hips are shifted forward causing misalignment of ribs and hips and load going through the lower back.
Feeding posture
Similarly, when feeding we also want to ensure we have alignment of ribs over hips to create an optimal environment for the muscles of our core. The more we sit with consideration to ensure we achieve this, the better our post natal healing and recovery will be.
Below is an example of a slouched feeding position where the butt is tucked under as the hips are shifted forward. And the other image we can see mum has propped pillows behind her back to ensure good alignment. We could also use some sleeping pillows to go underneath the baby to prop it up to you rather than you having to use your arms to bear all the weight of the baby. This can also help to reduce a rounding of the shoulders.
Next time you are standing or feeding your bubba, just check yourself out to see what you notice and if any corrections need to be made. Remember, you could be breast feeding your baby for a whole 12 months so it would be important to nail this postural techniques as soon as possible. For pre and post natal personal training information, head over to our contact page and leave your details.
Kat xx
