Keeping active throughout pregnancy is incredibly beneficial for both you and your baby, helping to alleviate less glowing symptoms, aid labour and postnatal recovery, as well as contribute to healthy fetal development.
Fitness guru Brit Williams has developed month-by-month workouts to support your body and bump at every stage of your pregnancy. Adaptable for all fitness levels, these exercises can be practised at home, outside in the park or in the gym with a few items of equipment or just your own bodyweight.
With lifestyle advice including tips on mental wellbeing, sleep and nutrition, reading this book is like having a personal trainer and cheerleader by your side on every step of this rewarding journey.
Keeping active throughout pregnancy is incredibly beneficial for both you and your baby, helping to alleviate less glowing symptoms, aid labour and postnatal recovery, as well as contribute to healthy fetal development.
Fitness guru Brit Williams has developed month-by-month workouts to support your body and bump at every stage of your pregnancy. Adaptable for all fitness levels, these exercises can be practised at home, outside in the park or in the gym with a few items of equipment or just your own bodyweight.
With lifestyle advice including tips on mental wellbeing, sleep and nutrition, reading this book is like having a personal trainer and cheerleader by your side on every step of this rewarding journey.
Mind, Body, Bump: The complete plan for an active pregnancy - Includes Recipes by Mindful Chef
192
Mind, Body, Bump: The complete plan for an active pregnancy - Includes Recipes by Mindful Chef
192Paperback
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Overview
Keeping active throughout pregnancy is incredibly beneficial for both you and your baby, helping to alleviate less glowing symptoms, aid labour and postnatal recovery, as well as contribute to healthy fetal development.
Fitness guru Brit Williams has developed month-by-month workouts to support your body and bump at every stage of your pregnancy. Adaptable for all fitness levels, these exercises can be practised at home, outside in the park or in the gym with a few items of equipment or just your own bodyweight.
With lifestyle advice including tips on mental wellbeing, sleep and nutrition, reading this book is like having a personal trainer and cheerleader by your side on every step of this rewarding journey.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781781318584 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | White Lion Publishing |
| Publication date: | 05/02/2019 |
| Pages: | 192 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
While pregnant with her first child, Brit encountered endless conflicting advice about prenatal exercise. This experience struck Brit as confusing for women, particularly when hard scientific evidence has repeatedly confirmed that an active pregnancy results in a healthier mum and healthier baby both before and after childbirth. Having trained throughout her pregnancy and enjoyed movement as a means of physical and mental preparation for labour and motherhood, Brit is determined to share her pregnancy-positive message and unique strength training programme with expectant mothers.
Prior to setting up Fit Brit Collective in 2016, Brit was a fitness journalist writing for some of the leading wellness and lifestyle publications in the UK and US. A bubbly Canadian, Brit now lives in South West London with her husband and daughter.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
FIRST TRIMESTER
1-12 WEEKS
Great Expectations
You're expecting! Isn't this a funny way to describe pregnancy? Yes it's so full of expectation – excitement over meeting your baby in nine months' time, anxiety about what those nine months will bring, a fierce and sudden maternal instinct to prevent any harm coming to the life inside you. Yet, at the same time, almost every aspect of pregnancy will surprise you. If you're one for comparing yourself to others, or even to yourself, it's time to let those expectations go.
No two pregnancies will be the same – even a subsequent pregnancy, if this is not your first nine-month victory march. However, there are a number of physiological changes you can expect to take place, and the first trimester packs in plenty of them.
Let's talk about the weeks of pregnancy. Most expecting mums only discover they're pregnant after their first missed period – I was rather flustered to learn that six weeks had flown by without me realising! Some women remain unaware of their pregnancy for eight or even twelve weeks, by which time any first-trimester symptoms should be signposting some less than ordinary activity.
We'll discuss your baby's development each month but, rest assured, as abstract as that life within may feel, in these few short months your baby will become a fully fledged mini human with a beating heart, all its other vital organs and even little finger- and toenails. That means your body has a lot of work to do. So, whether you're early in your pregnancy journey or catching up on what's been going on beneath the bump, here's what the first trimester means for you.
Your Changing Body
Yogis have coined a phrase that I feel perfectly summarises your first trimester health outlook: working in. Whether the circumstances of your first trimester allow you to work out almost daily or during infrequent nausea-free moments, there is a head-to-toe 24/7 workout underway within your body. Arm yourself with knowledge, turn up your intuition and remember to work in to get more from your workouts.
BRAIN
It's completely normal to feel tired, emotional or anxious, and to struggle to focus in the first trimester – a sharp influx of hormones means your brain is receiving and transmitting more signals than ever. Exercise aids endorphin release, helping to promote a better hormonal balance and a more stable mood.
STOMACH
It's unknown why some women experience morning sickness and others don't, but the cocktail of hormones required to create a healthy home for your baby can certainly make you feel off-centre. Drinking ample water, eating small frequent snacks and low-key aerobic exercise can help offset nausea, which should ease by the second trimester.
HEART
Your blood vessels expand almost immediately when you become pregnant, so your heart has to pump faster in order to keep up with circulatory demands. If you wear a fitness tracker, training at around eighty per cent of your maximum heart rate should prevent overexertion.
BREASTS
Your breasts are the first place you'll feel the effect of increased oestrogen and progesterone production in the womb. You'll begin to store extra fat here and they will probably feel more sensitive. Size up in your favourite supportive bras to avoid discomfort from impact.
OVARIES
The ovaries produce progesterone, which creates a safe uterine environment for baby, and oestrogen, which helps to regulate production of other essential pregnancy hormones, such as relaxin. Relaxin reaches its highest level in the first trimester, working to soften the blood vessels, muscle tissues and ligaments to meet the new demands of pregnancy. For this reason, the first trimester workouts will teach you how to strengthen and stabilise your joints.
PLACENTA
Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is produced by the placenta and communicates with the ovaries to regulate hormone production throughout pregnancy. For the first six weeks, hCG levels can double every two days – a development that is often cited as the cause for morning sickness. It's these high levels of hCG that allow us to detect pregnancy as early as three days after implantation.
BLADDER
Your uterus is already expanding to make space for the developing embryo. Until your stomach stretches to accommodate the growth, there is going to be some extra pressure on your bladder. Use the additional toilet breaks to move around and boost circulation.
BLOOD VESSELS
Blood volume will rise gradually throughout pregnancy, culminating in a fifty per cent increase by week 34. Before it does, the blood vessels will dilate in preparation. Early in this transition - particularly in the first trimester - you may experience some lightheadedness due to temporary 'vascular underfill' (resulting in low blood pressure). Try to avoid sudden position changes that may throw you off balance.
Power to Your Pelvic Floor
A hammock-like network of muscles, ligaments and connective tissue lining the base of your pelvis, the pelvic floor has two key functions: the first is to support your digestive and reproductive organs; the second is to promote engagement of the deep-core muscles, which support and guide the spine during exercise and everyday active living.
The average woman holds at least 11.5kg (25lb) of extra weight by the end of her pregnancy, which means that her pelvic floor has to work extra hard to support the organs. Daily pelvic floor exercises throughout pregnancy help to strengthen this vital network of muscles and can decrease incontinence in the third trimester as well as during the postpartum period. It's far easier to prevent disorders of the pelvic floor than it is to rehabilitate them, so it's worth starting early.
BASIC PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES
Perform these simple exercises three to four times a day.
• Without clenching your glutes or stomach muscles, subtly lift your pelvic floor from the back passage towards the front. Think of the muscle gently rolling as you squeeze. Practise holding for up to ten seconds in one contraction, then reset and repeat for a total of ten reps. These will promote endurance of the pelvic floor muscles through slow-twitch muscle fibres.
• Practise faster squeezes too. Squeeze and hold for just one second, rest for one second, and repeat for ten reps. This will promote rapid engagement of the fast-twitch muscle fibres when you sneeze, cough or jump.
Beginnings & Endings
During pregnancy, the onslaught of physical changes can feel like a strange out-of-body experience. Bookending your workouts with the following warmup and cool-down will help you reassume residence in your body, safely increase and decrease your respiratory rate and body temperature, clock any changes to your range of motion, and establish a more mindful awareness of the muscles that play a starring role during your unique nine-month production.
FIRST TRIMESTER WARM-UP
Perform each of these five exercises for one set, paying particular attention to the relationship between your breathing and the contraction of your pelvic floor and transverse abdominis (see here). The earlier you engage the pelvic floor correctly during workouts, the more resilient your body will be to the abdominal stretching and pelvic floor stress that comes later in pregnancy.
x3
SLOW SWAN DIVES
1. Stand in a neutral position with your feet hip-width apart. From here, inhale while you sweep your arms overhead and stretch through your spine.
2. As you exhale, fold forward from your hips and bring your hands down to your shins or knees, allowing your shoulders to round gently.
3. Inhale and pull your shoulder blades together so that your back flattens. Exhale as you rise back to standing. That's one rep.
x10
CAT COWS
1. Come to all fours with your shoulders over your hands and your hips over your knees. As you exhale, round your spine away from the floor and scoop your navel in. Practise gently lifting your pelvic floor as you do so.
2. As you inhale, soften your belly towards the floor and look up to the sky. Pause to feel the stretch across your shoulders and lumbar, relaxing your pelvic floor in preparation for the next rep.
x5
WIDE-LEG TORSO TWISTS
1. In a neutral position, stand with your feet in a wide stance and come to your flat back folded position, hands either on your knees or on the floor if your hamstrings are flexible.
2. Keep one hand planted as you roll the opposite arm towards the sky. Resist rotating your hip as you stretch through your chest and shoulders.
3. Both sides make up one rep. Practise breathing out to open the arm, and breathing in to return to centre.
x10
PLANK STEPS
1. Tuck your toes and come into a high plank position. Make sure your elbows stay soft and your quads remain lifted so that your lower back is flat, not dipped.
2. Step your right foot 45 degrees to the side, without rotating or dropping the hips. Return to centre and repeat on the other side. That's one rep.
x10
DEEP SQUATS
1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and toes slightly turned out. Drop your bum as low as you can without your chest rounding or heels lifting.
2. Make sure your knees track over your toes throughout the movement – they will want to roll in, so gently drive them out to the sides.
3. At the bottom of the move, check that you can lift your toes. If you've rolled onto the balls of your feet, you've gone deeper than your flexibility allows. Always work within the range that's safe and comfortable for your body. Inhale as you lower and exhale as you stand.
FIRST TRIMESTER COOL-DOWN
Work through each of these stretches to reset your heart rate and body temperature gradually. Pregnancy hormones can cause both to become more irregular in the first trimester. The stretches shine a spotlight on the muscles that become tightest as your body changes; optimise their mobility now and you'll thank yourself later, when you successfully steer clear of muscular imbalances and back pain.
KNEELING CHEST STRETCH
1. Adopt a high kneeling position and place your hands on your lower back. Gently engage your glutes and drive your hips forward as you draw your elbows together.
2. If you feel strong and stable in your back, you could bring one hand to the heel of the foot on the same side and open the other hand to the sky. Make sure your glutes remain engaged if you do so.
3. Hold the stretch for ten to fifteen seconds.
WALKING CHILD'S POSE
1. From kneeling, allow your hips to melt back over your heels, your chest to fall gently over your thighs and your hands to stretch out in front of you. If you feel bloated in this position, try taking your knees wider than your hips.
2. Keeping your hips stable, laterally walk your hands over to one side until you feel a stretch down the opposite side of your body. Pause for a few breaths before walking to the other side.
TWISTED RUNNER
1. From a high plank, bring your right foot outside your right hand and allow your left knee to drop to the mat behind you. Using your right hand, gently push the right knee out to the side and twist your chest towards the knee.
2. You should feel the release in your middle back and outer hip. Enjoy a few deep breaths here before switching sides.
PIGEON
1. From an all-fours position, bring your right shin forward across your body, so your right heel rests in front of your left hip. Allow your left thigh to soften to the floor behind you.
2. Simultaneously soften into both hips, encouraging your right hip towards the floor and your left hip towards your right foot.
3. Keep this movement static and enjoy a few deep breaths, or make it dynamic and alternate between rounding and opening your shoulders to massage your middle back. Repeat on the other side.
SIDE BODY
1. Find a comfortable cross-legged position and plant your right palm 30cm (12in) away from your right hip.
2. Without lifting your left hip, reach your left arm overhead and towards the right. You should feel the stretch along the side of your body.
3. Lengthen on the inhale and reach a little further on the exhale until you can feel the stretch in your diaphragm and obliques. Repeat on the other side.
HAMSTRING STRETCH
1. From your seated position, extend one leg in front of you and pull your toes back towards you.
2. If you don't feel the stretch in your hamstring, sit tall through your spine and fold gently over the leg. Hold the deepest position for a few breaths, then switch sides.
Month One Wellness Agenda
As it's not always possible to detect pregnancy just yet, you may be using this month's workouts while trying for a baby or as an introductory few weeks of training before moving onto the month two workouts. Wherever you are in your conception or early pregnancy journey, your primary goal now is to lay down the foundations for a strong and active pregnancy.
• Channel any nerves about conception or pregnancy into a constructive outlet and reap the emotional benefits of regular endorphin release.
• Rehearse the major movement patterns you'll be mastering during the MBB nine-month programme.
• Strengthen the muscles and joints that will be fundamental to a strong, injury-free pregnancy. They are:
– Transverse abdominis to support posture and prevent abdominal separation.
– Obliques to aid deep-core engagement and prevent injury during rotational movement.
– Erector spinae and quadratus lumborum to support the lower back and reduce postural change and back pain.
– Gluteus muscles (glutes) and hamstrings to prevent over-lengthening and weakening against the pull of your bump.
– Muscles of the upper back – notably the latissimus dorsi (lats), rear deltoids (delts) and rhomboids – to aid upright posture against the pull of heavier breasts and in preparation for the repetitive rounding of shoulders while baby-soothing and breastfeeding.
– All major joints to counteract an increase of relaxin and to optimise stability for strength training and everyday movement.
What is Happening to Your Body?
WHAT?
Most women learn they're pregnant after month one, as many symptoms are subtle before this time. Very early signs of pregnancy include fatigue, bloating and sore breasts. If your periods run like clockwork, an unusual delay in week five may well be the first indication. As the embryo implants, it can sometimes shed a little of the uterine lining. In some cases this light bleeding is enough to postpone the revelatory moment for yet another month.
WHY?
Although month one includes weeks one to four of your pregnancy, you're technically only pregnant from around week two, when the egg is fertilised. It takes roughly one more week to implant and for the placenta to form, beginning production of the primary pregnancy hormone hCG and, with it, an increase in oestrogen, progesterone and relaxin. This sudden surge of hormones is the reason why your pregnancy test comes up positive.
SO WHAT?
You may experience mixed emotions when you first discover you're pregnant, so give yourself time to absorb and celebrate the news. If you've been trying for a baby and are reading this book in preparation for a fit pregnancy, you may already be doing the month one workouts. You'll probably still feel like your pre-pregnancy self, so make a strong start on your prenatal training now and it will be easier to stick to when month two symptoms kick in.
What is Happening to Your Baby?
BENEATH THE BUMP
While its home is in the early stages of 'bump construction', your baby has plenty to report in month one. Once the egg is fertilised around week two, it becomes an embryo and grows into a mass of cells (a blastocyst), which makes up the foundations of fetal development. Around the three-week mark, that blastocyst will implant in your uterus.
Growing to the size of a poppy seed, the blastocyst will organise itself into three layers that make up the foundations for the baby's brain, skeleton and muscle, and respiratory and digestive organs. In order to aid this development and nourish your baby, a placenta is beginning to develop and will become fully functional at around ten weeks. In the meantime, baby is getting all its nourishment from a protective fluid-filled amniotic sac.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Mind Body Bump"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Quarto Publishing plc..
Excerpted by permission of The Quarto Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword 6
Introduction
The Birth of Mind, Body, Bump 8
The Benefits of Exercising in Pregnancy 10
Your Unique Journey 12
An Active Pregnancy 14
Nourish for Two 16
Friends, Family and Partner 18
How to Use This Book 20
First Trimester
Great Expectations 24
Your Changing Body 26
Power to Your Pelvic Floor 28
Warm-up 30
Cool-Down 32
Month One
Month One Wellness Agenda 34
What is Happening to Your Body? 36
What is Happening to Your Baby? 37
Bodyweight Workout: Energy-Boost Countdown 38
Resistance Workout: Strong Mum Foundations 42
Month Two
Month Two Wellness Agenda 46
What is Happening to Your Body? 48
What is Happending to Your Body 49
Bodyweight Workout: The Body Balancer 50
Resistance Workout: The Energiser 54
Month Three
Month Three Wellness Agenda 58
What is Happening to Your Body? 60
What is Happening to Your Baby? 61
Bodyweight Workout: Fit to Adapt 62
Resistance Workout: Bell & The Bump 66
A Word on Miscarriage 70
Second Trimester
Training for Two 74
Your Changing Body 76
Warm-Up 78
Cool-Down 80
Month Four
Month Four Wellness Agenda 82
What is Happening to Your Body? 84
What is Happening to Your Baby? 85
Bodyweight Workout: The Glow-Down 86
Resistance Workout: Balance the Bump 90
Month Five
Month Five Wellness Agenda 94
What is Happending to Your Body? 96
What is Happening to Your Baby? 97
Bodyweight Workout: Fortify the Foundations 98
Resistance Workout: The Spine Aligner 102
Month Six
Month Six Wellness Agenda 106
What is Happening to Your Body? 108
What is Happening to Your Baby? 109
Bodyweight Workout: Growing Gains 110
Resistance Workout: Posterior Purpose 114
Maternal Mental Health 118
Third Trimester
The Victory March 124
Your Changing Body 126
Warm-Up 128
Cool-Down 130
Month Seven
Month Seven Wellness Agenda 132
What is Happening to Your Body? 134
What Is Happening to Your Baby? 135
Bodyweight Workout: Lung Leverager 136
Resistance Workout: Two's Company 140
Month Eight
Month Eight Wellness Agenda 144
What is Happening to Your Body? 146
What is Happening to Your Baby? 147
Bodyweight Workout: Two Beats Cardio 148
Resistance Workout: Movers and Shapers 152
Month Nine
Month Nine Wellness Agenda 156
What is Happening to Your Body? 158
What is Happening to Your Baby? 159
Bodyweight Workout: The Big Push 160
Resistance Workout: Power & Perseverance 164
Finish Line Fuel 168
Fourth Trimester
A Podium Finish 174
What is Happening to Your Body? 176
Postpartum Exercise 178
Warm-Up 180
Cool-Down 182
Bodyweight Workout: Core Restore 184
Resistance Workout: Body Bonding & Strength Building 186
Index 190
Sources 191
Acknowledgements 192