5 Postpartum Pilates Movements You Can Perform at Home

Get your body back in shape after childbirth with this efficient ballet Pilates routine featuring Postpartum Pilates Movements You Can Perform at Home.

Postpartum is a time of profound physical and emotional transformation. Adding exercise to your regular regimen (when you feel ready!) will help you regain energy, flexibility, and strength and help you feel more like yourself again while your mind and body adjust to life after pregnancy. During this transition period, Pilates offers various practical, at-home exercises that can help you regain balance, reduce stress, and get in shape.

Postpartum Pilates Workout

This workout was designed by Jennifer Williams, a Los Angeles-based mother of three, to help you return to peak physical condition while encouraging you to keep your pelvis, back, and shoulders in proper alignment, thereby reducing back pain and making it easier to carry your baby without injuring yourself.

You will perform repetitions of little movements that strain your muscles and cause their fibers to break down. While the fibers try to rejoin, you burn enormous quantities of calories. In addition, the emphasis on posture in Pop Physique will assist in preventing what Williams refers to as “mother back” (a swayback position with your back arched, tummy protruding, and shoulders forward) that you may have developed during pregnancy.

See your doctor before beginning this or any other postnatal fitness program; you must wait at least six weeks following a C-section.

The Move: Powerhouse Planks

Ways to proceed:

• Get on your hands and knees on a mat or carpet. Drop yourself to your elbows while maintaining them directly under your shoulders and driving your hands into the ground. Do not let your head drop or strain upward; keep your neck straight and in line with your spine.
• To protect your lower back, tilt your pelvis slightly and push your inner thighs together so that your legs create a V. Maintain abdominal contraction while taking deep breaths for 30 seconds. Attempt to work for 1 minute and a half. A complete plank is an additional means of progression: Extend your legs one at a time behind you, keeping your legs and feet together and your body in a straight line. Do three sets.

It works the abdominal, butt, arm, leg, back, and pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic floor is tightened when the thighs are pressed together.

The Move: High Relevé with Plié

Ways to proceed:

• Stand parallel to a countertop or the back of a strong chair with the hand closest to it resting on it, feet parallel and hip-distance apart, and shoulders back.
• Put a tiny ball or throw pillow between your inner thighs, or if you don’t have one, stand with your feet closer together and squeeze your inner thighs together. Tilt your pelvis slightly downward, pull your belly button up and in, and don’t forget to breathe.
• Relevé, or elevate, your heels so that you are on the balls of your feet, and then plié by softly bending your knees about an inch. Perform three sets of 12.

It targets the thighs, butt, and abdominals.

The Move: Attitude

Ways to proceed:

• Stand in front of a strong counter or chair back. Lower your forehead onto your forearms after bending over and resting your forearms on the counter or chair back. Move your feet back until they’re beneath your hips (your body should create an L shape), then stand with your heels together and your toes slightly apart, which Williams refers to as a “small first position.”
• Tuck your pelvis, bend your knees slightly, then tuck and pinch your butt (this will help you hold the pelvic tuck and keep a stable body position).
• Raise your left leg behind you, knee still bent at 45 degrees.
• It is more crucial to squeeze the area where your butt meets your thigh than to lift your leg as high as possible. Do 3 sets of 16 repetitions per leg.

It works the buttocks, thighs, and calves.

The Move: Knee dancing

Ways to proceed:

• On a mat or carpet, kneel with your knees hip-width apart. Maintaining your shoulders back and down, pull your abs in, pinch your butt, and bring your arms to shoulder height in front of you while you lean back a few inches.
• You should have strain in your thighs and butt as you maintain this position. If you are feeling wobbly, maintain your arms at your sides.
• Hold for 30 seconds, gradually increasing to 1 1/2 minutes. Three times.

It works the abdominal, buttock, and thigh muscles.

The Move: C Curl

Ways to proceed:

• Sit on a carpeted floor or your mat with your legs in front of you, knees bent, and feet flat and hip-distance apart.
• Holding the outermost portions of your thighs firmly with bent elbows, tilt your pelvis slightly under and pull your belly button up and in as you circle your back and curl your abs into a C.
• Keep your legs and butts firm, and exhale during each curl. Do three sets of 16 repetitions.

It targets the abdominals, thighs, and arms.

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