A Scan of the Female Body Post Pregnancy

I do believe everyone should have access to Pilates, especially women. I found Pilates due to my scoliosis, but after having given birth to my first daughter, I am extra thankful for Pilates. Pilates has given me a body control and muscle engagement I did not have prior to Pilates. 

In Pilates you learn for instance how to engage the pelvic floor and the transversus, just enough so it will benefit and support the posture and overall body when doing an exercise. A weak pelvic floor, especially after having given birth, may cause various problems for women. But did you know that you can be too tight in the pelvic floor? This may for instance cause back problem. So, as important it is to strengthen the pelvic floor, it is also good to learn how to relax. The studies on the pelvic floor have been limited, but more studies are being conducted as we speak, on what happens with the pelvic floor post pregnancy.

Only to feel the engagement of the pelvic floor can be tricky and especially how to contract it. A test that you can do is to sit high up on your sit bones and suck your thumb, then you should feel a lift of your pelvic floor. You can also try to cough or pushing the hands down, on the table you are sitting at.

The above is nothing you should do to train the pelvic floor, but rather examples of how to find the sensation of engaging the pelvic floor. This feeling is something you want to refer to, when you start to train the pelvic floor with various exercises. One exercise can be just to focus on the breathing and finding that engagement.

I did a scan of my abs to see the muscle engagement after having given birth. In the video you see the expert pointing on the engagement of the transversus, above them you see the internus and externus obliques. Just by breathing in and out you want to engage the pelvic floor and the transversus, they work together, in order to find that ab support. Finding the ab support is important when you do your workout, so that you do not get back pain or hurt yourself.

You want to check your muscle engagement of rectus, obliques, transversus and the pelvic floor before starting to workout out after having given birth.