As I was working with Jennifer Gianni's Fusion Pilates Birth Ball for Post Pregnancy, I had two thoughts:
1. While prenatal workouts are mostly light workouts that other, non-pregnant people could enjoy, especially if they have an injury or are suffering pain, postnatal workouts are pretty specific. Man, I thought kegel exercises were detailed -- it turns out that the kind of exercises you do once the baby's out are way more internal and precise.
2. This video has some really fun Swiss ball exercises, the kind that make having that silly rubber bubble worthwhile.
I previously reviewed Jennifer Gianni's Fusion Pilates Birth Ball for Pregnancy, and while I thought it would be good for someone advanced in their pregnancy and needing very gentle exercises, I also found it quite a bit lighter than what I could do, and sometimes a bit fussy in the set-up required. Fusion Pilates Birth Ball for Post Pregnancy, on the other hand, is a much better fit for what I was looking for. (Both are review copies, by the way.) It's still not about sweating, but getting the exercises set up is much easier, and the moves themselves are a bit more challenging.
Fusion Pilates Birth Ball for Post Pregnancy also includes the "Fusion Essentials" intro to proper form. And then it's straight into the workout!
The workout itself begins with pelvic floor exercises. These are very well taught, even though it's always kind of a challenge to translate these kinds of descriptions of very internal muscular contractions into real practice. The idea is to build up the pelvic floor to offer stability and resistance before doing abdominal work that presses down on it. The exercises are taught slowly, gradually, and with different kinds of breaths. There are enough reps to really get a feeling for things.
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| You may not be able to tell, but this woman is working her pelvic floor. |
The rest of the workout consists of gentle but targeted and, for a new mother, intense pilates-style moves on the ball. For many of them, Gianni will start with a variation for very new postpartum moms, and then build on it for women in the advanced postpartum period. I thought this was a great way to both teach moves and make the video useful to women at different points beyond pregnancy.
Just about every part of the body has an exercise -- the upper back, the abs of course, the legs and glutes. There are even some exercises that build on the pelvic floor work done at the start of the workout. And there is one truly delicious upper back/shoulder stretch. When I started doing it, I thought "oh, this is so good for anyone breastfeeding," and sure enough, Gianni's voice piped in and said the exercise is ideal for nursing moms! And although a number of the moves require a wall, I was able to use a couch and a chair successfully, as I did not have a free wall available.
Best of all, a number of these were really fun. I'm not a master of Swiss ball workouts by any means, but I have done a few of them so far, and I find that the ball is often a bit unnecessary. It could be replaced by a chair or weights depending on the move. Gianni has you do some rolling and balancing exercises that really only do work with the ball. They were so much fun, that I think I will put the baby on his playmat tomorrow and bounce around next to it on the ball!
Fusion Pilates Birth Ball for Pregnancy is also available from http://www.fusionpilates.com/.
Labels: abs, Jennifer Gianni, pilates, postnatal, Swiss ball, workout
