Essential Abs for Pregnancy!

One of things that most expecting mums worry about is losing their figure and the struggle to get it back afterwards. Losing your waist to a huge bump can make you feel like a beached whale at times, but if you want to make sure that your pregnant figure is just as sexy as your pre-pregnant shape and if you want to guarantee your success at getting back into your skinny jeans within a couple of weeks, (it took me 10 days thanks to following my plan!), then you need to read on!

Now when you mention abs and pregnancy, most midwives, doctors or obstetricians would tut dissaprovingly and tell you that you shouldn't be "doing abs" in pregnancy. Well in a way they are right - there's absolutely no way you should be doing a traditional ab exercise like a crunch or a sit-up. These types of stomach exercises which follow the crunch movement work the Rectus Abdominus. This is the six pack muscle. If you think about how a six pack looks you'll see there are two distinct halves which are joined in the centre by a fascia called the linea alba.

In pregnancy the increasing bulk of the uterus pushes out against these two halves and stretches the rectus abdominus causing the two halves to become longer and to separate down the middle. Any additional pressure, i.e. from doing traditional sit-ups will increase the pressure and increase separation causing splitting of your abs. This is a major cause of pregnancy back pain. Although there are exercises to help repair the damage after you've had your baby this really is osmething you want to avoid.

So, the group of muscles we really want to concentrate on in pregnancy is called your core. These are your deep seated abdominal muscles plus the muscles that support your pelvis and back. In particular we want to focus on your Transverse Abdominus which is the deepest of the abdominal muscles and acts like a corset to support your torso. This is also the muscle you will use to push your baby out and the one responsible for giving you a flat stomach after the birth.



To find your TA lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, (if you are past 20 weeks do this sitting up against a wall with your back really tall and straight).

Place one hand on your belly below your belly button and one above.

Take a deep breath right into the pit of your belly so that you fill it with air.

Now as you exhale push all the sir out of your stomach and as you do so flatten your belly button back to your spine.

The muscle you are working is your transverse abdominus.

Now you need to train this mauscle daily throughout your pregnancy to achieve that flat stomach afterwards and also to make your labour a whole lot easier on yourself. In my pregnancy plan there are a whole range of exercises that we go through, but here's an easy one to get you started, (this is also a great stress reliever and perfect for relaxation before bed!).

Repeat the steps above to find your TA and activate it. Repeat for 5 breaths so that you drive oxygen to the muscle and warm it up, ready to work.

Now On your next exhalation hold your belly button flat against your spine for 30 seconds, breathing all the time (DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH!)

To release the muscle take a big breath in and fill your belly with air, allowing it to expand as much as possible.

Carry on for 10 repetitions.

This exercise is great for your circulation and increasing oxygen flow to your baby. It also stimulates the release of endorphins into your blood stream and clears toxins from your system. All of that as well as training your stomach for flat abs after you give birth, what more could you ask for?!

Prepare Your Pregnancy Pantry!

In the last email I sent you on nutrition we talked about how certain foods act as toxins in your body and pollute your system, making it harder to control things like morning sickness, extreme fatigue, water retention and swelling and other pregnancy ailments.

I asked you to make a note of what you've been eating over the past 3 days so that you can start to identify which foods you rely on most and which of those foods are on the banned list. So by now you should have a pretty good idea of where your weak points are.

So today we are going to kickstart you on the way to nutritional success over the next 9 months by sorting out your cupboards, so that you always have a healthy option to reach for.

First off, I want you to take a good look at your food journal and pick out all the items on there that are classified as one of the toxins we identified earlier this week. These are:

Alcohol

Wheat

Processed Dairy (execpt eggs, live yoghurt and real butter)

Processed foods (anything that has non-natural ingredients, like chemicals additives and stabilisers)

Caffeine

Sugar (including natural sugars like honey)

Microwaves

Now that you know what those items are, I want you to come up with an alternative meal or snack that contains only natural food sources. So for example, if you had cornflakes, (a processed food), and milk, (processed dairy), for breakfast, you could replace this with steel cut porridge oats cooked with almond milk - two naturally occuring foods that have no tampering involved in their manufacture.

Or if you regularly have a sandwich for lunch on wheat based bread you could replace this with rye bread, millet bread, rice bread or another wheat free alternative.

Once you have a list of all your alternatives, the next thing to do is clean out your cupboards and replace all the toxinous food items with their natural alternatives. Simple, but highly effective!

Now be sure to throw out all the banned items. Don't be tempted to put them to the back of your cupboards for "later" as I guarantee you'll be tempted to eat them!