Pilates and Postnatal Recovery with Angela Rake of Zing Wellness {S3E2}
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Today I welcome Angela Rake of Zing Wellness to the podcast. Angela is a Pilates teacher specialising in women’s health with a particular interest in preparing for motherhood in pregnancy, postnatal recovery and pelvic floor healing.
This episode was mind-blowing to me and I picked up so many absolute gems of wisdom about physical post-natal recovery. Did you know that 1 in 3 women are walking around with a degree of pelvic organ prolapse after giving birth? And that it takes two years for tissue regeneration and complete healing to take place? Angela questions the perfunctory 6 week check that women get postpartum and takes the long view on healing and recovery after birth.
In the episode we discuss:
How our pelvic floor muscles work on a day-to-day basis and how it's used during pregnancy that affects how it works postnatally
How our posture changes in pregnancy and how it affects the muscles around the pelvis
What pelvic floor dysfunction REALLY is (it's not just about your bladder and bowel!)
How to integrate pelvic floor exercises into everyday life
Motherhood movement patterns and functional recovery
How engaging with your breath helps with the pelvic floor rehabilitation, manages stress and calms your baby
This is for you if you're pregnant, just given birth, 3 years postpartum, 20 years postpartum. It's for you if you gave birth naturally or by C-section (we talk about how having a C-section causes tightness around the body). It's for you if you're a women and things don't feel right.
Towards the end of the episode, Angela talks through an integrating breath and pelvic floor sequence to help you engage the whole core in the way the core naturally works. This exercise can be started as soon as you've given birth, as long as you have had your catheter removed.
Angela's top tips to start working on pelvic floor rehabilitation:
Start doing a pilates class, whatever stage you're at
Get fit for motherhood during pregnancy
Connect your pelvic floor exercises with the breath
If you have any of these symptoms, you definitely need to think about doing some pelvic floor rehabilitation:
Any leaking from coughing, sneezing, running or jumping
Feeling a heaviness, bearing down or weight in the pelvic floor
Feel like tampons or menstrual cups are falling out
Sex doesn't feel right or feels different
Things don't look quite right or the same down there
By the end of the episode you'll know exactly why you need to recover your pelvic floor health, how to breathe and engage your core properly, how to integrate it into your everyday life to help with your postnatal recovery which will benefit you for life.
Video Clips from the Interview
Watch Angela explain what the pelvic floor looks like, how pregnancy changes it and what pelvic floor dysfunction really is:
Watch Angela demonstrate the effect that C-section adhesions can have on tightness in the rest of the body, demonstrating the interconnectedness of the whole body.
Watch Angela offer three different visual cues to help with pelvic floor exercise and guide us through a postnatal breathing and pelvic floor exercise that engages the whole core the way the core naturally works. This can be done immediately after given birth:
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