Tits, teeth and ASS
Hello and welcome to my blog pages. A place to find information on all things yoga in relation to womens’ health!
This post is particularly for pre and post natal women we will address
Pregnancy postural changes
How having a tight glutes can cause ALL the pelvic/hip and back pain you have
The importance of your big toes
In pregnancy we experience HEAPS of changes. Hormones and emotional shifts are a plenty BUT we also see huge PHYSICAL changes. We experience an increase of the hormone in relaxin in our first trimester. This hormone is designed to allow our muscles and joints more length and mobility to adapt to our growing baby, it’s a pretty amazing thing. However it can cause instability and pain in joints that were already taking the preassure due to our daily life styles of prolonged sitting and habitual holding patterns like holding your bag on one shoulder.
So we have joints that are less stable. We also have a rib cage that has to expand and open from the front to allow space for your baby. This causes a squeezing through the back of the rib cage as it opens at the front.
At the same time our pelvis starts to tuck under to provide additional support to our abdominals causing the famous pancake or mum bum. (Lets also note MANY of us already have this tuck BEFORE we become pregnant it’s a common holding pattern we seem to have in the western world due to the sedentary nature of our jobs)
In addition to this you loose tension in your abdominals as they also lengthen with the help of the lovely relaxin. Abdominal muscles move away from the tummy button down the mid line to allow extra wriggle room for your baby. It is not actually your muscles moving but the connective muscle tissue called the linia alba that stretches. This is called diastasis recti. And is the subject for another blog post.
It’s all INCREDIBLE our bodies are awesome. But for some of us we don’t have room for these compensations. Pregnancy often highlights the postural problems we were “managing” with before.
THE GOOD NEWS IS YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. AND KNOWING NOW MEANS YOU CAN ADDRESS THESE ISSUES BEFORE THEY START CAUSING YOU PAIN IN YOUR 50’s and 60’s so we can thank our babies for that too!
The BUTT
If you bottom/Glutes are tight it impacts the whole system. A tight bottom usually means tight hamstrings, claves and tight back muscles. It is really important you know that your muscle can be tight AND weak. Quite often tight muscles are not as strong as they could be. In order to be as strong as possible muscles need to find their FULL length (ie stretch) in order to properly contract.
SO if you tuck your pelvis and squeeze your bum this is for you!
How can you lengthen the glutes and rest of the back muscles (called the posterior chain) to positively impact the rest of your body? The video below is my NUMBER ONE for pregnant AND postnatal women.
Find 4 point kneeling
place one knee on a block or cushion
Place all weight into the leg on the block
Rock your weight back (if you don’t get any sensation in the bottom try a very slight tuck of your tail bone)
Inhale and exhale. The longer you are here the more you feel your glutes muscles lengthen
It is a game changer this move. I often use it to support women with leaking and heaviness before we move onto movements with impact.
THE BIG TOE
Quite often in pregnancy our weight distribution changes too! Our femur bones rotate to a turned out position so our feet come into a two to two angle. (again hello tight butt) this can also encourage us to weight bare more on the outsides of our feet. And over time we stop putting weight through our big toes. This is the MOST COMMON habit I see in women. ALL women. And so it is not just a result of pregnancy. This stance causes a pinching in the bottom and the back and so could be the cause of your lower back, hip and pelvic pain.
Being really cautious of your weight through your feet when standing is a good way to combat this habit. Think weight through ALL the foot. Big toe across to little toe down to the outside of the heal and across to the inside of the heal. Another thing you can do is get a spikey ball and roll it under your feet to wake the whole of the bottom foot up.
Keeping big toes down in forward folds, chair pose and squat can help to get your bottom muscles to lengthen too.
You could also take part in one of the FREE sessions below. I am always banging on about feet they are so so important.
In summary yes your body does change shape in pregnancy. This is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak when it comes to physical changes but you are not powerless. Knowledge is king to avoid pain both during and after pregnancy and that is where movement professionals can help! Enjoy the videos and stay tuned for more blogs coming your way.
P.S in refferance to the your teeth… Pregnancy absolubtley takes it out of your teeth. I am yet to find solutions but know it’s not JUST you. My teeth are also breaking and softening like NEVER before.
