Meet Sarah

Sarah was doing Pilates at Aligned for Life before she fell pregnant in November last year, she kept up Pilates during her pregnancy and now 3 months after giving birth she is back in the studio and still going strong! She shared with us about how Pilates helped her during and after her pregnancy and also some videos of exercises she really liked.

Sarah, during your pregnancy, did you have any concerns about your physical health?

I did, I had bad back problems about 2-4 years prior to getting pregnant and I was very worried that those back problems would come back during pregnancy, particularly towards the end. I found that coming to Pilates helped to keep my back strong and in fact I had no problems throughout my whole pregnancy which was fabulous!

Did you have any other problems during your pregnancy?

I did, I had a lot of hip pain from about 26 weeks which was quite disruptive to my sleep. Elsa developed some exercises for me that I could do at home as well as in the studio and that kind of gave me the relief that I needed at night to get a good night’s sleep so that was fantastic as well. And also, I think I used to get quite nervous in my first trimester and the breathing in Pilates really helped me to loosen up and relax which was great.

Let’s talk about birth – how did the birth process go?

It was very long, but some of the things that I did in Pilates translated into the birth such as sitting on the gym ball and just doing bounces and I used that quite far into my labour. I also took an Aligned for Life stress ball which really helped because I had something to squeeze, and again breathing was really, really beneficial.

What brought you back into the studio?

I definitely wanted to focus on returning to health and getting back to running and the activities I did before I was pregnant, as well as focusing on women’s health after birth such as pelvic floor and I also had separation of the abdominals. So coming back into a studio where the equipment is supportive and the program is written specifically to suit my body and suit my needs has been hugely helpful. I’ve definitely seen an improvement in my recovery a lot quicker than I thought I was going to have and I’m really impressed so that’s why I keep coming! I attempted a little run yesterday which was good, and I slowly feel like I’m getting back up to where I was before. I know it’s going to take a long time for full recovery, but progress is good.