The Five on the Floor..........from Fit to Deliver.

This post looks at the first 2 of 5 very useful pregnancy and postnatal floor based exercises from the great book and professional training course Fit to Deliver. Put together by MD's, physiotherapists, physiologists and exercise coaches, Fit to Deliver is a comprehensive guide to staying in shape during pregnancy and the postnatal period.

To do these exercises correctly you'll need to learn how to fire and sustain your transverse abdominus muscles (TVA). Instructions on how to do this were in this blog in the post dated Tuesday 19th June 2007.

Before each exercise focus on the following:

• Contract the pelvic floor
• Contract the TVA
• Remember to breathe

1. Fire core and sustain with leg slide

• Begin by lying on your back with with knees bent and isolate your TVA with a normal breathing pattern
• Keeping the TVA contracted during the exercise, slowly straighten one leg while sliding it along the floor, then return to the start position to a count of ten
• Repeat with the other leg keeping TVA switched on and breathing normal
  
• repeat 10 times on each leg. To increase difficulty raise leg off the floor as you slide it out and back

2. Fire core and sustain with leg fall out

• Contract your TVA while lying on your back, knees bent
• Let one leg fall out to the side and raise it back up to a count of 10
• Don't let the opposite hip come up off the floor
• Repeat 10 times on each leg.

Note: In the later stages of pregnancy these exercises should be performed on a slight incline or in a chair.

I hope that's useful to some of you. Please email me at mark@newbornfitness if you need any more advice on exercise and fitness during pregnancy.

Healthy Regards