STOMACH STRENGTHENING EXERCISE
Strengthening your abdominal muscles will help you to maintain good posture. The abdominal muscles are those which are most obviously stretched during pregnancy. Keeping them conditioned helps to maintain good posture and helps avoid backache.
This exercise helps protect your back from strain during pregnancy, strengthen your abdominal muscles and improve flexibility in your lower back to relieve backache.
You need to do this exercise on all fours:
- Go down on all fours. Start in a box position making sure your hands are in line with your shoulders, and your knees are in line with your hips. Your abdominal should be lifted to keep the back straight.
- Pull in the abdominal and raise the back up towards the ceiling, curling the trunk and allowing the head to relax gently forward, (don't allow your elbows to lock out).
- Hold for a few seconds (you should start to feel your muscles tensing)
then slowly return to the box position.
- Take care not to hollow the back. The back should always return to a straight, neutral position.
- Now repeat. Do this exercise slowly and rhythmically ten times, making your muscles work hard and moving your back carefully (only move your back as far as you comfortably can).
If at any time you feel that any of these exercises are not working for you, ask a fitness instructor to show you how to do these exercises properly.
