New York Nanny Center » exercise

Prenatal Workout Take 2

Alison Gore — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:09:36 +0000

We recently did a post on the benefits of exercising while pregnant and we’re back with a few more of the top exercises for pregnant moms from Kendra Fitzgerald, the founder of Barefoot Tiger! Before you start exercising, it’s important to be aware of these exercise tips and reminders to avoid injury as you approach your 3rd trimester:

Focus on low resistance, high repetition exercises for the major muscle groups (i.e. chest, upper back, and legs), decreasing external weight used as you progress each week.
Strengthening your upper back muscles is key to keeping good posture and counteracting the ‘forward’ weight of your growing belly and breasts. It will also help calm your achy upper back!
It’s important not to hold your breath, as this can spike your blood pressure quickly. Keep your breaths long and smooth.
Alignment and balance are key when exercising because of the change in your center of gravity. Move slowly and deliberately.
Avoid laying flat on your back for any exercise for longer than 60 to 90 seconds. How do you adjust for this? Incline chest presses on a stability ball with your hips slightly lifted or on the floor are perfect!
Keep your body temperature in a normal level, avoiding hot and humid workout conditions. Drink plenty of water.
If you experience any bleeding, headache, chest pain, severe fatigue or severe calf pain, you should stop the exercise and refer to you medical professional.

While keeping these safety tips in mind, try out these exercises!

Abdominal squeezes

Keeping your core active and engaged is key to lower back pain relief and recovery after giving birth. By contracting your transverse abdominals – the corset core muscles – you’ll not only keep your belly muscles toned, you’ll also keep them from separating as your belly grows (also called diastsis recti) and have an easier time getting your stomach back after baby!

How to do it: Sit on a stability ball or in a comfortable chair. As you breath in, let your belly expand forward. As you exhale, draw your navel toward your spine and lift the pelvic floor muscles (Kegels!). Imagine hugging your baby with your abdominals each time you exhale. Inhale and release the squeeze, squeeze the muscles back as you exhale. Repeat 20-30 times.

Bird Stance

This exercise works both abdominal tone and back-body strength. It’s also great for maintaining balance.

How to do it: Still on all fours, extend your right leg back to hip height. Engage your core and lift the opposite (left) arm toward the wall in front of you. Hold here for 5 breaths, lightly contracting your navel toward your spine to keep your balance. Repeat on the other side.

Half Bird Stance

For more of a challenge, as you’re in this position sweep your left arm in an arc to your hip as you exhale, returning overhead on the inhale. Repeat 10-15 times, then change to the next side.

Full Bird Stance

Kendra Fitzgerald is the Founder of Barefoot Tiger (www.barefoottiger.com), an in-home personal training, yoga, pilates, nutrition and massage therapy company in New York City. She and her staff of 15 trainers, teachers and therapists teach regularly around the city, and now you can join them for classes at their newly opened studio in Midtown Manhattan!

Can I Exercise While I’m Pregnant?

Alison Gore — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:27:40 +0000

A lot of new moms wonder if they should exercise while pregnant and what kind of exercises and stretches are best for the health of both mom and baby. We asked Kendra Fitzgerald, founder of Barefoot Tiger for some prenatal exercise tips and here’s what she suggested!

You want the very best for your new baby, and exercise during pregnancy is one of the best ways you can contribute to your baby’s health, and your own! Knowing what exercises to do, and what to avoid, can be challenging. We’re here to help! There are a few modifications to make, and with a little guidance, you can stay active throughout your entire pregnancy – and actually improve your recovery after giving birth.

Exercise is important for new moms for so many reasons. It can help you build the strength you will need for the last few months of pregnancy, for labor, and the demands of taking care of a newborn. Maintaining strength during your pregnancy can also help you ‘get your body back’ more quickly after pregnancy. And most importantly, exercising during pregnancy can help your baby have a normal birthweight, enhance placental growth and function, and lower the risk for gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia.

As you reach the 3rd trimester of your pregnancy, there are a few key items to keep in mind:

- Focus on low resistance, high repetition exercises for the major muscle groups (i.e. chest, upper back, and legs), decreasing external weight used as you progress each week.
Strengthening your upper back muscles is key to keeping good posture and counteracting the ‘forward’ weight of your growing belly and breasts. It will also help calm your achy upper back!
It’s important not to hold your breath, as this can spike your blood pressure quickly. Keep your breaths long and smooth.
Alignment and balance are key when exercising because of the change in your center of gravity. Move slowly and deliberately.
Avoid laying flat on your back for any exercise for longer than 60 to 90 seconds. How do you adjust for this? Incline chest presses on a stability ball with your hips slightly lifted or on the floor are perfect!
Keep your body temperature in a normal level, avoiding hot and humid workout conditions. Drink plenty of water.
If you experience any bleeding, headache, chest pain, severe fatigue or severe calf pain, you should stop the exercise and refer to you medical professional.

And now for the fun stuff! Here are some exercise and stretching tips to keep you in shape!

Cat Cow

A yoga move, it can help you keep the spine fluid and the upper and lower back muscles lengthened and toned.

Step 1

How to do it: On all fours, inhale and lift your gaze and chest toward the ceiling, dropping your belly toward the floor. As you exhale, tuck your toes, round your back and tuck your pelvis, drawing your navel slightly in. Repeat with fluid breath, for about 10 breaths.

Step 2

Stretches

- Figure 4 - One of the best stretches you can do! You know how your hips feel tight and achy? Maybe your lower back is sore too. This will work wonders for you!

How to do it: Sitting on your mat and leaning back, cross your right ankle over your left knee and bring the bottom foot flat to the floor so your right leg is in a figure-4. Sit up tall, moving your pelvis forward and lifting your chest. Move your knee from side to side to find that sweet stretching spot in your outer hip. It should feel like a pretty big stretch (and really good!) The pelvis muscles can become tight as your pelvis stretches and opens as you get closer to your due date. This stretch can relieve a lot of lower back and hip pain you may be experiencing.

As long as you have clearance from your OB-GYN to exercise, you are good to go! If you were already active before getting pregnant, it’s likely you can continue your program while you are pregnant, with slight modifications to the intensity as you progress through your pregnancy. No matter your exercise history, you should continue to discuss your exercise program with your physician.

Kendra Fitzgerald is the Founder of Barefoot Tiger, an in-home personal training, yoga, pilates, nutrition and massage therapy company in New York City. She and her staff of 15 trainers, teachers and therapists teach regularly around the city, and now you can join them for classes at their newly opened studio in Midtown Manhattan!

5 Tips for Balancing Hormones Naturally

Lindsay Bell — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:32:00 +0000

Nicole Jardim is acertified women’s holistic health coach specializing in the treatment ofhormonal imbalances that cause conditions like PMS, fibroids, infertility andendometriosis.

1. Avoid caffeine(coffee, soda and other “energy” drinks):

Caffeine increases estrogenlevels. Studies have shown that drinking just two cups of coffee a day boostslevels of estradiol, a natural estrogen. Every woman has anatural, individualized ratio of estrogen and progesterone that surges andrecedes to make up her unique menstrual cycle. When estrogen is too high andprogesterone is too low, it tends to irritate the nervous system causinganxiety, irritability and insomnia. On theflip side, progesterone is a natural diuretic, sleep aid, anti-anxietycompound, and metabolism stimulator. It acts like Valium.

2. Avoid dairyproducts: Sohere’s the scoop – most dairy in the US comes from factory farms, where cowsare fed products not natural to their diet, such as grain, corn and soy. Someare injected with bioengineered hormones that forces the cows to produce moremilk than their bodies normally would. This over-stimulation of the cow’s uddercauses it to become infected, thus requiring antibiotics. As a result, theseadded hormones and antibiotics reside in the milk, which interfere with thefemale hormonal system – most notably changing the way hormones are metabolizedin the bowel and ultimately changing our hormonal levels.

Nicole & her God child

3. Choose organicfish and meat when possible: Non-organic animalsare fed estrogenic steroids to fatten them up. When we eat these foods, theestrogenic compounds are passed into our blood stream causing a rise inestrogen levels. This ultimately leads to estrogen dominance. Estrogendominance has been linked to some unpleasant conditions such asmigraines, PMS, fibroids, ovarian cysts, infertility, weight gain and irregularperiods.

4. Eat full fatproducts (skip fat-free products): Low-fat diets are one of the main reasonsso many women have hormonal imbalances. We know this may sound crazy sincewe’ve been told for years to cut out fat but fat is yourfriend! We’renot condoning over-consumption of fat or cholesterol by any means but guesswhat? Your hormones aremade out of cholesterol. If you don’t eat enough cholesterol,your body can’t make hormones. If you are not eating sufficient amounts of fat andcholesterol, you could be exacerbating your hormonal imbalance. Natural, healthy fats include olive oil, coconut oil, butter, avocados,nuts, seeds, and fish.

5. Stop the stress: Okay, we know thatthis isn’t entirely possible but you sure need to try. Here’s why: studies haveshown that stress affects the endocrine system in such a way that it throws offour hormonal balance, which can literally stop ovulation from happening.Therefore, it is important to find ways to lessen the load and start havingsome FUN! Try yoga, guided meditations or an exercise routine that you actuallylike.

Nicole is a women’sholistic health counselor specializing in the treatment of hormonal imbalancesthrough food and lifestyle modification. Her latest program is called Fix YourPeriod – 8 Weeks to Better Periods in 2012. Go to www.fixyourperiod.comfor all the details. You can contact herat nicole@thehealthyelements.comor visit her website at www.thehealthyelements.com.