The Pilates Lab

Yes, you can keep strengthening while pregnant!💪🏽

I love using the apparatus to offer support for my prenatal clients. This side leg series uses spring resistance to guide form and help carry the weight of the leg, but it also offers customized resistance to strengthen the glutes, legs, and hips (super important for labor/delivery, and beyond).

🏡Trying this one from home? Use a resistance band to mimic the guidance and benefit of the springs. Tie a band around something so you don’t have to hold it (or ask a partner to hold the band for you).

**Get cozy by placing a blanket under the belly to make the position more comfortable 🧸

See highlights for a full demo of an at home variation!

Picture a baby deer wobbling as it stands up for the first time, learning to walk. So cute…but definitely not goals for ankle stability🦌😂

Show the ankles some love to help you stay sure-footed and to find healthy movement/muscular activation above and below the joint.

Grab a ball and try this:
➡️ Place the ball between the inner ankle bones (stabilizing the legs around hips distance apart)

➡️ Keep constant pressure on the ball as you relevé, slowly lifting and lowering your heels

➡️ Bend the knees and plié to deeply crease the front of the ankles, keeping heels down

➡️ Progress to coordinating plié and relevé so you’re circling the ankles like a wheel🎡
 
➡️ Keep pressure on the ball and weight centered between the first and second toes

This keeps the ankles from wobbling so you’re strengthening and optimizing range of motion while reinforcing good patterning!🏆

This series focuses on engaging the hamstrings 🌟eccentrically🌟 (keeping the muscle long while it’s working against the resistance of the spring). This helps to build strength AND gain flexibility.

Using a high heavy spring requires strong hamstrings and glutes to control the spring, while the deep core works to maintain a neutral pelvis. Adding internal and external rotation of the hip helps you target all of the muscles at the back of the leg.

🏡Replicate at home with a medium/heavy theraband!