Preggy Strong: A Pilates-Based Strength & Total Body Wellness Guide For Mum To Be

By Vanessa Bartlett

Learn exactly how to safely modify your exercise, strengthen your pelvic floor and maintain a healthy body and mind during all trimesters of your pregnancy! Gain access to over 60+ pregnancy-safe exercises that can be done from home with no or little equipment and done-for-you exercise plans for each trimester.

You will discover the exact changes you can expect to experience during pregnancy, helping better manage energy fluctuations, back pain and other pregnancy-related conditions.

Be guided by Vanessa Bartlett, Qualified Personal Trainer & Pilates Instructor with 20 years of experience, helping thousands of people around the world whose holistic approach will help your body and mind feel strong, yet stress-free.

Tips are also included for a healthy and safe recovery for your body post birth! Preggy Strong is an essential resource for any woman wanting to safely exercise during pregnancy and be in control of maintaining your beautiful, healthy body now and beyond pregnancy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781471743399

Book preview

Introduction

Welcome and congratulations on your pregnancy!

This is truly an exciting time, and one that requires so much mental, physical and emotional health for you and your baby.

If I haven’t met you yet I’m Vanessa Bartlett, health presenter, writer, life coach, fitness and Pilates instructor and mum of two boys Lincoln and Leon (two so far, but we will see haha.)

Having my boys has been the most precious experience of my life with their fun, curious and engaging personalities. Lincoln is energetic, theatrical and full of energy and imagination, and Leon is calm, present, and wants to be quietly part of the action.

My first pregnancy brought about so many emotions as it does for many new mums.

For 20 years I’ve helped people achieve results in fitness, lifestyle rebalancing, adrenal fatigue recovery, weight management and helped elite athletes balance their bodies.

People would always say to me, ‘when you have children it will be easy for you and you will bounce back.’ Well I didn’t, and found it hard.

I was so excited and felt blessed on one hand, but on the other hand completely nervous and worried I would get it wrong. I didn't even know how to change a nappy!

In hindsight, it’s the fear of the unknown that mentally crippled me. I was in routine with my lifestyle, business and also used to feeling fit and strong. But as the pregnancy went on I felt anxious and overwhelmed with the information out there to do with exercise, babies and becoming a parent. I did have quite a traumatic first birth with injuries to my pelvis, large abdominal separation, heavily bruised coccyx and severe pelvic floor prolapse.

As you can imagine the recovery from this was over a year which included going through postnatal depression. I chipped away at building back up mentally and physically and got to a point where we could happily have another beautiful baby, and that we did.

Second time around mentally I was not anxious at all, figuring I’ve gone through the worst so it can’t be that bad! Long story short, I did have challenges during the pregnancy like extreme sciatica, nausea, carpal tunnel, dizzy spells and more but had a dream birth and dream postnatal recovery. (Check out the Postnatal Wellbeing & Exercise Guide on www.vanessabhealth.com)

Remember that anything you go through is temporary. A phase, a chapter. I love my boys more than life itself and would go through it all again regardless.

Each of us have our own experience during pregnancy and beyond. I believe at this time you should of course listen to your doctor for what is best for you, but also listen to your body and what it needs

We are shaped by each experience in our lives and I hope your pregnancy and having a child or children is the most beautiful, fulfilling, joyous and exciting life change possible.

Congratulations once again and I look forward to connecting with you!

The Approach

I designed this guide to clear the clutter and confusion around pregnancy and exercise. There are a huge range of opinions on this depending on who you speak to. During my 20 years in the industry I’ve done around 20 plus courses on everything in exercise along with pregnancy and postnatal study in fitness and Pilates, so have collected the best and most practical information here for you based on expert study and my own personal experiences.

My approach to exercise is Pilates-based, holistic and low impact. I am not a ‘hard core’ trainer and stopped those methods long ago after going through adrenal fatigue.

This filters over to my lifestyle coaching approach too, where I help busy people discover more efficient ways to improve energy, reduce stress and encompass a more balanced life.

To me 'health' involves happiness, knowing your values and having the tools to maintain your strongest body, mind and spirit as a completely individual thing, not what society depicts it to be for you.

So if you like a gentle, yet strong and effective approach to your exercise and wellbeing, you are in the right place. You can read more about this at www.vanessabhealth.com

The Preggy Strong Resource

Preggy Strong is a practical resource that will guide you through pregnancy safe exercises and routines, plus enlighten you on the topics that many do not talk about during pregnancy and beyond. (You may or may not go through these changes, but it’s good to be aware).

I found this difficult myself in not knowing that my pelvic floor and going to the toilet would be an issue for so long after giving birth. It’s things like this that are not really discussed. And this has an effect on wellbeing both physically and mentally.

It will also take you through the do’s and don’ts for exercise during pregnancy for each trimester and show you appropriate exercises you can do to help with strength, pelvic floor, and muscle tone.

Majority of the exercises in this guide are suitable for all trimesters. I have given specific guidelines in the ‘modifications’ section if you should not do a particular exercise at a certain time, plus what you could replace it with.

You want to know the real magic of knowing and doing what is in this guide? During the pregnancy it will certainly help you with feeling stronger, more energised and able to cope with the birth, but in the recovery is where it will really matter.

Even with my first long recovery and severe injuries to the point that I could barely walk for months, I was grateful I had muscle memory and knew what it ‘felt like’ to activate my muscles, especially my core and pelvic floor. I want the same for you, to feel amazing and strong during your pregnancy but have an easier path back postnatally with your beautiful baby.

It is when women have not exercised in many years or they have stopped entirely during pregnancy that the postnatal recovery can be affected. This of course does not apply to everyone, but in my experience I have seen it many times with women dealing with incontinence, sore backs, and abdominal separation years before they look at fixing it, if ever. This