By Selina Looney, Pre and Postnatal Specialist at Activate

The foundation for everything in pregnancy and postpartum exercise is your breath.

Your pelvic floor and diaphragm work in tandem with each other; imagine it as an elevator.
When you inhale, your diaphragm contracts and moves down and your pelvic floor mirrors this by relaxing.
When you exhale, your pelvic floor lifts and contracts and your diaphragm rises in mirror response to it.

Why is this important?

It’s all about regulating intra abdominal pressure to prevent your body from experiencing problems.
Everyone should do this, but it is even more important for mamas and mamas-to-be.
During exercise we want our pelvic floor to lift when we exert ourselves or lift heavy objects.
We want to teach our bodies to exhale with exertion - the toughest part of the movement.

For example, when you squat:

* Inhale when you lower down and relax at the bottom
* Exhale to stand, lifting pelvic floor and drawing deep abdominals together - this same strategy applies to any exercise.

As a mom, you also want to exhale with every day movements such as:

* Lifting a toddler -> exhale as you lift
* Lifting heavy bags -> exhale as you lift
* Lifting a car seat -> exhale as you lift

Blow before you go mamas, this will really help your diaphragm and pelvic floor work together.

This is something we teach in our classes which begins on September 20.

Activate Moms is built for all phases of womanhood — pre-conception, pregnancy, postpartum and beyond.

These classes will teach you how to properly breathe and recruit your deep core and pelvic floor, strengthen your body, improve diastasis recti, prolapse, leaking, and back/hip pain and help you feel connected to your body whether you had your baby days ago or years ago.

To book your spot email selina@activate.ie.