Client Conversations: Germaine
This month we speak to Germaine! She first joined Breathe as a preggie belly and has since delivered a lovely baby girl. She’s now back in the Mums & Bubs class. We speak to her about how Pilates has helped her pregnancy and delivery and why she came back after!
1) How did you first encounter Pilates
Breathe Pilates was my first experience with the reformer. I tried a couple of matwork group classes in previous years – once during my uni days, and once a couple of years ago when my colleagues engaged a trainer for lunchtime group exercise sessions – but didn’t particularly enjoy them.
2) How did Pilates help during your pregnancy and delivery
I have a wonky back due to mild scoliosis, diagnosed when I was a child but deemed too mild to require treatment. I was also that kid who consistently failed the sit-and-reach component of the annual fitness test.
When I was pregnant my ob-gyn advised me to tone down my regular gym routine, and almost immediately I started developing aches and pains in my lower back. Prenatal Pilates kept my backaches manageable, and also helped me build strength and improve my flexibility – which was great for carrying the extra weight and dealing with my ever-shifting centre of gravity. Being in a class full of fellow preggos was also great for morale. At my gym I was the elephant in the room, but at Breathe’s Preggi Bellies class, everyone’s lumbering about in the same boat!
I had an epidural-assisted delivery because I’m quite pathetic when it comes to pain. And when you’re numb from the waist down, it definitely helps to have strong core muscles that remember how to engage even when you can’t quite feel them.
3) What made you decide to come back for post natal and how has it benefited you?
My daughter is now just over three months old; it’s a really cute age, but she’s getting hefty and constantly demanding to be carried. Every day I bend down and pick her up dozens of times, and that gets pretty hard on my (still-wonky) back.
Right now, Pilates isn’t my only regular exercise since I’m able to go back to the gym. But unlike strength training and cardio, which mostly leave me feeling exhausted, after each postnatal Pilates session I feel both looser and stronger, and more energised on the whole. It’s a constant amazement to me that such small and controlled motions can have such a huge effect on my physical well-being.
