Pilates for Two

Hi, I'm Leah Stewart and this is an introduction to my pre and postnatal series here on PyLadies anytime. I just want to give you a little description about what I was doing in all of these classes during both of my pregnancies. That's covered the span of a few years here at plodders anytime. So just very briefly, just to give you the heads up, my first pregnancy, my goal was really to just modify and adapt the classical Palladio's repertoire as we know it. I really wanted to stay within that mold. I am Bassey trained, so I really wanted to stay within the bathy block system. I really wanted to look at it from the perspective of what are the muscle focus, what are the objectives and how can I modify that for my changing body that was rapidly changing over that short amount of time?

How was I able to use those exercises to help me feel strong and confident so I could go into labor and birth for the first time and of course into motherhood for the first time. Never having experienced it before. And so that was the goal of my first series. And I think that you'll see that in some of those classes you'll really see how things look like. The classical plot is repertoire and there is a lot of focus on this center, a lot of focus on stabilizing and a lot of focus on connecting through that center body, which I think you'll really enjoy. During my second pregnancy, a couple of years later I had the privilege of coming back here to place any time. And then I really wanted to explore some different aspects of movement during pregnancy and how that could prepare us in different ways for labor.

So in that second series, I gave myself permission to be influenced by polarities, but also to bring other influences that I have, particularly dance, ballet, modern and contemporary dance. And that time I also learned a lot more about the pelvis and how it moves and how it works. During birth. I had experienced a natural birth in a labor, so I knew what it felt like on a visceral level in a different aspects than reading books and hearing it from other women. So I really wanted to explore kind of more of the qualitative, the principle aspects that Joseph subplot, he's talked about the harmony through the body, the mobilization, the instinctual movement, that inspiration from animals that he's so refers to. So I really wanted to bring that into my second series and focus on opening and mobilizing the pelvis and most importantly just letting go of those inhibitions so that when you go into labor, you go into birth, you feel free and open and wonderful in your body so you can have the labor and birth that you want. So both series are very successful in both different ways. They both address the strength of the body, the mobility of the body, but they just have a slightly different feel in the work that you'll be doing.

You'll get work on the mat with the therabands and with the balls to weights to standing, to sitting, to lying to work on the reformer, the Cadillac and the one to chair really explores everything. Then we go into the postnatal series with both of my pregnancies that really address safe exercises and how to reintroduce that and work that we know and love over anywhere from a six to 12 month period of time. So I'm so glad that you're about to embark on this wonderful journey of pre and postnatal plots, and I'm very honored that you chose to watch my classes and I hope that you enjoy it. I hope that you learn a lot, and most importantly, I hope that you just feel fantastic. Thank you.