How to prevent falling with exercises is a useful tool to know especially since 30% of pregnancy accidents are from falling. Prevention is better than cure right?.
In this blog I share why falling is so common in pregnancy and 5 useful exercises to practice, so you are stronger and stabler as you and baby grow.
Why exercises to prevent falling?
So firstly why is falling the second most common injury in pregnancy?
Whilst pregnant the body produces a hormone called relaxin preparing the body for birth. It does this by relaxing the ligaments which destabilises the joints.
This then affects your sense of gravity and as your belly and uterus grow bigger, so does your centre of gravity change, which affects your ability to keep your balance.
Its really important to exercise throughout pregnancy
BUT
Maintaining balance is the art of life.
Understanding how to improve your balance as pregnancy progresses, is key to limit falling.
How exercising can limit falling
Did you know that 30% of pregnancy injuries are due to falling?.
“30% of women fell during pregnancy and that 10% experienced more than one fall during pregnancy.
Risk factors for falls during pregnancy include maneuvering stairs, slippery floors, hurrying, or carrying an object or a child.” ( Dunning K, Lemasters G, Bhattacharya A. A major public health issue: The high incidence of falls during pregnancy. Matern Child Health J 2010;14:720–725
With this in mind, think about how you balance. What do you need to maintain balance? without thinking too deeply into the body and brain, because we’ll be here for the next year if we did.
At its simplest, your body needs strong thighs, hips, abdominals and back muscles to keep your balance and prevent falling.
There are so many pregnancy yoga poses that do this such as;
- Goddess pose
- Warrior poses
- Triangle poses
- Seated wide angle pose
- Butterfly pose
- Malasana squat
So practice these pregnancy exercises above through your trimesters, because not only will they strengthen hips, butt, thighs, arms, abs and back, which is the essence of balance, they will also support your body stronger, ready for birthing.
It will also enable more space for baby and yes you, thus creating more comfort with ease, preparing you for your journey ahead.
However the exercises to do to prevent falling in pregnancy below, are very subtle and simple and highly useful to practice to limit falling.
Exercises to prevent falling
The exercises below are here to strengthen, stabilise, tone and provide structural foundation to your changing body which will in turn limit your chances of falling.
- Pelvic tilts with a birthing ball
- Ladies get in tune with your precious pelvis and exercise to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles this is where all the magic comes from.
- Inhale as the pelvis moves back, tailbone lifts to lower back, and birthing ball gently rolls back.
- As you exhale, the pelvis lifts up towards baby , tailbone lengthens towards floor and the ball rolls slightly forward.
- Repeat 15 breathes
- 3 times every day.
- Space them out so you do a set in the morning another at lunch and last thing at night.
- Become more aware of how you walk, perhaps waddling by now.
- Heel, toe awareness.
- Heel raise
- Standing with your back and heels against a wall. On your inhale raise your heels, and as you exhale lower your heels. Repeat 10 times
- Using a chair hold onto the back of the chair.
- Walk backwards so your arms are stretched and you are now looking at the floor, in between your arms.
- Lift one foot off the floor for 5–30 seconds.
- Switch sides.
- This is also great because it lengthens the back all at the same time.
- Tree Pose
- Hand on a wall if you need help with your balance.
- Place your right sole of foot onto the inside of the calf or thigh area. Never at the knee joint.
- Hold for 5-10 breathes.
- Switch sides.
- Please note if your feeling really off balance today, placing your foot on the floor and lifting heel to the inner ankle region will strengthen you to.
Other gentle exercises to prevent falling
There are other exercises to prevent falling which are great in pregnancy, such as;
- Swimming
- Water Aerobics
- Pilates
- Walking
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