Are High Heels Really That Bad in Pregnancy?

I think I echo most women's sentiments when I say that one of the worst things about pregnancy is the point where your bump gets too big for you to comfortably wear your gorgeous collection of high heels or when your feet swell so much that you can't get those shoes on anyway, even if you tried!

The thing is though, no matter how uncomfortable they can be, sometimes heels are the only way to make an outfit work. When you've found that perfect dress for a night out with the girls, your hair is gleaming and your makeup looks amazing, you can just hear those strappy, sexy sandals calling you from the back of the closet.

But hey, if you wear heels out once a week can it really be that bad for you? Surely not!

Well let me tell you the facts and you make up your mind for yourself...

First of all you need to understand what heels do to the body. When you put on a pair of heels you tip your weight forward so that your centre of gravity shifts. This means that you have to adjust your posture or alignment so that you don't fall flat on your face.

To enable you to balance, your pelvis has to tilt anteriorly which increases the arch in your lower back. This in turn compresses the discs in your lower spine and crushes the nerves leading out from the spinal cord.

Your abs become stretched giving you a protruding belly and your hip flexors shorten.

On the top half your shoulders will round forward to balance out the lower body and your head will migrate forward putting enormous strain on your neck.

Now, consider this. All of the postural problems above are also prevalent in pregnancy. The weight of your bump and boobs will cause the exact same things to happen. Not only that, but because you are pregnant you will also be producing a lot of the hormones relaxin and oestrogen which make ligaments and muscles relax and joints become extremely unstable.

So when you add heels to a pregnant posture you are increasing the damage to your back, shoulders and neck to the point of overload. And this is when your body tells you enough is enough and gives up. Hence you end up with severe back pain and possibly serious long-term damage.

So although you may think that wearing heels on the odd night out can't hurt too much, just remember that your body is already stretched to the limit carrying your baby.

Is it really worth it for one night out?

Too Tired and Pregnant to Exercise? You NEED To Read This!

You know when I was pregnant I would have somedays where I would wake up feeling absolutely exhausted and I wouldn't be able to shake that feeling all day. On these days even my daily workout which usually gave me MORE energy, would sap my strength.

So on these days I listened to my body and took the easy option. Stretching!

Pregnancy can make so many parts of your body tighten up and feel stiff, inflexible and sore, but a simple stretching routine can do wonders to easing away those aches and pains and making you feel more human again!

1. Pelvic Tilts

(If you have a birthing ball / swiss ball you can use this to sit on and do pelvic tilts, but the floor is just as effective!)

Get onto all fours on the floor with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips.

Start with a neutral spine (flat back).

Slowly exhale and squeezing your buttocks, start to tilt your pelvis so that your tailbone moves down towards the floor(like a dog tucking it's tail between it's legs).

At the same time squeeze on your pelvic floor.

Hold for a couple of seconds then release and repeat x 10

You should feel a nice release in your lower back.

2. It's all in the Hips!

Drop down onto one knee and steady yourself by holding onto something (like a wall or a chair. Very gently move your back leg away from you by sliding the knee backwards.

Now squeeze your bottom hard.

This may be enough of a stretch for you. Hold for 20-30 seconds before easing off and then repeating another 2 times each side.

To increase the stretch push your hips forward to elongate the hip flexor muscle.

3. Chest matters!

Your chest muscles can really shorten and tighten up during pregnancy, giving you an awful rounded shoulder posture that can make you look a lot bigger and older than you are!

Stand next to a door or a post and raise your bent arm to shoulder height.

Place your palm and forearm against the door.

Now leaving your arm where it is take one step forward on the leg closest to the door.

Hold for 20-30 seconds then ease off before repeating a further 2 times.

To increase the stretch try turning your hips away from the side that you are stretching - as if you were turning around to talk to someone just behind your other shoulder.

4. What a pain in the neck!

Pregnancy can put a lot of strain on your neck and shoulders and these stretches can provide you a LOT of relief from aching and burning shoulders.

Sitting up tall on a birthing ball or a hard chair put one finger on your chin and push your chin back into your neck to bring your neck into neutral alignment.

Now tip your ear to your shoulder being careful to keep your chin tucked in. Stay here for 20 seconds.

Next do the same thing but once you have gone as far as you can go, gently rotate yourhead as if looking out of the top corner of your eye.

Then rotate the other way as if looking down at your shoulder.

Repeat on both sides, holding the stretches between 20-30 seconds.

5. Oh my poor aching legs!

Those big muscles at the front of your legs can get very tight from poor posture in pregnancy.

Standing next to a wall, hold on with one hand and withe the other hand grab hold of your ankle and bring your heel to your bum.

Make sure your knees are together and in line with each other.

To increase the stretch push your hips forward and squeeze your bottom down.

Again hold for 20-30 seconds and ease off before repeating a further 2 times each side.


Breath deeply into each stretch to increase circulation and send a supply of fresh oxygen into the muscle bed. This will help clear toxins from the muscles (the source of your aches and pains), and send an increased supply of oxygen to your baby.

You may even get a little burst of thankyou kicking from him!

(It is VERY IMPORTANT to stretch GENTLY in pregnancy. The hormones relaxin and progesterone make pregnant ligaments and muscle fibres extra stretchy to allow for the changes the body must go through in pregnancy. Therefore it is very easy to overstretch. Only go to a point of mild stretching/discomfort)

Your Pregnancy Questions Answered: Why the 140BPM Heart Rate Rule is Downright Dangerous In Pregnancy!

You may have heard or read that the best way to monitor the intensity of your workout in pregnancy is to keep your heart rate at 140 beats per minute or less, but how would you feel if I told you that this practice would at best give you an ineffective workout and at worst put you at risk of high-blood pressure, fainting and overheating?

The rule of sticking to 140 BPM is an outdated measure of monitoring exercise intensity during pregnancy. Here's why...

Heart rate during pregnancy is not an accurate measure of how hard the body is working because the relationship between heart rate and exercise intensity varies greatly from early pregnancy to mid-pregnancy to late pregnancy. Changes in exercise parameters, duration of session, the type of exercise, how hard it feels, the vascular system, oxygen consumption and fetal heart rate response, all impact what the target heart rate should be.

So, by example, very fit women in the last 10 weeks of pregnancy will struggle to get their heart rate up to the target 140BPM without working very, very hard. Therefore, prescribing a standard target heart rate formula as a safety measure is unwise.

So, how should you monitor your workout?

The best and safest measure by far is the BORG Rating Of Perceived Exertion Scale. This scale measures how hard YOU PERCEIVE YOU ARE WORKING and is therefore subjective and responsive to your state of wellbeing on any given day.

The BORG Scale runs from 1-10 with 1 being no exertion whatsoever to 10 being working flat-out at 100% intensity.

Pregnant women should be exercising at between 5 and 7 on the scale, with 7 being "working somewhat hard".

For a full copy of the scale visit BORG SCALE FOR PREGNANCY and scroll down. The document link is on the left hand side of the page.

For your chance to have your pregnancy health and fitness questions answered, post your comment on my blog, or email me at

Nisha@the9monthclub.com

Could Your Man Handle Pregnancy?

Check out this video on what men think the worst thing about pregnancy is! Seems like they really don't know the half of it as most of them think that nausea is about as bad as it gets!

What about the guy who thinks it's his perfect life of eating whatever he wants, sleeping a lot and then tells his wife that her butt got fat?! LOL!

If only it were that simple huh?

Although I loved being pregnant, there were definitely some aspects that I didn't enjoy so much, like Round Ligament Pain, which I suffered badly with. The timing was rubbish too as it fell across my holiday to Ibiza for my friends wedding - I spent the whole two weeks in so much pain, I could hardly even walk!

My boyfriend thought I was making it up and got really fed up with me taking such a long time to walk anywhere! If only he could have spent 1 day in my body he would have realised how bad it actually was!

What about you?

What are you finding a struggle in your pregnancy and think your man couldn't handle?

Post your comments below and I promise to get you an answer to your problem!

Essential Abs for Pregnancy!

One of things that most expecting mums worry about is losing their figure and the struggle to get it back afterwards. Losing your waist to a huge bump can make you feel like a beached whale at times, but if you want to make sure that your pregnant figure is just as sexy as your pre-pregnant shape and if you want to guarantee your success at getting back into your skinny jeans within a couple of weeks, (it took me 10 days thanks to following my plan!), then you need to read on!

Now when you mention abs and pregnancy, most midwives, doctors or obstetricians would tut dissaprovingly and tell you that you shouldn't be "doing abs" in pregnancy. Well in a way they are right - there's absolutely no way you should be doing a traditional ab exercise like a crunch or a sit-up. These types of stomach exercises which follow the crunch movement work the Rectus Abdominus. This is the six pack muscle. If you think about how a six pack looks you'll see there are two distinct halves which are joined in the centre by a fascia called the linea alba.

In pregnancy the increasing bulk of the uterus pushes out against these two halves and stretches the rectus abdominus causing the two halves to become longer and to separate down the middle. Any additional pressure, i.e. from doing traditional sit-ups will increase the pressure and increase separation causing splitting of your abs. This is a major cause of pregnancy back pain. Although there are exercises to help repair the damage after you've had your baby this really is osmething you want to avoid.

So, the group of muscles we really want to concentrate on in pregnancy is called your core. These are your deep seated abdominal muscles plus the muscles that support your pelvis and back. In particular we want to focus on your Transverse Abdominus which is the deepest of the abdominal muscles and acts like a corset to support your torso. This is also the muscle you will use to push your baby out and the one responsible for giving you a flat stomach after the birth.



To find your TA lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, (if you are past 20 weeks do this sitting up against a wall with your back really tall and straight).

Place one hand on your belly below your belly button and one above.

Take a deep breath right into the pit of your belly so that you fill it with air.

Now as you exhale push all the sir out of your stomach and as you do so flatten your belly button back to your spine.

The muscle you are working is your transverse abdominus.

Now you need to train this mauscle daily throughout your pregnancy to achieve that flat stomach afterwards and also to make your labour a whole lot easier on yourself. In my pregnancy plan there are a whole range of exercises that we go through, but here's an easy one to get you started, (this is also a great stress reliever and perfect for relaxation before bed!).

Repeat the steps above to find your TA and activate it. Repeat for 5 breaths so that you drive oxygen to the muscle and warm it up, ready to work.

Now On your next exhalation hold your belly button flat against your spine for 30 seconds, breathing all the time (DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH!)

To release the muscle take a big breath in and fill your belly with air, allowing it to expand as much as possible.

Carry on for 10 repetitions.

This exercise is great for your circulation and increasing oxygen flow to your baby. It also stimulates the release of endorphins into your blood stream and clears toxins from your system. All of that as well as training your stomach for flat abs after you give birth, what more could you ask for?!

My Pregnancy Workout at 39 weeks + 3 days!

Just a quick one today to keep you all posted!

I think I had a show on Friday and then again yesterday, but I'm not entirely sure! Even though my pelvic floor is like steel, I still think it could have been partly leakage and maybe just increased discharge which is totally normal at this stage.

Sleeping this past few days has been a nightmare. Ever since Saturday when I didn't get more than 30 minutes in the whole night, I have felt out of sorts. I've been so exhausted that I haven't wanted to eat properly or train. Fortunately I have an amazing boyfriend who makes sure I'm fed and I have still managed to get in 2 training sessions since Friday, so not bad going for the last week of pregnancy!

This morning I kept it short and sweet with a quick 5 circuits:



15 deadlifts (12kg kettlebell)
10 resistance band rows
10 press ups (girl ones)
10 reverse flys (4.5kg dumbells)
10 curl and press (4.5kg dumbells)

2 minutes rest between circuits

It took me 20 mins to do the lot and I felt energised and only slightly out of breath at the end. Now if you are planning to give this a go, bear in mind that you may need to do this with lighter weights - or no weight, (I've been weight training for almost 10 years now so I'm pretty damn strong). Do as many circuits as you can in 20 minutes without pushing yourself past the point of working somewhat hard. You don't want to be out of breath or struggling at all to get the reps out. It should be manageable to the end and you should finish with room in the tank for 1 more circuit.

Round Ligament Pain

I thought it was my abs splitting but turns out my abs are fine, (thank god!). What I was experiencing was round ligament pain.

Why midwives never tell you these things is beyond me. I saw my midwife for my 24 week checkup and mentioned I was feeling some pain in my lower abs and groin. Her advice was that I shouldn't be engaging my tummy muscles at all. Ever. WTF? Can you imagine what a mess my core would be in if I never engaged my muscles? Apart from the fact that I teach pilates and Body Balance weekly and I train at least 3 days on top of that, how on earth would I be able to support my own weight without engaging my core?

Anyway, I just agreed with and did my own research.

Round Ligament pain occurs around the 2nd trimester and can carry on all the way through the third trimester too. The round ligament is the ligament that attaches to your hip bone to hold the uterus in place. The ligaments must stretch and grow to support the weight of the baby, (you can't build a house on matchsticks!), and can grow from around 2 inches to 12inches.

This stretching can be accompanied by sharp pains or twinges in the groin. Once I'd ruled out my abs splitting I thought I'd strained my abs with too much training, but then I realised that I could still train and do most things without any pain at all. The pains would occur with getting up out of bed, getting in the car and if I was trying to do a lunge or any exercise where I would need to stretch the groin area. It wouldn't last long, just a few seconds but it was sharp but not unbearable and went away pretty quickly. Still I didn't want to have this my whole pregnancy so I took some steps to remedy it.

First off I took 2 days off of training, to allow any additional strain on the muscle tissue to repair. This worked well and I reduced the pain by about 70% just from that.

Secondly when I went back to training I focussed on getting my glutes fired up to support my pelvis. Bridges would take the weight off the ligaments so I designed a workout around these and some other glute firing exercises.

Third, I went swiming. I found the water really helped as it supported my bump and took pressure off the ligaments whilst I worked out. Breast stroke worked the gluteus medius which stabilises the pelvis and helped stretch out my groin, gently, without pressure. It also allowed me to focus on my posterior chain which is essential in supporting a pregnant posture.

These things reduced the pain to around 5% of what it was originally. Lastly I learned to roll onto my side to get up and to sit down sideways in the car seat before swinging my legs in together, to avoid loading the ligaments in an already stretched position.

Another pregnancy lesson learnt the hard way! But I'm glad I could share it in case you suffer the same thing!