Nilakhi Nath, Author at GOQii

February 8, 2019 By Nilakhi Nath 1 Comment

Healthy Tips For New Moms!

Fitness For New Moms
It is difficult to describe the feeling of ecstasy that a woman experiences when she learns that she is about to become a mother. While most new mothers would be happy, there are a few new moms who wouldn’t be so sure about this “Happy” feeling. No, they aren’t necessarily anti-motherhood or anti-babies. They are going through lot of emotions which includes stress and a lot of changes in their body and their lives. Some of them say it out loud and some don’t, but the challenge remains the same for each of them.

While taking care of the new member of the family, a mother often forgets to take care of herself. Challenges that a new mother usually faces are:

Weak Back & Core
Incontinence
Stress

I am sharing some basic ways to cope with the most common challenges a new mom faces post delivery.

1. For a Weak Back & Core, start with the easiest and safest exercise –

a. Pelvic Tilt: Lie on the floor or on your bed. Place a pillow under your head. Bend your knees by sliding your feet up towards your bottom.

Tighten your pelvic floor and pull in your lower tummy muscles. Hold this for a count of 1-3 and then relax your tummy. Repeat this 10 times. Make sure you are breathing normally, as breathing is the most essential part of any exercise.

b. Pelvic Bridging: Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat. Pull in your lower tummy muscles and inhale, then exhale as you tighten your buttocks and lift your hips until your body forms a straight line. Do this 5 times and repeat in 3 sets of 5 reps exercise

Not only does this exercise strengthen your major back muscles but also focuses on your small yet very important core muscles.

c. Maintain the correct posture to avoid straining your back and core muscles

sitting_posture

Posture is an important factor for a new mom and maintaining it is extremely necessary. More often than not, new moms tend to stand, sit or even nurse their babies in an incorrect posture. The right posture is to maintain the arch of the back with the chest and bottom out. Even while nursing the baby, the mother must maintain the correct posture. Back should be supported properly and the baby must be held close to the breast so that the mother doesn’t have to slouch. The mother can keep a pillow under the baby to support her arms while feeding.

2. For Incontinence,

a. Perform the Kegel’s Exercise

Wondering how to do it? Well, worry no more. Here is the answer:

To do the Kegel’s exercise you need to first find your pelvic muscles.

How do you find the pelvic muscles?
These are the muscles that form the base of your pelvic floor. The most common way to find them is to try to stop the flow of your urine mid-steam. This tightening is the basic move of a Kegel. Let those muscles go and resume the flow of urine and you’ll have a better sense of where those Kegels are.

Now, let us start the Kegel’s exercise to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.

You can do this exercise either sitting in a chair or lying on the floor. Make sure your buttock and tummy muscles are relaxed. If you are lying down, then you should be flat on your back with your arms on your sides and your knees up and together. Keep your head down, too, to avoid straining your neck.

pelvic

Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles for 5 seconds. You don’t want to strain those muscles too much by squeezing them for too long. If 5 seconds is too long for you, you can begin by squeezing those muscles for just 2-3 seconds. Repeat it 5 times. You can increase the number of repetitions as per your convenience.

Note: Bladder should be empty while doing the Kegel’s exercise.

b. Stopping the flow of Urine while urinating for 3-5 secs.
This exercise should be done once or twice in a day.

3. For Stress,

Stress during and after pregnancy is inevitable. So, what do you do about it? How do you relieve stress? The best way to tackle stress is to be aware of what causes it. In most common cases, it is because of the sudden change in lifestyle and irregular sleep patterns. Waking up every now & then to feed the baby can be very tiresome. You may also experience stress based on the changes you see in your appearance. There are many factors that may stress you out. Here are some easy ways to copy with it:

a. Deep Breathing Exercises
When stressed, we tend to do Shallow Over-breathing (taking shorter breaths), this prolongs anxiety and stress by raising the stress hormones in our sysstem. Deep abdominal breathing helps reduce the level of stress hormones in your blood and thus, relaxes the body and mind.

Breathe in through nose and let the abdomen rise, hold your breath for 3-4 seconds and slowly exhale through the mouth. Repeat it at least 5-10 times in a quiet environment for maximum relaxation.

b. Talk to your spouse about the challenges you are facing. Talking to your partner not only involves him in this transition phase of yours but, also strengthens the relationship between you two by many folds.

c. Take a Nap every time your baby is asleep. Not only your baby but even you need ample of rest. Your little one is going to keep you awake the whole night. So might as well take a nap whenever possible to catch up on the sleep you have missed. Your body needs rest to repair all the cells and tissues that were worn and torn during the day.

d. Give yourself some time and attention by doing what you love the most. Listen to music, read a book, catch up with old friends or just about anything that keeps you happy because only a happy mind can nurture a healthy body.

August 13, 2018 By Nilakhi Nath Leave a Comment

Why is rest as important as training?

Our world is becoming healthier with people opting for healthy living ideas like clean eating and being fit by staying active. The first attempt at to keep ourselves healthy is by being active. However, being active also means to take good rest after any physical activity. Our body requires rest period in between our workout days, there are a few, who tend to overdo it though, i.e. they over train their body. You may see this group of people working out all seven days intensely without a rest period or a rest day.

Why is rest so important? And what happens when you don’t give rest to your body?

Rest means a state when the body is inactive. Inactivity helps the body to relax and gives time to recover strength after any kind of exertion.

Our body requires rest because every time we workout we are tearing our muscles and continuous workout without a rest period may cause further injury to the muscles. Resting your body helps in repairing and healing of the torn muscle fibers and enhances the performance.

But, what do you tell those few who have this inbuilt need to be active everyday? How do you make them take some much needed rest?

Well, I would say, tell them what happens when you do not give rest to your body.

Here’s what you should be sharing with them:

Injuries & drop in performance:

Muscle sustains tiny tears when we workout, rest after training helps in healing those tears. When we do not give rest to the muscle and over train it then it leads to serious injuries.

What happens when you do not sleep for more than 24 hours? You are drowsy, concentration drops and so does your performance. This is exactly what happens with your body when you over train it. The performance drops due to injuries and inadequate rest of the muscles.

Longer recovery time:

Due to over training of a muscle, the amount of time taken for recovery increases. If you are working out 4-5 days a week and taking rest for 2-3 days in between the time taken by the body to recover is shorter whereas when you do not give rest in between your training sessions then the body needs extra time to repair the damages caused by over training. Bigger the damage, longer the recovery time. You can keep your rest period short by taking adequate rest in between your training sessions.

Loss of motivation to train:

As you over train the muscles, the performance drops and it also affects your motivation level. Due to inadequate rest the muscle loses the capacity to grow and instead bear severe injuries. These negative changes in the body affect a person’s motivation level and leads to loss of interest in the training program. With low interest one might feel forced to do the workout instead of looking forward to it.

Immunity:

When your muscles are over trained and injured, the energy reserved for the proper functioning of your Immune system is directed towards the repair of the damaged muscles and bones. As a result your immune system doesn’t function optimally.

Sharing these points would certainly take some time but, it will help those who over train themselves to see great results.

To see great results you got to train smarter and not harder!

February 2, 2018 By Nilakhi Nath 3 Comments

5 Exercises a woman must do during pregnancy

Pregnancy brings a new meaning to the life of a Woman and it is a period of immense joy and excitement. Carrying a soul within you is a magnificent feeling. An angel within you gives you a new reason to live, to feel motivated, to get inspired and surely to smile and bless the world with all the positivity.

These 9 months are so special and important that people around you are as happy and concerned about your well being as you are. So, let me share some very important points to make your pregnancy a healthy and a happy one.

To keep yourself healthy during this period, you must remain active. Here are the 5 most important exercises a woman must do throughout her Pregnancy.

Walking: One of the easiest things to do to keep you active is Walking. The best part is that you do not require any equipment except for a pair of good shoes. It can be done anytime, anywhere and all throughout your pregnancy. Carry a bottle of water and off you go walking.

Stretching: It is one of the most important exercises a pregnant woman is advised to do by her doctor.The reason behind it is that during pregnancy certain muscle groups become weak due to inactivity also less movement of a muscle leads to shortening and tightening of the muscle. Hence, to avoid the shortening of the muscle or the muscle group, a woman must do stretching every day before and after her workout. Stretching the neck, back and chest and legs helps to relieve the aches and fatigue.

Butterfly Pose: Butterfly pose is a deep inner thigh and groin stretch. This is the stretch which is going to help you the most during the last stages of pregnancy and you will thank yourself for doing it every day during this period. Bend your knees and place the soles of your feet together. Slide the feet closer to your groin and allow your knees to widen away from each other towards the floor. Hinge forward at the waist and fold forward towards your feet while keeping your spine straight. Breathe deeply and hold the pose between 30 seconds to five minutes.

Cat and Camel Pose: This pose is helpful in maintaining the flexibility of your spine and also will be strengthening your back. Get down on all fours on your mat. Place your hands directly below your shoulders. Now lift your buttocks up towards the ceiling so that your lower back is concave. As you do this your head will lift up naturally towards the ceiling. Now round your back like the hump of a camel and roll your head towards your chest.

Child Pose: One of the most relaxing posse in Yoga. It is safe to be done in any stage of Pregnancy with some modifications. It lengthens the spine and also is a great hip opener. Come into the posture by kneeling on both knees at a slightly wide but, comfortable distance apart from one another. This distance should be wider than hips width. No need to obsess about the distance, you can always adjust once in the pose to whatever feels comfortable. Then sit on your heels (which should be facing up), and lean forward slowly with your body, walking your arms out long in front of you. Make sure you are breathing as you come into the pose and are not holding your breath, especially if you are feeling any sensation or even pain at this point. Keep breathing normally for as long as you are holding the pose. You can keep a pillow under your belly, knee and feet for a good support. Slowly walk your arms under you and release the pose.

These are the five most easy and beneficial exercises a pregnant woman must do to have a safe and healthy pregnancy.

Remember to have a word with your doctor before you start practicing any of the above mentioned exercises. Your doctor’s consent is must for your healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.

August 20, 2015 By Nilakhi Nath 2 Comments

Not fitting into your favorite dress? Here’s how you can!!

Has it become practically impossible to wear your favorite clothes which once adorned your body? Many of you want to shop for new dresses and wear new collections but when you go to the mall there is nothing that fits you. Whatever does fit you is probably too long or too skimpy. So, what do we do? Let another year pass by and you stick to your collection because the new ones are too short or too tight and you don’t have a body to flaunt it. Or just buy it and stack it with your favorite clothes because you don’t fit in?

I say No, let’s not prepare ourselves to fail. Let’s win this time, win a new body and wear that favourite dress of all time. Gift yourself those beautiful dresses which you always wanted to wear.

How do we do that? Well, it’s pretty simple. Pick up your workout attire and get a bottle full of energy drink and get started with these 5 exercises.

Jump Ropes: You must have done this exercise in your childhood everyday and for hours together. Only that, you never thought of it as one of the best and simplest cardio exercise. This exercise not only elevates your heart rate but also works out your entire body by involving all the small and large groups of muscles. It improves your coordination and builds muscular strength.

Burpees: Burpee is a full body exercise which involves some degree of agility, balance, coordination, and total body strength. It is also a great exercise to build up your endurance and can be done anywhere. Muscles used for doing this exercise are muscles of upper arms, lower back, core and lower body muscles.

Mountain Climbers : Mountain climbers works on your upper arms muscles, as well as your core and your legs. The benefits of muscular and cardiovascular fitness are increasing strength, flexibility.

Declined Pushups: This is a variation of basic pushups. It works on your chest, arms, back and shoulders. But, to do this exercise you need to have a good amount of strength and stability in your arms, core and legs. You should try this exercise only if you can do basic push up without any difficulty and discomfort.

Jump Squats : It works on your quadriceps mainly and also works on your core. Your lower body, including your glutes, hamstrings, and calves are also worked. Use a deeper squat when doing the exercise for fat loss. Lower your body until your upper thighs is parallel to the floor. It shapes up your lower body and also builds the strength.

Stretches at the end of the exercise session is very important. It reduces muscle tension, makes the body feel more relaxed, increase the range of motion. Prevents muscle strains and also reduces the risk of back problems.