Good Excercises for Pelvic Area and Back

Frist Congratulations!!! I agree with Jackie on the Pilates. As an exercise phyisologist, I always tell people to do all other exercises before doing any lower back exercises since it is such a vulernable area.
Try doing some lower back extensions, a staff memeber at the Y should be able to show you these as well as the following. Also squats and lunges will help as well since they build the support mucsles for the lower back. You can do these free standing with no weight or even with a ball.
If you still have questions, please contact me. Also the book, "Strength Training Anatomy" is very good at showing detailed exercises if there is no one at the YMCA to show you how to do them.

Congrats on your upcoming marriage! I used to teach aerobics, and one of my FAVORITE exercies for the abs is this:
1)Lie on your back in front of a sturdy piece of funiture(couch)
2)While holding onto the couch for support, press your lower back to the floor at all times, contract your abs and lift your legs off the floor slowly. KEEP YOUR LOWER BACK PRESSED TO THE FLOOR and keep your knees together.
3)Repeat lifting and lowering slowly...3 secs up...3 secs down...You can vary how high you lift, I would go up 18-24 in off ground
Once you build up the technique and strength, you can add variations such as bent knees side to side to work the obliques, "pulses" a few inches off the ground for the lowers
Wow, they work!

Hi T.:
Congratulations on your new beginnings! Most of the time, crunches just strengthen the shallow mucscles of your abs. You could do a million and it wouldn't do much. Try and get into a Pilates class at the YMCA. There's no better exercise program for strengthening the pelvic and ab area. When you do the excercises correctly, you're working your muscles from the inside out -- from the pelvic floor (can you say kegels?!) to the bottom of the ribcage. I'm a pilates instructor who's been trained in many other aerobics programs and I've seen dozens of women (including myself!) acheive dramatic benefits from pilates. When you get pregnant, it also helps with posture to avoid back pain, but be sure to talk to your instructor about how to safely modify the exercises. Good luck!

I agree that Pilates is great for just that. Here's a wonderful video that I swear by:

http://www.amazon.com/Hilary-Burnetts-Pilates-Basics-Burn...

Before I got pregnant, I was in the most excellent shape in my life (at age 40!) and it was in great part due to walking regularly and doing this video. I know that it helped my back pain, etc. before and during and after pregnancy.

I've resumed doing the video (my baby is 6 months) and even with doing it only a few times a week, I can see almost immediate improvements to my core muscles. What I like about this video is that Burnett is a really good teacher, very encouraging, and the exercise is gentle and graceful, and the whole thing takes only about 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Go to the EGOSCUE website and pull off e-cises for hips and back. In addition, you'll want to OWN a copy of PAIN FREE WOMEN which will take you thru an entire pregnancy to make sure your body is properly aligned and positioned to had a good pregnancy and be pain free.

You need to prepare it NOW! don't wait! I'm a certified posture alignment & pain management specialist and if you want to do a one on one session I could give you a personalized menu to prepare it for pregnancy.

I have a medical problem with my hip I tell you what it was but I can not spell it. LOL any way I use pilates. It is not a high impact but it will strenghten those spots so you can move into a higher impact workout later. Good Luck!!!

If you do go to YMCA there is things that you can use for your inner thighs. I love it. works on the inner,than there is one for your outter thighs. also i found the ball can do it to. Just look at a work out for the ball and find it, or just put the ball between your legs and move it back and fourth but make sure you are working those inner thighs. I hope this helps and the ball helps on other stuff too.

Try Pilates. Really good for core strenghting. My favorite is the 10 min. Solution Series

In my personal experience, I have found the Yoga, Pilates, and Bellydancing are all very helpful for me (I have consistent back and hip problems stemming from having 3 children and a car accident a few years ago). Plus Bellydancing is very sexy and if you stick with it the you move on a normal daily basis will change, you become more fluid and graceful.

Belly dancing! There are lots of good Dvd's out there about how to do it. It's fun, sexy, and will strengthen your core. Not to mention the fact that it's believed that it originated as exercises to help with pains in child birth.