Knee fold

How to move

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat and hip-width apart, and your arms by your sides.
2. Breathe in. As you breathe out, gently draw up your pelvic floor and lower tummy.
3. Lift one foot a few centimetres and float the knee up until the hip is bent to about a right angle, keeping the pelvis still.
4. Hold for a short count, breathing.
5. Lower the foot slowly to the floor, relax, and repeat on the other side.

Form cues

• Keep the low back and pelvis still; only the leg moves.
• Breathe out as the knee floats up.
• Avoid: letting the middle of your tummy bulge into a ridge; if it does, lift the foot only a little.

Practice and cautions

2 sets of 5 to 10 each side, every other day: the dose a UK pelvic health physiotherapy booklet (POGP) gives for alternate knee bends. A standard early postnatal and Pilates step; no trial has tested it on its own.

After a caesarean, start once lifting a leg doesn't pull on the wound. In pregnancy after the first trimester, do it propped up on pillows. This is movement education, not an assessment or treatment prescription. Stop for sharp or increasing pain, dizziness, numbness or tingling; seek individual guidance for symptoms, injury or restrictions.