From the moment that you received the news of your pregnancy you have been invaded by waves of different emotions. They mix immense happiness with feelings of doubt and insecurity. It is also possible that the pregnancy has been a surprise that you didn't expect and you may consider that the presence of a baby will complicate your life.
At this time you need to take some time to assimilate your new state and to enter in contact with your deeper feelings. It will be of great help to share your concerns with your couple; it is possible that he also has some contradictory feelings.

From now on your child needs to be wanted and loved to develop in harmony. In a few months you will take care of all the details of the house and the room to prepare an ideal environment to welcome him but, now the efforts should center in taking care of the environment in which he is living so that he wants to know the world that you will offer him.

YOUR FIRST MONTHS AS A FUTURE FATHER

If you were wishing to be a father, you will have received with the biggest the confirmation that your couple is pregnant. If, on the contrary, you had not thought about paternity, it is possible that you may have contradictory feelings of happiness, uncertainty, displeasure, guilt, anxiety and even of fear.

In any of the two cases you will have some doubts that will make you feel concerned and you won't know who to share them with or where to look for help. Your friends and family worry about the expecting mother's physical and psychological state, to offer her advice and affective support, however nobody thinks that you are not the most fortunate and happy man in the planet: you will be a father and you won't have to endure physiologic and hormonal changes that affect to your emotional world, not to mention the childbirth. The society expects you to become a perfect husband and father, but nobody has taught you how to fulfill these functions nor has anyone have explained to you what to do with your queries: Do I want to be a father? Am I able to assume such a responsibility? Will the pregnancy be a risk for my couple's health? Is there the risk of abortion? Will the baby be healthy? Will everything go well in the childbirth? Will I know how to be a father? What will happen with our relationship? Will we have to move to a bigger house? Will we be able to make it with the new economic loads? How can I help in the pregnancy and in the childbirth?

These and many other fears are similar to those of other men in your situation, and they are justified. Such a significant change in the life of a man implies a process of adaptation to the new situation. Luckily, the baby doesn't arrive overnight and you have nine months to adapt to the changes and to learn how to be the best possible father.

Your couple seems to be happy and sure, but she feels the same fears and concerns than you or other similar ones. To be a couple implies to share, to sit down to share the feelings, doubts and fears that you have. Some will disappear just by sharing them with another person, others will attenuate when shared and others will require to make decisions or to make some changes.

You can decide together to follow this program of prenatal education, to buy some books with good information about the pregnancy and childbirth, to speak with the obstetrician or the midwife, to comment your doubts openly with other future parents or with couples that have had children recently, to obtain an insurance policy, to request a loan, etc. To share these new feelings will help you feel more united securing your relationship as a couple and establishing a solid base in the new responsibility of being parents.

If you decide to actively follow our program you will understand more easily the changes that your couple will experience, both at the physiologic and the emotional levels. Nevertheless, here we will summarize the changes that can affect more your relationship.

It is possible that in this new stage of your lives there are more reciprocal affective expressions. It is also possible that your partner feels more fatigue provoked by the excitement, the anxiety and the hormonal changes. During the whole pregnancy there will be alterations in her energy levels and motivation for certain activities. You should understand if your couple doesn't feel like going to the cinema, having dinner in a restaurant or dancing at nights.

Does it seem that your partner does not cuddle you and pays as much attentions as before? Does she seem to be less flexible since she is pregnant? do you think that it is changing day by day? Each man and each woman reacts in a different way before a pregnancy, but in all the cases it is necessary to make a "readjustment" in their relationship. If up to now it had not been necessary, now, you will have to increase your levels of understanding, patience and flexibility. The pregnancy doesn't last eternally and without a doubt it is harder for her.

During the first months of gestation, the woman usually feels nauseas. In most cases they appear in the morning, but they can also happen in the afternoon, during the whole day or when seeing certain foods or smelling some aromas. Regardless of the causes that provoke them (hormonal, psychological, levels of sugar in the blood, etc.) the uneasiness that they cause can interfere in your relationship. Don't be frustrated if you prepare a marvelous breakfast to enjoy together during the weekend and your partner feels unable to even taste it. There is not a lot that you can do so that this uneasiness disappears, but it will help her if you prepare a cup of tea and you take it to her bed so that she drinks it with some cookies before getting up. You can also offer a small snack between foods so that the level of sugar in her blood doesn't diminish.

Perhaps your couple is one of those pregnant women that feel especially attracted by some food during gestation. It is possible that these whims are linked to nauseas. Even if you can satisfy her small whims, carefully watch over her diet, to ensure that it is balanced and appropriate for her state.

Hormonal changes will also make your partner want to urinate often during the first months. Be patient about the numerous stops that you will have to make when you travel by car or have to search for a bathroom when you go for a walk, because these are needs, not whims.

Your sexual relationships will also experience changes, even if they continue to be satisfactory. Except for the cases where the doctor indicates the opposite, these relationships can be continued during the gestation.

It is possible that your partner's sexual needs diminish in the first trimester, the reasons are varied: fatigue, nauseas, worries, fear of hurt the baby, etc. Remember that during the whole gestation your couple's breasts, besides increasing in volume, become tremendously sensitive, so avoid abrupt caresses because they could be a torture for her.

During the second trimester many of the initial nuisances disappear as do the concerns of the parents, and the sexual desire usually increases. However, throughout the third trimester there can be a similar situation to the first trimester due to the annoyance provoked by the volume of the abdomen, the excess of weight and the concerns for the baby's well-being.

You should not feel guilty if your couple's physical changes make her less attractive sexually or, on the contrary, they are a reason of excitement for you. As in the rest of the areas of your life in common, sexual relationships need a "readjustment" during this period and this "readjustment should not be a reason for additional concerns.

In most of the couples, during the pregnancy, the "masculine" and "feminine" roles of the relationship are usually inverted. In this period, the woman spreads to demonstrate more abilities and physical strength, while the man contributes the emotional sustenance and other features more characteristic of the "feminine" role. It may be hard for you to accept this change naturally; hence it is advisable that you talk about the intimate causes that block the adaptation to this new situation:

• Can it be due to the fear you are feeling about paternity?

• Do you feel unable to link affectively with the baby at this time?

• Do you believe that you are not prepared to assume the responsibility of being a father?

• Do you fear that by assuming a "more feminine" role you lose respect from your couple, your relatives and friends?

• Do you think that when the baby is born you will be relegated to a second place by your couple?

To communicate deep feelings is difficult. What you say and what your couple understands can be two different things. The only way that you have of discovering if you are making yourself understood is to pay attention to the reaction that your words or your actions provoke. If this reaction is negative, you have to restate your messages to you achieve a more effective communication.

This course of prenatal education can help you in the adaptation to the numerous changes that will happen during this period. To implicate yourself in the realization of the different activities is the best means to obtain the confidence in yourself that you may feel it is now deteriorating, and to get the necessary preparation to be an excellent father. Reflect on this and if you make the commitment, don't give up when faced with the first difficulty.

Another matter that you should speak about is on following together a preparation program for the childbirth. This type of courses type is usually taken during the last stage of the pregnancy and there are multiple benefits for both of you. The doctor or the midwife can inform you on those being offered in your city.

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FIRST MONTH

RELAXATION AND HARMONIZATION

During the whole pregnancy you will accumulate many tensions every day. The relaxation exercises can reduce this tension and diminish also the quantity of stress hormones that, through the placenta, reach the baby.

Relaxation is a voluntary activity practiced by millennial cultures that consists on loosening the muscles and nerves so that the whole body is loosened up. Through conscious relaxation, you feel the different areas of the body, you detect tensions, and you loosen the area and reduce the neuromuscular tension voluntarily.

To relax is a process that should be learnt and it requires doing many exercises until one does them well. If you practice regularly, in several weeks you can obtain deep phases of reparative relaxation

With the daily practice you will be able to dominate the “relaxation response” that you will be able to get in at any moment and circumstance. This ability will be very useful when the baby's birth comes.

Next we offer the instructions that you should record in a cassette or CD, to play it in this activity. You can record it or you can ask another person, but using a calm and slow voice, with pauses between each paragraph. When you finish the text, record 10 minutes of your favorite relaxing music.

Text to record:

Close your eyes. Inhale deeply through the nose; now let the air out slowly through the mouth. Take air in again until you feel your lungs full and let it out slowly. Continue to breathe deeply. Concentrate on your breathing and in the sensations of your body. Don't worry about the ideas that come to your mind, let them go.

Concentrate now on your feet, flex your toes toward the soles with force, and keep the pressure for a few moments. Now relax your feet while you breathe deeply and evenly.

Think now of your legs, tense all the muscles from the ankles to the knees, keep the tension for a few moments, very well, now you can relax your legs. Breathe deeply and enjoy this moment of tranquility.

Now concentrate on the thighs, the pelvis and the buttocks. Tense all the muscles of that area with a lot of force, even tighter, keep the tension. Relax while you breathe deeply.

Every time that the air enters your body you get full with energy. When the air comes out of your body it takes with it all the tensions and negative thoughts.

Concentrate now on the trunk of your body, tense all the muscles. Feel how the chest and the abdomen tighten up. Keep the tension at the same time that you press your column against the back of the chair. Feel how hard tight is your body now. Now relax you and let yourself go. While you breathe rhythmically enjoy how relaxed are your muscles now and how the tensions go away. The blood flows through the veins of your body without interruptions.

Pay attention now to the shoulders and neck, here is the tension that you accumulate during the day. Elevates your shoulders toward the ears with force, keep the tension for a few moments and then relax. Keep breathing rhythmically. You are already comfortable and relaxed.

Concentrate on the arms, make them as rigid as an iron bar and close your fists with force. Keep them this way them for a few moments. Now relax them.

Feel how the air comes in and fills your lungs and how it takes with it all the tensions when it leaves your body.

Think of your face, tense the muscles of the eyes closing them with force. Press your jaw and lips, keep the tension for a few moments and then loosen it.

Breathe deeply, feel your relaxed body, the fatigue has disappeared.

Let your imagination fly and go to that ideal place where you will enjoy with your baby while you listen to the melodies that make you feel relaxed and full with energy for the rest of the day.

MUSICAL SESSION

For the musical sessions you should record a one hour cassette or CD choosing relaxing melodies that you find pleasing.

Among classic music, Baroque music can be the most suitable because it is adjusted to tempos from 60 to 70 beats per minute, which is the most similar rhythm to that of the heart at rest. It has been proven in numerous studies that the music of Handel, Mozart, Vivaldi, Fasch or Bach facilitates the capacity of concentration while stimulating the brain alpha waves.

Other research works confirm that when listening to Baroque music, mainly that of Mozart and Vivaldi, the babies in the uterus reach the state of alert relaxation more easily. So, although you may prefer now to record other types of music's type that is pleasant and induces you to reach the relaxation state without falling into drowsiness, it would be interesting to prepare a cassette or CD with Baroque music for your baby in the future.

The objective of these sessions is to reduce the tension accumulated during the day, to improve the capacity of concentration and to reach an emotional harmony that helps you to communicate with your baby.

Choose a moment of the day in which can enjoy the music without interruptions, it can be at the end of the afternoon. Take a comfortable position and calmly perceive the vibration of the sounds. Let your imagination fly toward gratifying places and situations and let your body be taken by the melody.

The musical session can be the perfect activity to involve your couple. After a while of relaxing music you will have an open disposition to share the doubts and anxieties that the future arrival of the baby has provoked in both of you.

WRITING IN THE EMOTIONS NOTEBOOK

Maternity changes radically the emotional life of a woman. Intense feelings crowd together and hormones provoke flows of disordered emotions. It may be that you don't feel especially sensitive and that your emotional world does not seem disadjusted. Nevertheless, in the first stage of the pregnancy, due to the hormonal changes, there is a real physiologic alteration that causes a peculiar state of mood with a tendency to express with more intensity any emotion and to react with more intensity to the stimuli of the environment.

A suitable activity to stay in contact with your feelings, to confront the uncertainties and to establish emotional order, it is to write about it.

We suggest you that you write everyday in a notebook as if you were "opening your heart to your best friend or confidant." This notebook or journal is for your exclusive use, only you will read it so you should not worry about the writing or the spelling.

Look for a calm moment of the day and a place where noises or other people don't interfere with your activity.

Every day write down the date at the beginning and write with total sincerity about the fears, anxieties, enthusiasms and happiness that you feel. Tell about the incidents, the experiences or any aspect of the daily relationships with important people around you and the positive or negative feelings that they have generated in you.

When writing about your most intimate thoughts you will make a more objective analysis of them, you will recognize more easily the feelings that they are producing and you will be in direct contact with your emotions.

This daily activity will increase your self knowledge of your own emotional life increasing your self-esteem and self confidence at the same time that you adopt a more optimistic view on life. Your baby needs this contribution of positive feelings that reach him through the blood.

Include also your dreams in your journal. Everybody dreams, although we are not always able to remember it. During our dream our unconscious releases oneiric images that express and process what happens in our daily life. To remember what we dream and to understand its meaning helps us to know ourselves better and to overcome hidden fears and anxieties.

Have paper and pen handY to write down your dreams when you wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning. Try to describe everything you remember, even the most insignificant details. Write down the emotions provoked by the dream and the meaning that you attribute to it as well as the date of the dream.

Keep your notes on your dreams in your journal. To read the reflections and events that you have related in the same date and in the previous days can help you to understand better the meaning of your dreams.

As your baby and you get acquainted you will establish affective bonds that will last your whole life. However, to be able to love others you should begin by loving yourself.

Your mind maintains a constant conversation that seems to be beyond your control. A great part of this “mental chatter” is made up of negative messages that were incrusted in your mind since childhood and that, so far, have been a ballast for the development of your potential.

The exercises that we suggest will help you to discover these negative thoughts that are stuck to your unconscious so you can neutralize them and substitute them for other positive ones that will increase your self-esteem and help you to concentrate on what matters more now: to get ready for maternity.

Reflect on some aspect of yourself that you don't like or want to change. Thinks of the shortest, simplest and concise sentence that could define you if you had already changed that aspect and write it down on a piece of paper. Write the sentence in present tense and in an affirmative way under today's date.

Write down also the negative thoughts that this phrase provokes in you and finish by indicating the steps that you will follow to make the change. Try to choose small goals in your daily activities and commit yourself to be constant when putting them into practice.

For example, if you want to increase your capacity to maintain order:

Choose an aspect and a corresponding sentence per week. Writes the sentence on a card and say it aloud several times in the morning when you wake up, at night before sleeping and at some other time during the day. Feel the meaning of the sentence and cross off from the list of negative thoughts the aspects in which you have made improvements. When you have crossed out all the negative thoughts choose another different aspect to improve, but don't forget to continue reinforcing the previous one.

Think of yourself as a person that is able to carry out the activities that you intend to and congratulate yourself for your many capacities. If you want to be more orderly, speak, think and act as an orderly person and don't allow yourself to be influenced by the negative comments of other people.

There are many aspects of yourself that you like and make you feel proud of being the way you are. Write down those qualities that you possess and reflect on how you can increase them, writing down the concrete actions that you will carry out to achieve that end.

BREATHING EXERCISES

Breathing is our more basic source of energy and a vital function of our organism. Regrettably, we have not been trained to breathe correctly during our childhood, for that reason we have acquired negative breathing habits. Most adults breathe badly and, as we ignore our breathing potentials, we don't take advantage of them.

By learning how to breathe you can avoid arrhythmic, spasmodic, superficial breathing through the mouth. Nasal breathing filters and warms the air, avoiding dysfunctions of the breathing ways and, when it is paused and regular, it has a balsamic action on the nervous system. On the contrary, incorrect mouth breathing supposes alterations in the nervous system, provoking physical and emotional tensions.

To begin this breathing education, or reeducation, you need to watch yourself in an attentive way and that you intervene directly to regulate it effortlessly. By getting acquainted with these breathing exercises you will obtain many immediate benefits, and you will also establish a suitable base for the preparation course for the childbirth.

You can practice the exercises that we recommend right from the beginning of the pregnancy. Any moment of the day is adequate and, the more you practice them, the better. You should always inhale through the nose and expel the air through the mouth.

The breathing is a fundamental element during the childbirth. To breathe appropriately guarantees a correct oxygenation of the organism at the times of maximum effort. Between each contraction, the breathing exercises help to recover the strength and they help to relax. This way the baby benefits as we provide him with the necessary oxygen.

• To be aware of your breathing, lie down in the floor and place your legs on the seat of a chair so that the knees form an angle. Place the hands on your gut and take air through the nose while you notice how your abdomen swells.

• Close your eyes and place your index and thumb fingers next to the fins of the nose, without pressing. Place the other hand on the abdomen. Inhale slowly, notice how your nose and abdomen swell. Exhale through the mouth while you observe how the swelling of the abdomen is reduced. Repeat several times to become aware of your breathing.

• Sitting with the head lightly bowed down and the arms crossed on the chest, expel the air through the mouth. When you are concluding the expiration, open the arms toward the sides, taking air in through the nose while you expand the thorax without curving much your back. Notice how your abdomen, and later the chest, swells. Return to the original position while you expel the air through the mouth.

• Sitting, with the legs crossed and the back straight, cross your hands at the level of the abdomen and slowly expel the air through the mouth noticing how you empty the lungs and take the abdominal muscles towards the column.

• Raise the crossed hands to the level of the chest while you inhale deeply through the nose. Notice how the abdomen swells and the chest rises.

Now expel the air slowly through the mouth while you stretch the arms to the level of the shoulders with hands crossed and the palms facing forward.

This time, inhale through the nose elevating your stretched arms, with the hands crossed, over the head. Notices how the chest swells.

Lastly, expel the air slowly through the mouth at the same time that you separate the arms and place them crosswise.

Repeat the previous series several times.

• Sitting with the hands on your hips and the back straight, take air through the nose while you lean your trunk lightly towards one side. Straighten your trunk again while you expel the air through the mouth. Repeat several times the exercise alternating sides.

TO FEEL BETTER. MASSAGE AND PREGNANCY

In this section, we are going to suggest, every month, a series of simple maneuvers to help you feel better. Our intention is that these techniques improve the muscular state of the area where you apply the massage and, as a reflex, in other distant points.

To feel better

If you have the opportunity, use the services of a professional masseur with certain regularity. If this is not possible, ask your couple for his collaboration, or try the simple techniques of self massage that we offer here.

In this section we will suggest every month a series of simple maneuvers to feel well. We seek that these techniques improve the muscular state of the area where you apply the massage and at reflective level in other distant areas.

The massage acts on the organism benefiting it in multiple ways: it activates the speed of the blood circulation mainly at the level of the veins, it stimulates and accelerates the lymphatic circulation and its drainage effect, it acts on the reflective muscular contractures, cleans of toxins the muscular fibers facilitating their contraction and relaxation, it increases the number of red globules in the blood and the corporal temperature, helps to increase the normal peristaltic function of the viscera of the digestive system, it accelerates the metabolism, etc.

To alleviate the nuisances of the pregnancy you can go to a professional masseur, keeping in mind that the breast should not be massaged unless a midwife masseuse kneads them softly to prepare the galactophorus conduits for the nursing after the childbirth.

You can do the exercises that we propose throughout this program alone or with your couple's collaboration since they don't require specialization, as they are mainly deep caresses more than an authenticate massage. The massage is a good means to involve your couple in the pregnancy during the first months.

Always follow these cautions:

• Never apply deep pressures or vigorous manipulations.

• Do not massage the armpits, breasts, groin, behind the knee or in the front side of the elbow. Do not massage, or do it lightly, almost like a caress, on the abdomen, the inner side of the thigh or the upper part of the ankle.

• In the first weeks you should avoid using oils, but if you use them, make sure that they are natural and they come from the first pressing.

During the first trimester the massages should be limited to the face, the head or the neck to alleviate headaches, muscular tension in the area, and anxiety.

In the second trimester, indigestion and insomnia are usually frequent and these soft manipulations can offer some relief.

Throughout the third trimester some nuisances motivated by the increase of volume of the abdomen arise: the lumbar lordosis is accentuated and there can be lumbalgias, the sacroiliac articulations separate with some nuisances, the womb compresses the iliac veins diminishing the blood circulation and varixes can appear.

After the childbirth you should not have any massages until after the puerperium. During that time the womb should heal, return to its size and position, the same as the bowels, that should move and return to their place. After the puerperium, massage and postpartum gymnastics help the mother to recover the tone of her abdominal muscles. If the legs are still swollen or the varixes remain, a massage will improve the circulation.

During the gestation you should use the cream that your doctor recommends. If you don't make it, grooves that are authentic scars provoked by the muscular tension of the abdomen during the last months will appear.

During the pregnancy you should use a cream recommended by your doctor for the stretch marks. If you don't do this, they can become scars due to the muscular tension of the abdomen in the last months of the pregnancy.

This first month, you will give yourself a facial massage or you will enjoy the relaxing massage that your couple offers you. The tension and the stress are reflected mainly in the face with the contraction of the brows and the jaw. A face massage helps to drop some habitual expressions and it leads to relaxation. You can use the moisturizing cream that you habitually use to prevent dull skin. During the massage you should not wear contact lenses.

Sit down comfortably with the head leaning and your couple should be behind you, or lie down on the floor or the bed and your partner sits down behind you, next to your head.

• Place the tips of the thumbs in the center of the forehead, slide them throughout the forehead until its border, lift them and return to the center repeating the maneuver until covering the whole area from the hairline to the eyebrows.

• Slide the thumbs now throughout the brows, from the interior toward the exterior. Repeat this movement four or five times.

• Place the tips of the thumbs on the temples while the rest of the fingers sustain the head behind the ears. Make very small circles with the thumbs. Exert a slight pressure for some seconds alternating both fingers.

• Close your eyes while your partner places the index and heart fingers on each eye and make a slight pressure alternating on each eye.

• Slide the thumbs along the nose beginning with the upper side. Continue on the upper part of the cheekbones and return to the starting point. Repeat the maneuver several times.

• Now place the thumbs on each side of the jaw and with the rest of the fingers make some circles towards the ears (we don't work on the frontal side of the neck). When we reach the ears we pull down on softly on the lobes and let go.

• We take the earlobes and pull softly towards the sides, stretching and moving them away from the head. Then we pinch softly on the lobe for a few seconds.

• Now we place the hands on the upper part of the forehead, just on the hairline. We slide the fingers through the scalp as if brushing the hair. We start from the front and end on the back.

• With the hands placed in the same way as in the previous exercise, we slide the fingers making small circles through the entire scalp.

• To finish, we place the open palm of the hand over the forehead and the other hand on top, without pressing, remaining this way for a few seconds.

LIGHT GYMNASTICS

You will surely think that it will be difficult to find time to follow a gymnastics program with the rhythm of life that you keep and how tired you are when you get home. You should think of the time that these exercises take, as the rest of the activities that we propose, as an investment in your health and the baby's well-being. In a relatively short period of time you will be surprised to see how the habit of doing physical exercise makes you feel better and how little time it takes from the rest of your daily activities.

When exercising you will perceive more clearly the changes that your body is going through and you will adapt your movements to these changes. But before beginning, we should remind you of some important aspects.

The pregnancy is divided in three periods of approximately 13 weeks each. These periods are called trimesters. The physical exercise will bring you benefits during the three trimesters: alleviating habitual nuisances, increasing your levels of energy, transmitting a sensation of well-being or facilitating the physical recovery after the childbirth, besides the benefits for the baby that we will mention throughout the program.

Be prudent, your physical capacity will change during the gestation and you should be attentive to the signs that your body sends you. If you notice any problem stop the exercise that you are doing and don't make too much effort, mainly during the first weeks.

If you are not used to exercising, at the beginning it will be enough to do two or three sessions per week leaving one day between sessions for the body to recover.

You will decide the duration of each session. You can begin with 15 minutes on the first day and increase the time little by little until a maximum of 60 or 90 minutes.

We advise a moderate level of intensity if your way of life has been quite active up to now or if you have exercised from time to time. If your lifestyle has been sedentary or you have not exercised before, begin with very lightly and increase the intensity progressively as your body becomes comfortable, but never ending up too tired. To know if you should diminish the intensity, checks that you are able to talk while you carry out the movements without breathing in an interrupted way. The normal thing is that you lose some breath, but without heaving.

Make sure that the movements are not abrupt; repeat them slowly and in a controlled way. We don't advise jumps that press on the muscles of the pelvis and the breasts, or quick flexions.

Breathes naturally, in a rhythmic way and avoid humid and atmospheres if after the exercise you can catch cold.

If you notice a sensation of sickness, stop exercising at that moment. It can be due to low blood pressure, a low level of sugar in the blood or incorrect breathing. Try to exercise at another time and, if the symptoms persist, see your doctor. You should also go to the doctor if you notice pain on either side of the pelvis, or in the abdominal area.

Preparation for the gymnastics session

• Use comfortable clothes, a bra with reinforcement to avoid the movement of the breasts and sports footwear that holds the articulation of the ankles well. If you decide to exercise barefoot, make sure you will not slide.

• Choose a room with enough space to move freely, keep a rug or towel handy for the floor exercises and some tin cans for the movements with weights.

• Exercise three or four hours after having taken a slight meal that includes carbohydrates that contribute the necessary energy and eat something healthy after finishing the session.

• Try that nothing or no one interrupts you once you begin the session. Choose energizing background music without being strident and keep some water handy to drink from time to time.

Gymnastics session

• Sit down on the floor, with the legs stretched. Move the arms while you breathe rhythmically: place them in cross and lower them again, inhale when elevating them and expel the air when lowering them (repeat several times). Now elevate them until they are straight, to the height of the shoulders before you and lower them again, breathes as indicated and repeat the movement several times. Lift them high, in a parallel line to the head and lower them.

• On your knees, move the arms from one side to the other the arms maintaining your breathing. Exhale, inhale and repeat the movement.

• Sitting or standing, place the arms in cross, close the fists and turn around the wrists, forearms and arms from the front to the back.

• In the same position, place the arms in cross but bending the forearms by the elbows in a right angle so that the palms of the hands face forward. In this position toss the arms backwards bringing the scapulas near to each other while you take air. Return to the original position while you expel the air. Repeat several times.

• In the same position, join the hands in the back, more or less at the height of the coccyx and try to bring the elbows near to each other.

• To finish, breathe pushing and blowing (moving the diaphragm). Fill your lungs to the maximum and after retaining the air expel it towards the abdomen lowering your head forward