Prenatal Length and Strength

Hello, I'm Melissa Connolly and I'm here at potties anytime to present to you a quick prenatal Matt class. I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant with my second child and I am also a certified pre and postnatal specialist for the Center for women's fitness. So in this workout we'd be working on lengthening, expanding through your center as we also strengthen the upper body and the lower body. So to begin with, let's stand to the back of your mat. We're going to ground our feet. So placing the heels together, the toes are apart. Standing in your Palladio's v position, just holding it here, feeling the weight pressing down into your heels, pressing down into all 10 of your toes, really ground the feet and slightly lift your arches, feeling the inner thighs, connect the lower glutes, engage, and then just gently drawing the belly in and the shoulders are back, the neck is long, the chin is lifted, expanding the ribs. We're going to inhale, raise arms and look up and then exhale her, us the arms down. We'll do that twice more. Take an inhale to raise arms lengthening as you look up and then exhale her ass damn. And one more time. Inhale raising the arms, feeling the width and the expansion of your rib cage. And exhale, press down, keeping the left arm, long razor right arm opic spinning the right side of your ribs, stretching laterally to the side.

And I feel center stretching the left arm out to the side, right arm reaches down towards your knee length in the left side and exhale center. Take another inhale and raise arms again, looking up this time, keeping the arms by your ears. Nod the Chin and start to round the spine forward scooping your belly and as much as you can and let the body hang here nice and heavy. Bend the knees, bend them as wide as you need to to get space for your abdominals while your baby. And then exhale, stir at your legs and we'll do that twice more. Bend the knees as wide as you need to and exhale, stretch the legs. One more. Inhale band. Exhale straight in with bent or straightened knees.

Let's curl the tailbone under your all the stomach in and rural the spine up. Once you're up to standing, palms face forward and go into a standing spine extension. Looking up widening across your chest and then coming back to the center. From here we'll swing our heels apart. The feet are parallel hip distance. We take an inhale to raise the arms up and exhale, roll the spine down again. The hands will go onto the mat.

We're going to walk our hands out and come onto our knees and I'm sit your bottom back, your heels. Good. From here we're going to go into some pelvic floor engagement. So thinking about your two sit bones drawing together, I want you to axial and contract for a count of five. So breathe out for five, four, three, two, one and then inhale, release in six counts six, five, four, three, two and one this time. Think about your pubic bone to your tailbone, drawing that pelvic floor in and up three, two, and one and then let it go. It's important to release release release as Pilati is we often contract a lot, release the pelvic floor, and now let's pull those sip ons together. Pubic wants a tailbone, contracting the pelvic floor and then release.

Set breathing and, and, and releasing. All though why? From here coming onto all fours, ground your hands on slim out. Open the knees. The knees are underneath your hips. The hands are directly in line with your shoulders. Let's inhale, raise the table and start to look up shoulders guy down and then exhale. Draw the belly and round the back.

Pushing your hands into the mat. Let the head hang heavy. Separate between your silver blades. Left the tailbone rolling there. The spine, shoulders lie down. You're in a spine extension and now curl the tailbone under. Feel your abdominals. Pull up to the spine around your back. Push the hands into the mat. Lift the tailbone, rural who the spine and extend. We'll do one more cat stretch. Start with a tailbone first. Rounding through, rounding through, rounding through the head is the last going to hang [inaudible].

Pull this stomach in tight and I lift the tailbone first. Roll through this roll through, roll through and like them. From here I come to a nice long position. The other shoulders pull down. The abs are m. Imagine the back like a table top. We're going to reach the right arm forward without shifting your shoulders. Exhale, center switch the other side.

The left arm reaches forward and exhale center again, starting to work your old obliques as the one arm goes forward and keeping that body nice and still and lower. Now stay here. Hands pressing down. Keep your hip steep like it was a glass of water right at your tailbone. Let's extend that right leg long and exhale. Center. Now switch without shifting.

Stretch long and exhale center one more. Both sides. Reach your right leg. Long. Exhale, center and last one and exhale center. Now we have left arm forward, right leg back in Hilary each and lengthen. Exhale, center. Find your stability, no movement in between and exhale center and far more. Breathing en.

Pull this down again and three more a center, last two without shifting. Fine your stability and center. Last time. The right arm, as for the left leg is back. Tap the fingers and toes down to the mat. Hurries them lower and lower and lift. Two more. Lower and left. Last one. Lower lift. Keep your leg long. Place the hand down.

Ground through your hands, dry your stomach and lengthening the back. You're going to bring your left leg to the right and look to the right side bending, and then open that loft loftlike and look to the left. Exhale as you side. Bend to the right. Inhale to the La Exhale, right and Haleigh. And I'm bringing the lay back through the center. Lower it down. We'll switch to the other side.

So starting with your left arm long and your right leg long straight behind you. Inhale, tap the fingers and toes x Hilary's breathing. And exhale left. Three pull your abs in bore. And one more.

Feel that length of your right leg. Lower the left arm. Ground the hand into the map. Let's bring our right like to the left, so you side by looking towards the foot, and then start to open the leg and look to the right. Exhale, tick tock that leg and open. Good. Using your ad doctor. [inaudible]. They're like a cross and open. Bring it back to the center. Lower the knee down. Good. We're going to transition from here. You tuck your toes underneath.

You raise your hips. So you're in a nice inverted v position. Dropping your head down. Relax your neck. Lengthen your table into the ceiling. Rise up onto the balls of the feet. Exhale, lower. Start to prancer feet. One heel high, one halo. Switch and switch and switch and switch.

Raise those heels up again. Exhale, lower them down. And let's walk your hands back to the feet. Good. From here, bend your knees, head heavy, and roll it up. Put one vertebrae at a time. We're going to transition to the Oh, from here. So how does sea on your ball? Okay, Gotcha.

So feeder grounded about hip distance apart. We're going to start with some pelvic tilt, so I want you to exhale, draw the stomach back as you curl the tailbone under, and inhale, release. And again, acts, CLC, or the abdominals. Pull in and release and I exhale, curl and release. From here. We're going to bring those hips from side to side. Good.

Getting that mobility through your hips, through your spine. That's it. And then from here, take it into a nice hip circle. So circling all around. Good. Getting that mobility again through the pelvis, through your hips. And then we'll reverse the circle says circling around. Go ahead, keep a nice steady breath. One more.

And then just find your way back to the center. Just placed one hand to your stomach and then one hand to the back and just feel that the lower back is as long as you can get it during pregnancy. There's that tendency to art, so keep it lifted and then place your hands wherever you're comfortable on the ball or on your thighs and start to lift one leg up and down. The ideal position is that you don't rock from side to side, but you use those abs and excellent as you left and exhale right from your deep core muscles. Low. Cate, your abs. Do One more both sides.

And I've changed my hands to my stomach and it just gives me that awareness of using the abdominals. And last one and low are good. Okay. Feet are grounded. Where does to start to bounce here? Bouncing a few times. Go ahead. Just creating circulation that the arms relaxed down. Shoulders are relaxed. Next one you probably want to place your fingertips onto the ball.

We're going to do two bounces and then suspend using our thighs so we bounce, bounce, suspend, bounce, bounce, suspend, engage. Again, pelvic floor, glutes, abs and thighs. X, bounce, bounce x, the re more. Two more. Now keep going actually, but lift one leg and one leg up. Of course. Stick with how it lifting a lag if you'd need to and I would definitely start holding onto the ball and left for more left and left mass too. And God, okay, saddle it in here. All right, we'll go into a lunch stretch.

So you're going to separate the legs out to a wide second position. From here, let's start to lunge to one side and then the other side go. Just opening through your hips and now I'm keeping it over to the right, staying there. I'm going to rotate to this side. So pick yourself up slightly off of the ball. So now it's just my right sip on, on the ball, but back leg, my left leg is long, pushing back through the heel and [inaudible] the lifetime up. And then acts a, reach a back. Rotate and looking over your left shoulder. Now raise that left arm back up and around, bringing the left hand to the outer right side or the ball, and take the right arm back and rotate. Looking to the right and then coming back to this and deck.

Take that second position again and we started to rock side to side, going to the lunge. God. This time we'll land on the opposite side. So I'm on my left leg. You're going to raise up lower than left. Sip on down into the ball and then activate your back Fi. So pushing back through the heel. Tighten the five that's in Hillary's a writer up.

And then exhale, reach a hero today looking over the shoulder, um, and heel. Lift the arm up and exhale. We'll bring that hand to the outer thigh. Left hand to the back of the ball and then we'll come back to the center. Good. Going into, um, arm work. Pick up your theraband. Okay, so I'm gonna take the band. It's gonna go behind my back here so it's right around the scapula. You know, pull the elbows into the rib cage, feet grounded. So just get those feet into either hip distance apart or wider or whatever is the most stable for you. Stomach is in. Lengthen your spine.

We're going to breathe in to prepare on the exhale. Reach your arms out. Inhale. Then exhale, expand your reach out and hail. Then exhale, reaching out and bend. Good. Feeling those ribs expand laterally and bent. Exa reached arms that, let's hold it here. Soften the elbows. Hands below the height of your shoulders for a hug, a tree. Exhale, hug and hail. Open. Exhale. Feel the abdominals.

Pull in and open. Exhale in and open. We'll do two more here. Breathe out. And, and last one and, and good. Ben. The elbows, em as arms reach out. Take an inhale and lengthen and lift the shots into an extension.

I'm not axial. Bring the elbows, come back to the center. Just two more reaching out in hill. Lift the sternum and exhale center. Last one like this, or reaching out. Expand on the sternum and exhale center.

Go ahead and stay nice and long in your spine. Reach those arms out. Hands in line with a peripheral. Keep the arms that position for a spine twist. We're going to do three pulses to the right, so pulse one, two, three n hail center axial rotate three two, one and center. I again, try to keep the hip square and then pull that right rib cage back and center again. This time pull the left rib cage back three and center. Get Nice and tall before you twist to three.

Center last one here, twist two, three, center and pull the elbows and we're going to take that band. Okay. Going into some bicep curls. Next you want to step on the band somewhere right in this center. Make sure it is pretty even. Okay. I'm keeping my feet again. Hip Distance, depending how much strength and resistance you want, you'll hold further away or closer to you. So elbows into the rib cage. Actually lets curl.

Resist the band. Exhale, curl, resist demand. Exhale, curl, reassess. We'll just do two more for it to that last one and lower the palm face and have some tension on the band. Shoulders down as you lift the arms out and, and laterally raising the arms out. And then think about your neck. Lengthen and I can glide the shoulder blades down.

Think of the opposition arms. Go Out, shoulders, pull down. One more and lower. God, we're going to stand up. Step right up and then just take that band, um, so that your feet are to the edge of the band for a tricep exercise. So I'm going to bring the band behind me. Point the elbow to the ceiling, holding onto your tricep caressing apple. Just do six. Exhale to squeezing the back of the arm. 30 per a spore per us five and six.

We're going to bend the elbow halfway. Just six pulses using this hand to keep your form and alignment. Three, four, five, six press set up and bring all the way down. Good. So just drop that down there and then just move it. So again, you're standing to the outside edge of your band and we'll pick it up with the other hand band behind you. Elbow to ceiling. Use your hand as a guy and exhale, press up and bend and two, and then think about your pasture. Pull the stomach in and just slightly drop that table and down.

Two more. Last one. Now from here, elbow to ceiling, stomach and little pulse. One, two, three, four, five, six. Press it up and bring it in. God's will. Take that band. I'm going to fold it in. Half your legs are going to open out to a second. Position you to hold the arms up towards the ceiling.

Shoulder blades down. Exhale, pull resisting at failure. Lots of muscles below your shoulder blades really dry down and left tailorable and drops gently to the floor, keeping them that length of the lower back. One more here. Stay there, point the elbows behind you. Axial, press forward. Resist and pull in per us forward. Resist. Pull in. Exhale. Three be all this opposition. As your arms reached forward, your stomach pulls back. Axial abs.

Pull in one more and bring it in. Go ahead one more with the band. You're gonna unfold the band now, depending on your chest and your shoulder. Flexibility, you gonna hold wider or more narrow. Okay. I would suggest starting a little wider than shoulder distance. Raise arms up. We're going to bend the knees as we circle those arms.

So circle around, lift up and bring it back in front. Just two more to get that nice stretch here. Exhale back and around just one more and around. And then just to get that length and expansion through the lateral rib cage inhales through rash to the side and [inaudible] back to the center. Inhale, stretch to the side and use your abs and obliques to pull a center. Lower the band goodwill. Place the band to the side.

We're going to go back to the ball for sideline legwork. So let's go. Well, I'm on my right side. My right hip is up against the ball. Lean over extending the left like out long. So check the alignment, the foot, the knee, the hip, the shoulders are in line, leaning over. You can choose to have your hand supporting you on the ball or behind your head for more of a challenge. We'll start by raising that leg up. Exhale, lift and low or length. Until lift and lower. We're just going to do three lift and hold.

Flex the foot. Inhale, reach like forward. Exhale. Keep it parallel to the floor as it goes back. Inhale forward. Try to maintain the stability through the torso and ham. X Sam Bicycle. Flex the foot. Reach like forward. Bend the knee, reach it back, flex forward. Bend the knee if you're having trouble keeping stability is a challenge.

Just bring the hand to the ball and we'll reverse. Bend the knee. Flex forward. Reach back, bend the knee, flex forward. Reach back one more bend. Flex forward. Reach back, hold that are linked in the foot. We'll do three circles. One, two, three, reverse. One, two, three. We're going to lower that like down. Bring your feet together. Exhale, open the knee and lower working in the outer hip and Gluteus. Three and one more. That's three. Raise the knee app.

Rotate in and rotate in and out. In and out and release. Good. So we're on that right side. You're going to stay on the right side, bending the right leg in front of you for a mermaid. Bring the ball around the other side, stretching my right arm out to the side. I take an inhale as I side run and exhale center twice more.

Inhale side bend. Exhale center who won more and center from here? Bring the elbow, the forum down to the Mat and stretch in the opposite direction. Come back to the center. This one is called rock the baby. How appropriate. Take your back leg and stretch that hip that we just worked. Depending on your belly and your flexibility. You can either grab, um, elbow to foot. Hold rock here. If that doesn't work, if you have something in the way you can hold out further and just rock here stretching in our hip. Okay, good. So the ball is on the left side for us to do our right leg.

So let's take that hip over and stretch your right leg out. Good. Getting your alignment again. Draw the stomach in. Check that the foot and knee, hip, shoulder, Aron line. Set yourself up and let's raise the lag of one and breathe out. Hold it there. Flex the foot. Inhale forward. Exhale, point the foot.

Reach back forward. Exhale back. Ideally keeping that like parallel with the floor and into the bicycle. Flex forward. Bend the knee, reach it back, flex forward. Bend the knee, reach it back forward. Bend the knee and reverse Ben flex forward.

Reach back, Ben. Flex forward or reach back the reflux forward. Holds it there. Point the foot circle up and around. Two three reverse. Check your shoulders, not up by your ears. Three good reminder every so often and lower the leg down.

Beat together. Open working the outer glutes and to hold it open on three rays and the rotating inwards and external. Two x three and lower down. Good. So from here, just to get in the right position, the side that your hip was lying on as a side you sit on. Now take the ball the other side.

We go into our mermaid stretching over. Lift again, x sail over in here. One more, and I don't place my forum to the Mat. Stretching over and lift up. Stretching in that outer head began. Let's take the foot, hold it at your elbow, your hand, whatever is most comfortable, and just rock the baby a few times for a stretch. Good coming out of that. Pick up that ball. Let me go into cat stretch so we're kneeling.

Come up onto your knees, so feel knees, hips table gently drops down as a stomach pulls up and we'll lower the head from here. We'll round forward walking the ball away. Lengthen the spine into your cat stretch. Exhale, draw the ABS in. Are rounding up Walker and come to vertical. And just one more. Lower the head rounding forward and let the body release here.

And exhale, curl the tailbone under. Walking up, and God placed the ball away. Come on to all fours. Okay, then next we're going to focus on your abs. So pushing your hands into the mat. She hands are directly under your soldiers. Tuck your toes, take a breath in as you prepare. As you exhale, hover the knees and hold it for three, two, one lower than he is using those abs. Exhale left for three two one lower than this one.

Why lift for three two one and lower than he is. Next, we'll go into plank, so come down to your elbows. You can do a modified plank if this feels better, so your knees will be together. You're going to be in a long line, head, shoulders, hips and knees that might be enough for you. Stay there. Focus on your form depending how you feel. You might want to curl your toes under it as more challenging.

See what feels best for you and let's hold it for eight seven, six, five, four, three, two and one. We'll gently though our new medias and come to one side for a side plank. So I am going to keep my knees bent for this one. Pull the shoulder blade down, activate the muscles in your lats, lifting your hips up and stretch your arms to the ceiling. Hold it here for a three, two, one, lower and lift the hips up, working your obliques to um, three from here. Lower the hip down and let's go the other side. So lining yourself up, shoulder and elbow directly in line, pulling the shoulder blade down, raise the hips and the arms. This ceiling, feel that length through your fingertips. Shoulders down for three, two, one.

We'll lower the hips and hail acts and two and three. Hello down. Go ahead. We come on to all fours. We're going to do some pushups. So the closer your knees are in towards your center, the less challenging it is. So feel what's best for you. Sometimes it just is too much strain to be in more of a plank while you are pregnant. So I would suggest kneeling anyway at, that's what I'm going to do. So soldiers down the thing, keys are to the edge of your mat. We'll do two versions of pushups.

First one or a nice wide elbow. It's just sex. Here we go. I'll breathe in and out and in and out. And three acts again, recruit those abs to lift you up. Two more. Last one and left. Good. From here. Walk your hands in closer targeting while you're shy sets more than the traditional [inaudible] pushups. So again, if you need less resistance, walk the knee Zen. And here we go. The elbows point back by the ribs.

Harass up and to harass up 30 exhale four whether you can see it or not. I do feel my abs five and live one way and left God, we're going to take those knees back to our tables. Up under your hips. Transition. Tuck the toes, lift the hips, stay ratcheting here. Walk the hands back to the feet. Head heavy, soften the knees, roll up God. And then to finish, take your ball on your ball. Okay, good. So we're going to go into a deep squat, just releasing the pelvic floor.

So I want you to just carefully hold onto the ball as you walk your feet forward, coming down into a squat. Good. So from here you just let it release and then from here start to press back with your legs and then arching back. If that feels okay, get your nice extension and we'll go again. Axe heel into the squat, releasing the sit bones down and then carefully coming back. Only arch back goes to what feels good for you.

You don't have to go all the way. Yeah. And one more time here and coming down into your squat and then carefully coming back. Extending. Yeah. And then we'll go down into the squat to transition. Hold onto the ball.

Walk your feet, God sitting on the ball. I'll just say Sioux to finish. So staying here, just take a knight and place your hands on your stomach and a nice deep breath. Inhale at the abdominals. Expand and then exit it as gently hug the baby. And you are feminist.