Prenatal Fitness Ball Flow

Hi there and welcome back. My name is Leah Stewards and I am here today with Palladino anytime. I'm with my third a series of classes on Pilati for pregnancy. Uh, today we're going to do our ball class. We're gonna keep it, um, you know, somewhat moderate paced class, uh, using the stability ball. This is just a fraction of the exercises that you could do on the stability ball, but I hope that you enjoy some of the ideas that I present here.

So we're going to start on the ball now. You want to make sure that you have a ball that you feel comfortable on. Of course, if you're shorter, you're going to want a little bit of a smaller ball. And if you're taller, gonna want a little bit of a larger ball, but basically one that you feel comfortable. So when you're sitting, you're relatively, not perfectly, but relatively at a 90 degree angles, your hip joint. Uh, so you're, you know, kind of like you're sitting in a comfortable chair. So if it's too small, it's, you're gonna feel a little bit too low. And if it's too high for, you're going to feel like you can't get a good, uh, grounded-ness through your legs. So you want to make sure you have a ball that's appropriate for your height. So we're gonna start sitting with our feet parallel and wants your legs to be about hip distance apart. Your heels essentially in line with your sits bones.

You want to feel like you have both of your hips equally on top of the ball. I'm going to place the on sound by the sides. So we're gonna start with just a little bit of breathing and arm exercises. So we're gonna inhale up, bend the elbows and Xcel down. I'm not looking for perfection here. Just moving those arms. Inhale that and Xcel down in Hela.

And exhale down in, up, and exhale down. One more time for me and breath and Rachel's arms wide. And exhale down and place your hands on your hips. You're going to lift your toes up, you're going to Xcel one and down XL. And when you lift the toes, make sure you ground yourself through your heels XL.

So what we're doing here is we're trying to simulate that circulation down in our ankles and through our feet. Go ahead and feel like you're going to spread out your toes the same way that you can spread out your fingers here. So you're really utilizing the muscles of the lower leg and the muscles of the feet. Yeah. Now here it's easy to sit on. The ball is easy to pitch your weight forward.

Basically drawing your rib cage jus. If I sat from the side, you're going to see it here where my back is art. I want you to present that position as much as possible by keeping your abdominal wall intact and staying right on top of your sits bones. You might feel a little bit like you need to sit back on your bottom and that's going to be a better position for you as opposed to rolling forward and harder for us pregnant women since we have, uh, the weight of our uterus and are growing baby and gravity shifting everything forward. So we have to draw the abdominals back and in just ever so gently to help keep our postural alignment. Now we're going to do a little toe taps. So we're going to lift the right foot and we're going to tap.

Yeah, keep going. Now you're just lifting one foot at a time, keeping the shoulders as balanced as possible, keeping the hips as balanced as possible. And now we're going to take both feet down, making it a little bit bigger movement with the arms. We're going to flex the feet as we do it. So we're going to inhale, lift the chest and excel. Circle your arms in front of you. Inhale, lift the chest and lift the toes and Xcel. Bring it down in how? Lift the chest and lift the toes.

And then exhale down three more. And inhale, lift the chest in the toes and bring it down and suspend that extension. Suspend it. Feels really good, and bring it down one more time and lift up and bring it down. Good. And place your hands right on your hips. From here, we're going to do our little pelvic tilts. I'm actually going to do them from the side for you so you can see how my pelvis moves. So you're sitting nicest, steady here. You're going to draw your belly button in and rock your pelvis underneath you. So you're primarily getting the movement in your lower back or your lumbar spine. And then inhale, come up. Exhale, draw the belly button in and inhale that XL.

So try to maintain the shoulders somewhat over your hips as you do that so you can focus on that lower back mobilization. No, and keep your feet nice and grounded and you're feeling your abdominal wall. Draw in really tight. Back to center. Let's go three more. Carry on. XL back to center. Last two XL, back to center last month for me and the XL. Now we're going to do a little bit of a hip swing. So we're going to XL.

Bring the hips underneath you, draw them out to the left so your left tip six out. Bring it back to the center and app and bring the pelvis underneath. You drag your hips out to the rights, bring it back to the center and app. So you're doing a little hip swing, loosening up that pelvis a little bit, pushing out through the hip and tickets centers is a little bit of a Sassy movement, a little bit of a sexy movement. So press the hip out and bring it back to the center.

So don't be to let your hip swing, push it out to the side, bring it back to the center and app. Let's go one more time to the right. Press it out to the side, bring it back to the middle. And now from here, bring your feet underneath you. You're gonna do a little prances so you're going to bring your right heel up. So you're pushing the ball of the foot down into the mat and you switch and try to do this movement with your arms out to the side. Yeah, it makes sure you have all five toes of the knees that's bent on the mat.

So you're trying not to roll onto the big toe or onto the pinky toe. [inaudible] anywhere from 10 to 20 of these will be fine. Last two here and bring it down. Twist here, right with the next sale. [inaudible] in health center, twist to your left. Now as you twist, make sure you keep your elevation through your spine.

So as you twist, you're going taller and twist and get taller and you're growing up toward the ceiling. [inaudible] and growing toward the ceiling and keeping your pelvis steady. Now we're going to add onto it. We twist we XL rock back on that rotation. Wrap your arms in front of you like you're hugging a beach ball in. Articulate back to the straight line on the horizontal. Excuse me, on the rotation and back to center. Palms face forward. So we twist, we rock the pelvis and hug the big beach ball in front of us.

We extend up and back to the middle and Xcel twist me, changed my breath here. So let's go. Inhale, twist, Xcel, wrap the belly in. Inhale, XL center. Inhale, twist, Xcel, wrap the belly in. Inhale up and center. One more time. Each weight and inhale, twist. Exhale, wrap the belly in. Inhale up and center one more time and twist. XO rapid in. Inhale up and center hands are gonna come interlaced behind the head.

So interlaces fingers all the way. We're going to side bend to your rights with the next so you can widen your feet a little bit if you need a little bit more stability. XL, look at the top pound as you extend your arms. Inhale, hands behind the head and exhale up. Inhale over. Exhale, inhale and uh, excuse me. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Now notice how I'm moving from my waist and my head stays in line with the rest of the spine and reach big behind the head.

Look forward and up. Gimme two more and over. Keep the abdominal wall jaw in reach with an exhale. Bring it back to center and up one more and over and reach to the center. And uh, take the arms out to the side here. Side Bend over. Very easy. I just want you to twist very small and back to center like an airplane.

Ch with some your torso with the next sale. Inhale, bring it back to center. Making sure that both hips are firmly planted on the ball and back to center. One more time and use your waist. Use Your Torso, let your arms and head, neck and chest follow has behind the head and shoulders are nice and calm over to the other side. Zip that belly button in Nice and tight. Keep your feet planted. Extend those arms. Now you're going to twist from the trunk and draw it back to center.

Xcel we twist in health center x cell. If this doesn't feel comfortable, don't do it or keep it very small and center. One more time. Xcel and hands behind the head and pick yourself up and rest. So that's our little seated series to get ourselves nice and warm so you should feel that nice and warm through your shoulders that worn through the entire trunk, the front, the side, even a little bit at the back. Now we're going to do a little bit of a bridging series lying on our back to place the ball in front of you and simply just go down onto your mat and I'm going to place your legs on top of the ball.

Hands are down by your size and you want to secure your arms and down into your mat as best as you can in order to help you maintain your balance. Here we're going to go into our pelvic curl, so we're going to take our breath in. We're going to use the abdominals to draw the pelvis into a posterior tilt and then lift the hips up, engaging the back of the legs, keeping the belly nice and tight. Take your breath in and the next cell. Roll yourself down. Lots of energy out through those legs, articulating through the spine and in help prepare XL dominoes. Draw in, lifting those hips up, engage in the glutes, engage in the back of the arms. Keep your eyes focused up on the ceiling.

Take your breath in and then exhale. Draw it down. Okay, let's go. Three more and deck rolling up, keeping the belly nice and tight. Squeeze in those legs together. Take your breath in and exhale from the top of the spine. Articulate yourself all the way down. Last too. This should feel good on your spine.

You're releasing any tension in those back extensors. Squeeze in the back of the thighs, feeling the hips rise and XL engaged in the center body, rolling down, staying calm, and the shoulders. This last one, we're going to hold that with an exhale. Now a little bit of a challenge here. Take your right arm back over your head. Exhale, inhale, bring it down, left arm. Exhale. Now if you're just a little afraid of moving your arms here, then maybe you opt not to, but just hold your position up at the top. Keep your belly drawn and 50 50 abdominals drawing and 50% in the back body engaged 50% let's go one more time each arm, XL last one.

Bring the arms down. Take the breath in and roll yourself through your spine. Now the next one is pretty advanced, so go ahead and just choose if you want to do it or not. When to take those hips up toward the ceiling, making sure you have that nice connection with the abdominal wall. Bend your knees with an exhale and inhale. Take it out. X Sale. Inhale, take it out.

Exhale, your hips do not move. They say the same level. Exhale all the way out and rural yourself down, keeping calm in the shoulders. Let's do one more set and exhale rolling up. You're going to feel your hamstrings intensely on this exercise. Make sure you keep your center body intact to keep your shoulders and stacked and exhale. Inhale out.

Exhale. Inhale out. Two more. Inhale out and inhale, hold and roll. Then if that's just a little too advanced for you, you can go ahead and just skip over that exercise. Maybe continue with some pelvic curls. Go ahead and turn yourself onto your side and pick yourself up here. I'm going to go to our seated series here.

So legs are going to be out to the side here. Now I'm going to choose to open my legs a little bit wider than my mat cause it just feels a little bit better. Okay. And also depending on how big you are in your belly, it's going to feel a little bit more comfortable here. So as we know, the idea here is to keep your spine vertical. You want to be sitting right on top of your sis phone. So again, if you feel like you're sitting back on your bottom, over your bottom, however you want to think about it, and you can't quite get yourself elevated, place a pillow or a cushion, a small box, or simply roll your mat underneath you so that you are elevated so that you can get that nice back extension. It's when you go into an exercise here is called spine stretch.

So you can take your breath in through your nose. XL Chin goes to chest and you roll yourself forward. Inhale, pause, and next. So roll yourself back up. Now this is going to feel really good. After that last bridging series that was so tough on the hamstrings, you need to get a nice stretch here and next cell chin to chest.

I notice how my theatre flexed and I'm just going to let my arms be supported by the ball. Take the breath in and the next roll out. Inhale, Chin to chest, draw the tummy and tight. Take your breath in. I'm really enjoying this. I'm gonna try not to get carried away and do too many. And next I'll go all the way down. Now this time I want you to place your counts in the outside of the ball in how you're going to lift the ball up off the mat, finding your back extension XL.

Take the ball down and continue with the XL to roll that in. Health the top, and next. So roll yourself down into lift the ball up XL. Take it down, round through your belly, drop your head and continue to roll up through your spine. Inhale this. Go to more exhale down in how Lyft. Use the back of the shoulders, those back extensors holding your abdomen nice and tight. Round yourself over. Let your head go down and roll yourself at one more time and [inaudible] in how Lyft flex you through those feet.

Feeling that nice stretch to your back of the legs, to your calves, flexing the toes and round your back and roll all the way up. Now bring your arms back onto the top of the ball. Here. We're going to do a little single arm work, so take your right hand behind your head. You're going to roll yourself down with an exhale. Extend your back twist. Exhale, very small rotation. Exhale.

Last one. Exhale back to the center. Round your back. Drop your head to stretch out the back and roll that render the same side twice. So go chin to chest and I have a lot of power through this left shoulder to help keep my shoulders nice and balanced some level and I'm going to go down. Inhale, my chest rises, I lift, I draw the abdominals in.

Stitch them in Nice and tight and rotate three times one back to center XL two back to center. Exhale three and I'm reaching the energy. My sits bones out behind me, the energy of my head up on the diagonal in front of me and I round releasing that map, releasing the neck and rural that on a site. So right arm on the ball. Shoulders nice and square. Make sure that you're safe. Flexi your feet and go chin to chest.

Lift the back up. Engage in that right shoulder for stabilization. I rotate to the left three times XL, Xcel Xcel back to the center, round my back, let my head drop and roll up in. Help prepare and go chin to chest diving down, drawing the abdominal energy in and up and reach to the back. Nice articulation from the base of the spine all the way up through the crown of the head and I rotate Xcel Xcel [inaudible] back to the center. Fold over the belly button, let the head drop and roll clap. Okay, last one of this sitting series. Open your legs just a little bit wider and take your ball over to the right side, so close to your right foot. And we're just going to do nicest simple here.

Spine stretch on a rotation but mean by being mindful that the left hip needs to stay back so that it doesn't release, which is going to take away from the integrity of the rotation of your trunk. She want to anchor the left side of the pelvis down. That way you get a little bit more ability in that trunk work. And again, trying not to pitch your ribcage forward of your hips, but try to keep it back over the top of your hips and then your shoulders stacked on top of that. So take your breath in and very simply you just roll down. You can take the ball out a little bit more in front of you.

Now I'm not going to do any back extension on this. I'm going to just have you roll. We fired the back a lot in those previous exercises. We're just going to take it a little bit more into a flection position and XL roll up just to release any tension you have in your back through pregnancy due to the postural adaptations. We know that the back tends to get a little bit tight on us, so sometimes we just want to take some of those exercises and enjoy that stretching and that mobilization and I'm choosing to do it on the rotation so we get a little bit more oblique activation, a little bit more QL stretch and exhale come up.

Good and let's go to the other side. So just simply block the ball over to the left foot, six being nice and tall, you and the staff and go chin to chest. Walk the ball a little bit more in front of you and rural up. I go to the chest and roll up. Now it's very challenging to not shrug the shoulders too much as we do this.

So she's just starting to get a little bit of flow through the movement to try to keep the shoulders down and even open here as you roll through your spine. One more time, Chin to chest. Feel the oblique energy. Come in. Annette, find that stretch. He does. Feet flex and roll yourself up. And we're going to finish the series with just taking the bottoms of the feet together and rolling the ball forward and finding a deep hip stretch here. Inner thigh stretch.

Nice deep breath. [inaudible] last one reads a little bit further and roll yourself. That sitting theories were to come up into our kneeling series. So we're going to start with self, not us. Gives me a side kneeling stretch. So you want to place the arm just comfortably on the ball here and adjust the appropriately as you need to. So knees are just about underneath your hips here.

So we're going to take a side stretch over, placing a lot of energy down into that ball stream to get the nice side stretch. Inhale and exhale. Inhale over pressing the hips gently forward as you find that nice deep side stretch and all that. And in house you're opening the reds. It's important for us to keep those ribs nice and open stretch or those intercostal muscles as they tend to get a little bit tight as we grow larger and larger throughout the pregnancy. And one more time. Inhale, squeezing a lot of energy up to the inner thighs, to that pelvic floor, maximizing that side stretch and bring up about four to five times there.

Now take the ball and you want to try to get the ball right next to your hip and we're going to drag the body over the ball. So you might need the fats with your positioning a little bit at first. But once you find it, you should feel really secure. Again, importance of the ball being the right size for you. Cause you wanted me to mold your body over the side of the ball here. So we're going to take our right leg out.

We're on our left knee and we're gonna push our left hip into the ball. I'm going to take the left hand and place it behind the head, so a lot of my energy is going into the ball here, but yet a lot of my energy is reaching out to my right leg, so I have this counterbalance. My right arm stays right down onto my side. I'm going to use my obliques for some side lifts here as I go up with the next sale. Inhale down, exhale. Now at the same time, I'm pushing energy down through my left knee and hell about 10 of these and belly button draws in three more.

I must admit I'm a terrible counter, so fun. Just shy or over a couple of reps. Please forgive me and up one more time and holes. Now we're going to rotate the trunk. Exhale back to center. Very challenging to keep the two hip plates set it and just rotate the good cage around the spine and just the few reps of these about six to eight just because it is such a challenge on that stabilization. It's so important to use our abdominals here using our dominoes safely and effectively to help us maintain postural control. Help us to have the strength for our labor and delivery and also for better recovery. Once we're back to center, drop your body, take your right arm up.

Now if you feel like you can't maintain your balance too easily there, go ahead and put your hand on the ball here. And worst case scenario, you can place your hand down on the Mat, but your ball is probably a little bit too big for that so I think you'll be fine by keeping your arm just up here. We're going to lift that right leg up with the next step down. Try to let the hand or excuse me, the head rest into that left hand. Picking up from the hip, trying not to alter the position of the pelvis, keeping it steady, lots of energy through the crown of the head. Four more keeping your focus and hold little circles and 10 I would go to the other side.

They just take the ball around and we start with the side structures. So again, these are just centered, the hips, making sure that your hips see balance, a lot of energy through that right arm and we go inhale over nice side stretch and that sell up [inaudible]. Now another option if you're designing a class based off of this class is to do this stride set straight after we do the side lift series, whichever you prefer, and inhale, reach, zip the belly button in and that find that lateral reflection and Xcel bring it up. Let's do one more time and inhale over stretching and join that stretch and bring it up. Great. The ball comes onto the outside of that right hip.

When you take the left toe out. Now remember, you're going to have a lot of energy driving down through that right leg and press your hips into the ball and put the right hand behind the head, the left hand down by your waist. Now when I look at you from the side, it should be as if you in between two panes of glass, so your shoulders shouldn't be forward or back, neither your hits forwarded back. You want to be completely level so I can draw a line up from the ankle on that left leg all the way up to the left tip, all the way up through the ear. So when do I side lifts to start with an XL? Okay, I remember as you lift up, it's small. You pushed that right with hip into the ball to help counterbalance you.

You're not trying to live off the ball and use the energy that left arm to pull down, keeping the abdominal wall zipped in. Exhale, exhale. I notice how my head isn't initiating the movement. I'm keeping my head into my hand. Let's call it four more.

Almost there. Keep your focus and hold on the line, rotate. Exhale, back to send a member. Your hip stays steady back to center, trying to come all the way back so that diagonal line, the diagonal line, last one and bring it down. Top arm comes up, finding your balance, molding yourself to the ball and we lift that leg up. Exhale. I remember trying to keep the pelvis steady. Never let your energy drop. Keep the energy through the body. Okay?

Yeah, I'll say that. Hit last two and we finished with the circles tomorrow and bring it down. Fantastic. Now we go into our kneeling series of Quadrat head series on all fours. We're going to bring the ball to the front of the mat and slightly out to the left side and you're going to come up onto all fours trying to, now I'm not wearing the best shirt to demonstrate keeping the abdominal wall drawn in here, but as much as you can pull, imagine you're pulling the baby up back into your lower backs. You're going to keep supporting it as if your abdominals are acting like a hammock for your baby there. So that's what you want to try to imagine.

As you're doing this work, you're going to bend your left elbow, push a lot of energy to the right leg, the right arm, and we extend the arm out with the next hill. Jump back in XL, draw it back in XL, drop back again. So get that full elbow extension, trying to maintain levelness through your shoulders. Now that was about six. Take your right leg out and do the same thing by lifting your right leg up and bring it in. Using your right pollute. Trying not to arch in your back, but use your shoulder and your hip extensors and [inaudible] breathing up into the belly.

Two more. Now this time you're going to hold. Now here we draw the knee underneath you and we pipe the body and we bend the elbow, I think knee to forehead and inhale, extend it out. You don't have to take your leg as high this time we extend it out. Xcel, draw it in pike the body. Yeah, and inhale, take it out.

Exhale round that lower back and pike the body. And you know, you should feel deep abdominal work and XL. Pipe the body. Yeah, and inhale, take it back one more time and XL and inhale back and go ahead and just find a quick rest position or child's pose to find a stretch in the middle and wall yourself, that other side. So the ball comes onto the outside of your mount. On the rights we start with just the shoulder extension of your hips need to be, uh, or your legs seem to be hip distance apart.

Your hands are about shoulder width apart and you're going to take your XL and go straight forward. Yeah, bring it back. Now remember to keep the abdominal wall drawing up, bring it back, draw it back, thinking that shoulder extension, that balance to your shoulders. Two more. Then we add the leg extension. Now balance yourself as you extend that left leg out, bend the elbow in and as your arm extends, your leg lifts up behind you. Exhale.

Now imagine that your shoulders and your hips are square and parallel to the floor so there's no rotation in your trunk. Excellent. Every time you lift, you're focusing on the shoulder and the back of the left hip to draw the leg up. But you're also focusing on pulling the abdominal wall up to keep your trunk stability. Three more, lots of energy. So if you're being pulled in two directions, hold it. Then you pipe in XL and draw it back, holding your balance, exhale and pike it back. Or excuse me, extended back than pipe and extends XL and extend one more. Exhale and reach. Find that body control, find that balance and bring everything down.

Ball back to the middle. And we're going to go into our rest position one more time. So you're going to reach forward [inaudible] and now we're going to go into a back extension here. So make sure that palms are firmly arcs in firmly on top of the ball here. We're going to start in a nice neutral position. We're in the head, the neck and the chest, and we're going to lift up into a nice back extension. Then exhale, bring it forward.

And then how think head first, do the arms, neck and chest, allowing yourself to feel that nice backward and then take it down and the Ted neck and chest. Zip the belly button in and up. Find that control at the sternum up toward the ceiling and take it down. Great Alternative for back extensions. Since we're no longer able to comfortably lie, you're prone on the belly, but yet back extension work is so for the pregnant woman to counterbalance any postural deviations, they're going to cause problems within the body, so still strengthening that back. And then of course this incorporates a lot of shoulder work as well to two more inhale, but it's a nice comfortable position.

I guess I'll take it down one more in lift up, lifting, rising, rising, rising, take it down. Fantastic. Let's just finish with a few nice simple stretches. Take the ball over to the left side and come up onto your left foot. If you're right in the back behind this box or do you want to drag your pelvis underneath and slightly forward? Take your bite on up if you feel comfortable using your left hand. On the ball for balance and just draw your body back [inaudible] one more and bring yourself back.

Let's set front foot. Try to square your pelvis off as best as you can, keeping your back extended and you're gonna come into a nice hamstring stretch three to five breath [inaudible] and slowly out of it. I'm going to slowly go to the other side here so the ball goes to your right side and go and place your right foot about the middle of the ball here, right left knee is just young behind you and you're going to Tuck your pelvis slightly underneath you. Finding a nice stretch to the front of that left hip. Take your left arm up above your head and slowly arch your back. If this doesn't feel comfortable or a little too insecure, you don't have to do this part. You can just case stay in the first part of the stretch, opening those of leaks, opening the hip flexors, using your right hand on the ball for balance and slowly shift yourself back.

Place your left hand down on the mat, flex your right foot and find your hamstring stretch here. Trying to square off your hips. Keep a lot of energy to the crown of the head, reaching out to the back of the sits bones to feel that nice deep hamstring stretch. [inaudible] three to five breaths and slowly come out of that. Okay? Just about to finish up our class here. We're going to come up on top of the ball and we're going to sit for one last little stretch here. I want you to open your legs wide and I'll make sure that you're in a comfortable spot in the bar so you don't feel like you're gonna fall.

And I want you to flex your feet as much as you can. Take your arms above your head, hinge forward with a flat back [inaudible] and grab your ankles or your shins, or even higher if you need to, and reach the Cisco's out behind you. So get a nice stretch to the back of the legs, all the way up to the hips and breathe. Thinking of your back, reaching out on a diagonal line and when you're finished, just round your back. Relax your legs and roll yourself.

That one more time. Flex your feet, bring the arms up, nice tall energy. Hinting forward all the way down. [inaudible] flexing those feet, reaching energy. The SIS villains out behind you reach. He ended the, the crown of the head down in front of you. So your back is on a diagonal. Your legs and your hips are up on a diagonal and you're stretching that energy nice and strong. Opening up the pelvis, opening up that pelvic floor, feeling that nice stretch and soften the knees. Soften the back and Roy yourself at. And to finish, we just bring the legs in close. Just a few easy pelvic tilts here to finish that.

So we take our breath in and we XL her. You should feel a lot more loose in your back. You should feel a lot more in touch with your center body. And then how drawing your awareness into that nucleus of the body, the pelvis, the abdominal energy. Two more round in the lower back, trying to avoid hunching into the shoulders.

And one more time. Exhale. [inaudible] and uh, and finish arms up. I'll take it down nice and easy here and just feel that nice movement reaching up and take it down, letting those arms float up into the air in hell. Yeah, Dex, I'll take it down one more time, enjoying each part of the stretch and exhale. Take your tan sound by your sides and just one more big breath together and we breathe in and we let it go. Alexa, great.

And thank you for joining me on our fall classic or holidays and pregnancy.