Pick Up Some Pieces

Hi, I'm Carrie Macy Samper and this is the second class in the postnatal series. This is called pickups, some of the pieces. And it's meant for a woman from weeks six to 12, um, posts childbirth. So it's after you've been cleared by your doctor to exercise. So if that was week six for you, usually a vaginal birth is six weeks, um, post giving birth. So Zarian is usually eight weeks, so six to eight weeks.

Whenever your doctor says you can go back to your normal exercise, that's when this class would be appropriate and titled Pickups, some of the pieces because you're going to it, it's coming back towards assemblance of polarities. But there's definitely some modifications and some things we need to keep in mind as you go through it. It's also totally fine to do these exercises piecemeal. Again, you may not have 30 minutes to turn on the video and go right ahead and do a workout. And as frustrating as that I know was for me, um, it's okay to turn on the video and do one exercise and stop because you have to go tend to your child. Um, it's always better to do a little bit than nothing at all. And I definitely learned that from my first to my second pregnancy and child. So, uh, the other thing I wanted to mention is that very common, um, issues obviously for women after giving birth is either great weakness in their core or and, or diastisis rectify, which means that the abdominal wall actually gets a tear or it gets really pulled apart. So if you do have diastisis wreck die, you should follow the modification that I will show you for that specifically.

And if you don't have it, just do the other version that I show. And uh, here we go. It's kind of some fun exercises starting with the kneeling hundred. The reason we do this kneeling, um, is to eliminate a need to curl up into foreword flection, which is very challenging initially. And Contra indicated if you do have diastisis wreck tie, so you put the ball, you're going to need a soft squishy ball and you'll need a theraband for this workout. So, um, and we're using both in this exercise.

You put the soft squishy ball between your knees and press into it, and this will engage your inner thighs automatically whenever you're pressing into the ball. To use the inner thighs. Also lift in the pelvic floor and engage your transverse abdominis around the corset of your waist. Then pick up the therapy end and we'll start with three chest expansions just to open the chest so your arms reach out from your shoulders, a little wider than shoulder width and I would grab the whole band with your full fist. Roll your shoulders up, back and down. And on your inhale, pull the theraband slightly apart in towards your hips. Hold your breath for a moment as you squeeze the ball and tense your core and exhale as you release. Do it again. Inhale, pull the theraband down.

Arm Press Back

Hundred Variation

You should be a little bit warm, even up on your knees. Okay, remove the ball and we'll set the ball down to the side. The next exercise in the mat series is the role app. So I will do the modification for diastisis rec tie first and then I'll show you another variation to do if you don't have that issue. So come on over to the wall. I'm going to use this nice post here for this purpose.

Stand all the way back against the wall, pressing your heels into the wall and measure one foot length distance away from the wall. You can stand with your feet parallel and hip with the part or heels together, toes apart, whatever feels the most stable for you at this time. So I'm going to go to parallel. Then feel your back of your head against the wall, your upper back, shoulder, ribs, and your pelvis, and then 10 surround your course set. Again. Take an inhale, lift your arms shoulder height. Imagine you're lying on the floor. As you exhale, Tuck Your Chin and as you round forward, your abdominals are trying not to let your back come away from the wall so they're really pulling in, but you're not rolling up against gravity and go down as far as your hamstrings.

Roll Down

Keep pulling them up and in even as you're going forward. And then inhale the bottom and exhale as you roll back up and bring your arms to shoulder height. So keep doing that. If you're working with the diastisis and then if you're not, this is what you can do. So use the theraband to help you in your roll up because probably your abdominal muscles are still weak, even if you don't have that split. So place the theraband around the balls of your feet.

Roll Up Variation

Bring your head to your knees and then roll it back down. Your elbows are going to touch the mat. That will give you a little bit of help and lower yourself down. Inhale, exhale. As you roll up. Inhale as you round forward. Exhale as you roll back down.

Inhale at the bottom, do two more XL Rolette rounded over. Inhale, and then exhale as you roll down last time. Inhale at the bottom. Exhale as you roll up. Inhale at the top and exhale as you lower back down using the elbows and the abdominals to guide you back down. All right, now I'm going to slide forward a bit so I don't end up off my mat, but from this position of just coming down after your roll up, slide one foot out of the theraband and take your leg to the ceiling. So this is single leg circles and everyone can do this exercise in this fashion. Choke up on theraband a little bit just to make it a little tighter and then plug your elbows down into the mat.

Single Leg Circles

And do one more circle across around enough. Then reverse the direction. So five circles each way. One circle down, across and up too. So I'm going to start to make mine a little bigger because I can maintain that range and it feels good to stretch and work in the hip. One more time. Okay. Then bring the other knee in. Stretch that leg up. Switch sides, lowering the right leg. Keep the left leg up, cross your body again, pause for a moment, really ground in the left hip and then begin your circles.

Single Leg Circles

Three, two more, four last time. Okay. Then bend your knee and release the theraband from your foot and then roll over onto your side to come up to seated. So the next exercise, you have choices. This is a replacement for the series of five and rolling like a ball, which you may not be quite ready for at this point.

There's a version for if you have diastisis and then there's a version for if you don't. So we'll do that. Now you will need the squishy ball again and no theraband. So if you did have, if you do have diastisis, then you can just stay on your back, right? You finish the single leg circles, put down the theraband, grab your ball, bring your knees in towards your chest and place the ball between your knees and you're going to keep your knees in. So do not bring them to tabletop. That might stress your rectus a little too much. Your hands go by your side. We're basically working the obliques, so instead of the crisscross cross or something like that, we're doing this here. Squeeze the ball, pull your knees into your chest, reach your arms nice and long. Get a core set around your waist.

Supine Side Bend

Come back to the center wall and let's do one more on each side. Inhale, exhale, reach the right arm, pull the hip up, inhale center, and exhale. Reach the left arm and pull the left hip up and inhale to the center and then you can release your legs down. Keep doing that a few more times. If you want the alternative exercise, then you would stay seated upright. Place the ball between your thighs. Again, I call this exercise. The elbow slip. You hold your hands behind your thighs, your knees are about 90 degrees, you roll back until your elbows are straight, so that's an important setup placement.

Half Roll Back Variation

Slide both arms out so I'm not moving my upper body at all. Pull it back. This stays still slide the arms forward. Pull the arms back. This is very intense work and your rectus in your course. Slide the arms forward, pull it back. Let's do three more of these slide forward, pull back.

Inhale, slide forward. Exhale, bring it back one more time, slide it forward and bring it back. To get out of this position, slide the arms forward again and roll yourself up to seated, sitting up nice and tall out of your back. Okay. And if you don't have diastisis that side, bending one is also great for you too. So you can do both of those exercises together. From here, we'll move on to our stomachs. Now to get a little backwards, starting with the Mini Swan, so you may be tender and you're the front of your body depending on if you had a c-section. If you're breastfeeding, you also might be tender on your upper part of your body. So be careful here as you lie down.

So I placed my hands right by my ribs and don't actually put my chest all the way on the ground and then separate your legs about hip width. That's just to release any tension on your lower back. Press your pubic bone in towards the Mat, engage your abdominals and then use your arms to give yourself a little boost. Gaze forward. Only come up where it feels okay and then lengthen your legs and lift your legs a little off the mat maybe. And then lower the legs and lower your upper body.

Prone Double Leg Lift

It's not about a huge extension through the upper back. You just want to fire up the muscles in your back body. So you will hold here for 10 20 seconds and then you release the arms here, pushed with your arms and sit back into child's pose to release the back body. Okay. Then come back forward onto your forearms for single leg kicks.

Child's Pose

Single Leg Kick