Restorative Foam Roller

Hello, I'm Wendy. And I'm here with Anne today. And I'm so excited to bring you this foam roller workout for pregnancy. The foam roller is really one of the best tools for you to have in your toolbox at home or at the studio. It's fabulous for helping you get into your ideal alignment.

It's great for getting into your fascia, and connective tissue. And it's also wonderful for just relieving anxiety. So rolling out can help you feel calm and connected. So I highly recommend if you're looking to buy one tool, it's to be the foam roller. And we're gonna start today just by showing you how you can use it to find your ideal alignment.

So we'll have Anne turn and face this way. Yep, and I just wanna show you how you can use this foam roller. If you have a partner or a friend, standing during pregnancy is a great way to use the foam roller. So you don't have to get on your back. But you can see how you can use the foam roller to just see where your alignment is.

So ideally, you wanna have your ribs, and your upper chest connected to the foam roller, and the base of your skull connected to the foam roller. So you want a little bit of a space in between your low back and the roller, but not too much of a space. So it's a great tool just to gauge where the back of your a rib cage is. So Anne's just gonna stay right here, and she's just gonna take some deep breaths. And she's gonna think about sending her ribs to the back of that roller.

And she's gonna inhale to the sides of the ribs pressing through her feet, and exhale back into the roller. One more time. She's gonna lift up on her pelvic floor, and engage her core as she exhales. And then from here, she's gonna put her hands on her hips, and we're just gonna do a little bit of a hinge trying to keep this ideal alignment with the roller connected to her spine. Inhale, just hinge forward a little bit, make sure that you don't round the shoulders or stick out the tail, beautiful.

And then just exhale. Draw the belly in. Lift up on the pelvic floor and come back. Yes, so inhaling, keeping that weight on the back of the heels. Gorgeous.

Couple more, just to kind of practice like I said, managing and maintaining that alignment. And you can always bend your knees a little bit too. That can also help again with that spinal mobility, and support and exhale back. Great job, we're gonna take the roller, and bring it down onto the floor. Just kind of get into our feet a little bit.

So you can put the roller down on the floor, put your right foot up on the roller, and just push into your foot and roll out a little bit. It might not feel like a lot of pressure, but you can push into it a little bit more. You can also roll to the outside of your foot, of your toes and roll that way or roll, if you have a little sneaky spot that needs a little extra tension, you can roll that out. And it's just really great to help sort of widen that base of your foot. And then you'll end with it on the heel, and then see if you can get a nice calf stretch.

So you'll put your heel on there. You'll pull your toes back. And again, just kind of hinge forward. You should get a nice calf stretch. Sometimes during pregnancy, the calves get really tight.

This can be great. And then you can just hinge back up. Yep, and then hinge back down again. Great for stretching out those calves. If you're doing a lot of walking.

Fabulous, one more time reaching through the heel, pulling the toes back towards the knee, and back up, and then we'll just do the other foot. So rolling out the feet can help with your overall alignment all the way up that kinetic chain. You can pull your toes apart, spread them as much as you can, roll to the outside of your foot or the inside of the ankle. And then you'll end with that heel on the roller. Yep, flexing that foot, pulling the toes back, and then just hinge forward and get a nice stretch through the back of that calf.

Oh, yeah. And then you can come back up. And again, exhale, you can bend and hinge. And up, last one really get that length through the calf can help even your back and your pelvis. And then we'll come up and we're gonna take the roller, and place it against the wall.

So you'll have the roller up on the wall with your arms up on the roller. So you wanna have your arms about in a nice wide V, and you want your arms straight. Yep, and just kind of halfway in between your elbow, and your wrists. And all we're gonna do here is a little protraction retraction. So you're leaning into the wall, you're keeping that same alignment we found with the roller, and you're just gonna inhale, lift your shoulders up to your ears and then exhale, slide them down.

Beautiful. So trying to get that motion in through the shoulders, and down. You want your arms to stay nice and straight. Sometimes what happens during pregnancy is our whole torso starts to move as one piece. You really wanna be able to move your shoulders separately from your ribs and your pelvis and your neck.

Inhaling up and exhale. And we just stretch those calves out. So we're gonna add a little heel lift. So you're gonna inhale. Come up on the balls of the feet, and just exhale root back down.

And the whole time you're maintaining this ideal alignment which looks beautiful. So you're not sticking that tail out or rounding your shoulders. Beautiful. Inhaling up, and exhaling down. Let's just do two more here.

And this can also get into the fascia of your forearms which sometimes your forearms can get really tight, if you're doing a lot of work on your computer, and down. You're gonna bring your arms a little bit closer now. So they're about shoulder distance apart. And you're just gonna press into the roller, use that core and just take an inhale as you exhale your left arms, just gonna float out to the side like you're making a big L with your arms. Yep, and then inhale, bring it back up.

And other sides. See if you can exhale, lift the other side out. So you really have to use that core to prevent the roller from slipping off of the wall. Yep, and keep going. Just bringing the arm right to shoulder level is perfect.

Yeah, and really thinking about keeping that torso facing the wall with the shoulders and the hips. Nice, and back up. And one more time on that other side. And up. Great job.

Go ahead and step away. And we'll bring the roller down. We're gonna actually keep the roller here. It's gonna be horizontal and we're gonna place it down by your sacrum. So just above your tailbone.

Yep, and you want your feet a little bit wider than shoulder distance apart. Yep, perfect. And here, same thing. You wanna make sure that your ribs are back, you're back on your heels, and you're just going to bend your knees and exhale come up. (breathes heavily) Yeah, so inhale knees go forward, and exhale up.

Yep, pressing through the feet. Couple more, inhaling down and exhaling up. And remember, you don't wanna stick that tail out. When you come down you wanna keep that tail towards the floor. And this could help massage that sacral area.

If you have any sacral iliac issues, this can be great for helping relieve any tension through there. And then from here, you're just gonna bring your feet a little bit wider. So you're almost doing like a horse stance, if you can. Yep, and so your whole leg is turned out. Remember, when we're adjusting our position of our feet, it's not just the foot, it's the entire leg.

So the femur bone and everything. And you're just gonna inhale, bend those knees as you come down. And then come back up. Perfect, so working your legs in a variety of positions during pregnancy can really help keep that pelvic floor toned overall. You don't want your pelvic floor to be too tight or too loose.

You want it nice and toned and working in a different position with your legs. Every now and then can really help with that. Yep. Last one. And up.

Gorgeous. We're gonna slide the roller up so it's just below your bra strap area. And same thing. You can bring your feet out a little bit further in front, if you want, and kind of lean into the roller a little bit, if that feels comfortable for you. And you want the roller just nice and level.

So try not to let it drop on one side or the other. Yep, and from here, you're just gonna do the same thing. So bend those knees and just come down a little ways with the knees going forward and just massage that upper back getting into those intercostal muscles. So I like to think of those intercostal muscles, those muscles that attach one rib to the next as big like Linguine Noodles. So the nice and flat noodles, instead of sort of those round spaghetti noodles that can be kind of tight.

You really want that space and that width, and that length so that your ribs can be in the right place, and expand for pregnancy for that growing baby. Good, you can bring your arms down, keep going, and see if you can inhale. Reach your arms up, and then out to the side and down as you come up. Perfect. Yeah, so opening through the chest, and down.

Just a few more of these as you push through your feet. Last one in this direction. And then staying open through the chest, just reverse the direction so reach out the arms to the side, bring them up and then all the way down. So when you're pregnant, getting on and off of the roller on the floor can be a challenge. So this way you can use the wall to support the roller, and still get that same workout in and the same benefits.

Last one, reaching up. And down. Nice job. Okay, we're gonna turn it vertical now. So this might look familiar to some of you, so you'll have it.

Again, you want your entire spine on the roller. So below the tailbone and try and find that placement with the backs of the ribs on the roller here. And again, just take some breaths, bring your weight back on the heels. Yep, and you're gonna bring your arms out in front of you with your fingertips out. Yep, and just from here try that protraction retraction from here.

So inhale and exhale back just so you can feel the position of your ribs on the back of the roller. Good, and see if you can keep that connection or find that connection as much as possible anyway, with the ribs on the roller, keeping your shoulders back right here. Yep, you're just gonna do a little scissor. So you're gonna have one arm come up and one arm come down with no twisting through the torso. Exhale, engage that pelvic floor.

Draw the belly in. Yep, and bring it back to the other side. Yeah, there you go. Reach the arms going up with the shoulders drying down. Great job.

Keep going. Moving and breathing to stay connected. And your knees are soft. You're trying not to grip through the ankles or your neck or your throat. One more time on each side.

Get that mobility through their shoulders, but that stability through the core. Bring your arms all the way down with your palms facing towards the wall behind you. So here's where you wanna really try and keep the bra strap and the ribs connected to the roller, reaching through the fingertips without letting your ribs pop up. See if you can inhale, reach your arms up in a high V. So almost as far as they can go without thrusting that ribcage forward.

So great stretch and opening through the sternum. Exhale, draw the belly in and just bring the arms back down. Yep. So inhale as you reach. The goal is to keep that connection with your bras strap, and your ribs on the roller, but still open through the chest.

So don't cheat by arching your back. We don't want that. We want the shoulders down. Gorgeous connection. Yes.

Open through the sternum. That's your goal? Two more of these. Nice high Vs. Inhale as you reach.

And you can always add two or three pound weights here, if that's something you wanna do, opening and down. One more. And down. Ah, fabulous. Okay, we're gonna take the roller, and come to a standing position.

Make sure you have enough space, and you'll hold onto the roller here, yep. Again, you're rooted firmly through your feet. Hips stay forward. You're just gonna take that right arm and inhale. Reach it up over your head and just get a nice side stretch.

Rotate that shoulder if you can. So the palms up towards the ceiling, and then exhale back down. Yes, and again, same thing. Inhale as you reach. Press through that right foot.

Yeah, rotating that shoulder. So you can really open through the sides of the ribs, and exhale back. One more, just like that. Inhale, open up through those ribs, and exhale. And now we're gonna add a little rotation.

So you're going to inhale as you reach up. See if you can exhale. Twist just your torso in your ribs. Maybe you can reach that arm down to the roller. Maybe you can hinge the roller towards you a little bit.

Just get a nice stretch and breath through the sides of the ribs. And then inhale, reach that arm back up. (breathes heavily) And exhale down. We're gonna do that one more time on this side. So inhale as you reach up, press through that right foot.

Exhale, add a little rotation just enough through the torso, but the hips stay square. Slide that right shoulder down and breathe. Inhale, reach the arm back up, and exhale down. Oh, great job. We'll do the same thing on the other side.

So pressing into the roller with that right hand. And again, you might wanna move it closer towards you or further away. Just gonna inhale, reach that arm up and exhale. Get that nice side stretch. Gorgeous.

And inhale back, nice. So again, inhale as she lifts up. As you lift up you're gonna slide your shoulder down, press through that left foot. Exhale back one more time on that same side. Good.

And exhale back. Great job, breath in. So now we're gonna add that rotation. So inhale as you lift, and reach over. Yeah.

Exhale you rotate. And again, you can bring the roller towards you. Take a breath, press through that left foot. Inhale, bring that arm back up and exhale down. Two more just like that.

So inhale as you reach staying firm through that left foot, and that left leg. Let your head just drop. Let that shoulder draw down and back. Great job. One more time.

Inhale as you reach. Exhale as you twist. Sliding your left shoulder down. Come all the way back up and down. Fabulous.

All right, so now you're going to take a couple steps back maybe from the roller. Just sort of depends on where you wanna hold onto it. I like to hold onto just sort of the front of it. We're just gonna do a standing cat cow. So you're just gonna exhales you as curl and roll forward.

And then you can kind of hinge that roller forward as you come to a slight extension. Yes, bending the knees and exhale. Tuck that tail. Curl and roll all the way back up. So reversing those moves.

Yes, again, exhale, roll through. Use that roller support. Yep, and then exhale come all the way back. Get a nice stretch even under your armpits, and in your serratus muscles. Exhale as you reach through those fingertips, bring your weight a little bit forward on the balls of the feet and then exhale, curl and come all the way back up.

We'll take the roller here. You're gonna hold on. Do it still with both hands. Get both the palms of your hands on there. We're gonna come to a nice wide squat.

So doing these deep squats, especially later in your pregnancy can really help with the birth and the labor. So see if you can use that roller. Push into that roller. Slide the shoulders down and just bend your knees, and come down to a nice low squat. Just take some breaths and just kind of hold it there.

So during labor and during birth, you might spend a lot of time in this position. So it's great to start strengthening those legs now, and stretching that pelvic floor in peroneum right now to get ready for labor. Oh, come all the way up. We're gonna go down one more time. Come on down, push through the heels.

Great job. Not letting those knees knock in. Nice big stretch. And then come all the way back up. All right, so now we're gonna take the roller, and we're gonna come down onto the floor onto the side.

So you can face this way. We'll have the roller down here and you'll come down onto your side. And you wanna use, get the roller so it's just below your armpit, if you can with your knees bent. Yep, and your head supported with your other hand. So the great thing about the roller is it's up to you how much pressure you wanna put into the roller by how much of your body weight you wanna lean into it.

So here you can just kind of do little micro rolls, and get right into the side of your rib cage. Sometimes if we're tight in our shoulder or upper traps, it's really below the armpit almost that we need to get into and get into that fascia. So it's up to you how much you wanna roll, how far down you wanna roll onto your side. Ooh, but find a place where you can hang out for a second. Yep, take some breaths.

And you're gonna squeeze your feet together, lengthen through the waist. And all you're gonna do is inhale. Bring that the knee up towards the ceiling. So inhale as the knee opens up. So sideline clams and exhale and gauge that pelvic floor.

Draw the belly in and squeeze the legs back together, inhaling up, yep. And exhale, whew, great form. Nice alignment through the spine, reaching out through the crown of the head. So you're not just collapsing into that hand. And if you squeeze your feet together, you get a little bonus workout in.

Two more. The sideline clam in this position. And then you're gonna go ahead, and bring your knees together, and we're gonna do the internal rotation. So now that foot's gonna come up and back down. Yes, good.

So the key with these is to keep that pelvis nice and stable to try not to not move through the hips, even if that means that your feet are gonna stay closer together. So it's not about how far that foot can come away, but it's about really stabilizing and rotating that as a tabula, the top of your femur bone, right in the hip socket. Last one. And down. Oh, great job.

We're gonna come over to the other side. And do the roller right underneath that armpit again. Yep, and keep those knees bent and roll. Yeah, so just rolling again using that elbow to support you just sort of depends on how much weight you wanna put into the roller. You can also just hang out there and breathe for a few minutes or a few seconds without rolling.

And then once you can find a spot that feels like you could park it there for a few minutes, you're gonna squeeze those legs together, squeeze those feet together and inhale, open that top knee up. And then exhale, engage that pelvic floor and close up. So inhaling as you open. And as you exhale, think of drawing your tailbone towards your pubic bone, and your sitz bones towards each other. And exhale, great.

Pushing the feet and keeping that form through the spine. Two more. You've got this. And down. Keep squeezing those knees together, and see if you can bring just the top foot up.

Internally, rotate and, and back down. Yeah. And remember you wanna keep it small enough so that there's no movement into the hip. It's just that ball and socket that's really moving. When you're breathing think of sending some breath to that joint to help lubricate that joint.

Couple more here. Last one, and back. Great job. So now we're gonna come to a seated position with your feet on the roller. You'll have your ankles on here and you can do this also, if you want.

Supported, you might have something under your tail. But this is just a nice way to stretch out those calves. We did a little bit of calf work out here. You're just gonna press your ankles, and the bottoms of your calves into the roller, and just point and flex your feet. Inhale, pull those toes back towards your knees, and exhale as you point.

Yes. So sometimes getting into that insertion point can really help release or give you a little bit more length throughout the entire muscle. So throughout the entire calf muscles, if you can just get into the bottom there, and really get into that fashion, roll out as you point and flex. Yes. Last one, you're gonna flex.

Really reach out through the heels and point. Good, and then we'll go ahead, and we'll take the roller, and we'll put it right underneath our booty. So you can get a little bit more of a stretch through the hips. So just use your core to come on and off of the roller. Remember the transitions can be a little shaky, so just be careful.

Yep, and just hang out here for a second. Get in a comfortable spot where you feel stable on the roller. And depending on the size of your belly, and where you are throughout your pregnancy, you might move your feet further or closer. But we're just looking for a figure four stretch here to get into the piriformis. So you'll bring one foot across the opposite knee holding onto the roller.

Yep. And you can bend that knee. And this might feel like a great stretch for you stretching out the hamstrings, or you might wanna give a little bit of a hinge to get a little bit deeper. And just breathe, get into that connective tissue creating some space, releasing some tension. (breathing heavily) Yeah.

Inhale. You can come back and then one more time coming forward. Gorgeous. And then from here, you'll hold onto the roller. Yep, and see if you can drop over to that right side.

So that knee's gonna drop down, and just see if you can roll that hip out a little bit as you roll forward and back. So getting into the side. It doesn't have to be a huge motion, just enough to get in there and released again can help with your low back and help with your pelvis. And then we'll come to the other side. Bringing that leg across.

And you might just keep your leg, your opposite leg straight, and that's totally fine or you might be able to bend it a little bit. The more you bend it, the deeper stretch you're going to feel. So again, if you're in your first or second trimester, you might be able to bend your knee a little bit more. And then that hinge is just a little bonus. So you don't have to hinge forward to get the stretch.

You should feel the stretch right underneath the booty on that side with the bent knee. And then roll over onto the hip. So your opposite hip comes up, if that feels okay, and that knee drop towards the floor. Continuing to breathe and relax your neck and throat. Great job.

And then you'll come back to sitting on top of the roller, take a big inhale, scrunch your shoulders up to your ears and exhale, slide them down. One more time, inhale, lift up, (breathing heavily) and exhale down. Great job on the foam roller.