Postnatal Mat - Standing

Hi. I'm Melissa Connelly, and I'm gonna be teaching to you today a standing post natal mat class. The only props that we'll need are some lightweights. I have two pound weights that we will pick up near the end of our class. Start yourself standing up with your feet parallel, hip distance apart. We're gonna take a moment here to center and find our standing alignment and our engagement of our core and pelvic floor. Starting with your feet, press down into the big toes, the pinky toes, and the back of your heel. So to lift up through the arches of your feet creating this connection up through the inner thigh adductor muscles, and then start to tighten up through your hips, through your glutes, pulling in and up through your pelvic floor, pulling in and up through your deep core.

Relax your shoulders down. Keep your chin slightly elevated. And then just standing nice and tall, getting ready for our series. We're gonna start by warming up with head circles. Lower your chin down to your chest.

And then slowly rotate your right ear to your right shoulder, and then rotate the head up, rotate the left ear to the left shoulder, and shin to the chest. Take your time. 2 more. Right ear to right shoulder. Left the head up, lower the left ear to the left shoulder, and chin to the chest. One more nice and smooth, all the way up, rotating to the left.

And then lower the chin to the chest and reverse. Take the left ear to the left shoulder, lift your head to the ceiling, right ear to the right shoulder, and shin to the chest and rotate left ear to the shoulder, look to the ceiling, right ear to right shoulder, and shin to the chest. One more nice smooth neck circle rotating around, lower the chin down to your chest, and then float your head right back up, sitting nice and tall. Lift your shoulders up, breathing in. And exhale relax your shoulders down.

Again, breathe and lift your shoulders. Exale relax the shoulders down. One more time. Lift the shoulders up. And then breathe out, settle your shoulders down, and take it into a shoulder rule. Bring the shoulders forward, lift up, and bring them to the back.

Inhale. Forward, lift up. Exhale back, inhale forward, lift up, and exhale, settle them back, reverse the shoulder roll, inhale back, lift up, exhale down, Inhale back, lift up, exhale down, one more back, and up, and settle the shoulders down. Turn the palms of your hands forward. Glide the shoulder blades out and up as your arms raise.

You can look up towards your fingertips and exhale lower the arms down. Moving from your arms and shoulder blades, inhale. Glide them out looking up. And read out fully, lower them down. One more. Nice deep breath, inhale.

Raise your arms. Look up. And exhale. Read out all the air to lower the arms down. Take your arms straight forward. Palms face each other in line with your shoulders, and then we're gonna protract the shoulder blades.

So reach your fingertips forward forward forward forward, feeling your shoulder blades separate. And then exhale. Pull your shoulder blades back. Keeping your elbow straight. Inhale.

Reach forward. Opening your shoulder blades. Exhale. Pull the shoulder blades back. One more. Inhale.

Reach forward. And then exhale. Pull the shoulder blades back and then come to a neutral position with your shoulders and bring the arms down by your sides. Left the right arm out to the side, stretch it up to the ceiling, slide the left hand down your thigh towards your knee, getting this lovely stretch along the right side. And then exhale tight into your core lift up and bring the right arm down by the side.

Inhale. The left arm reaches out and up. Slide the right hand down, the thigh, stretching your left side. And then lift up and lower the arm down. Inhale, right arm reaches up, stretching in two directions, right arm reaching long, left arm reaching down, and then raising up, and lower the arm and left arm reaches up. Exhale.

Slide the fingertips down, stretch your side. Pull the abs in to lift up. We'll do that once more on both sides. Breathe and raise the right arm. Exhale.

Stretching over pause here. Push weight into your right foot and lengthen for 3. And 2 and one lift up. Lower the arm down and then reach the left arm up and stretch over. Slide the hand down and stretch. Push into your left foot for a 30 and 2, and 1, and lower the arm down.

Alright. Place your heels together toes apart. The elbows come in towards your rib cage. Palms are facing up. Tighten up through your inner thighs, your calves, your lower glutes, your pelvic floor in your abs, stay nice and tall. As you bend your knees, rotate the arms out and squeeze exhale center.

Inhale rotate exhale center. 3, exhale lift, 4 pulling in and up, 5 exhale squeeze, 6 exhale squeeze, 2 more, Sale up. Last one and up. Now bring your elbows out to the sides. Palms still face up. Bend your knees.

When you straighten your legs, reach out. Palms go down. Bend in. Exhale lengthen and squeeze. And bend. X. He'll reach 3. Bend. Reach 4.

Bend breathe out. Pulling in and uptight into your glutes, your pelvic floor, your deep core muscles, Two more, exhale reach. Ben. Now hold it here. Turn the palms of your hands forward, and then bend your knees, hug the arms in. Exhale. Stand.

Hug it in, exhale open. Breathe in, exhale open, and 4. Exhale, lengthen 5. Keep connecting through the top of your inner thighs. 6.

2 more. 7. Now hold it here. Arms long. Turn the palms of your hands down. Step your feet out into a second position. Keeping your hips as square as possible start to look at your right hand as you twist, twist, twist, and he'll come back through the center.

Hip stay square. Rotate. Look at your left, middle finger, and twist, twist, twist, inhale back to the center. Ex rotate, twist. Twist. Twist.

And center. Take your time. Just wringing out in your waist. Left hip bone remains forward. And center. One more and both sides. Ax. Inhale center.

Exhale. Rotate. Inhale. Center. Relax your arms down. Alright. Just place your hands onto your waist.

Come down into a pla. Checking your knee alignment. Have your knees tracking over your middle toes. Try to keep your spine long. Feel your heels pushing into the floor squeezing in and up. So one hand to your stomach, one hand to your back.

And then pull up from your core, inhale release. So you're tightening through inner thighs, pelvic floor, and abs, and then let it release. Add your arms, exhale up, inhale down. Exhale. Squeeze up and down intentionally, press your heels into the floor. Down, squeezing in and up, and then release 2 more squeeze up.

And down. Last one and down. Stay here in this pli. Take your hands behind your head and then bending your body. It's like a side, sit up over to the right. Your right elbow goes down.

Inhale center. Exhale to and center 10 times. Read out 3. Center. Working your obliques. 4. Center. Side Bend, 5.

Center, exhale 6, center 4, more, 7, center 3 more, center 2 more breathe out, And last one breathe out and in. Okay. Still going to the right. We're gonna rotate. Keep your left hand behind your head. Take this right hand behind the right hip. So you're gonna keep your hip forward as you rotate pulling your left elbow in the direction of your hip bone and center. The hand stays on your hip to keep that hip pressing forward.

Exhale. Curl. Like like a I like a sit up, but standing curl. And exhale 5. Read out 6. Contracting through your center.

7. Exhale. 8. Two more. Read out. 9. And 10. Come to the center.

Stand back up. Releasing your legs. Alright. Stand nice and tall. Bend your knees. Open the arms. Exhale.

Pull Open the arms, exhale lift, open the arms, exhale lift down, pull in and up, down, exhale up, Two more. Lift lift. Lift. Last one. And lift. Okay. Bend your knees back down. Hands go behind your head and side bend over to the left exhale, bend, inhale center. Read out to, and center, exhale 3, center, bend, 4, center contract the waist 5, Exhale 6 and then 7.

Breathe out. 2 more. And last one. Stay here. The right hand is behind the head. This left hand goes behind your left hip. It's like bringing your left hip bone and your right elbow towards each other.

A little contraction. 1, and center exhale 2. Center. Working the obliques. 3. Center, exhale 4. Center. Breathe out 5.

Exhale 6. Exale 7, and 8. 2 more. Breathe out. 9. And 10 come up through the center, straighten your legs. Alright.

To release, bend your knees. Your hands slide down. They go down to the floor and straighten your legs, drop your head heavy and roll up to standing. Stand up nice and straight. Slide the hands down the legs to the floor and drop your head straight in your legs and roll all the way up. And up and up. Last one, bend your knees and just hang over the legs.

Release your head, your neck, your shoulders, and roll up, roll up, roll up, and you're up. Alright. We're gonna bring those feet back to hip distance apart. We're gonna work through our feet next. So once you're standing nice and tall, come to the ball of your right foot, just stretching through the arches and the toes. So press over the ball of the foot, place it down, and then switch and down. Working our feet down, press over the ball of the foot, down and switch down and switch down one more in each side like this, then it's gonna progress.

Okay. Good. Now go over the ball of the foot and then come up onto your toes, back to the ball of the foot, and down. And ball of the foot up to your toes, ball of the foot, down form or up all the foot and toes, follow the foot down, follow the foot toes, follow the foot down. We'll do that twice more. Working our feet. Last one. And down. Now pick up the foot, roll through the foot, articulate it. So bring it up and down. Pick it up and down.

So you're peeling your foot off of the floor. Then articulating your toes down toe ball heel. Tow ball heel. Tow ball heel. And rest. Alright.

So feet are worked a little bit flexible here. Take your arms into a genie position. And then lift up onto your toes and lower. Try to keep your toes spread out. And let's get a sense of the pelvic floor working to lift you. Your pilates powerhouse, your glutes, your hips, your core, pelvic floor, pull in and up.

Exhale lift 4. Exhale lift 3. Exhale lift 2. Now hold it up on your toes. Take your arms out to the sides. Feel like you're pushing down on something for balance and then switch one heel down, switch the other heel down, switch 3, switch 4, switch 5, switch 6, switch 7, switch 8, 2 more, 9, 10, lift the heels up, and lower the heels down.

Give the legs a little bit of a shake out. They're gonna go back to parallel hip distance, Alright. So maybe a little bit wider than, hip bone distance apart. Maybe it'll take it a little wider, and we're gonna sit into a squat. So weight to your heels, and you're gonna sit down, reach your arms forward, release to your hips, when you come up, really pull up through your center. Not thinking about your legs lifting you, but your core and pelvic floor.

So you sit down into your squats, exhale pull up through the center. Inhale 3. Exhale. Pull up. Inhale.

4. Exhale up. Release your sit bones and then engage to lift. Release down. Exhale at 4 more. Breathe in. Breathe out.

3 more. Exhale. Up. 2 more. Exhale. Up. Last one. And stay up. Take your right leg back behind you.

You want your feet staggered, so they're still a hip distance apart. You're on the ball of the right foot. Take one hand onto your stomach. Take the other hand behind your back. Feeling this connection through the center, go straight down into a lunge, pull your stomach into lift.

Inhale. Again, we're focusing more on core rather than legs. You pull up from your abdominals. 3 Exhale, 4. Exhale, 5. 5 more. Lift 6. Exhale, abs pull, and 7. And pull in and up 8.

2 more. Lift 9. And stay up on 10. Pivot your body to the side. So now you have your feet in that second position not too turned out.

Instead of playing straight down, we're gonna do a sumo squat. So like the squat with the arms reaching, take your arms up to a high diagonal as you sit down, and then exhale release your hips on the way down, pull your abs in and up. Inhale. 3, exhale. Left. And 4, exhale. Left. And 5, pull up, squat, 6, exhale up, and 7, exhale up, squat 8, and lift up.

Two more. Breathe out and lift. Last one. And lift. Pivot back to where you came from in the split squats.

Bend your knees down. Take your arms just out to your sides, push down, like you're pressing on something heavy, pull your belly in and up, and then just press 1. Press 2. Press 3. Press 4. Keep junction your arms.

5. 6 push down 7, 8, 9, 10. Now straighten your legs. Go into a calf stretch. Your left knee bends. Your right heel pushes into the floor. Lean forward slightly, make sure your heel is in contact with the ground.

And then you're gonna reach the arms forward, lift your heel up, circle the arms, press your heel down. Inhale, lift. Exhale around. One more. Lift the heel. Exhale.

Around. Reverse 3 arm circles. Go out overhead. Exhale down. Out over head. Exhale down.

One more. And down. Take the right foot into the left. Shake out your legs. Just give it a little break before we do the other side. We're gonna start with the squats.

So you have your feet a little bit wider than hip distance apart, arms down by your sides, and then come on down into a squat. Press up. Breathe in, exhale. Release your hips. And then pull in and up. Inhale 4 exhale lift. 5 exhale lift.

6 exhale up. 7 press up. 8 exhale. 2 more. Lift up. Last one.

And you're up. Now, the left leg steps back. Take a second to find your alignment. So your left foot is tracked in line with your hip bone. Your body is nice and straight, nice and long, one hand to your stomach, other hand to the low back, bend your knees, and then pull your stomach in as you lift 1. And then, yes, your legs are gonna feel it but focus more on your center lift 3.

Tighten up through the pelvic floor and abs lift 4. Breathe out. Exhale lift 6. Exhale lift 7. And 8. 2 more pull this time again. 9. And 10. Stay up. Pivot to the other side.

Fee in second position. Release to your hips. Reach forward. Exhale stand. Really squats.

Exhale stand. 3. Exhale stand, 4 exhale up, 5 and lift up, 6 exhale stand, 7, Exhale stand. We have 3 more and lift 2 more. Exhale. Last one, and we're there. Pivot back around to the front. Okay. Get your leg alignment, right foot forward, left leg back, reach your arms out, and just keep them energized.

So arms reach long, push down with some resistance, bend your knees, and pulse down one. Pulls down 2 pulls down 3 pulls down 4 pulls down 5, and 6, and 7, and 8, and 9, and 10, straight in the legs. Bend the right knee. Press the left heel to the floor. Again, if your calf is tight, it's hard to get the heel all the way down, but really try to press the heel down.

It'll feel nice. And now the heel lifts as we reach the arms up circle around, inhale up, exhale around. One more. Reverse out and lift, exhale down. Out and lift. Exhale down.

One more. And down. Bring that left foot in. Again, just shake it out. Alright. Next sequence. You're gonna have your feet parallel. Hip with the part.

We're gonna do a forward flexion exercise, just a little bit more of a release. So bend your knees, pulling your abs in round your back into this letter c, exhale, inhale, lift up straight. Breathe out. Turn to the side. Exhale round. Inhale.

Left exhale. C curve. Scoop and round. And lift. 2 more. Exhale. Contract the core Inhale lift 1 more exhale around and lift.

Now into an extension, inhale lift your chest. Open your heart. Exhale center. Breathe in. Palms are forward. Read your chest.

Exhale. Forward. 3 more. Inhale. Get that nice spine extension. Exhale. Two more.

Inhale arch. Exhale. Last one. Read in. And center. Combine the 2. Round your back. Flex forward.

Inhale arch, exhale around your back, inhale arch, exhale around, inhale arch, Two more round, inhale arch on this last one, round your back. When you lift an arch, take the arms all the way up and around overhead. Stay here. Tuck your chin to your chest. Round your back forward forward forward. Your hands touch the floor.

Relax your head. Bend your knees. Breathe in. Exhale, straighten your legs. Roll the spine up really flexible through the lower back, middle, shoulders, and head.

Inhale look up to the ceiling. Tuck your chin, exhale round forward. Hands to the ground. Bend your knees. Relax. Your head. Straight in the legs.

Roll all the way up. One more time, inhale. Read the arms look up. Tuck your chin to your chest around your spine forward. Then the knees, exhale straighten your legs, and roll up, roll up, roll up, and up. Alright. The next exercise takes a bit of balance. Stand on your right foot and ground into that right leg.

So spread out your toes, push into your heel, tighten your quad, tighten your glute, tighten your core. Raise the left knee up, And then take your right hand to the inside of your left knee and open the arm out to the side. Push your hand into the knee. Squeeze your left inner thigh. Squeeze your right glutes.

Stay there or start to rotate to the left, squeeze the right glute, squeeze, squeeze, balance, and then come back through the center. And place that foot down. Alright. We'll do the other side. So standing on your left foot, pressing into your toes, pressing into your heel, and then lift the right leg up. Take your left hand, push into the knee, stretch the right arm out to the side. Now, tighten right inner thigh, left glutes, feel that connection, tighten up your core, and then carefully rotate.

Keep squeezing the left glue. Keep pushing your hand into the knee. Hold the balance. And now coming back through the center and lower the leg down. Alright. Cross your arms.

Pull your abs in and up, and then take a march focusing on your hips stability. So lift lower, 2, lower, 3, lower, 4, lower, 5, lower, 6, lower. 7 lower, 8, lower, 9, and 10, and release. Alright. You're gonna pick up your weights next. So grab hold of your 2 ish pound weights.

And we're gonna stand with our heels together toes apart. Alright. Shoulders are down. We're all too in-depth from our feet to our head. Push weight through your feet. Squeeze up your inner thighs.

Time your glutes, your hips, your core. Elbows come into the rib cage of the palms facing up. Exhale rotate the arms out. And, in, like we did the arm work with our plas too. And, and strengthening rotator cuff.

Exhale 4, exhale 5, open 6, keeping our upper body nice and strong, 7, and hold it here on number 8 reach out to the sides. The palms face down reach out 1, elbows and palms up reach out to, and up, exhale 3, and up, exhale 4, and up. Draw the shoulders down. 5. Reach out 6, exhale 7, hold it out on number 8, turn the palms of your hands forward, soften your elbows, pull your stem again, exhale hagatory, inhale open, exhale 2. Inhale open, exhale 3, and open, hug 4, and open, hug 5, and open, exhale 6, open 2 more, 7, Open last Wednesday here, turn your palms up to the ceiling, keep your elbows up, bicep curl 1, and stretch exhale to stretch. Breathe out three.

Readjust your posture, tighten your glutes to your hips, your core. Exhale 5. Exhale. 6. 2 more. 7.

Hold your elbows bent here on 8. Palms face in. Open the arms out and in. Press back to and in. Exhale 3. Breathe out for.

For us back 5. Press back 6. 2 more, 7. Hold it here on 8. Lift the arms up. Pull down. Lift 2.

Pull down, reach up 3, pull down, 4, pull down, 5, exhale, 6, exhale, 7, exhale. 8 holding here. Right arm goes up. Switch. 2, switch. 3, switch. 4, switch. 5, 6, 7, Hey. Add a little side bend. So right arm up and to the left and center switch 2. Center switch 3. Center switch 4.

Center, axial 5, center, axial 6, center, and 7, center 1 more, center, reach the arms up, and bring them all the way down. Turn your feet parallel, bend the knees, round your arms in front of you for the butterfly. Keep the shape of the arms. Exhale. They open and close. Exhale.

2. And closed. Staying strong for baby. 3, upper body strong. 4, exhale 5, and 6. 2 more, 7. And 8. Lower the arms down. Turn the palms and bend your right elbow.

Look over the elbow twist to the right and down. Switch 2. And down. Look over the right elbow. 3. Down, exhale. 4. Down rotate 5, down, exhale 6, down, and 7, down, and 8, and down. Now stand up. This next one is like a dead lift, but very important for picking up things off of the floor like your baby.

So soften the knees and then hinge forward, exhale stand. And hinge forward exhale stand. And hinge 3, exhale stand. Hinge 4, exhale stand. These are just slightly bent 5. Back is nice and straight.

Reach the arms forward. And back. 3 more. Ex. 2 more. Ex. Last one. And left. Alright. Place those weights off to the side. Okay. Bring your heels back together toes apart.

Have a really small narrow v with your feet. So you can keep your heels together. Have this imaginary pillow underneath your heels. And then put your hands, both of your hands to your lower belly. Pull your stomach in and up.

Tighten up through your pelvic floor and just hover the heels and lower. Settle, small, but deep. So keep those heels glued together. Tighten through your glutes, hips, pelvic floor, core, pilates powerhouse, exhale up, inhale down. Exhale up, Inhale down, hands on your stomach so you can pull into lift.

Lower 3 more exhale up and lower 2 more exhale up. And lower, last one, exhale up, and lower. Relax your legs. Just place them to where they're comfortable, and take your hands to your rib cage. Close your eyes for a moment, and we're just gonna take 3 deep breaths ladder leach the sides, front and back.

So deep breath, inhale. Fill your lungs. Front, side, and back. Exale, breathe out all of the air. Let everything relax. Don't hold on to tension anymore.

Breathe in. Fill the front. The side the back of your rib cage, and then exhale release everything. One more nice, deep, full breath inhale. And then breathe out all of the air, exhale. And then you can open your eyes.

Just stay relaxed. It's important to strengthen through the pelvic floor, deep core, but it's also just as important to let it release. So now finishing with a couple stretches, raise your arms overhead. Hold on to, your right elbow. Point your fingertips down to the center of your spine.

Lift your chin up. Hold the stretch. Stay there. Nice deep breath inhale. And breathe out exhale. And now lift the arms up.

Bring them down to the sides. Rees the arms up. Grab hold of the left elbow. Point the left fingertips down to the middle of your spine. Hold it there.

Breathe in. And then stay there. Exhale. And then lift the arms up, lower them down, stretch your arms straight out to your sides, bring the right arm across, hold on to your lower arm, bringing the arm across, stretching the shoulder. Stay there as you breathe in. Stay there as you breathe out.

Release the arms out to the sides. Left arm comes across, give it a gentle pull, stretching the shoulder, breathing in, and breathing out. And then lower the arms down. Bring your feet all the way together. Everything tight for the last stretch in here.

Lift your arms. Reach, reach, reach up to your fingertips. Hands come together, bring them down to your heart center, and thank you for joining me.