Getting Stronger After Baby

Hi. I'm Ashley. Welcome to class. You'll need a chair today in addition to your mat. This is a post natal class focused on reclaiming your strength after baby. So let's get started.

So taking your right leg into figure 4 circle your ankle for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then we're gonna reverse that circle. So just getting some blood flow into that ankle and lower leg, pumping out so that inflammation that we can get or swelling post baby and finding our feet again now that we can see them again. And then taking a stretch over in your figure for. So sitting up tall to lean forward to get that nice stretch in your outer right hip. Take a deep breath in and let it out. Sitting up tall to switch sides.

So left leg crosses over sat sitting tall on your chair to circle the ankle for five. And for, like, you're scooping out the bottom of an ice cream, carton with that foot and then reversing for 5. And 4, just softening through the ribs who are gonna focus on our breaths today and reconnect the breath trying to get it out of the shoulders and back down into that full rib expansion. Take a nice lift out of your low back and lean forward into your figure force stretch. Drop the head if it feels good to add that little extra weight.

And then sitting tall. We'll do some knee lifts. So I like to have hands on the chair. You can have hands wherever you like. Your right knee is lifting up and down eight times.

And as you lift your knee, you're trying not to let anything happen in the back of sinking or changing the position. So you almost get taller as your knee lifts. For 4, breathing as you go three, a little push down in the hands can help you get tall too. And one, then other side. So strengthening the hip flexor, we need our strong hip flexors.

We think of stretching them all the time, but we also need to strengthen them to help some of that low back tightness and pain that comes through the hip flexor from front of the thigh. To the low back. 1 more, and now we're going into knee lifts. So lift your right knee to your chest, hold it as high as you can, and then straighten the leg as much as you can for 8 now strengthening the quad with the hip flexor, reaching out, and 4 more times getting that quad active. If your leg lowers as it straightens, it's not a problem.

You're just, again, trying to stay lifted out of your low back while you reach that leg straight, pointed or flexed foot. It doesn't matter. Just channeling your inner can can dancer. Other side, lifting the left knee, trying to keep that thigh bone up, It's a little past 90 degrees in the hip, but if it drops to straighten, that's okay too. Hip flexor and quad activating, because if we're gonna sit like this, which we all do too much of, we might as well strengthen the position of it. So then when we stretch it later, It's because we worked it.

One more and then bring that knee down. We'll go into a side stretch. So legs are opening a little bit just to give you more bass. And one hand on the chair take your left arm to the ceiling and bend over to the right. Take a breath in and exhale come back up switching sides.

Breathe in as you go over. And exhale trying to keep both sit bones anchored as you reach. So you feel that big opening of the left side and then using those muscles to pull you back. And a big opening on the right, right ribs flaring open as you breathe into them. And back this time adding a little challenge of one arm forward instead of supporting you on the chair, you're welcome to leave it there, but this is gonna give you a little more of that active side body. And you may wanna use your legs then to help balance you. So I'm pushing into my feet, lifting tall out of the waistline.

Let's do one more each way. Breathing in as you go to the side. And exhale brings you back up other side, last side. Breathing in. And exhale back. We're going into some squat hovers.

So from your wide open position, just knee leaning forward, fingers can gently touch the ground pull the belly button to the spine, nice tight abs exhaling as you hover your hips about 2 inches off the seat and lower back down and come back up. We'll do it again just like that. Hands can touch the floor for support is like as if you're about to pick up your baby, you wanna build strength in that space. So now letting the arms hover as your hips hover and sitting back down and lifting and breathing in Exhale as you hover those hips and down. And in knees reaching over the second toe or towards the pinky toe, not letting the knees fall in at all as we're hovering.

And for more times, reaching forward and let's imagine you're listing your baby. I'm sure you do this a million times a day, and reach. So we wanna build the strength around the positions that we find ourselves in. Nice, supported work in the hips for 2. And down. And last one option to have your hands anywhere, of course, and down. Whoo. Yes. Waking up those thighs, bring the legs together for a twist So hands will interlace behind the head.

Listing you up nice and tall. Knees pressed together. Take an inhale. And on your exhale, rotate to one side. Look to your back elbow.

Keep spiraling. Inhale brings you back to center. Exhale to the other side. So that left and right knee stay glued together as your ribs rotate. You're staying tall, so not sinking, but also not flaring your ribs into an arch.

So my left knee is pushing into my right knee as my right elbow comes across. Inhale. Exhale. My right knee is staying forward and glued into my left knee as my left elbow comes across. Let's do one more each way. Rotate. Push the air out and then inhale and exhale. Rotate and inhale. Let's open up the front of the hips.

We're standing up for single leg dead lifts. Your right hand will be on the chair for balance to the side, left hand on the hip, and right leg behind you squaring off two hips and two shoulders. So as you hinge in your left hip, your right leg will lift. You can have a little bend in the left knee, feeling that left glute fire to bring you back up. Lowering the chest Ashley because you're hinging at the hip and your spine is following your hips and coming back up.

Like to keep my hand here to help remind my left hip to stay up and my right hip to stay down, and you have the chair for support. Hinging forward as much as you need just to Fire into that glute and coming back up. 4 more. We're doing 8 of these on each side, activating those outer hips, finding our glutes, which will help support our pelvic floor. And 2, up. Last one Ashley feeling that hip hello, bringing you up, and we'll go to the other side.

So I'll turn around. Left hand is on the chair. Right hand is on the hip of my standing working right leg, and the left leg will just lift because I'm hinging in my hips and coming back up. Ben feel that right glute fire, and it pulls me back up. The hamstring is lengthening, but it's assisting the glute to come back up.

And if you want a little more challenge, you can maybe just have, like, two fingers on the chair, but more than welcome to really use that because it's not about balance as much as it's about strengthening your glutes. You can always have a little bit of a faster on the up. It's all about the hinge. So if you really need to bend that knee to get more of a hinge in the hip, that's totally okay. Last one here. Now you'll do a split squat.

So holding the chair, step one leg back, and the further back you step your leg, the more you're gonna get this ninety degree bend in both legs. Push back up to switch. So give yourself a good amount to step back, use that chair for balance. That was one because we did one on each lake. So we're going for 2, and 2. Let's have a nice pace to this.

We're doing 8 on each side. 3. And 3. Everything moving together. 4. And 4. Inhale where you need to and then force that exhale. Which will create a nice vacuum that you have to inhale.

And here we go. We've got 3 more sets in and out and out and 2 starting to get the heart rate up a bit and just connect back to the strength of our legs, which we need for all the down and up that our life now is all about. TriCEPT dips, sitting on your chair, have your hands They can either be forward or to the side. I'm gonna do a little rotate to the side, and I really like to use my fingers to hold, not just sit into my wrist. The further away your feet are, the harder it will be so you can challenge keeping the feet a little closer, making the legs a little straighter. Wrap the shoulders open, and we're doing 10 tricep dips. 1, and 2 only bending your elbows as much as you can keep the chest open, and then pushing to get those shoulder blades all the way down your back as you straighten your arms.

We've got 4, 3, keeping it moving, 2, and 1 have a little seat on the chair. Just take a moment to stretch that arm across. I like to pull the lever of the forearm and then reach the other one across. And you're always welcome to do a second set of those, if you like, to just keep it going, and build that strength even more. But we're all just fighting for whatever time we have to move our bodies coming down to the floor.

For some shoulder bridge. So ninety degree bend in the knees, lying on the back, on your mat, on your back, arches close to heels on the chair, arms pressing down. Roll your hips up because your feet are on the chair. You have this added level Ashley anchoring you into your shoulders. You can really feel where your pelvis is in space to roll down. It gives you a bit more time to our articulate through that low back having your feet at this higher level.

Rolling up again just five of these. Inhale and exhale to roll down. There's no perfect breath here, but it's just a matter of not holding your breath or not stunting your breath. So you wanna breathe and then let it out instead of holding it like that. And And rolling through should feel nice and your hamstrings and glutes are waking up.

This time, we'll stay at the top, lower just a little, and you're lifting one hip and then the other hip. So a little rock through the hips too, 210 times 3, 3 feeling a little more weight going to one leg, and then the other, and 5. 5, it should feel like a nice low back twist and stretch activation of those hamstrings, obliques helping to stabilize. And 3, more. And 2, and 1, one find both feet even on the chair.

And roll down piece by piece, roll through your low back and let your hips be heavy. Place your calves on the chair. I'll shimmy a bit closer. So my knees are in that ninety degree bend for a curl up. So my calves are resting on the chair. My hands are behind my head creating a little pillow.

I'm gonna take an inhale keeping the natural curve of my low back. Exhale. And lift the chest, inhale, lower down. Big rib expansion, exhale. And if you feel any pressure that's not good here, you can even use your hands to press the abdominals more together wherever you feel you need more support. If your neck needs more support, exhale, lift hands behind the head so you have a little something to push your head into.

And if you're feeling Like, where are my abs after baby? Where did they go? Let's use our hands to physically refine them knitting together. That's absolutely appropriate. One more time, inhale, exhale, curl, and lift. And lowering down for some tabletop.

I'll leave my head down. You have the option to stay curled up if you like, if you're feeling strong and ready for that. Bringing your right leg to tabletop, your left leg to tabletop, right leg down and left leg down. Left leg to tabletop, right leg to tabletop, left leg down, right leg down. So as we're moving through this, we're not letting the hip bones dip forward her back.

So there's gonna be that tendency to tuck to bring the leg up and then arch to bring it down. We're trying to maintain those natural curves of the low back, but breathe into the back and then exhale to course it all the way around to support that leg action and lower and lower. It's nice to press the arms down for more support. Last time, left leg lowers and right leg lowers. We'll do a little open close of the book.

So bring both legs to tabletop. I like to flex the feet here. Open the legs and close just like you're opening and closing a book. And if you need a extra support of your hands on the sides, if you're feeling any tension through the pelvis, they're there for support, but pressing down can also give you a deeper connection into the whole center of the body. Just one more, and now we're gonna alternate. Again, you have the option to curl up if you're feeling really strong and ready for that in the upper abdominals and the neck, but this is enough of a challenge here to keep your pelvis anchored, to keep both sides of your shoulders heavy.

You'll feel how you have to push a little more into your left arm as your left leg opens a little more into your right arm to not let your body go all the way over. Flexing the feet just gives you a little bit more connection into the lower leg into the knee. I think it protects the knee a bit more. Now resting the feet down. And take a deep breath.

We're coming up to do a side plank kneeling and on your elbow. Place your right elbow on the mat, and your knees will be a bit forward of your hips and your hips a little back of your elbow, because the goal is to press yourself into the side kneeling plank. So shoulder over elbow, flat lying through the front of the hips as much as you can, and then lowering back down 4 more times. Press and lift. Knees pushing down.

If you want to hover that top leg, it might give you a little more space to lift a little higher through your bottom waist and lower. Push the round away, lengthen the neck, and lower to more press lift and lower activating that bottom side to build, again, strength from front, back, and each side, and down. Other side, left elbow on the mat. Knees are a little almost in line with your fist hips are back so that when you press your hips forward, you feel nice and aligned from top of the head to knees and let the hips come back down. You can always have your hand here if you need a little extra support, and depending on your body, it might feel better to lift this leg or it might feel like more like a challenge.

So meet yourself where you need to ask those questions. Does this feel more supported, or do I need a little bit more of a challenge? Two more times, really working that bottom side, pressing it up to the ceiling into the top side, press the left ribs up into the right ribs, and lowering down. Coming into a kneeling position for a cat cow, but on our knees with the hands on the chair. So while you're here, round your spine, find a spot that feels good.

I like hips over the knees and the tailbone's dropping. Then as I look forward, My hips can go behind my knees so my chest can reach forward. Rounding and curling hips are free to move, so wherever it feels good. If your knees go a little further back, keep moving, but I'll kinda talk you through. Then you can instead of looking forward, let your shoulders stretch a little bit more.

And this is gonna be a little more abdominals if your hips are going in front of your knees. One more where we started knees under hips, and then chest forward as the hips go back and coming up to stand. We'll do a standing roll down into a plank hold. So arms to the ceiling round forward, bringing your hands onto the chair. Step one foot back and then the other foot back to find your strong plank shoulders over wrists.

Nice long line from top of the head to heels. Step 1 foot forward, other foot forward, and roll up taking your arms with you breathe in and round forward hands onto the chair. Step 1 leg back. Feel that nice straight line. Add the other leg.

Press the legs into each other, push the chair away from you, and then bring one leg forward. The other leg forward. Drop the chin and roll up tall one last time rounding forward. Hips are over the heels, then you step one leg back, the other leg back, find that long plumb line from top of the head to heels, shoulder blades pressing apart, breathe in, exhale, and bring one leg forward. Other leg forward, roll up all the way.

And hopefully you feel nice and connected to your body and ready to take on the day. Thanks so much for joining me.