Postnatal Mat - Magic Circle

Hi. I'm Zola. This is a post natal matte workout meant to work all sides of the body without putting any pressure on the rectus abdominis. So it's diastasis recti friendly. All you'll need is a magic circle and a mat Let's get started. Alright. Let's start on our back.

So the best part aside from actually having the baby is being able to breathe after you've given birth because that was very hard to do while you were pregnant. So let's do that right now. Nice deep breath. So let's take an inhale through the nose, filling all sides of the body up. So the belly, the front ribs, side ribs, and back body. Inhale? And exhale through the mouth, and at the bottom of that exhale really feel the transverse abdominis pulling in towards the center of the body, belly button to the spine. Again, inhale through the nose.

And exhale. Again, inhale. And exhale. Feel the abdominals deepening into the center of the body. 1 more time. Inhale.

And exhale. Now, remember this feeling of the transverse abdominis engaged and the belly button sinking in. If you ever feel any doming of the abdominals, take a moment and try to pull the abdominals back into the spine. Keep your, keep your hands on your belly. Let's go to some marching.

So from here, just lift your right leg off of the mat onto a tabletop position. And then go ahead put it right back down. The goal here is pelvic stability, and sinking the abdominals down towards the floor, keeping that shape the whole time as the legs move. Good. Exhale to lift that leg. Inhale to lower.

Again, exhale to lift. Inhale to lower last 1. Exhale to lift. And inhaled to lower. We do the same thing, but starting from a tabletop position. So 1 leg at a time comes to tabletop, and I'm gonna separate the knees but keep the feet together, slight external rotation to give my hips a little bit of space.

So from here, take an inhale. As you exhale, lower the right leg down towards the ground, only as much as the abdominals continue to pull to the spine. Inhale to lift. Exhale lower the left leg down. Inhale to lift.

As you lower that right leg, feel the thigh bone move away from the center of the body. Maybe the toes tap the floor. Maybe they don't. Either way is okay. Exhale to lower. Inhale up.

1 more time each side. Exhale down, back ribs stay heavy. Inhale up. Last 1. Exhale. And inhale to lift. Now, let's try to do both legs at the same time playing with the range of motion.

So let's keep it small to begin with, lowering both legs. And then lifting them back up. You can even keep a hand on top of the abdominals to make sure they're not doming up to the ceiling, exhale to come down. Inhale to lift. And if that felt good for you, maybe go a little bit lower this time, exhale to come down. Inhale to lift.

2 more of those exhale down. Inhale up. 1 more down with the legs and lift. Good. Let's go into a dead bug. So close those knees together and flex the feet stretch the arms up to the ceiling.

Again, take an inhale, and as you exhale, push those back ribs down, belly to spine, transverse abdominis engaged. I'm gonna stretch my right arm back by my ear as I lengthened my left leg. Without changing anything in my torso and take a few breaths here. Just hold the position I'm already shaking. On your next exhale, pull everything back to center, switching sides, reaching everything away from the center, left arm back, right leg forward.

On your next exhale, bring it back to center, switching sides again, right arm back, left leg forward. Try to not pull that right knee towards the chest as the left leg stretches. Try to keep that tabletop. And bring it in and against stretch it long. And pull it back in.

You can hug the knees to the chest rocking side to side, give it a little stretch. Great job. Let's grab our magic circle and place it on the inner ankles. So you have the option to keep the feet down on the floor for the 100 or right away start to tabletop. I'm gonna go to tabletop because I'm feeling pretty strong today. Reach the arms up to the ceiling and press them down. Now, if you don't have a diastasis recti issue, you're able to lift the chest off of the mat. Otherwise, keep the head down and just squeeze your circle and pump your arms inhaling for 5 pumps and exhaling for 5 pumps.

Again, if you're feeling strong today, go ahead and lift that chest, but only if your abdominals don't dome to the sky. Inhale. And exhale. If you're feeling good, maybe stretch the leg straight up to the sky, keep pumping those arms. And it's okay to keep that chest down. If needed.

Keep squeezing that circle, make the inner thighs work nice and hard. Inhale and exhale. If you're feeling really good, go ahead. Let those legs come to a high diagonal. If you're feeling strong, otherwise the feet are flat on the floor, in tabletop or straight up to the sky, 1 more breath here, inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5, and exhale. 2, 3, 4, 5. Good. Bring the knees into the chest.

Rest the head. Come on up to seated and, of course, be careful with how you get up. If you have diastasis recta, you can roll to your side and get up, or just rock yourself up to seated. Let's place the legs through the circle above the knees, pressing the outer thighs into the pads of the circle. Let's do some half rollback.

So from here, lightly grab behind the thigh, sit up nice and tall, take an inhale from here, And as you exhale start from the pelvis curling back, reaching the low back to the floor. It won't touch the floor, but that's what you're reaching for the floor. Take an inhale at the bottom and exhale bring yourself back up, reaching your forehead towards your knees and sitting up tall at the top. Inhale at the top and exhale roll it down, initiating from the pelvis. Belly button really pulling back to the spine.

Keeping the fingertips light on the thighs and roll it back up forehead to knees. Keep trying to press that circle apart with the outer thighs, sitting up tall at the top. If that was okay for you, reach your arms forward and do your half roll back here, curling the tailbone under rounding back, holding for a second at the point where you feel a little bit shaky, Inhale at the bottom as you exhale forehead towards your knees. Keep pushing the belly button back to the spine as you roll it up. And of course, if the movement needs to be a little bit smaller for you, make that adjustment. Let's hold it back here and go into a twist.

So reaching both arms over to the right as I twist my ribs to the right. Bring a center. Twist the ribs to the left. Keep pressing that circle apart. Bring it center, roll it on up, sit up tall at the top.

1 more time like that, find your half roll back a point where you can stay and hold it, and then twist the ribs to the right, not the hips, bring it center. Twist the ribs to the left. Bring it center and roll it on up. Sit up tall. If you're able to go ahead and roll yourself all the way down onto your mat, or just lie on your side and roll down the way you need to. So take the circle away from the legs, and then reach your arms straight up to the sky for single legs circle.

I'm gonna stretch my left leg long on the mat and reach my right leg up to the sky, pressing the heels of my hands into the pads of the circle. Find that slight external rotation of the right leg And since my legs are lifted up to the sky, my range of motion might be a little bit smaller. I have less support, so start circling the leg over to the left, down, around, and up. I'm keeping it small to start, circle over, down around and up, back ribs stay heavy, hips stay steady, over, down around and up. 2 more times this direction, really pressing that left heel down into the mat. 1 more time. This direction over down around and up, and then reverse those circles take it out and down across and up.

Inhale as you go out. Exhale to finish that circle. 3 more this direction. 2. 1 more. From here, try to scissor switch those legs right away. So right leg down, left leg up, find that slight external rotation from the hip, really anchoring those hip bones down to the mat, start crossing the leg over inhale, exhale to circle.

Inhale. Exhale circle. 3 more this direction. And then go ahead, reverse those circles Back ribs are heavy, belly to spine, so much harder with the arms not by the sides. 3 more.

1 more time, inhale, and exhale circle. Good. Lower that leg down. Bend your elbows. And let's come right back up to seated.

I know we were just up, and then we went down, but now we're up again. We're gonna place the circle over the knees like a crown pressing into the outer thighs. Scooch your hips forward so you have a little bit of space behind you on your mat for rolling like a ball. Go ahead. Whenever you're ready, curl the tailbone under, try to hover the feet off of the mat and pull the heels really close to the seat. Try to press that circle apart with the outer thighs.

Let's take a deep inhale to roll back. Exhale up. Inhale back. Exhale up. Feel that nice massage on the spine.

Inhale back. Exhale up. 2 more times. Back. And up. 1 more back.

And up, try to balance at the top, and go ahead put the feet down, take your circle off of the legs, and lie down however you need to. From here, place 1 pad of your circle on your thigh, both hands go on the other pad. I'm gonna keep the opposite leg pressing down or the opposite foot pressing down into the mat. This leg is in tabletop, and all I'm gonna do is pull my thigh bone back as I press into the circle with my hands, and then release. And this next 1, we're really gonna focus on pulling pulling the abdominals down towards the floor, transverse abdominis working, inhale as you exhale press.

Inhale release. Exhale press. Inhale release. Go ahead, check-in on this next press. Make sure your belly button's pulling down and not doming up. Inhale release.

Exhale. Inhale release. And exhale. Let's do 5 more. 4.

3. 2. 1 more time. Beautiful. Go ahead, put that foot down, switching sides. You can switch hands, whichever 1 wasn't on top before, place it on top now.

And take a nice deep inhale and exhale push. Inhale, exhale push. Inhale and exhale. Go ahead, check-in with the abdominals. Make sure they're not doming up. Exhale.

5 more times, inhale. Exhale Press. 4. 3. 2.

1 more time. Inhale and exhale push. And release. Good. Place your magic circle off to the side. We won't need it for the next couple of exercises, reach the arms long to your sides and bring both of your legs to tabletop.

From here, going into a tabletop tick tock, so without moving the ribs or the shoulders we're gonna start to let the knees go over to the right. My right my left hip can lift off of the mat, but not my left ribs, and then pull everything back to center with the abdominals. Going over to the left, take a deep inhale, and exhale bring it back center. Again, inhale. Over to the right.

Exhale. Bring it back center. Inhale over to the left. And exhale. Bring it back center. If you're feeling good today, you can stretch those legs up to the sky.

Same thing with a longer lever, inhale over to the right, and exhale use the abdominals, bring the legs back center. Inhale left. Exhale center. 1 more time. Each side. Inhale. Right. Exhale. Center. Inhale. Left. Last 1.

Exhale center. Nice. Bring your knees to your chest, and you can rock up to seed it or get up however you need. And let's do spine stretch forward. So grab your magic circle again. Place 1 hand on over top of the other, press the heels down.

There might be a slight bend in the knees to keep the backside of the legs engaged and sit up as tall as you've ever sat. So from here, let's engage the lap Let's push the shoulders down. Let's push the front ribs towards the back ribs and just press the circle down on an inhale. As you exhale, bend forward sort of like a candy cane. Don't collapse I wanna get taller as I round forward without releasing that squeeze of the circle.

Inhale Zola it up. Keep pressing the circle down. And exhale lift. Again, inhale. Let's press the circle down and grow a little bit taller. Shoulders down the back front ribs to back ribs, exhale, spine stretch forward.

Bending the spine. Keep the pelvis steady. Keep pulling the ribs and the waist back and bend over those ribs. Inhale. Roll up. Keep pressing your circle down.

Exhale release. Again, inhale grow taller, press the circle down. Exhale. Keep pressing the circle down. Spine, stretch forward. It's okay if your circle shifts a little bit. But just keep pressing it down into your mat. Inhale.

Roll up through the spine. And exhale. Release. Let's do that 1 more time because it feels nice. Inhale press it down. Grow taller. Exhale round it forward.

But don't scrunch over. I'm lift it to round forward. Inhale. Roll it up. Keep caressing down on your circle and exhale. Really.

That feels nice on the spine, opening all of this up. So we are going to flip over onto our bellies. I'm not gonna use the circle. We're gonna do sort of a baby swan. So length in the legs long behind you, and let's place the hands underneath the shoulders.

Now I don't want you to do too much extension of the spine that sort of puts a lot of pressure on your rectus abdominis, which is what we're trying to avoid. So we are going to only extend to neutral, maybe a little bit beyond, but not more. So from here, I'm thinking of lengthening the crown of my head forward with my toes reaching back. My hip bones are pressing down into the mat, and my belly button is really pulling in towards the spine, hugging those elbows in. I'm going to lift my hands off of the mat and only lift my chest as much as I feel my crown of the head lifting forward and up. So I'm really trying to lengthen the low back and not scrunch it.

And then come right back down. So let's inhale to lift belly button pulls to the spine, hip bones pressing down, lift the hands and the chest just a little bit. I'm lengthening the crown of my head, way forward. And then lowering everything down on an exhale. Again, inhale lift, hands off the mat first.

And then pause here. Try to reach your arms forward. By the ears, crown of the head stretching forward, lengthening the low back, hip bones pressing down so many things happening at once, bend those elbows, hands go back under the shoulders, and then bring it on down. 1 more time like that, lift the hands, inhale, lift the chest. And then reach those arms forward.

Maybe pull in in the abdominals a little bit more, Bring the elbows back hands under the shoulders and exhale, press it down. Good. Let's go to a child's pose, sitting the hips back to the heels. Take a deep breath here. We're opening up the spine. It feels really nice.

We're gonna go back on to the abdominals. So grab your magic circle. We're keeping it down on the floor, but we're taking the heels of the hands and pressing it into that circle. So the upper body is still engaged. Now I'm still lengthening the crown of my head forward, even though I'm on my elbows, I'm making sure to not dump into the low back.

I'm trying to push the hip bones or pull the hip bones up towards my front ribs, pubic bone pulling up towards my belly button for single leg kick. So right heel kicks to the seat 2 times, kick, kick, and lower it down. Shoulders down the back, pull the belly in, left heel to the seat twice, and keep going. Kick kick and lower it down. Kick, kick, kick, lower it down. Kick, kick, kick. Keep making those tiny adjustments if you feel your back start to sink down towards the mat so easy to do. Kick kick.

Kick. Kick 1 more time each side. Right. Right. And left, left, and lower it down. Let's just move the circle a little bit. Let's do a quad stretch. So I'm just gonna place my head on top of the hand.

Left heel to the seat. Pull that heal to the seat a little bit closer, pull the thigh bone away from the floor. Another thing that's amazing about giving birth is Once you're not pregnant again, you can lie on your belly. So stretches like this feel so good. Alright. Go ahead. Let that go.

And let's come back up. Onto your back again. Grab your magic circle. Let's place it on the inner thighs. So just make sure you're in a comfortable place above the knees, not on the knee joint.

And even though it's hard to tell, try to keep your feet hip distance apart, even though the circle is wider than hip distance, and then find that squeeze. Keep the entire ball of the foot down. Make sure you're not favoring the outsides of the feet. Press those big toes down, arms by your sides, and we're just gonna squeeze. So inhale open. Exhale squeeze. Inhale open, exhale squeeze, inhale open, exhale, and continue.

With every exhale feel the deepening of the abdominals at the bottom of that exhale. And like I said, you can always place your hands on your belly. Just to feel what they're doing. Let's do 4 more. 3.

2. And 1. Let's hold it here and just do 10 small pulses. 10, 9, 8765 4, 3, 2. Let's just hold that squeeze for 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Take an inhale to open. Excel squeeze again, let's go into our shoulder bridge. So from here, curl the tailbone under, keep the squeeze of the inner thighs and start to peel the spine off of the mat only as high as you can keep your pubic bone higher than the hip bones.

So we don't wanna arch in that low back. So curl all of that under, take an inhale at the top, exhale, roll down through the spine. Release it at the bottom. Exhale squeeze your circle, curl the tailbone under, and roll it up. Inhale at the top.

And exhale Zola it down to the best part you get that massage on the spine as you articulate the find down. Inhale. Open. Exhale. Squeeze. Curl the tailbone under Zola it up. And let's just squeeze the inner thighs at the top 10 times for fun. 10. 9.

876-543. To hold the squeeze, inhale at the top, and exhale. Roll it down. Very nice. Take your circle. Keep it in your hands.

Let's just place the soles of the feet together. Open the knees wide to the side for an inner thigh stretch. Take a breath here. Good. And from here, let's do some sideline work. Side kicks. So I'm on my right elbow working the left leg first. I'm gonna use this circle for a challenge of my stability, reaching the left arm forward, pressing that circle down. My legs are a little bit in front of my body in a shallow l. Make sure you're pushing the floor away with that right elbow, and then engaging the right side of the body.

From here, lift that top leg hip height, side kick forward, kick kick. Let's point the toes to stretch the leg to the back. And then again, kick kick forward. And the hardest part is to press down on this circle as the leg goes back. It's very hard to keep it pressing down, but that's our goal.

Kick kick and stretch. And kick, kick, stretch, stretch, stretch, lengthening those hips 1 more time, front front, and lengthen to the back. Good. From here, let's turn the leg out. Grand leg lifts, so we lift the leg up. Flex the foot to lower.

Point to go up and flex to lower. Point to list and flex to lower 2 more up. And down. And And down, back to parallel, let's circle 5 times each direction. 3, 2, 1, reverse for 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, and lower that leg down.

Let's place the pad on the inner ankle of 1 and place that opposite leg on top. Lying all the way down. Let's just press down into that circle for 5. And 4. And 3.

And 2. And 1 hold for 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 and carefully release. Come on up, switching sides. I'm going to continue to face you Lengthen that top arm forward, press that circle down. The goal is to keep pressing that circle into the floor.

Lift that top leg, kick, kick to the front, and stretch to the back. Front front. And the length in length and length in front front and reach. 2 more. Stretch. Stretch. Stretch.

1 more time. Good from here. Grond leg lift. Turn the leg out. Point to lift and flex to lower. Point to lift and flex to lower.

Oh, And down, and down 1 more time. Parallel that leg, 5 circles each direction for 5. 4, 3, 2, reverse, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Good place the pad on the inner ankle of the bottom leg and push into that top leg, lying all the way down, and just press down 5 times 5 and hold. 4.

3, 2, and then hold that squeeze for 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, release that circle. And then let's place it off to the side. For some side planks getting more side body, so slightly bend both of your legs will stay on the same side for now. Place your top hand on your hips, stretch those legs, and reach the top arm up. From here, we thread the needle twisting the ribs down towards the mat, but keeping the hips stacked, and then reach the arm up.

3 more. 3. 2. And, 1, keep that top arm lifted and lift the hips up to the ceiling for 5. 4. 3. 2, and 1, and bring it on down, switching sides onto your forearm.

There's a slight bend in the knees before you come up and then you stretch those legs to lift from here. Reach the arm up to the sky, and then thread the needle. And, and again, And lift 2 more. 1 more time. Keep the top arm lifted. Raise the hips to the sky. 5. 4.

3, 2, and 1, and carefully bend the knees to come down. And let's come up to standing. Grab your magic circle. Legs are together and parallel. So from here, have the heels of your hands in your circle, in the pads of the circle, reach the arms forward and up on a high diagonal.

So if they're too high, you're probably gonna lift your shoulders to your ears, and we really wanna stay connected with the arms on our backs. So squeeze that circle. And from here, just like we started class, going into marching, bringing the right knee up to a 90 degree bend. Holding here. So finding that balance, deepening the abdominals, pressing the whole ball of the foot into the floor, and just putting it right back down. Keep that squeeze of the circle left side, lift that leg.

And put it down. I lost a lot of my balance after I had my baby a little over a year ago. So things like this, they're small, but they're important. And put that foot down 1 more time like this, lift the left leg, and put it down. Let's add an extension so we're gonna bend that knee And then extend the heel forward.

Try to keep the thigh bone in the same place, bend that knee, and put it down. Left leg up. Big toe of the right foot pressing down, stretch that left heel forward, bend that knee. Put it down 1 more time each side. Pull it up. Stretch it out.

Bend it in, and put it down 1 more time, left side, stretch it forward, then that knee and put it down. Bring the arms forward. Keep that squeeze of the circle and find your Pilates stance a small v. Keeping the heels together, lift the heels off of the mat. And press them down 9 more times in here.

Exale press. 8, 7, 6, 5, can you squeeze the circle a little bit more? 4. 3. Press 2. Losing my balance. And press 1 more time. Lift.

Press the heels down. Lower the arms down. And you're finished. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'll see you next time.