Hi. I'm Ashley, and I'm here to take you through a prenatal mat class. All you'll need is a mat plus a chair. Let's get started. We'll do some hip flexor lifts just to strengthen our hip flexors. So holding on to the chair as a little bar, left leg will come up and down 10 times.
You can be more narrow if your belly hasn't expanded too much yet. And if you need to take the leg a little wider, just so you have that clearance, to really lift and strengthen through that hip flexor three, and two, and one hold the last one, and we'll just do the other side, warming the hips up before we do some squats. Lift the knee and lower. Trying not to lift your hip as you lift your knee, really working that hip flexor, standing strong on the opposite leg and using the chair for balance. Three more.
Two, hold on the last one, and down. Come to the front of your chair for squats. We're standing with a nice wide stance And as you bend your knees, lift your arms, feel the chair behind you, and stand back up 10 times. This is two. And I like to inhale at the top, and exhale to come back up.
Inhale as you lower, exhale come up. The arms are just working as a counterbalance. So if you prefer to have them somewhere else, you can. But we're working the leg strength to support our pelvis and support baby. Let's go for three, and exhale up two, and exhale up one, and exhale up this time we get to just sit in the chair and do a brief figure four rolling out the ankle. So crossing one leg over the other, lean forward into that stretch. And then when you come up, circle the ankle for three, two. One and reverse that circle, three, two, one, getting some mobility and blood flow through those ankles and feet, other sides.
Lleaning in as much as you can, the more upright you lift out of your low back. The more that stretch will happen for you, without needing to round into it, and circle the ankle. Two, three, four, and reverse. One, two, three, four. Let's take a side stretch. So opening the legs pretty wide, feeling this nice stability coming from the chair.
Right hand is on the right thigh. Left arm comes up and bend to the right. Coming back up, supporting with the left hand right arm comes up and bend to the left, making sure you're not too arched forward or too rounded back, trying to feel that shoulder over hip position. One more time each way like this, and then we'll change the hand position. So you can use that hand to help you come up, but find those obliques on your right side, and then use them to come up.
Hands interlace behind the head sitting tall. Let's go again bending over, breathe in. Exhale come back up. Inhale going over. And exhale up. One more each way. Inhale bending to the right, exhale and lift.
Inhale to the left, plant through the feet and lifting up. Into a twist. So inhale as you rotate to one side. Make it more about the head and neck rotating and exhale come back to center. So use your eyes and just twist to where you feel you can do it safely. We don't need to push the twist too much.
In our pregnant bodies. Inhale as you rotate and use the exhale to bring you back. Let's do two more with a different breath. So inhale here, exhale and rotate Think of going up and let your eyes try to look towards that back elbow. Inhale here exhale rotate. Staying tall.
And one more each way, exhale. Trying to look behind me, opening the neck and chest, exhale, rotate, and back to center. We're going into some pelvic circles. So finding all of the points of our pelvic floor, So start by shifting forward in front of the sit bones, reach to your right sit bone, curl and round back behind both sit bones, and then reach to the left. Hands are on the thighs just to give you that support.
So rib cage rooms in front of the pelvis. To the right side of the pelvis, to the back, and to the left side, two more like that. And you can start to connect those those actions to make it a circular motion, feeling all the points of the pelvis underneath you. And at the front, we're gonna reverse it. So taking the rib cage to the left, pulling the rib cage behind the hips, ribs to the right, and forward.
Feel the weight transfer on the chair. And each time you shift forward, feel how the sit bones almost feel like they separate more. And as you shift back, they almost come a little closer together. And as you get more and more pregnant, you'll feel less ability to round back, which is normal. So we wanna use it while we have it, but this is a safe action to do all the way through. One more, and then coming back to center. We're just gonna circle the risk because we're about to go into some tricep dips, and we wanna warm those wrists up.
So think about being a flamenco dancer, just flipping in, and out, finding whatever little moments you can, and then reversing it. I like to fill it up in, palms up, and Just get a little spicy in your workout. So shaking those wrists out, grabbing your chair, use your fingers to grip as well. So you lift up out of your wrists, and then stepping your feet out. So you're lifted up out of the shoulders.
The further away your feet go, the more of a challenge it will be. Bend the elbows as low as you can keep your shoulder blades from flying all the way up to your ears. So they will move, they will glide, but we don't want to sink at any point. So lifting up through the arms bend. And lift and bend 10 of these.
So five more. Bend and push up. Inhale, exhale four. Inhale, exhale three. Inhale exhale two. Last one.
And bring yourself safely back onto the chair. We'll do some bridging on the floor. So standing up to make our way down. I'm doing a deep squat to all fours, hands find the floor. And then rotating around to bring feet on top of the chair.
So pretty close to the chair, and lying on your back. Arms are pressed down strong, lift the hips as you inhale, and exhale lower down. So depending on where you are in your pregnancy, you may still feel a lot of articulation that you can use coming up and down, or it might feel safer in your body to just do a more of a flat back up and down, inhale coming up, exhale going down, inhale coming up, and exhale exhale down. Arms keep pressing strong. Let's reverse the breath.
Inhale here. Exhale pushing up. Inhale on the bottom. Exhale up. Inhale, exhale, and one more strong push through those arms as those hamstrings and glutes activate, and down.
Going into side leg kick, so rolling to one side. I'm gonna swing my legs around to bring my head towards the chair side. So legs will be extended out and stacked head propped into your hand an opposite hand in front of you. Bottom leg pressing down strongly. And if you need a little more of a base, you can absolutely bend that leg.
List the top leg and kick it forward. And as it kicks back, let your upper body counter balance a little bit. Front, and back eight times here. Front, this is three, and up. And for bottom leg continuing to press down, shoulders are relaxed as your head is propped up by your hand, but you can put a little pressure through that bottom elbow to activate that bottom side. Two more. Let that leg go back as the shoulder counter balances.
You slightly feel that long line through the right side of your body and leg over leg. Going into circles. Top leg will circle over the bottom leg eight times. This is three. Four.
Five, keep reaching through that top side and reverse for eight. Seven, six, five, four, breathing the whole time and one, and leg over a leg. Let's do a lift lower. Lift the leg and lower, keeping that reach to the top side, which will give you a little feeling of space in the bottom side, and lift and down through the heel side. So no external rotation, nice and parallel through that hip joint strengthening those deep glutes, and two, and one. Let's go to inner thigh lifts.
So it's half like if your belly is spanded, you can bring that leg forward here. If you still feel comfortable to grab, absolutely do that, but bringing the top leg forward in the bottom leg back in line with your spine. Flex the bottom foot and let's lift it. It doesn't go too far, but we wanna feel that adductor, that inner thigh connection up into the pelvis to stabilize, and lift and lower. And just checking in with the rest of the body that the neck and the shoulders can be active, but not tense, and you're still thinking of that top hip reaching away.
It also might be nice to put a yoga block or a pillow under this leg if you feel like you need that bent leg, but a little support. This is a big drop from the top hip. Last one, and rest. A kneeling side plank. So coming up on that left elbow tucking the legs in, and you wanna feel your elbow just slightly outside of your shoulder.
So when you press up in your kneeling side plank, your shoulder stacks over that elbow. Push into the ground with a strong flat palm or a fist. I'm gonna make a fist. Top hand can either be on your hip or on the ground and press up finding that straight line. From shoulder, hip to knee.
Maybe lift the top leg if that feels safe and bring it back down. We're doing four more of these for a total of five lift. Feel that bottom side, activate, breathe, and back down. And coming up for three. Just an option to add in that leg lifting.
It doesn't have to. So you can get here and then go, oh, yeah. I think I can do that. And down. Last time hold, feel that bottom side strongly activated going into mermaid stretch.
So press up. Let's bring the bottom leg forward. So you're on your left hip, right hand holding right shin, and left arm coming up to this ceiling. Inhale, and then exhale bend by pulling through that right side and pressing the left arm towards your left ear and coming back up. Inhale. Exhale as you go over, maybe take a breath in here, and then pushing through that right hand, right leg to come back up one last time. Again, trying to keep the head, ribs, and hips in line with each other, not letting the upper body shift too far forward or back of the pelvis.
And let's take a counter stretch. So bringing that elbow back down. Open the right side as we're about to work it, and then coming up to turn it all over to the opposite side. Side legs lying on the right side. Head is propped into your hands, legs are forward and a little bit of an angle so that bottom leg can actively press down. Top hand is there for support and left leg lifts to kick front and back. Front.
And as it goes back, let your body feel slight rotation to counter balance, and really find that as your leg goes behind you, can feel that gluten hamstring active. Make it about the gluten hamstring until you start to feel that outer hip kick in, and know that you're using all of those muscles to help support your pelvis as your belly grows. And back to more front and back range of motion that feels safe and doable for you, and then leg over leg for circles. Circle that top leg, keeping it parallel. Three, four, five, six shoulders in that can be relaxed, active, but not crunch, and reverse for eight, seven super parallel leg, So you're lifting from the heel side, getting into those deep glutes left hand is in front for support as needed and rest, starting to feel that left hip activate, and we're lifting and lowering again parallel leg. 10 times, keeping the reach through the left side to find the length on the right side as well, and lift and lower and four, three, two.
One, and rest. Now the knee gets to come forward, you can always grab if that's still available to you, or just let the knee drop and the top leg comes back in line with your body. Bottom leg is bottom foot, I should say, is flexed, And we're just lifting and lowering, seeing what range of motion we have here, but really just getting that inner thigh active and down, strengthening the adductors is necessary for everybody. But definitely helps with a pregnant body feeling more strong and stable as the belly grows. Let's go for three. And two, and one and down.
Coming up for a kneeling side plank. My right elbow is pressing into the mat just slightly outside my shoulder. So when I push up the shoulders over the wrist, I've got a strong fist here, and my knees are stacked. As I push up, if I feel secure, I'm bringing that left hand to my hip, and I'm lifting the left leg and back down five times. So this is two, using that bottom side, and three, and down pushing through that shoulder, push the right shoulder away from the floor and two more.
And one hand can always be here for support if you need it in front of you, and down. Mirmades, coming up, but finding this little cheerleader stance, bringing the right leg forward. The left hand grabbing the left shin and the right arm going up towards the right ear. Pull with the left hand as you bend on the right side, breathing in, and exhale coming back up. Finding that rib expansion, inhale, And exhale.
And one more time up and over. Don't be afraid to push into that left leg to help you come back up. And just a moment to counter stretch, right elbow on the ground, left arm opens, overhead, and coming up to all fours for some transverse breaths. So just training our breath and our abdominals to support our belly as it grows. These are under the hips, shoulders over the wrists.
Take a deep inhale, expanding your rib cage three sixty degrees inhale. On the exhale, feel the belly pull towards the spine. Inhale. Exhale. Let it all open, and exhale, strong arms, strong legs, almost as if you could hover your knees, but it's really about pulling in. You can think of breathing through a straw here, sucking the air in, and then pushing it out.
Trying to expand the back ribs and the side ribs The front ribs don't usually have a problem expanding. One more breath inhale and exhale. Feel that knit and relax. We're going into a cat cow, but hands will be on top of the chair. So palms on the chair, active through the arms, and then just hips over the knees or maybe slightly behind.
Look forward as you inhale and sit send your tail back. Exhale as you round and drop your chin and look into the center. Inhale and look forward. Exhale and round. Two more times.
Depending on how far in your pregnancy you are, you may feel you don't have as much ability to round. So just go where you can, finding that mobility of the pelvis and spine, and round. Use what you have. Going into a shoulder floss. Keep the left hand pressing into the top of the chair and reach the right arm to the ceiling, look to the ceiling, then reach under the body as you keep active in that left palm pushing the chair. Inhale open, look to the ceiling, exhale reach under. So the arm is not coming down all the way to the floor.
We're strengthening that left shoulder and arm. As we rotate. So just twisting to where it feels safe and doable for you, listening to your body, each day is different. Last time reaching across and come back to two hands on the chair. Going to the opposite side, right palm pushes, left arm reaches to the ceiling, look up to it, and exhale looking under.
Inhale twist look up. Let your eyes guide your movement. And two more twist and open, and exhale reaching under, and one more twist open, and reaching under, and both palms back on top of the chair for a kneeling lunge. So hands down the chair, and you can have a little tilt in your hips here. Bring your right foot forward outside the chair and lean in on that right leg and push into your hands as you push into your foot to bring your leg back.
Left leg goes forward, leaning in, hands can push as the foot pushes to come back. Let's do three more sets. So lean in on that nice left hip flexor stretch, but using the right leg or the front leg, I should say, to control it. And leaning in and push through that leg as you push through the hands, exhale to feel that center of the body work with you, everything working together to stretch, but also strengthen. Last time, and push.
We're coming up to stand for some hip slices. So hands will stay on the chair. Nice flat back. You can put a little bend in your knees if you need, so you can find that nice flat pelvis and we're lifting one hip higher than the other and back down. Lift one hip up and down, working all those deep muscles creating stability for us. And three more.
Go to the range of motion that feels safe for your body. It might be small. It might feel like you have to bend a knee to lift a hip, and you can absolutely use that. It's more about keeping that pelvis nice and flat. Other side.
So, lifting through the left hip and lower, standing strong on the right leg, strong through the arms, keeping that breath flowing, and down. And four, and down. And four more, and down. Three Breathing deep too. Little tiny muscles, getting a little shake here. One, and bend the knees just to help you come all the way up to stand.
Courtesy squats at the back of the chair. So we're coming back over. I'm gonna move the chair a little closer just because I can. And holding on to the chair for support, legs are parallel and hip distance. The left leg will step behind the right creating a little curtsy position and step back up.
Both knees bend, but it's more about that front leg and back up stepping behind. We're alternating each side, so getting into that right glute and push and left glute, and push stepping back. Right. And push feeling that left glutes send you right back to stand using the chair for balance as much as you need. Inhale, exhale, and four. Exhale, four.
Inhale as you go back. Exhale come up. Getting those glutes firing for you. And back last time, left leg steps back, curtsy, right leg steps back, curtsy, and rest. Okay. So we're going into a side stretch less right hand holds the chair.
Bend up and over. Bend your knees and round forward as much as you can and come back up. Feed can be together or apart the closer you are to the chair. You might feel more of a stretch depending on how long your arms are. Round forward.
I have very long arms and one more time. There's just three stretches to the side. Feel that. Left side body opening round forward, let your head drop and roll up to stand, turning it around to the other side. Left hand holds the chair. My feet are about hip distance apart as I bend and just press for support, round my body, let the head drop, and coming back up.
Up and over to the left, opening the right side, arm and head lead you forward, and up. One more. Breathing in, and exhale round, dropping the head and the arm together, and then rolling up to tall. I hope you feel strong and supported through the rest of your pregnancy. Thanks for working out with me.
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