Strengthening Prenatal Mat

Hi. I'm Ashley, and I'm gonna take you through a prenatal mat workout, but we'll have a couple props. So grab a thera band and two small weights. I'm using three pounds. You can go lighter, heavier, or choose to do this without weights. Let's start with some little side to side running warm ups. So nice wide stance, shift your weight to one leg and roll through the foot, and then the other hands can be at the chest, at the hips wherever it feels secure, if you're feeling a little out of balance, You can definitely open them to the side.

So we're just shifting our pelvis over one leg and the other rocking through our weight while rocking through our feet to get them warmed up articulating through the toe ball heel. Toe ball heel. Keep it going. Breathe in and let it out. Just start to feel how much can your ribs expand as you breathe and depending on how far along you are in your pregnancy. They might not feel like they can expand very much. It's always a little harder to get that air in at the end.

And three more. Just warming up, two, and one, and come up to stand. Grabbing the thera band to warm up the arms. Hold your thera band at shoulder height, palms down, and have a nice strong tension when your arms are at that shoulder width to then pull against it. Feel your shoulder blades trying to band as the arms come together and trying to narrow as the arms open while nothing else changes in your body. We're going for eight of these. So four.

Mhmm. Nice and strong. Three. Two, waking up the arms, the upper body, one, taking the arms overhead. I might open a little wider. So again, you want tension.

You're not going to bring it all the way to slack, and just a little pull open. Nice straight arms Eight of these. This is four. Make sure you're not locked in your legs. Just a little bend is a nice way to stay with action through the pelvis so you're not tucked or arched and locked. Last one, and bring it back forward.

Let's rotate palms to the ceiling. So a little rotator cuff work here. Elbow stay glued to the ribs as you try to open a cupboard and close eight times. Two. Small action, but a lot of work happening in the shoulders. Rotate and narrow. Rotate feeling it in the back of that rotator cuff.

Breathe your ribs into your arms as you pull and two. And we've done all of this nice warming up so that we earn our shoulder floss. So take a nice wide grip in your thera band. Take it up and all the way back, so hold as wide as you need so you don't feel like you're forcing it, but have a nice smooth action. So you can hold very wide. Keep the tension so you get that chest opening at the back and feel your shoulder blades glide up and down.

As your arms lift, your shoulder blades have to lift. It's just part of biomechanic, so don't be afraid to feel them move. And breathe in as your arms come up to feel again that rib expansion all the way around 360 degrees. One more time, just because it feels so good. This will be a great thing for after baby comes to keep your chest open from so much of what involves us being rounded forward.

Come to one side of your mat for monster walks. So we're gonna use this theraband as a little outer hip activator. Just wrapping it around from the back. Pretty close together as I get there, and then pulling and opening the knee. So I have tension here.

I'm gonna take my elbows in and my fists out back into that rotator cuff work, and we're just walking to one side of the mat. Keep those legs nice and open. So the feet never come to each other. They stay open, so we're into that outer hip. Can you send your hips a little further back? Stay in that deep squat.

Chest is open and breathe. Let's do one more full round to the right and then to the left. We're almost there. And and close and open and close. Open and keep those hips back nice and low and up. Whoo. Yes. We're nice and warmed up.

We'll put the thera band away and grab some small weights for bicep curls and overhead press. So I've got three pounds, but again, you can use heavier, lighter, or no weights at all. If you don't have weights, you can hold some. Cans of beans. So nice strong stance, a little bend in the knees just again, so we're not locked or sinking.

Bicep curl up, rotate the palms open, lift up overhead, resist down, close and lower eight of these, full set. And in and down, connecting that breath, exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. And keeping it flowing.

So if you feel this is heavy, you can do a few less reps and move slower, find the pace that feels in control for you. And three, getting that blood flowing. And two, exhale on the up, exhale, inhale, exhale. And one, and bring it in and down. Take both weights into one hand for a side bend.

If that feels like too much or not stable grip, you can always just put one weight down. So I'm holding them both in one hand to create a little heavier on one side. Left hand behind the head, right arm is just hanging by the side. Inhale as you reach your fist towards your heel on the right side, exhale to come back up. Inhale as you reach the weights down, left elbow to the ceiling, exhale come back to a straight spine, lateral flexion to the side using those left obliques while they're extended to then pull you back up to even.

Four more, exhale pulls you up, inhale, reaches you over. And I can think of squeezing my feet towards each other on the mat. So isometric inner thigh connection. Two, and lift one more. Breathing in and exhale up, we'll switch sides. So transferring the weights to my left hand.

Right hand behind my head And pressing my head into my hand a little bit to create some activation behind the neck. Inhale as the weights reach to the left heel, exhale to pull back up. Feel your ribs reach away from your right hip and then pull back together with your exhale. Inhale going over and exhale. It's just gravity in those weights, pulling you to the left, and then those right obliques pulling you back up. Four, and lift.

Three, exhale to come up, two, exhale lift one more opening that side body, and up. Take the weights back one in each hand and take a nice wide externally rotated position for a sumo squat. So bending the knees deeply, bend the elbows as they're reaching towards your ribs and straighten everything together reach and bend in. Let's exhale on the up Inhale. This is three. We're going again for eight, four.

Full body action, five. Breathing, exhale six. Stretching those arms out, feel the biceps, feel the back, everything working together, last one, and stretch and bring the legs closer together for a little pendlay row with a tricep press. So parallel hip distance legs, bend the knees as much as you need to find your back as flat to the ground as it can be. So if you're in your third trimester, second even, you might wanna be wide or just create space for your belly.

Find that back as flat as you can. So knees can be bent. Fweights are right under the shoulders. Pull your elbows to your ribs. Then straighten your arms behind you in that tricep press.

Pull back in and down. Elbows up. Keep the upper arm at the level or above your body. So you're pulling your shoulder blades together keeping them together as you get into that tricep and up in and down. So ribcage doesn't move. Spine stays nice and long, but you're feeling your shoulder blades glide with this action.

They pull together. Here you feel them separate. Pull them up, shoulder blades reaching towards the spine. As you push into that tricep press. One more time.

And bring it up to stand. You can always use your hands on your thighs to come up because we were down there for a moment. Let's do a front split with pulses adding this weight. Give yourself a good wide stance that you can find balance in. So right leg forward, left leg back on the ball of the foot. Bend into a little imaginary on the reformer doing a front split and straighten two more times just feeling that range of motion, that activation of the right quad and the left thigh and the right glute as well.

Now stay in it and pulse here for eight, seven, six, five, don't forget to breathe. Three, two, one, and standing up. Switching side. So left leg forward. Lake should feel nice and awake after all these squats and different various, fashion. So find your balance, nice wide stance, bend. And straighten, so give yourself two to three reps to just feel where your stability is, where you need to be to stay balanced and stable.

And now we're pulsing for eight, seven, six, five, feeling that left, hip, glute, two, one, and bring it up. Step the feet together and we're going down to our knees. I'm gonna keep one weight with me. So kneeling down, one weight can go away. I'll keep this weight here as we go into a side bend.

I'm on my right knee. My left leg is straight out and I'll keep the weight in my left hand close to my shoulder. As my right arm reaches to the ground, my left arm from the shoulder extends out into this deep side body stretch, pulling it back in to come up transfer the weight to the opposite hand from the shoulder, reaching up and out. So the weight is facilitating this deeper stretch, but we wanna keep it proximal, not distal. So we feel really in control of it. Again, if this is too much, you can always do it with no weight. You're still gonna get a great stretch and activation of your side body.

One more. And in and up to go over and lift. Bend your left knee and bring it a little forward of your hips and your heel under your knee. Just holding the weight at center as you transfer the weight over the left leg, and then pull the weight back over the right. Transfer the weight over the left.

Use that left inner thigh like you're dragging your heel to your right knee. One more. And in, and send that leg back out. Keep the weight in your left hand. Right arm is gonna go back to the ground for some elbow to knee.

So left elbow and left knee come towards each other. And reach away and in and lengthen, pushing the ground away through that right palm, squeezing that right glute to stay balanced on top of the right knee. And moving at this nice brisk pace, staying in control, two, and reach, bring the weight back to the shoulder, come up to go to the other side. So I'm standing on left knee. Right leg goes out to the side, right hand's holding the weight, and as I reach to the ground, I go all the way out from the shoulder to that big shoulder stretch and come up transferring the weight and going up and over this way.

Lift up, transfer and reach. So moving from that center of the body and up and over. One more time, right arm reaches out from the shoulder, bring it back, transfer to the left, bending to the right and center. Bend your right knee and externally rotate it slightly in front of your left hip. So right heel under right knee weight is to the center.

Bend into that right knee, and then feel your right heel dragging to your left. So creating a lot of inner thigh work as you pull back deep bend, deep hips stretch, use the muscle from the stretch. Transfer the weight back into your right hand. Right arm extends. Left arm goes down.

Bring the elbow and the knee together for those elbow and knee connects. They extend and connect for eight. Reach and seven. Left glute is pressing your hip right on top of your left knee. Left hand is pressing the ground away. You can look a little where you're going, or just look straightforward if that helps with your balance. Two more.

And extend one more. Extend, bring the weight to the shoulder, push through the hand to come up. We're going into side lying. So I will start on my left side, keeping the weight with me, align my spine up with the back edge of the mat. And then legs will come slightly forward.

And once I find this position, I'm taking the weight and hooking it behind my right knee. So I'm holding on for dear life in the crux of the knee, and just taking that leg forward and back without losing the weight forward and back. So feel where your thigh bone can go. Inflection and extension of that hip, and back, and three more. A little counter rotation in the upper body is okay, but really press that bottom leg down for stability. One more. Keep the length through the top hip, and then bring your knee to a 90 degree bend from the hip joint and circle. Keep that weight. Two. Three.

Four eight times. Five bottom leg pushing down six, seven, eight, reverse for eight, and seven, don't lose that weight, six, five up and around four, Three glute activation, and one. Okay. We can take the weight away. We'll keep it here because we'll need it on the other side, but back to some traditional side leg kicks. So just go back to the front. And back and feel that same range of motion you found from your thigh. Now you just got the lower leg following along and back and front.

And reach bottom leg pushing down, keeping the length through the bottom side as well as the top. You're trying to get taller with each kick and leg over a leg. Circles here. So hovering the heel over the bottom heel, right, heel lifts to the ceiling for eight, seven, six, five, four, almost like you're striking a match, which with each circle around and reverse. Eight, seven, six, five, feeling that outer hip, working, creating stability in the pelvis, two, one, and rest. Now we'll do bicycles. So I want you to think about that weight being in the back of your knee.

Kick the leg forward. Hug your imaginary weight. Keep that weight. Now you can release it. Kick the leg forward.

Hug the weight behind the knee. Don't lose the weight. And then open two more destruction, then we'll change in, heel to the glute extend. One more, heel to the thigh, thigh extends, reach and reverse. So you have no weight.

Clench that weight, bring it forward, release it, swing it back, clench the weight, knee forward, and up two more, and back. Heal to the glute, and last time, back, and knee to the chest up and rest. We're gonna go to the other side, make your way up and over. I'll stay facing you. So I'm bringing my right side along the back edge of the mat, taking my weight with me, propping my head into my hand, and legs come forward on a slight angle finding that balance. Now the fun, fun part, putting that weight behind the knee, securing it in there, and we go front and back.

So just bringing the left thigh to the chest, reaching the thigh behind the hip. Front and back, making that connection that we're gonna use in bicycle. So that knee stays tightly gripped activating your hamstring to keep that weight tucked behind the knee, and up, and back. We want the left hip to feel just as much as the right hip just felt. It's already been working to stabilize while you were lying on it, and now it's ready to catch on fire. Two, three, four, circling five, six, seven, eight, reverse. So that knee and thigh is lifting to the ceiling. You can almost pretend like you have another weight on top of your leg that you're trying to throw up to the ceiling.

Just some weight juggling. Just kidding. And take that weight out, freedom, and you're going to lift the top leg and go back to the front back kicks with all that lightness from taking the extra weight away and back. Eight times three. Again, finding the length through the bottom side by reaching the top side longer.

Try to make your left leg longer than your right leg while you keep that right leg pressing down. Two, and one, and leg over leg, circling with a long leg, left heel towards the ceiling, and circle two, three, for again striking that match each time you come around to the bottom, leg, and reverse it. One, two, three, four, creating length and opposition everywhere in your body. Two, and one. Whoo, bicycle. So we gotta have our imaginary weight coming with us. Grab that weight at the front, send the leg back, extend. Bring that thigh forward, hug the weight behind your knee. Keep it there until the thigh goes behind your hip. Two, and reach, and one, and reach, and reverse.

Send your left leg behind your hip. Bend the knee, heel to the glute. Keep it tight as it comes forward and extend. Back, heel to the glute, knee to the chest extend. Swing the leg back, but keep the length through the waist two more.

And in one more, and in and leg over leg. We're coming up to all fours, but elbows in these. I'm gonna place my weight behind, so it's just out of my way. Elbows under the shoulders. I'm gonna make fists and knees together for some little rainbow leg lifts.

So sending the left leg just outside of the mat, neck is long, lift the leg, and reach it across to touch outside the other side of your mat. So we're doing a little rainbow lift and over, arcing that leg using the right side to stabilize as well as the push through the shoulders, lots of shoulder stability, lots of hip stability, with mobility. And two more, lift and over, lift and arc, bring it back where you started, and bring it in, maybe a little Wiggle for a second before we go to the second side. I'm starting with the knees together just for balance. If you feel like you need to be a little wider to start, that's an option too.

I find the need to the center creates a little tripod situation here between the elbows and the knee. Right leg is just outside the mat, shoulders are dragging down the back as you lift and make an arc like a rainbow to each side of the mat with that right leg. Lifting till you feel the glute, and controlling the down, and up four more, and up three, and up, keeping all that active work in the upper back and one, one, and close. I'm gonna have the knees open at least as wide as the hips, depending on how big your baby is. You might wanna go a little wider.

And the feet are as wide as the knees. Just cat cow here, so tucking and curling. Having the elbows down for this is a little bit more of attraction for that SI joint for the sacrum. Little anti gravity having the hips above the heart here. One more breathe in as you look forward, exhale as you look in And then as you come back to neutral, reach your hips back towards your heels, keeping the feet and the knees open in line with each other creates again a deeper kind of different stretch to the hips than our traditional child's pose.

Just reaching the arms forward as the hips go back, if it's available to you still. And if you need to do feet together knees wider to create more space for your belly, absolutely do that. You can keep little movements going through it. And then carefully roll forward and coming up to stand. And thank you so much for joining me.

I hope you feel energized and strong.