Class #1159

Prenatal Postural Support

45 min - Class
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Leah teaches a Prenatal Reformer workout with a lot of shoulder work and articulation. She adds exercises to help release the body through the waist and pelvis, and stability work to gently engage the core muscles. Leah also uses the Fitness Ball to find fun ways to do back extension and also to give postural support for the Legwork.

You can watch Leah's Prenatal Mat Series #1 and Prenatal Mat Series #2 to get more ideas for Prenatal exercises to add to your repertoire.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Fitness Ball

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Hi, we're here for another prenatal class. Today we're going to be doing a prenatal reformer class and I have Lorena here with me and we just discovered when we met that we are the same week, 29 months pregnant and one day apart. And I do days. So we are kindred spirits here as far as our baby making goes. So we are going to be doing a just like really nice kind of intermediate reformer class here, just playing with some different repertoire and just really wanting to have a lot of fun with this. So we're going to start on our stability balls for our warmup.

Make sure you have a stability ball, a fitness ball, um, according to your height. You want to try to be as close to a 90 degree angle at your hip joint as you can while you're sitting on the bomb. We're going to actually be using the foot bar on the reformer to actually pull against in, hang on a little bit. So whatever piece of equipment you're working on, you'll probably be, you'll be good for pulling on it, but please be careful if you don't have safeties or locks on it to not push away because I do not want the foot bar to be flying forward on you at all. So please take precautions with that depending on the piece of equipment that you're working on.

So we're going to go ahead and start in a seated position and I want you to be as vertical as you can, hips directly under your shoulders, legs, just really nicely spread apart. And we're really going to work on some shoulder work and some articulation here. So you ready? Good. Okay, so sitting arms at the side. We're going to start with some breathing here as we move the arms. So we're going to take an inhale. The arms are going to come up overhead.

Exhale, you're just going to hinge at the hips. Come forward and just tap the arms of the wrist or the hands, whatever's closest onto the bar. Good. And inhale, come all the way back up to the vertical position and exhale down. Inhale. Feel that expansion of the rib cage. Feel the elevation of the waist. Xcel hinge at the hips. You don't need to roll the ball back. Just hinge at the hips. Bring the arms down. Nice flat back. Inhale, come right back up.

You'll feel that upper back work and exhale down. Let's do two more in hell that fill the rib cage, expand, lifted. Exhale forward. Feel that stretch through the back of the pelvis, through those hips. Inhale up. Start to listen to your body here. Let it speak to you here. Do you feel a little tight in your spine? A little tight in your shoulders.

One more time. Inhale, little tighten those hips and start to acknowledge where you might need to give it a little extra TLC today and come up. Inhale and exhale. So now for here, I want you to grab onto the foot bar. You may need to roll your ball back just a little bit. Actually, you do willing to roll your bop back. What am I saying? And you're going to come down is almost toy. You're in a flat back. Your belly probably will allow you to go very far if you're far into your pregnancy. So what I want you to do is you're going to exhale, you're going to come into a pelvic tilt, into a curl and pull the ball forward toward the reformer.

Then inhale articularly keep your feet flat for now and articulate the spine away, reaching the sitz bones back. Thinking of anteriorly tilting your pelvis. Xcel roll the underneath side of the pelvis, across the ball as you bring the pubic going forward toward the reformer. Then in how articulated back, pushing down constantly with your arms to get those lapsing. Gaze the shoulders engaged as surveyed us engaged. Exhale, come forward. Pull back slightly with your arms. Beautiful. Then inhale, don't push forward with your arms. Just in case you don't have your bar secure, just press down so you're nice and safe and now this time you're going to XL.

You're going to keep the feet flat. You're going to come into the tuck. When you inhale and push back, I want you to flex your feet, bring your toes up, dig your heels down into the floor and XL toes come down, come into the curve. Beautiful. And inhale, bring the toes that bring the chest forward, expand it, fill that back, extension and exhale. Two more. Good. And inhale. So you should be feeling that pelvic floor work, that abdominal work, that stretch that back extension work. Last one. Good. Lorena, how you feeling? Good. And bring it back.

Now flex the feet and I want you to hold the back extension. You're going to do toe taps, so bring your right toes down. You can kind of rotate your hips a little bit so you feel a little spiral. Yeah. And just switch XL one and two. Kind of let your hips sway and dance on the ball.

Switch switch. You'll feel that strong back extension. Wear good. Switch and switch a little faster and exhale. Exhale. Okay, two more sets. Okay.

Last one with the left foot and hold the rest your feet. Now here, I want you to bend your elbows, dive your head down and I want you to roll up. So we're doing a little snake. So I'm here. Yes, good. And then press away. Push. Extend the elbows, roll through the spine and bend the elbows. Dive your head down like you're doing a cat stretch. Yes, I love it.

Comes through. Think of scraping your nose across the foot bar and lift up. Open that pelvis. That should be a really good, nice open position. And then push, think of a shoulder push roll through. And I want your spine just to be like a wave roll down from top to bottom. Gorgeous. You got it. Ben's are elbows and reach up from the head, neck and chest. Expand your chest forward. Yes.

And then Ben and just let the ball roll back and forth naturally. Yes. I love it. Isn't that feel good? One more time and roll and bring it up. This is your birth ball here and roll all the way and up. Hold it there. Love it. Good. Now we're going to move to our side.

So the rent is going to face you and the face. The side here wants you to hold on nice and secure. And I want you to go in house, stretch over to the side. Really let yourself hang on the bar pool stretch here. Then exhale, bend your elbow and roll the back end. Just two more.

And Inhale Haine think like a monkey stretching out the side and exa pull yourself back up. Woo. One more time. Inhale, does getting held that release there through that ways through that pelvis and bringing it back up. Good. Now I want you to exhale, rotate. So you're kind of put both hands on the bar. So go ahead and open your legs a little bit. So your Peter A. Little bit more flat. Yeah, there you go. And I want you to pull back. You get that QL stretch.

Good. And then I want you to lift up into extension with the rotations. Try to keep your shoulders square to the bar. Xcel find the pike and pull back. Good. Heavenly Huh. And reach head, neck and chest and come up one more time and exhale and inhale. Head, neck and chest, find it come all the way up. Good and slowly, safely untwist yourself.

And now we're going to turn to where facing away from the reformer. Just a little bit of a shoulder opener. Place one hand on either side of your foot bar. Good feet are nice and flat. And then inhale, just lift your sternum up and XL release in the Balkan role, slightly forwarded back, which is fine. Yeah. And he'll think of just lifting the chest up and then let the ball just naturally react to that.

And Xcel some pretty intense stretch on the shoulders and on the chest. But we need that. And don't be afraid to really draw the scapula toward each other. And exhale one more and I think we're good. Hmm.

And Xcel. Beautiful. And let's go to the other side and we'll do our side hanging exercises here. So holding on with your right arm and take your inhale side over. Let the boss go all the way. Get that deep stretch and XL brewing it happen.

Good. And in, remember not to push into the bar where you come up. If your bar, if you have a reformer that doesn't have a secure bar, really wants you to be conscious of that so you're nice and safe and exhale, come back at. Nice. You got it. And inhale, one more time, letting the body leading all that weight. Just pull out to the left. Beautiful and exhale. We're going to rotate left hand on the bar and exhale. Come into a little pipe as you go down.

Head comes down though that stretch to the left shoulder, the left cue out. Then inhale lift head and I can tense and will come in to the pike. That's it. You got it. You remember you can only go as low as your belly will allow and lift. Head, neck and chest. And one more time hanging on the bar, finding that stretch and lift. Head, neck and chest as you roll across the ball. Beautiful. Let's go facing the reformer again.

We're going to go into some bounces into some squats. So this is going to be pretty intensive. So I want you to stay close to the bar. And the reason I have you done this close to the bar is just in case you lose the ball or you lose your balance, you have something there that you can grab onto for control. So the sequence is going to be four bounce for bounces and we're going to lift up into a squat. So you'll see it from the side angle from the Lorraina. She has a Lorena, she a smaller ball, so she can't, you can't go up very high.

You want to keep your tush intact to the ball so it doesn't go rolling away. If it rolls away, just go get it, fetch it and bring it back. Okay, so here we go. We're going to bounce four times. One, two, three, four, up on five. Did you get it? She did. And then you're going to go down. One, two, three, four, five, opening your arms, bounce. One, two, three, four and up. Hold it. And slow plea. A three, four, five and down with the arms. And one, two, three, four. Up.

Hold it. Slow plea. A two, three, four, five down again. Good. So really good for those legs. The pelvic floor. Good. Good for those deep leg muscles, hip muscles that we want to have. Good, strong legs. And again, one, two, three, four, up and slowly down. Fill east center controllers. You go down. Let's do three more. You'll feel your heart rate. Go Up. This one, I want two, three, four up.

Fill the upper back connection. Slow. Lee down. Last two, one, two, three, four, app slowly down. Last one, one, two, three, four. Hold slowly down. All the way. Good. Well I would say we're sufficiently warm. Good. And we're going to move onto our footwork with our stability ball. So let's go.

Wonderful. So we're gonna move onto our foot work and we're actually gonna use our balls here. So again, you want to make sure you have a stability ball. That's the appropriate size for you. I think no matter what, no matter your height or the ball is going to be more advantageous if you can move your gear back on your reformer, whatever, however you do that, or if you need to put your foot bar down. Essentially you need to create more space between your carriage and your foot bar so that you're not so scrunched because I don't want you to feel very scrunched and we're going to work on, you can choose your resistance. I'm going to say anywhere from two springs to three springs and you can kind of choose what feels best for you. Okay, so I find it easiest to kind of straddle the reformer here.

You want to get yourself so you're completely vertical. Push the carriage back a little bit, make sure you're nice and gentle here. And then I want you to put one foot up and then the other steer in a small v position. Exactly. You can kind of scoot your hips back if you need to. I don't want you to bring the carriage in as far as you can. There we go. So you're in this beautiful modified squat position.

You have this nice postural control, the support from the ball. We're going to take the arms up to the tee position and back down as we push the carriage out to take your breath in and exhale out. Bring it in and bring it in. Yes, I want you to feel like you're continually growing taller through the body and as you add deck the legs, I want you to feel that squeeze to the pelvic floor and feel that lift through the abdominal wall. Yes, and then really feel that deep fold at the hip as you brewing it and yet see how far you can bring that carriage in. Yes, XL, you're more than welcome to even add a little hand weights here to get some extra shoulder work. One more time and hold it. Give me just a little bit of calf raises.

So lower the heels now and at this very important during pregnancy that we keep the circulation going through the feet, through the ankles, help with some of the swelling, especially since my dear, we're in our third trimester and that tends to happen in the summer no less unless you're watching from Australia, then you're getting the cold time right. And at one more time and hold it and bend the knees in so carefully move yourself to, we're going to be in the wide position on the heels. Yes. Good. Wonderful. Now this sun, the palms are gonna face back. Flex your feet and your arms are going to go straight above the head. XL One. So you're going to get a little bit upper back work XL. Yes.

So again, I talk a lot about feeling proud, feeling confident, feeling strong in your body. So this position is very, you know, indicative of that right? And exhale, remembering that carries you in as far as you can. Keep the abdominal wall and try not to let the ribs flare off the ball to keep yourself attached to that ball. Fill that feedback coming from the ball. Good. Last two. Yes. One more time. Hold it there. Yes. I love it. Good. And circle the arms around carefully and slowly.

Pull your feet down to the toe. You all these pregnant ladies are good. Okay. So from here, bring the palms up, steering this t position. You can come up probably a little deeper here. Yes. And exhale. Squeeze. So still feel that pelvic floor connection. Fill that lift. Yeah.

And just imagine your scapula winging up and sliding back down. Good. Xcel. Good. And this again, that gentle closing of the pelvic floor and opening of the pelvic floor. Yes. [inaudible] and bring it in. That looks really good. Xcel good for more. No, you just make me want to smile. I think it's her bright yellow shirt. No. And that you're so smiley. I love it. Exhale.

Draw it in one more time. Good. Now the favorite part. The reward. Bring your hands to the bar and pull yourself in. Feel that nice deep stretch. Make sure you feel comfortable and confident in this position. If any discomfort, please don't do it.

This is a great stretch for that deep pelvis. Good. I want you to extend the legs out, bring the arms up, we're going to bring the body over the ball with an exhale and circle the [inaudible]. Just keep the body, the legs extended. Bring the arms up and over the ball. Finding that and beautiful back, extension and back. Isn't that heavenly good cause it's so hard for us to get good back extension in when we can't lie on our bellies. And this is such a safe way to do it.

We're not overstretching the abdominals. We're getting beautiful upper back extension with that support of the ball. One more time and bring it all the way. Good and around bend your knees. I want you to carefully come back into the Small v position and we're going to go into our stomach massage.

So bring your hands forward so that there is pressing on the front of the carriage. And I want you to draw into a little pelvic tilt. So you got a real gentle flection of your body here. We're going to go up to tempo. Here we go. Exhale, go out one hello. Wear heels down. Bring them up and in. Yeah. So go ahead and join those. Okay. Yes. So add that calf raise and so and down and up and in excel.

[inaudible] yeah, no, we are staying on our regular spring that we had for footwork, but if you need to lower it, please do it at and in. So you're getting that nice gentle abdominal work at nice stability. The abdominal wall. Make sure you feel like that pubic bones coming up. You're feeling that support. Just how you, the abdominal wall in exhale, pushing back with your arms and into more. Exhale down, up, and in. One more exhale. Down, up and in. Good. Bring the body up. Take the arms out the site. I wanted to just to, let's do three sets with rotation. So I want you to XL twist and down with the heels and up.

Rotate back to center. XL. Rotate down, up and centered. Good. Exhale down. Beautiful up center. Good. Squeeze. Yet there. Just fill that postural control. Even though you have the support of the ball, feel that control spiral upward as you rotate. Yes. Beautiful. And spiral upward down and draw it in and hold. Good. Bring your hands down slowly. Release your feet. Whew.

Nice. Good. Okay. And let's take the balls slight amount and just you're done with the ball, so no more ball by this rolling away. You good? We're going to go into some kneeling abdominal works. I'd like you to go to one spring, one red spring, and I'd like you to slide your carriage back so it's on the first gear or bring your foot up. Essentially bring your carriage back in towards your foot. Barb, we're gonna come onto the kneeling position here. All fours. Now I need you to place your feet on the frame of the reformer with your legs slightly apart because what we're going to be doing is we're going to be doing some plantar flection endorsing flection with the ankles as we add a little bit of abdominal work, a little bit of flection of the spine, so it makes sure that you have a really nice steady position here.

You're going to straighten neutral position. My hands are up kind of just on the outside of my shoulder rests. Exactly. If you have risk issues here, carpal tunnel, anything like that, especially your third trimester, please add some extra padding here to make yourself feel comfortable. So taking your breath in. Excellent. You're going to come into a little cat stretch as you plantar flex the feet and then inhale the Dorsey, flex the ankles and come back into the neutral position.

Xcel. So we're just going to kind of build on this series and inhale Dorsey flex all the way back and exhale. Yeah, good. And in how reads this, this moves out so you feel the opening of that pelvis. Good, nice strong shoulders and exhale and inhale. Now I want to add onto it to make sure you keep the abdominal wall in. I just want you to simply slide your feet together so that your knees, your thighs, and your feet, your ankles are touching and you're going to release the right foot. So you're pointing with the right foot. Exactly.

So are we're going to add a little bit of a knee drawing in with the pike. So as you plantar flex your left foot, exhale, draw it in, and then inhale. So make sure you're careful with your toes here. Extend that like underneath the foot bar just to get a little bit of hip extension there. Yes, and x up plantar flex, the left foot drawed and deep flection and in how member you're the only gonna be able to go as far as that belly is going to allow XL. Start from the pelvis and the Plantar flection. Let the spine respond. Draw the scapula away from each other. Draw the ribs toward each other.

Then inhale one more time like this and exhale. Now we're going to add some lateral flection. You're going to bring the right knee up to the right under arm, so XL laterally flex. Then inhale, come back to the square position, Dorsi flexing ankle. Bring the leg under the bar XL. Really feel that side bend happen. Really feel that crunch of that right side of the ways.

Then feel that hip extension as you Dorsi flex back to center. Good. Yes, exactly. Keeping your serratus anterior engaged so that you keep the upper back strong. I want you to keep that upper back, extension and tax who? No sagging of the head or the shoulders last one. How are you doing Lorena? Good. And reach it out.

Hold it. And let's go ahead and switch. So bring your right foot in, places it on the platform and point your left foot. And for the forward pike and XR plantar flex. Okay. And in hell extend. Ooh, it feels good to stretch that hip out a little bit and exhale and inhales a feeling nice and strong. I know it's a lot of work on those risks and exit.

We'll take a little risk right and fill that sequencing of the upper spine and the lower spine as you come back to neutral. Last one, pelvic floor plantar flection. Let the spine respond to it and bring it back into the lateral flection. For me and XL side. Yeah, and in how region. I love kneeling positions, XL laterally flex because kneeling is just a really fantastic position for opening the pelvis for filling that work of labor. But we need to train for it. We need to get the shoulder strong.

We need to get the support of the spine through the abdominals. Exhale back to the center. Hold it nice and long. Good. I don't want you to bring your knees in. Okay, go ahead. And I just want you to circle at your risk cause I know that's a lot on the wrist circle amount. I hope you're a little sweaty. I am too. Hope you guys are too good. Okay.

Cause I want to go into some hip work here. So want to do some kneeling hip work. So hopefully your wrists are feeling good. If you need to add some padding, please do so. Now we're going to stay on the one spring. Come back to your kneeling position. This time you're going to place the right foot up on the foot bar, keeping your hips nicest where this is great glute work.

So going to take your breath in. Exhale, you're going to extend your knee and push the carriage out. So make sure you're pushing away with your shoulders. Lift your head up just a little bit. Draw the belly up just a little bit. There you go sweetie. Then bend your knee and draw it down. XL. Squeeze. Now, if you feel like you want a little more resistance, you're more than welcome to up your spring.

But the only thing is you cannot compromise your stability or your positioning of your torso as you do. So you need to keep that integrity intact, exhale and draw it, and you fill a little glute work XL and draw it. And if your wrists are absent, like giving you too much trouble, although it'll change the angle on the glutes, you could go down onto your elbows. So I'll show that just a little bit. Exhale, bring it in. Or inhale, bring it, excuse me, XL out and inhale and hold it halfway in. Good. And little pulses. One, two, three, four. Beautiful. Five, six filling little quad here, but keep the glutes engaged. Nines, reach out on 10 hold it now excellently. Rotate the hip and then then inhale. So you're in a little external rotation. Yes, and exhale. Extend in how keep the abdominal wall in a lot of upper body strength. Again, this requires endurance and focus and [inaudible]. Try to keep your hips as as possible and inhale looking good and exhale out and trying to keep that nice steadiness of the hill and that like you should start to feel the outside of the left hip as well. Working hard with stabilization and textile out, filling those shoulders. Inhale and exhale, reach it, hold it, come back to parallel and slowly draw it in.

Good. Nice. Okay, let's take the left leg up. Beautiful. So make sure your square shoulders square, abdominal wall in and extend out one and pull it in excel, pushing away with us arms, feeling the Serita's nicest strong. Again, you can do this entire series on your elbows. Do you need to and and exhale full extension of that knee and drop the knee down as you come in his ring at the hip, the abdominal wall drawn in for support. You don't want to put any excessive pressure on that lumbar spine, so make sure it's just drawn in. Exhale, lots of energy radiating out through the crown of the head and three more and then, and you're focused on your body, on the movement integrity, and last one dried about halfway in little pulses. One, two, three, four, five, six. Beautiful. Seven, eight, nine.

Squeeze out on 10 externally, rotate the hip, bend the knees out to the side, but keep those hips square. It's squares. You can Xcel extend. He's doing all those self checks of your shoulders, good of your spine. Your may lean a little bit off to the right, but try not to do excessive leaning over to the right side of the body. Try to keep yourself square over your arms as best as you can. Exhale and in excellent, good drawing. Centering.

You can think of a slight posterior tilt of your pelvis for more. Again, that right hip will be working for stabilization. Just stay with your body. See, present in your body. You'll need this presence. You'll need this awareness. Embrace the discomfort you're starting to feel is. That's what Labor is.

My friends come back to parallel and come in. Woo. Beautiful. I'm moving very gingerly on. I good. So rotate your wrist again, any of that can be done in your elbows, which will really help alleviate it is a long time to be on your wrist. Stretching it out. That's all good. Fantastic. Let's turn around so that we're facing the foot bar and we're actually going to take the foot bar down this time all the way and go ahead and if you're have any restriction, then I'll just kind of get everything out of the way that you can go ahead. So we're gonna do a little modified version of the abstract, which is really lovely. So once you to place your hands down on the platform, again, another risk one, so apologize for that.

If that's causing you any discomfort. So feed up against the shoulder rest. Starting in the straight position, you're going to hinge and take your chest down to your thighs all the way and you can feel your face and your chest is dropped down towards your springs. They're going to do your little up stretch with your legs here. So take the carriage away. Inhale, exhale, draw it in. Inhale, take it away. Nice and strong through your body XL. Draw it in now. Again, this is a beautiful opener of the pelvis. Good.

Keeping the shoulders strong. Just feeling that connection through your shoulders and exhale, pull it in. Open those sitz bones. Why? Give me three more good and don't sit on your bones. Don't hang on your bones here. Keep the musculature intact. Help you stay steady. Draw it and open that pelvis. Beautiful. Yes.

One more time and then we'd go into the Nice gooey part. You're going to Tuck your pelvis up underneath you as you come into the cat. Slowly draw the in and come back to the neutral. Yes, and then we'll go a little faster. As we kind of find a flow. We reach it down and roll that.

You'll see this in my math classes. I do what I call the diving cat. This is kind of my version of this on the reformer. We're getting extra shoulder work here with the resistance and the roll up and I want you to feel Dooley and melty. I like that word. It's a makeup, a word. I don't know. Strats. This little lecture, Body Ooze with movement and back to center.

Last one and we're going to hold it down there. Hold it. Then we're going to do some shoulder presses. So bend the elbows out to the side, draw your head all the way to the platform and XL extended out. Good Bend. Yes. Exhale. Now this is, yes, this is an inversion and some people are afraid of inverting pregnant women, but this is safe and we're not there for very long and in fact if for some women and versions are very advantageous for getting the baby in the right position late in pregnancy or during labor. So no need to be afraid.

It's safe. It's are providing some extra room in that pelvis one more time and holds it out. Roll the body up, fill the Goo and accepted. Hallelujah. That's nice. Good. Come on down. Good. We're going to go into some arm work and we're going to do a kneeling arm work series, but the rent is going to show it on the box so you can sit on the lawn box if you need. Just if you want to grab that, that'd be great. So you have the choices of sitting on the lawn box because we're going to sit here in this position.

I love so much with the knees apart and the feet together and sitting back on the heels, but it might be a little much for some people. So please feel free to sit on the lawn bucks. We're going to straddle the lawn box or another choice you have is you could sit on the moon box as well, so your elevated a little bit or a bolster or something like that. So just use what you have, um, and make sure you're comfortable cause we want to get that good shoulder work. It's going to put your feet up on the um, those carriage.

There you have a choice. So you can do a red spring or you can do blue sprang, whatever. It feels more comfortable for you, whatever you're feeling. That strength as we've already done a lot of good shoulder work. So I'm going to start on a red. We'll see if I finish on red. Okay. So we're going to bring the palms facing forward. Now make sure, again that you're not pitched too far forward with your body here because it's really easy to do. So you have to constantly cue yourself.

So we're going to a circles app. Sabrina has this a little bit forward for me. So Xcel take the arm that and circle them around. Yeah, I'm already thinking, why did I choose a red and exhale. So you'll feel even sitting on the box, you'll feel the challenge of the stabilization. So you're getting beautiful stabilization work in the body. Two more.

Good. I love it. That looks great. Last one. Good. Now we're going to go the other direction. So keep that chest step. Feel that expansion. Exhale and around Xcel and around. Excellent. I think I can, I think I can. I think I can add around.

So use that calm. Use that breath to guide you through the circle. Three more soft gaze with your eyes, not creating any unnecessary tension in your jaw, your face. And last one. No. Hinge your body slightly forward. And we're gonna bend the elbow. So at the palms face up toward the ceiling and you're going to extend into some tricep. Good in, I love it.

Xcel extent. Now again, feel that upper back extension. Feel that pelvis reaching away from you with Nice control, beautiful tricep work, abdominals. Just nicely engaged. Yes, so again, the benefit goes so much further than just that arm work. Nice, strong arms, strong shoulder, full body control. Three more. Moving at a steady pace, sinking down into your pelvis, reaching out through the crown of the head simultaneously. One more time. Beautiful breath. Come up and down.

Go ahead. Let's turn around. So we're facing the other way. You can stay on your spring or you can lower it a bit. We're going to do some chest expansion, so grab onto your straps, onto the tape and bring your arms just in front of your hip line, right in the middle of your thighs here. You're going to draw down and back and bring it forward. Xcel down and back and bring it forward. Beautiful XL. So you can sit how Lorena's sitting, which is wonderful.

But if you feel like the Belize just a little bit in the way, you can also do the straddle sit as well. So you have two choices there or you're getting, you can be kneeling like I am and back to center. Let's go two more here. Okay. And we're going to finish with one more exercise.

You may need to scoot back on your carriage for this depending on how you feel or on your box. But I want you to grab this shop's in front of you. Yup. You're going to pull the cha, excuse me, your fist into your chest. Elbows out to the side. Excellent. You're going to laterally flex the spine as a little bit of rotation. I look out, it's so pretty.

And bend the elbows and come all the way back to the beginning. We'll do the same side. Nice. Full exhale. Reach yes. And back to center and exhale, right and back to center. So I did the same side. Lorena's wrote, uh, alternating sites. Either way works. So I'm going to switch sides. Keep going. Cause I know that you're fine and open. Um, the heck to center extend. Let's do two more on the side. Xcel, feel those shoulders, reach that chest open and bring it back. Three, that beautiful lateral work. And again, exhale, good and back to center. Love it.

So nice I'm with there. Go ahead and take your straps back on. And we're going to finish our class with a modified breaststroke. So go ahead and let's give her the box. Place it to the side. So I want you to be on a blue spring. And one of my biggest interests with pre and postnatal PyLadies is, well especially prenatal, is discovering fun ways to do some of our traditional back extension work.

So I find this to be really, really satisfying in that sense. So I want you to reach back and grab your straps and you actually had to do it just like we would on the box. Are you in a place to straps in the thens? You're going to bring your hands right in underneath your arms. Yep. Just like you would on the box and you're going to hinge forward. Not all the way flat, but just as much as you can.

So we can do everything exactly the same. So we're going to inhale, reach up, yes. And continue with the inhale. Bring the body up. And as you bend the elbows hinge back forward. So just imagine you're lying on that long box. And inhale, reach into the extension, get the arms up and continue to pull up with your body as you circled the arms around. And next I'll bring it down. How's that feel? Great. Okay. And the unhealthy head, neck and chest, getting that reverse articulation. So bring your sternum just a little bit forward here. Let's find this.

Try not to get so much into your lower back. Pull the low belly and yes, and then we turn around. Yes. And Xcel down. Let's go two more. And in Helsel beautiful upper body work and all the way good. Just feeling like you're soaring through the air. And last one here. Aw the waist. Keep your inhale.

Keep your inhale and XL release. That was nice. Good. I want you to sit straddling the carriage. Let's bring the foot bar back backup and we'll just do a little cool down. Nice.

So hands are here and you're going to walk yourself back and rest your body down and feel that adduct stretch, feel that shoulder stretch and just breathe here and breathe into your rib cage. Breathe into your shoulders, breathe into your hips and your lower back wants you to bend your elbows, slowly bring the kerogen. And I literally just want you to drape your body over that foot bar. Yes, good. And then wants you to just roll your hips underneath you just ever so slightly into a slight posterior tilt and then inhale, just roll them back and the carriage will move a little bit. That's fine. And exhale.

Good and inhale. So in the series that I'm doing in my second pregnancy here on is anytime I'm getting a lot of work with the pelvis and mobilizing the pelvis and opening the pelvis. And I think as having experienced labor the first time and just how vital that is and how really important it is pre labor during pregnancy, go ahead and just rest here. Is that just that prep for that? And it doesn't matter if you're having a vaginal birth or a csection or anything like that, but just mobilizing the pelvis, keeping the pelvis agile, and just really feeling connected into that because that is where the baby rest, that's where the baby is there settled into that pelvis. That's where they're nestled and we just want to keep that connection and keep that blood flow because that's our source of power.

That's our source of life and plot. He's already done so much beautiful work with the pelvis. It's just a perfect match. Just really embracing that idea of the pelvis and even with the relaxing flowing through our body, it's still important that we keep it mobilize, that we keep it moving. Take another breath in.

So you feel strong, you feel confident. You feel like a woman and slowly roll yourself at, Oh, you bet. I fell a little loopy. Yeah. Good. Nice. Nice. And endorphins and rolling. Rolling through the body. Nice. Thank you. That was so fun. That was wonderful. Yay. Yeah, that was so nice.

Comments

1 person likes this.
I love all the stretching for the spine. Thank you so much Leah.
1 person likes this.
Libby,

Awesome! It feels great, huh?

Leah
1 person likes this.
Leah this was such a great class! Awesome workout! I feel so relaxed but at the same time I feel I really worked my body, thank you!
1 person likes this.
Susana,

Wonderful!! I am so happy that you felt good after this class

Leah
1 person likes this.
Great class. Thanks again. You're classes are so perfect for my pregnancy.
Emily,

YAY! I'm so glad to hear it
lovely class leah! this will be so helpful as i guide my clients through pregnancy. and thanks for emphasizing the need to open and mobilize the pelvic floor, rather than simply strengthen. as a mom of a one-year old, i know first hand how important that is!!! and, of course, congratulations on your latest addition!
My fav prenatal workout. Feel loose and relaxed but had a challenge and could modify (add hand weights) in parts. . . at 34 weeks, my favorite work out!
Hi Leah. I have taken and used your classes for inspiration while working with my pregnant clients. And now I am pregnant and am really enjoying how you subtly mix intense work with gentle movement in all directions. My body loves it and it is helping me be more willing to give up my more advanced Pilates workouts thank you!
Aliza - It is soooo important and my main goal in creating and teaching these classes.

Christine - Wonderful!!

Djamila - I am so happy that you are enjoying the classes and that your body is loving it. Yes, it can be tough to put certain exercises and ranges of motion to the side during pregnancy, but as you can see there is so much more you can do - we are not limited at all
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