All Trimesters Mat Flow

Hello, I'm so excited to bring you this prenatal Pilates flow, using a variety of small props today. I'm Wendy and I'm here with Anne and we are gonna flow through this mat and standing sequence. Ideally, you'll have a small ball, a fair band, a stability ball, and a magic circle. But if you don't have those things at home, don't worry about it you can still get tons of benefits out of this flow. So we're gonna start with the mermaid.

And I like to use this deflated Pilates ball. It's a nine inch ball and it's pretty deflated. And I just like to put it right underneath the sacrum While you're doing the mermaid, this gonna help lift your hips up a little bit and get that pelvis in its ideal alignment. So you're just gonna bring your left knee in front and your left hand down onto the floor and just inhale. Reach that right arm up and get a big stretch through the side.

And then exhale down and then inhale, other arm reaches up, get a nice stretch through the rib cage and exhale down. Beautiful, a couple more on each side. So inhaling, reaching, maybe you can rotate that shoulder so the palm's up towards the ceiling and then exhale down. Inhale, other arm comes up, stretching out those ribs, those intercostal muscles attach each rib to the next and down. One more time, inhale, breathing into the sides of the ribs, gorgeous, keeping your booty attached to that ball.

Trying not to let it lift up, inhale other side, reach And exhale down. Beautiful, we're gonna switch our legs out. So your right knee's in front and your left leg's behind you. And if you need to modify this position, depending on where you are in your pregnancy, that's fine. You can have a little more space in between your knees and your feet.

So we're gonna start with that right arm coming up. Big inhale, rotating that shoulder. Yes. And bringing the arm up over your head or even back behind your head and exhale down. Inhale other side, lift and reach up.

Try not to round through the shoulders or bring the arm in front and down. Inhale as you reach sliding the shoulder down and exhale back. Gorgeous, inhale up and exhale. And one more time, inhale up. Big stretch and exhale back.

Last one inhale, reach that arm up, looking up at the ceiling and exhaling down. All right, go ahead and sit cross-legged, stay on the ball if you can, you can always replace it with a little pillow as well. You're gonna put your hands on your knees and just do some nice big hip circles. So inhaling to one side and exhaling to the other, moving through the ribcage, curling a little bit And a slight arch, not so much that you're thrusting those ribs, but just enough to get that pelvis moving, that lumbar spine moving. This is a great little stretch to do during pregnancy, just to keep everything flowing and then see if you can reverse the direction.

So inhaling and exhaling. Yep, and your shoulders stay open, but you're just moving through the ribs And you can keep your hands on your knees. And we're just gonna do a couple little pelvic curls. So you're just gonna exhale, tuck your tail under and just curl back that low back, but stay open through the chest. Yes and inhale up and exhale.

Beautiful and inhale. So remember with each exhale, just thinking of giving your baby a little hug with that breath, wrapping that baby up. Last one, exhale, warming up that low back and then come back to a nice neutral position. So you're still on that ball or pillow. You want your ribs stacked on top of your hips, your ear lobes on top of your shoulders.

And you're just gonna bring your arms down to your side and inhale, bring your left arm up and just get a little side stretch and exhale back and inhale other side, reaching and exhale back. One more time, each side again, just lengthening through the ribs, lengthening through the waist. Exhale, last one, inhale up and exhale. Bring your arms in front of you like a little genie with your elbows a little below your shoulders. And you're really gonna lengthen out through the crown of your head, lengthen through the waist.

Inhale, sit nice and tall and just exhale. Draw the belly in and just do a little micro twist to one side and then inhale back to center. And then other side we're gonna alternate, exhale as you twist you're staying lifted on that twist. So there's no collapsing through the waist. Beautiful, inhale, sitting tall, exhale as you rotate.

One more time each side exhale as you twist and exhale. Beautiful bringing the arms down and now you're going to want to grab your fair band. And if you can, you can stay on the ball or the pillow or can move it out of the way. We're gonna turn for a little hamstring stretch. So you'll bend your left knee in and keep your right leg straight and just wrap the band around the foot, the ball of the foot, get as much of it as you can holding onto the band.

Mm hmm, you wanna reach through that heel and you're looking for a stretch behind that right thigh, and out through that heel. So you might wanna hinge a little bit, keep reaching and you'll get that length through the back of the leg to stretch those hamstrings and then just come back up and you can bend your elbows or maybe choke down lower on the band, whatever works for you. There shouldn't be any tension in your shoulders or your neck though. We're looking really for that stretch and that length through the back of the leg. Gorgeous.

And one more time, this one we're gonna hold it just for a little bit longer and really think about pulling those toes back towards the knee, reaching through the heel and then coming back up. Yep and we're just gonna switch it out to the other side. So we're wrapping the band around the other leg, Reaching through the heel, sliding those shoulders down and then hinging forward. And remember you wanna keep your joints nice and sort of relaxed. You don't wanna lock out the back of the knee or the ankle just really breathe into it.

Great job. This stretch is essential, especially if you're having any low back pain, you wanna make sure to keep those hamstrings lengthened, pulling the toes back and then come all all the way back up and you'll have both feet in the band, make it a little bit longer. Yep. And bend those knees a little bit so you can really stay lifted. Again if that ball's feeling uncomfortable, you can go ahead and take it out.

Remember you wanna have those ribs back a little bit towards the wall behind you sliding the shoulders down, yep. And from here, you're just going to take a big inhale and again, exhale. Just do a little pelvic curl. So remember, you've got that imaginary marble on your pubic bone, you're rolling up to your belly button and inhale back, mm hmm. And exhale, curl shoulders, draw down and your gaze follows your spine as you do that little pelvic curl, you're gonna look down.

Yes. And inhale. Two more exhale, rolling away from the hips and inhale. And if you're noticing some coning going on in your belly, you're curling back too far. Don't go quite so far and come right back.

Good you're gonna stay seated here and you're going to rotate your shoulders so your palms come up towards the ceiling and just stay seated and exhale, pull the elbows in and then inhale, bring your palms to the floor. So you're gonna exhale palms come up and then you're gonna inhale, rotate those shoulders to the palms, go to the floor, yes. So exhale external rotation through the shoulders as much as you can during that pregnancy. Beautiful, staying nice and wide through the chest in between the shoulder blades. Two more, keeping your wrists straight, but not locking them out.

And then we're gonna add that little curl. So your arms go straight and you're just gonna exhale, curl and then add the arms, yes. And then inhale, come up. Yep and remember it's that micro curl, it's really a pelvic curl, it's not a huge scoop. You're not hollowing out that belly.

It's pretty small. You wanna focus on that breath right above your pubic bone, just below your belly button. So bring your breath really low. Two more, exhale squeezing the elbows and sliding the shoulders down for half a second. Then bring the arms back.

Last one. Good. All right we're gonna change the breathing on you a little bit here. So you're going to inhale sit nice and tall. Exhale just slide the shoulders down.

And on the inhale this time, the palms are gonna come up and you're gonna give a little lift from your sternum and then just come back to center with your palms towards the floor. So you're just lifting through the upper back, opening through the chest and then exhale coming back to a neutral pelvis. So the low back doesn't change. It's really that lift from the bra strap up opening and lifting. Beautiful, couple more.

Yes really thinking of opening through that chest. Last one and back. Ha great job, we're gonna take the band away and you're gonna come to all fours and we can take that ball out from underneath as well. Yes so you're gonna wanna kind of come to the side and then come to all fours. And from here, you're just going to do a couple little cat cows so inhaling as you arch and then just exhale as you curl and your head's gonna follow that spine.

Beautiful inhale, so here's where you're reducing that range of motion. If you're used to doing these big extension moves or these really huge curls, you're going to wanna stay in that zone where you're not overextending and flaring the ribs. You're just focusing on opening through the sternum and the chest and getting some movement through that lumbar spine, that's your goal. Good, last one, exhaling as you curl and then we're gonna come to a nice neutral spine. So just take a breath here.

It's hard to be in this position and exhale, draw the belly in. If this feels like it's pulling on your back or you know your abdominals are separated, you're gonna want to omit this exercise and just jump into the next one. So she's inhaling into the sides and the backs of her ribs, exhale, pulling that belly in staying nice and neutral. So we're gonna add some movement here, inhaling and here just gonna exhale. Bring your left arm out in front of you up off of the floor and then inhale, float that arm down.

Other side you're gonna exhale reach that right arm out, reaching through the fingertips. Great stability through the torso and arm comes down. We'll just keep alternating for a couple. Yes. And you wanna make sure you're engaging that core and that pelvic floor before you even move your arm.

Nice, one more time on each side, reaching through the fingertips, but sliding the shoulders down. Fabulous, bringing your arm down we're gonna go to the legs. So stay nice and strong. You're gonna take an inhale and lengthen and just exhale, slide your left leg out and inhale bring it in. And then your other leg, slide it out and inhale bring it in.

So try to keep, try it this time with the leg on the floor. So keep the foot on the floor so you can stay nice and stable through the pelvis so there's no twisting and then exhale other sides. So depending on where you are in your pregnancy, you might wanna keep your leg on the floor if you're in your third trimester, if you're in your first trimester, you might be able to lift it up and that's fine. Beautiful. The goal is to keep that pelvis nice and stable.

Yes, and to engage that core before you move, beautiful. Last one on this side. Good, and then you'll come back to a child's pose so open those knees up nice and wide, take a big breath, reach through the fingertips, breathe into the ribs. And then you're gonna slowly draw that belly in and come up to all fours. And you'll want to grab your inflated ball.

And we'll put that in between your inner thighs and we're gonna come to a push up position. Now, if your wrists are feeling sensitive or kind of funky, you might wanna roll up a yoga mat and put that right underneath your palms to support your wrists or you can come down to your forearms. So sliding your shoulders down, again you just wanna get in this position, make sure your core's working here. And these are those micro pushups with those elbows going back, you're just going to inhale as you dip down just a few inches, beautiful, keeping that form and then exhale, pelvic floor abdominals and then arms, inhaling down and exhaling up. Inhale, great job, you don't wanna pinch those shoulder blades together.

Keep that width and space. Three more, you got it. You can always do these against your counter at home. Last one and back. Great job.

You're gonna come up to a kneeling position. The ball is still in between your inner thighs or again, you can have a pillow there instead. So you put one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly and just take a breath and really draw your belly away from your hand as you exhale through your mouth. So inhale nice and tall and exhale. Good.

One more breath, inhale again, keeping that alignment, so you're not arching that low back. You're keeping that positioning, yes. So from here, keep your hand on your chest and on your belly. And you're just gonna do a little bit of a hinge back. I just want you to do a couple of inches and exhale come up, inhale back, yep.

Just to make sure that you can keep that ideal alignment as you add that movement. Just one more. Great. And then we're going to add the band. So you can bring your arms down, grab your medium strength resistance band that you have.

And you're going to hold it with your arms a little bit wider than shoulder distance apart, yep. And remember when you're holding onto the band, the wrists are straight, but not locked out. The shoulders are down and you're recruiting these serratus muscles so you wanna kind of imagine you've got these little imaginary plums in your armpits that you're just kind of squeezing and holding there. That'll help activate those serratus muscles, which will take the strain out of your upper traps and your neck, all right. So from here, all you're going to do is keep that beautiful position.

You're just going to inhale, open that band, nice and wide, and then exhale, draw the belly in and bring it back. And you can always grab a little bit wider too on the band. It's up to you, inhale as you reach, you just don't want your shoulders to creep up and exhale back. Gorgeous, so keeping this positioning, mm hmm. And that breath that comes right above the pubic bone.

Remember, don't forget those really low, deep abdominal muscles that need to be recruited here. Two more, last one, inhale reach and exhale arms come back. Now you're going to inhale, reach your arms up just above your head if that feels okay for your shoulders, exhale, draw that belly in and lower the arms down. So again, just reaching those arms up as far as you can, without letting the shoulders creep up towards your earlobes, you can always grab that band wider remember. And exhale.

One more here, opening through the chest without arching the back. Beautiful and exhale down. Now, go ahead and grab that band just a little bit wider to give yourself a break and see if you can inhale, reach your arms up and all the way back behind your head. Yep. And then exhale, draw the belly in and bring the arms back.

If you felt like you arched your back to do that, you can even grab the band wider or don't come back quite so far. Beautiful. Again, that opening through the sternum and the chest. Two more reaching back, nice big opening, great movement through the shoulders. Last one, inhaling as you open, exhale, draw that belly in and come back.

Beautiful, you might bring your hands a little bit closer to each other now, yep. Sliding your shoulders down, keeping your pelvis forward. All you're gonna do is exhale. Just rotate a little bit with the ribs and the shoulders and the head to one side and then inhale, pull yourself back to center. Other side you're gonna exhale as you rotate and inhale center, yep.

And remember the pelvis stays forward. So those hips aren't coming along for the ride with the ribs, the rib, they're just moving. And we're gonna get sassy here. You're gonna exhale as you rotate and you're just gonna inhale, reach your arms up and look up at the ceiling. Exhale, draw that belly in and lower the arms down and back to center and exhale, other side and inhale, twist and reach up.

Exhale, arms float down. Inhale, stay lifted and come back to center. And again, exhale as you rotate, inhale as you reach. Exhale as you lower and inhale back to center. Other side, exhale, just a little micro twist.

Keep that length through the waist and down and center. And one more time each side exhale as you twist, inhale as you reach, shoulders drawing down, come all the way back down and rotate back to the middle last one and reach up and look up and lower and center. Go ahead and bring the band down, roll your shoulders around. And then you're going to go ahead and hold onto that band with your palms up towards the ceiling. So this is a great exercise for the rotator cuff, keeping your elbows in nice and close to your ribs.

All right I like to have a little bit not slack in the band, but you just don't want it too tight. So keep those elbows in. All you're gonna do is inhale, float the palms of the hands out to the side and exhale right back in. Yep. So inhale, lifting up, staying connected and exhale just floats your arms back in, you might wanna make the band a little bit shorter.

You might wanna make it a little bit longer. It just depends on you. And of course the strength of the resistance band. This is a medium strength resistance band. That's what you're looking for here and center, yep.

Strengthening those upper back muscles as well, lifting through the sternum. Two more, make sure those elbows stay glued to your ribs. Last one and center. Ooh, great job. We'll go ahead and put that band down, but hold onto your ball.

You're going to come to a kneeling position on your side. So we have your left knee down and a right leg straight and have the ball underneath your hand. If that feels okay and stable for you, you can also use a yoga block or you can just have your hand on the floor as well. So same thing we're keeping that nice long length, nice neutral spine in this side position here. And then see if you can just exhale, draw your belly in and just lift that leg up just a little bit and then tap the toe down.

Yep, and exhale, lifting it up and inhale down and exhale. Perfect, just float it off the floor. Couple of more using that breath to lift. Last one and down. You'll go ahead and take the ball in the other hand coming on up.

Yep, and then bring your other hand back down to the floor if that feels okay. Again, you can use a yoga block or lift the floor up to you somehow you're gonna reach the ball up, get that nice length. And then as you exhale, bend the elbow, follow your fingers with your eyes and reach under and get a little bit of a twist and then inhale unfold and travel on up, beautiful. And exhale, draw the belly in a little bit of a twist and reach, but the hips stay pretty straightforward there. Yes.

And again, reaching, and up last one, exhale as you twist breathing into those ribs and up, fabulous. We're gonna come over to the other side coming down and then switching carefully coming up to that sideline position. Yep, again, making sure you're nice and aligned, shoulder draws down, hand on your hips and the other hand on the ball and just exhale, lift the leg up, using those obliques and inhale down. So you're working the outer thigh. You're working the obliques, you're exhaling, engaging that pelvic floor, engaging the core and then lifting the leg.

Three more, keep reaching and pointing. Two and one, bringing that leg down. Yep, coming on up, switching that ball into the other hand. And again, coming down, you can also make a fist with that hand if you need a little bit more height with the hand that's on the floor, reach that ball up, look up, get a nice length and stretch through the side. And then as you exhale, the ball comes down, the elbow bends and you're gonna twist and look underneath and reach underneath the other arm, inhale unfold and reach it all the way it back up, mm hmm.

And exhale, breathing into the ribs as the hips stay forward, inhale, opening up. Exhale. And reach last one. Inhale, opening up. Great job.

Go ahead and come to a kneeling position. We're going to grab the resistance band and bring your right foot in front with your left knee on the floor. And we're going to grab the resistance band and wrap it around the shin of our right foot. So make sure that foot is nice and firmly planted on the floor. You wanna have that 90 degree angle with your knee lining up with your big toe and your second toe.

Yep and you're holding onto the band again, wherever feels comfortable for you, but start with your hands right by your hips. So you don't want your hands in front of your hips. You want them right at your hips, yep. And from here, your arms stay straight. You're just gonna exhale, reach the band back.

Yep. And inhale forward, staying lifted, beautiful. And back. Hip staying center. The back leg is working too to help stabilize.

And you're lifting up on that pelvic floor with each exhale. Last one and back, see if you can take a hinge. So you just wanna hinge forward a little bit. And again, you might need to adjust where you're holding on to the band. Yep, and see if you can just do a couple more in this position here, keeping your arms straight.

Yep. And then go ahead, bring your arms back and then see if you can hold it right there and just bend your elbows and straighten your arms. Ah, holding it in that zone. You got it. Three more.

Two. Last one. And then arms come forward and come on up. Whoo nice job, we're gonna switch out the legs and we're going to do some bicep curls on the other side. So left leg forward.

This one is gonna go under the foot. Yep. And you're going to rotate those shoulders. So the palms are up towards the ceiling. And again, you might need to adjust where you're holding onto the band.

Start with your arms in a 90 degree angle if you can, opening and from here, you're just gonna exhale. Pull your palms up towards your shoulders and inhale, just lower, right to the elbows and exhale up. Reaching through the fingertips and pressing, rooting through that left foot and that right knee. So just watch your pelvis, make sure you're not moving your pelvis with those exhales. Yeah getting strong for carrying and lifting and holding baby.

Four more, three and last one. Great job, go ahead and bring the band back and you're going to come down onto your side. You'll wanna grab your ball one more time. So we'll have the small ball and you'll be down on your side with the ball in between your ankles. Yep.

And if you were with us before in the other class, you'll remember that you don't wanna be in just a straight line. You'll wanna have your legs in front just a little bit. Yes. So here staying in this neutral position, using the arm that's in front to stabilize, see if you can just take an inhale and lengthen and reach through the toes. And as you exhale, all you're gonna do is take that top leg and just squeeze the ball and imagine your inner thigh is drawing towards each other and inhale release and exhale, squeezing the ball, using both inner thighs, inhale release.

So trying to really lift up with that pelvic floor, use the inner thighs as much as possible, then recruit those outer thighs. Nice job. If you feel wobbly, you can always bring your legs a little bit forward. Last one and exhale. Ooh, great job.

We're going to do the other side now. So these are great for your pelvic floor. Great to help strengthen those inner thighs, roll on over or come on up to a seated position, doing that log roll and then roll on down to the other side and see how this side feels. Yeah, perfect. So you want the ball just a little above the ankles below the knees.

And I like pointing the toes, lengthening that top leg away from the hips. And as you exhale, think of zipping up through those inner thighs and just squeeze that ball, bringing your inner thighs towards each other and inhale release. Keeping that tension out of your shoulders and your neck and bringing that breath right to your spine. Exhale, wrapping everything up, Try and stay lifted. You can also do this against a wall if you want a little bit more support for your upper body and just bring your legs a little further away from the wall.

Two more. Great job. And then we're gonna come onto our back and get ready for some bridging with the ball in between our inner thighs. All right so pressing through the feet, making sure those big toes and second toes are lined up with the knees. You can also bring your feet a little bit wider during pregnancy than you maybe have done during your regular Pilates classes pre-pregnancy, you can have a little bit more width as your pelvis expands, we might need to adjust the alignment of the legs.

So from here, all you're gonna do is just inhale and exhale. Just do a little pelvic curl and inhale back. Beautiful. Exhale, pelvic curl and back. Yep.

And here, see if you can inhale exhale, curl and come up to a bridge that feels comfortable for you. So it doesn't have to be a full bridge. See if you can hang out there for a breath and then exhale, roll back down. All right if that felt okay, you're gonna exhale. Same thing, curl and come up.

You're gonna inhale lengthen, stay there. You're gonna exhale, give that ball a squeeze. You're gonna inhale lengthen, and you're gonna exhale roll on down. Inhale to prepare, exhale, curl and roll under, engage that core. Inhale at the top so you can get a little bit longer.

Exhale, give that ball a squeeze with those inner thighs, inhale, stay long, press through the fingers and exhale, roll on down. And exhale, draw the belly in, travel on up. Push through those ankles. Inhale at the top. Exhale, squeezing the ball, inhale, releasing, keeping those hips nice and level and exhale roll on down.

We've got one more here, inhale and exhale. Inhale, reach. Exhale, squeeze, inhale, release, and exhale roll on down. See if you can bring your arms up towards the ceiling with your palms facing each other. So here you're just gonna stay in this bridge position.

Just inhale, float your right arm out to the side with your shoulders on the mat, without any twisting. And as you exhale, engage your core. Give that ball a squeeze and pull the arm back up. Yes. And other side, inhale, reach without twisting through the ribs, exhale, wrap everything up.

Squeeze that ball as the arm comes back up. Inhale, reach out through the fingers and exhale. Great job, inhale keep going, making sure you're not clenching at the hips. Inhale as you reach, exhale back up. One more time each side, inhale.

Great job, staying nice and stable and straight. Last one and up. Bring your arms all the way down, yep. We're gonna take the ball out. Find your roller, if you have a roller and place that underneath your head, right between the base of your skull and your shoulders.

So your neck is basically where you want the foam roller. So if this feels comfortable for you, just stay right here and take some breaths. Great. And from here, we're just gonna do a couple head nods. So just inhale, try and bring your head back a little bit.

You can gently press into the roller with the base of your skull, if that feels okay. And then just drop your chin towards your chest, yes. Like you're saying yes, you're inhaling. It's pretty small motion and exhale down and you wanna try and open up that occipital area right at the base of the skull. Let your head just be heavy and then exhale dropping the chin so it's pretty small, inhale.

Yep. And exhale. And you might have a really firm roller. You might have a softer roller. So just see, make sure this feels comfortable for you.

The soft one is a great one to start with. If you're not familiar with the foam roller. Last one here, just inhale, trying to get a little bit more space in between the area between your skull and your neck, exhale, dropping the chin. You're gonna stay right here. And you're just going to inhale turn your right ear towards the shoulder and exhale back and inhale other ear towards the shoulder and back.

Yes, so your shoulders are relaxed. Like you're sort of shaking your head no. And then see if you can come back to that beginning spot, you might need to roll the roller back just a little bit away from your shoulders. And from here, you're just gonna try and do little circles with your nose. So you sort of wanna imagine that you're drawing a circle on the ceiling with a pencil, just a small circle and just see if you can get some movement through your skull without moving your shoulders or almost even your neck.

So just your head is moving. Yeah. And then see if you can reverse the direction counterclockwise. Inhaling to one side and exhaling to the other, great job. All right so if this foam roller feels okay here, you can keep it here.

You can also use a half foam roller for this if you have a half one, or you can take it out, we're just gonna do a performance stretch. So you're gonna bring your left foot across your right knee. Yep. And push that knee out that left knee out, looking for a stretch through the back of the hamstrings. So right where those hamstrings insert, pressing the left knee away as you kind of gently draw that right knee towards you a little bit and just stay open to the chest.

Don't feel like you have to round forward and grab your leg or grab your opposite leg. It's more about staying neutral through the pelvis, keeping those hips bolted down and pushing that left knee away from you, keeping that left foot flexed. Yes. And then see if you can roll over onto that left side just a little bit, opening up through the hip and then back to center. And one more time, exhale like you're sort of dipping that knee towards the floor and back, you're going to switch it out to the other side.

So your right leg's across, your right knee's open, your left foot's on the floor. And you're just pushing that right leg away from your body and opening up through the hips, getting a stretch through the back of the leg there, should feel it right at that gluteal fold area. And try not to shift down onto that right side to keep that left hip bolted down as well. And then you'll take inhale and exhale. Just kind of drop that knee over to the right.

Just a little bit, just a little rocking and back to center. So you're nice and neutral on that sacrum. And then you kind of come off to the side and then you come back to center, last one, dropping it over, keeping the length through the hips and back, bringing your feet back on the floor. Bring your feet, the width of your mat or a little bit wider than your hips, yep. If that roller's feeling okay, you can still keep it there or you can always take it out.

We're just gonna drop the knees over to the right side. Let your feet stay wide, let your knees stay wide. Mm hmm. And then exhale. You're gonna use those obliques on the left side to pull your knees back up, inhaling over the other side and exhale, use those obliques to pull your legs back up, beautiful, taking some time to really get that nice full breath, exhale coming back to that neutral position so you're not too tucked around it, inhale over and up.

And inhale as you drop stay right here if you can, you can make your feet come a little bit further away from your body. Maybe you can take your right foot and put it on top of your left thigh. Maybe not and that's fine too. This is just an option for you to get a little bit more length through the front of the thigh, the front of the hip flexors. And then go ahead and bring that leg down.

Use your core to pull the knees back up over to the other side, get comfortable and then see if you can bring this leg on top and you might notice one side's a little bit tighter than the other. Oftentimes if you're right handed, your left hip can be kind of sassy. And if you're lefthanded, you might have some stuff going on in the right hips. So just notice. Yeah.

And then go ahead bring that foot down. Both knees come up. Yep. And we are going to come up using the big stability ball. So find and your stability ball.

And we're going to come up to do some standing work. So now we're gonna do some squats with the stability ball. So hopefully you have a 55 centimeter stability ball. You can also use your small ball for this exercise routine as well. So holding onto the stability ball in front of you, you gonna make your feet nice and wide, we're gonna just come down to a squat position.

So just hold onto that ball and just inhale, bend your knees and exhale draw your belly in and come up. Yep. Just a couple warm up ones here. When you're holding that ball, you wanna hold it almost a little bit underneath and really press with the palms of your hands. You're gonna come down and exhale and now you're gonna come down, but the ball's gonna go up and then you're gonna exhale straighten your arms and straighten your legs.

Beautiful so inhale, push through those heels, exhale, press up, recruit the glutes. Strong glutes can really support your back and help stabilize your lumbar spine. Four more, really push through. Three, two and one come all the way back. Just bring the ball down for a second.

Roll your shoulders around, yep. And you're gonna keep your left leg straight as you bend your right knee, bringing the ball back in front of you and just inhale, reaching it up And all the way around, reach and lift and follow that ball with your gaze reach and lifting, pressing through that foot that's in front two more. And two, you're gonna reach up and you're gonna turn and pivot and face that wall and get a nice hip flexor stretch through that left leg. So really reaching out through here. If you want, you can reach your arms up towards the ceiling, gorgeous and then bringing the ball down.

Yep. And pivot back to the center, yep. And we're gonna bend the other knee and take that ball and reach and lift it up around the world. Inhale as you reach and lift. Drawing that belly in and staying nice and neutral, a little bit of a hinge when the ball comes around, three more and last one come all the way up.

You're gonna pivot face forward. Reaching through that back heel, bending that front knee. If you want, you can reach the ball up, get that length and stretch through the hip flexors in the front and then bringing the ball down and come up to a standing position. Great job with the ball sequence. Now we're gonna move on to the magic circle.

So you wanna have your magic circle for this part of the routine. And when you're holding onto the magic circle, you wanna make sure that you're really pressing your fingertips together, reaching through the fingertips and pushing more with the palm of your hand, than your fingers. All right. So we're gonna start standing Anne's gonna hold onto the circle, yep. And she's gonna give a little bit of a hinge.

You wanna open your feet up a little bit wider than hip distance apart. So slide those shoulders down. Bend your elbows just slightly and see if you can even turn 'em just a little bit up towards the ceiling. Just to open up a little bit more through the chest, yes. So just stay right here for a second.

Do a practice, squeeze, exhale, draw the belly in and just gently squeeze that circle and inhale release. So just a couple more, just check in with your neck, make sure your upper traps aren't kicking in that you don't feel tension in your neck. Remember you really wanna focus on those serratus muscles. So here your knees are gonna go forward. And you're just gonna inhale as you bend, exhale give that circle a squeeze and come straight up.

Yes, so inhale bend. You can hinge forward a little bit and exhale come up yeah. So shoulders draw down. You're working these serratus muscles underneath the armpits there that go down towards your waist and you're pushing through those feet Two more and exhale. Last one, inhale down and exhale back.

You can bring your arms down here and bring your feet together. Or just underneath your hips anyway. Yep. Sliding your shoulders down. See if you can bend your knees here and bring that circle back out in front.

All you're gonna do is take your right leg and slide it out. Yep. And then as you exhale, you're gonna slide your shoulders down and bring it in. Inhale, slide it out. Exhale, squeeze that circle and bring it in.

So working the inner thighs again, the outer thighs inhale reach and exhale. Great job. Yep your elbows stay a little bit bent, two, last one and one come all the way up bring your arms down and we're gonna switch it out to the other side. So you've got that slight hinge as you bend your knees, sort of that skate skiing position and you can bring your left leg out. Yep, and then squeeze that circle.

Draw that belly in keeping your hips square and forward facing, nice. Two more, two, nice and stable through that standing leg and one bringing the arms down, come all the way up here. And you wanna rotate out from those hips, bring your heels touching or pretty close together and see if you can take that circle and bring it back behind you with your fingers facing towards the floor, yes. So just a little bit more of an opening through the chest. Remember slide those ribs back to the wall behind you, bring your weight on your heels if you can.

And all you're gonna do is inhale. Bend those knees little plier position. And as you exhale, just give that circle a micro squeeze as you come back up. So arms stays straight inhaling down and exhale squeeze. If you feel like your shoulders are too tight to hold this circle here, that it thrusts you forward or compromises your form.

You can do this without the circle as well. Or you can use a resistance band instead. Great job bringing that breath really low, right above the pubic bone, exhale lift, two more Last one and one. All right, bringing that circle in front. We've got one more here.

You wanna open up through the hips. Nice wide horse stance. Sliding the shoulders down. You've got the circle right here a little bit below your chest. Same thing, elbows up towards the ceiling.

Inhale, bend your knees. Your knees go nice and wide. And then exhale belly draws in and come up, yes. Inhaling as you bend and exhale, squeeze and lift pushing through the outside of your heel. Can really activate the sides of the thighs and the backs of the legs.

Inhale, you're stretching and exhale you're zipping up. Inhale you're reaching and exhale you're connecting. Four more. Great breathing. Last one.

And one, go ahead and bring the circle down. Take a big inhale. Scrunch your shoulders up towards your ears. You can bring your feet together and exhale down. One more, inhale up and exhale down.

Great job today on this prenatal flow workout. Thank you for joining us.