Gentle Prenatal Flow

Welcome. So happy to be here with you and baby. This is a gentle prenatal flow. We'll be exploring different variations and modifications of sun salutations and standing poses and it's designed to help create some energy to help you feel rejuvenated, refreshed and hopefully find some relief and ease in your body. It'll be helpful to have two blocks and a blanket and we'll start in a wide child's pose. So as you're ready, lower onto your knees and bring your blocks to the front or top of your mat. We'll use them in a bit. Bring your knees nice and wide apart and bring your big toes towards each other to make space for your growing belly and baby. You might choose to lower onto your forearms and release the weight of your head. You might even choose to bring a block under your forehead or support if you want to be up a little bit higher. And as always customize the shape for your body, for your belly. There's so many changes that happen during pregnancy. Allow for a nice full exhale and just feel the weight of your pelvis, the weight of your legs, the weight of your upper body releasing. Tune towards the quality of the breath. You're welcome to stay longer when you feel ready. I'm gonna slowly climb back up onto your hands. Bring your knees in a little closer together. Now here in tabletop as we move into Cat-Cow, again if there's any sensitivity or tenderness in your wrists or hands, you might lower your forearms down to your mat or you might pull your blocks in. I love this variation lately. And explore Cat-Cow with the forearms down. With your exhale you'll let your back round and stretch. You might tuck your toes under releasing your head and then with your inhale moving into that extension arch lifting through the sitting bones, the heart and then exhale let your back round and stretch. Inhale moving into your extension, your cow and continue at your own pace with the breath. Again finding a variation with your arms, your hands that feels right for you. Right now I'm bringing the hands onto the blocks to create a bit more space for the belly. Exhale let your back round and stretch and inhale lead with your heart, healing your extension. Nice and then we'll circle out through the hips. So choose one direction, draw the hips back and then circle them around. Again you might be on your hands, you might be on your forearms, maybe like you're stirring a pot of soup with your hips and then circling in the other direction. And it's nice to have extra padding and support under the knees for this. Circling the hips in the other direction. Nice and then when you feel ready climb back up onto your hands and we'll move towards downward dog. Again you might be on your forearms for dolphin plank, you might find a child's pose instead. If you're moving towards downward dog begin to lift and lengthen. Now feel how you can bring your feet nice and wide, maybe as wide as your mat. Feel how you can bend your knees, generous bend in the knees and then lift and lengthen up through your sitting bones. Feel the back of the neck release here as you breathe. Again you might be in a child's pose, you might be on your forearms and dolphin plank. And then together let's find a way to walk the hands back and meet at the back of our mat in a standing forward fold. So bend the knees a lot and if you're not dropping your head today because of heartburn or dizziness you might bring your forearms onto your legs as you come into a kind of a squat variation here or a half arch, taking a moment to pause. From here ground through your feet and then come up to stand. You might bring your feet just slightly closer together but nice and wide to make space for your pelvis, spreading your toes. Let's draw the hands together at the heart, softening the shoulders, letting your awareness rest on the breath as we move through half sun salutations together at the back of the mat. As you inhale circle your arms up towards the sky and as you exhale bend your knees, so lots of space for your belly as you come forward. You might keep the hands on the legs if you're not dropping your head today or you might put a generous bend in the knees as you release the head. As you're ready inhale half arch length in the spine, hands on the shins or forearms on the legs, press through the feet, inhale circle the arms back up towards the sky and with your exhale hands together at the heart. Let's do that two more times together. On your inhale circle the arms up, lengthen, exhale forward fold, bend the knees, release the arms, release the head. Inhale half arch to lengthen your spine and then exhale let's forward fold again, releasing the head. Ground through the feet, inhale circle the arms up to the sky, lengthen and then exhale draw the hands together at the heart. Taking a moment to pause, feeling the warmth of your heartbeat. Last one like this inhale arms circle up, exhale bend the knees forward fold, hands on the legs or releasing down towards the floor. As you inhale half arch lift and lengthen and again as you exhale fold releasing.

Press through the feet, bend the knees, inhale circle the arms up, exhale hands together at the heart. We'll add on together, inhale arms circle up, exhale as you fold, bend the knees, bring the hands down, walk your hands forward until you come into a downward facing dog. Reorganize your feet, pause here for a moment and then lower your knees. A few rounds of Cat-Cow, inhale lifting the heart, exhale let your back round, inhale to lengthen, exhale to round, a few more rounds at your own pace, exhale round, inhale lengthen, exhale round. Nice. Moving towards the shape of the lunge, so bring your blocks towards the left of your mat. One block might be in the center, one block might be the far left, bring the hands onto the blocks, extend back for your right leg, lift your right leg up and then step that right foot forward nice and wide so the blocks are on the inside of that right foot. Settling in here, let's inhale draw the hips back, extend through the front right leg and exhale lunge. Two more inhale hips drop back, extend, exhale lunge. Last one inhale hips drop back, exhale lunge you might stay low, you might climb up onto that right leg, drawing your baby in towards you, lengthening through your tailbone, you might stay right here, you might inhale your arms up towards the sky, palms facing forward exhale bend the elbows cactus the arms, open the chest, inhale arm sweep up, exhale release the hands on the inside of that right foot, draw the hips back, extend through the right leg and then mindfully just draw that right leg back to meet the left and let's bring the blocks towards the right side of the mat. Hands on the blocks, extend back for your left foot, lift the left leg, inhale and exhale go ahead and sweep that left foot nice and wide, blocks on the inside of the left foot, feeling into your hips. Together inhale draw your hips back, extend through left leg, exhale lunge. Two more inhale hips drop back, exhale lunge. Last one inhale hips drop back, exhale lunge stay low, maybe climb up onto the leg, drawing baby in tailbone lengthens down. Again you might stay here or inhale sweep the arms up, feel how you can lift and lengthen out of the waist, palms face forward exhale bend the elbows, cactus the arms, open the chest, inhale arm sweep up, exhale hands come down, draw the hips back, extend through the left leg and then just carefully draw the left leg back to meet the right. Hands down on the floor tuck the toes downward facing dog. Bend the knees, wiggle the hips back and then carefully slowly walk your hands back towards your feet. Once you arrive bend the knees bring the forearms onto your legs, lift the heart half arch, exhale forward fold release the head, bend the knees ground for the feet, inhale sweep the arms up and exhale hands together at the heart. Taking a moment here to pause you might bring the hands onto the belly, just checking in and connecting with your baby. How's it going? How are you feeling? What are you noticing? Hmm beautiful nice. Okay from here let's go ahead and I'm gonna set up our mat in preparation for some standing, some of my favorite standing shapes. So you can bring your block off to the side, grab your two blocks, step your feet wide apart, wide ish in preparation for a warrior tube and it might be useful to have your blocks place them on the outside of your heels and we'll use them eventually as we come into triangle pose. Okay so let's go ahead and turn, rotate our left foot and our right foot out and as you look down at your feet you might have a line your right heel towards the left inner arch but notice what feels right for you and your pelvis so our body and so we're pregnant our body is constantly changing from day to day so find what feels right for you and maybe it's a shorter stance today if your balance is feeling a little off which mine is often these days. Bending your right knee let's open the arms up and then from here come into a side angle so go ahead and bring your forearm your right form onto your leg and stretch your left arm up towards the sky. Now feel how you can ground through the outer edge of your left foot as you reach that left arm up beautiful and then inhale come back up and then reverse so slide the left hand down right arm up and then back into your side angle right form onto the right leg let's do that a few times inhale back up sweep the left arm down right arm up and then back into side angle we'll pause here breathing and lengthening nice and then inhale come back up let's straighten that right leg toe heel the left foot in a little bit in preparation for triangle pose inhale sweep your arms and as you exhale begin to reach and lengthen towards your right you might bring your right hand onto your shin the left hand on the hip you might bring your block in and bring the hand onto the block feel how you can lengthen and create space if your stance feels a little wide toe heel your back foot in a little closer if it feels good you might reach your top arm up towards the sky maybe looking down maybe looking forward breathing beautiful you might even sleep that top arm over the ear as you lengthen beautiful ground through your feet on your inhale reach with your top arm come on up hands on the hips turn rotate that right thigh and foot in left foot out bend your left knee and find your warrior two legs nice bring your left form onto your left leg maybe the right hand stays on the hip or you sweep the arm over the ear finding extended side angle and grounding through the outer edge of your right foot as you lengthen and breathe ground through the feet and legs inhale come back up and reverse right hand down left arm up and then exhale into your side angle left form onto the leg right arm sweeps ground through the feet inhale come back up reverse left arm sweeps up and exhale side angle left form onto the left leg right arm sweeps up maybe one more ground through the feet inhale left arm sweeps up exhale side angle left form onto the leg right arm sweeps up and then inhale come back up straight in the left leg toe heel your right foot in a little closer shorter stance arm sweep out in preparation for triangle pose inhale to lengthen and exhale begin to reach towards your left right hand might come onto the hip as you bring the left hand down to your shin grab your block you might bring it in as you begin to kind of revolve the belly the chest the lungs if it feels good you might reach your top arm up towards the sky and feel how you can lengthen and create a bit more space find a place where your neck feels good as you breathe as you ready ground for the feet inhale reach with that top arm let it lift and carry you up bring the hands on the hips turn that left foot in go ahead and grab your blocks and bring your blocks out in front of you in preparation for level wide forward fold feet parallel ish hands on the leg on the hips let's inhale lift and lengthen the spine strong through the legs exhale fold the hips hinging forward and then release the hands to the blocks feel how you can soften through the knees reach back for your sitting bones and lengthen forward through the heart through the crown of the head again if you feel any irritation in your low back internally feel that action of drawing your front ribs in or hugging your baby in towards your spine lengthening low back you might stay here you might join me in exploring a twist grounding through the left hand bring the right hand onto the hip and begin to spin towards the right you might stay here if it makes sense for your body you might reach that right arm up towards the sky breathing and exhale release that right hand down ground through the right hand bring the left hand onto the hip and begin to revolve towards the left you might stay here you might reach that left arm up yeah you can reach from your heart into both hands well feeling the strength in your legs now here exhale slow release that left hand back down let's show hill the feet a little closer together we're gonna find a transition let's see how this goes towards a squat pose or melasana so you might take your blocks and stack them on top of each other and begin to gracefully bring your sitting bones on it you might find you need to stack your blocks up a little higher or lower depending on your body and let's pause here for a moment so we've made it here we are in a squat how does it feel for you if it doesn't feel awesome if it doesn't feel great you might adjust the height underneath your your hips underneath your sitting bones you might keep your forearms on your legs you might sit up and lengthen I just love the feeling of support here in in this squat in melasana taking a few moments to settle and be softening the face and the jaw and feeling this downward flow of movement and this kind of spaciousness through the pelvis so this has been one of my go-to poses or shapes during pregnancy to kind of release pressure in the low back create space in the hips in preparation for childbirth okay nice more moments from here we'll transition into a seated bound angle or butterfly shape so find what works for you in the transition can be a bit awkward I'm gonna shift the weight forward and lift the hips up and you might lower down so if you've been on two blocks you might lower down to one or you might prefer to sit on a bolster cushion find what works for you bringing the soles of the feet together knees wide you might even prefer to sit down just on your mat or on the floor and feel how you can inhale to lengthen your spine you might stay here in this extension or it might feel good in this moment to round your spine make sure there's plenty of space for your belly as you bring your feet forward and just allow your back to release here let the weight of your head release might feel nice to direct your breath into the pelvis into the lower back and this is one of those shapes that are very nourishing for pregnancy creating space in the hips low back you're welcome to stay here longer slowly find your way up and then just come into a comfortable seat to close you might just cross your legs you might choose to lie down on your side coming into a side lying Shavasana taking a few moments to sit together and you might bring the hands onto the belly as you feel and connect with your baby you sensing moments of stillness and movement within and it's always changing and fluctuating resting within just allow for a natural inhale to arise and then exhale out of the mouth with a sigh thank you so much for joining us and have a beautiful day