Gentle Prenatal Yoga: 30-Minute Mobility & Connection

Take 30 minutes to slow down, gently move your body, and connect with yourself and your growing baby. This gentle prenatal yoga practice focuses on mobility, easing everyday tension, and creating space in your changing body through mindful movement and breath.
A gentle reminder: Please consult your midwife or healthcare provider before beginning any new exercise practice during pregnancy. Listen to your body throughout the session, move within a comfortable range of motion, and avoid pushing into pain or discomfort.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to today's video. Mobility and prenatal yoga flow. This is something that you can incorporate into your daily schedule. It doesn't take too much time and it'll target the major muscle groups so that you can feel a lot more open in your body and also move through your pregnancy with more ease. So we're going to start in a comfortable position of your choice. If you've got any blocks or other props close by, Then please keep them close. So we can make use of some straps or some yoga blocks if you don't have any yoga blocks then maybe grabbing a stack of books or even some cushions but make sure that your props are nice and comfortable and stable. So let's start in a comfortable seat So I'm going to prop myself up onto a block. It just helps to elevate the hips a little bit more so that you can take some pressure off the knees. But once again, This could be. Some books or some cushions. And we're just going to start with closing down through the eyes and finding your comfortable seat. Connecting with your breath, Connecting with your body, And taking the next few moments to settle in. So start by becoming aware of your posture. You feel your sit bones grounded down. Onto your support or onto the floor. You feel the knees going out to the sides. The sit bones nice and heavy. So grounded that you can elevate through your spine. Let your tailbone drop downwards. And then let your pubic bone move slightly inwards and upwards into the chest. So you feel a little bit of a hugging your baby sensation, Your navel pulling gently to your spine. Also like to mention that this sequence is safe for all trimesters. But if you're feeling any pain, Any severe discomfort, Please come out of the pose. So really tuning in to your bodies. Doing what feels good. Bring your shoulder blades into the spine. And you feel your collarbones really spreading nice and wide. So you're opening this armpit chest area. And then the shoulders just naturally softening and relaxing down away from the ears. You don't have to pull, You don't have to force. Let the pose come to you organically. Soften down through the muscles of your face. And let the eyelids be soft and closed. And we'll take a big breath in through the nose. Expand. Breathe into the back of the lungs. And exhale to sigh it out. One more big breath in. And exhale, Side out. Last one, Big inhale. And full exhale. Lovely. Gently opening the eyes. And we'll start with a little bit of neck mobility. So dropping your left ear to the left shoulder. Then you're going to exhale, Chin to chest and take it over to the opposite side. Inhale open the throat if it feels okay for your neck you're going to go all the way around so making these big circles if it doesn't feel okay for the angle of your neck, Then just taking these little kind of half semi-circles. However, If you're with me, We are inhaling to open the throat. And exhaling, Chin to chest. You can make this as slow or as fast as you need to go. Then we change. So just letting the head rotate on its axis. Last one. Coming back to the midline and inhale to lift the gaze. Amazing. Okay, Next one. Bring your arms to your sides, Fingertips onto the mat, And then really open your palms. So we want to get this rotation through the shoulder heads. And then on an inhale, You lift the arms up. Fingertips touch, Drop the shoulders and exhale, Bring the hands down. Feel that movement of the shoulder blades, Inhale. Feel how they glide. And exhale. Keep the palms nice and open, Keep the shoulder blades working into the back body. Keep foundation through the sit bones. It's just the arms moving up and down. Inhaling up. Exhaling down. Nice. Keep on going just like this. Really flossing through the joints. Let's do one more. And exhale down. Now we're going to invite a little bit of a gentle twist. So. . . We're not going to move too deeply into the twist, Especially if you are quite early on in your pregnancy, Then definitely keep the twist in. To a very gentle expression of the twist. Sorry, You don't want to move too deeply even if you have this space. But as you move and progress deeper into your pregnancy, Then you'll find that there actually isn't a lot of space for you to twist. So with me, We'll take our left arm. You're going to sweep it forwards, Forwards, Forwards, Scooping forwards. And then just a gentle twist. Over the shoulder. And exhale, Back down. Inhale, Sweep forward. And exhale back down. So it's really good to get a little bit of movement going, Especially in that thoracic spine region. That becomes. . . A little bit stiff, A little bit sticky. Especially as everything starts too. Push up. To make space for your baby. And I am 33 weeks and a few days pregnant. So I'm really feeling. I'm really feeling the things. And change so we do the opposite side sweeping forward Slight rotation. And we like to move almost like we're moving with a little bit of resistance, Like you're sweeping through honey. Make the movements. Nice and fluid. Inhale forwards. And exhale back. Let's do two more on this side. And one more. Great, Okay let's come over onto our hands and knees. Tabletop position. So in our tabletop position, You want to spread your fingers nice and wide. Have your wrists underneath the shoulders and the knees are underneath the hip points. Really gripping in to your yoga mat. Activating through the forearms and then we're going to keep this connection of hugging your baby inwards, Activating through the core. On an inhale. Fill your belly up. Really breathing into the back of the ribcage and then as you exhale slowly out the mouth. You hug your baby in, Just gently. So the belly button is moving back towards the spine. Inhale through the nose. And exhale. Almost like you're inflating and then deflating a balloon. So continue like this. Keep on going. Let's do two more. Last one. And then just taking some regular breaths, Still keeping that core connection. We're going to take some pelvic circles. So just moving through the pelvis in one direction. Stay connected to your breath. And then change. Nice full and deep inhales and exhales. Okay, Let's take a few hip circles. So if you are experiencing any pelvic girdle pain, Like me this does feel a bit challenging to do and also a bit sensitive so i recommend just to take it nice and slow take it easy don't make the circles too big see how you go we're going to start with picking up the left knee and then just making little circles opening that joint complex up. Stay connected to your core, Just a gentle hugging of your baby. And then change. Last one. And then over to the other side one side may feel wildly different to the other. Like for me this side is. . . A lot. More manageable than the other side. Okay, Make sure that you've gone both directions. And release and then just come over onto your shins giving the wrists a little bit of relief, Shaking it out, Flicking it out. Okay, Great. Next pose that we're going to do is our puppy pose. So walking the hands forwards, Forwards. Here you can make use of your block just to rest your forehead down. You can have your knees a little bit wider if you need some more space for the belly to land. And then just taking a few deep breaths here, Letting the spine gently lengthen. Keeping the hips elevated. You might need the block or not. You might be resting your forehead onto your yoga mat. Just see what works for you. One more breath. And exhale. Walking the hands back. And then grab your block. Now you're going to place it are kind of in the middle of your mat maybe just a little bit over to the right we're gonna go for a kind of tabletop figure four and this will really help to open up the outer hips. So if you're experiencing any sciatica, Or outer hip pain, Then this one could be really good for you. Placing your right knee onto the block. Tuck the toes behind you, Lift the kneecap, Just take it slightly back. And then bring this shin a little bit more parallel to the front edge of your mat and then walk the back knee in. So you have this connection of the ankle in front of the knee. And then just come to rest on the forearms. Make sure that you are relaxing that outer hip. Taking a few breaths here. Breathing deeply. Just feel that right hip opening up. And then we'll switch over to the other side. So first tuck the toes behind, Take that knee back. Slowly coming off the block, Shifting it over. To the opposite side. Placing the left knee on lifting the back knee, Moving it backwards. Bringing that shin a little bit more parallel and then bringing it all the way up towards the ankle. Coming down onto your forearms. Taking long, Full breaths in and out. Really relaxing that left outer glute. Slowly coming up removing the blocks And then from here. . . We'll come into a kind of 90-90 position, Just another one for the hips here. So we'll start with Whichever leg in front really and then the other leg goes behind you try to pick up your seat Try to ground down a little bit more through your sit bones. It's okay for one of the hips to be slightly elevated here. We're going to place the hand that is on the bent knee side, The knee that is in front, Downwards. And then from here we press into the hand, Inhale, Lift. Exhale to come down. If this is too painful for your inner thighs, We can also do the same. Action, A very similar action. Hands to the side, Inhale, Reach up and over. So just see which variation will work for you today. We're just going to do five on each side. Inhale, Lift. Exhale down. Big inhale, Think about reaching up and over. And full exhale. And now the left. I think that was three. Nyeh. Cool. And five. Nice and then changing, Sorry I'm needing to pull my shirt down all the time. And okay so now we have the opposite shin in front you can pick the hips up just try to reposition your sit bones nicely once again it's fine to have one of the hips kind of lifted. Placing the hand to the outside of that hip. Inhale. And exhale. Reaching up and then over to the side. Two. 3. . . Pull. And last one. Great. Okay you're going to come onto hands and knees once again One of our last positions that we're going to do today, A little bit of thoracic spine opening as well as inner thigh opening. So coming into your tabletop position. And then extending. Right leg. Sorry it'll be your left leg, Left leg out to the side Kind of in line with the. . . The bottom knee. And then we're going to inhale. Open the chest. Towards the extended leg. Exhale to thread the needle. Moving through those poses, Inhale. Exhale. Big inhale. Full exhale. Two more times. One more. Nice. And then just taking about five rock backs. So you're going to lean backwards and then coming slightly forward. CHU 3. . . 4 and 5. Change, Left leg, Extend left leg up. Find a nice solid grounding, A nice solid base. Inhale, Reach. And exhale, Thread the needle. Let's do one more. Coming back with the hands and then we're just gonna rock backwards and forwards. To Three. For And five. Nice. And then finding. . . A comfortable seat whether it's on your shins, Whether it's back in a cross-legged position. Take the next few breaths to soften down through your eyes and your face. Finishing off today's practice with a few deep breaths. Inhale fully through the nose. Breathing into the back of the heart. And exhale, Side arch. Big inhale. Full exhale. Let's do one more. And release. Opening the eyes. Thank you so much for practicing with me today. I hope that some of these moves can be very beneficial for you or this is a practice that you can incorporate into your daily or weekly life. I'll see you again in the next class.