Pregnancy Yoga Seated: 31-Min Prenatal Sequence

So just keep going and keep that slightly, it feels like you're just hugging your baby towards your spine without tensing up, without using a lot of core. It's just a slightly just a little hug of the baby in towards you. And just keeping that at the same time you're breathing up and down. This is just to keep some connection to our center and keep especially our low back safe because the low back has much more weight pulling forward right now.

Or in some cases not so much, but in my case it was a lot of pulling forward and down. So it can help to just support the back by pulling the baby in. So just keep that and allow your hands to travel to your knees. You can open your eyes.

Just keep breathing and start to move in circles forward to the side and back. So just rolling around your own hips. You can bring the shoulders into it. You can bring the head.

And move the other direction. So one thing that happens when we are pregnant is that we get different hormones and we produce more of some hormones that makes our joints less stable. So we can be... Many of us think that we need to stretch a lot when we are pregnant so we become more flexible, more open.

What can happen is that we can stretch our joints more. So we can stretch our joints more flexible, more open. What can happen is that your joints get more unstable and that you will overstretch. So we try to not go as far as we can into the stretches.

We try to work more on keeping the support and just finding ease in the poses. And slowly coming into center. You can release the feet in front of you. You can still sit on your pillow or release the pillow.

Just taking the feet in front of you. Hands back, lifting the belly, lifting the chest and just allow the feet to move in and out. Maybe point the toes forward, pull them back and out to the side. At the same time rolling the shoulders back, breathing into the front body.

Moving the other way with the feet. Just getting some circulation in the feet and ankles. And then taking the left chin in front. So again you can be on your pillow.

And making sure the knees are relaxed and you feel like you can sit tall, have a long and nice spine. So inhaling arms and exhaling. Just a nice side stretch to one side. Inhale up through center.

Exhale to the other side. So you're not... You will maybe close off your belly and chest. So try to free the belly, free the chest and just move from side to side with the chest open.

If you want you can circle the arm. And trying to keep the hips heavy. So when we move to one side we try to not lift the opposite side. And just one more.

And just one more from side to side. And meet in center. Again you can release your pillow. This time we stretch the legs out in front of us.

Try to sit up tall. And then just move the feet around. You can use your fingertips to push down, sit up tall. Move the feet forward, back, out, in, the other way, forward, out, in, the other way.

Just one more round. And then we bend the left knee in front. So it's probably better from this way. Left knee in front and the right knee just behind the left heel and the right foot right out from the knee.

So from the side like this. So trying to sit on both hips can be tricky here but you try to distribute your weight here. You can also put the pillow underneath your hips if it's a lot. So just making sure you're comfortable here.

You can use your hands. If not you take your arms overhead. Inhale, exhale twist to the left. So right arm on the outside of the left knee.

Left hand behind your left hip. Lifting the chest, turning to the left, breathing, hugging the baby slightly in. Releasing, inhale arms up. Exhale again, twisting.

Inhale, releasing, two center, lifting up. Exhale, twisting to the left. One more inhale. Exhale.

Staying here. Breathing into the twist. Maybe you want to look over your right shoulder if that's better for your neck. Or gazing over the left shoulder.

Next inhale coming back to center. Exhale, hands to the chest. Taking your hands behind you, releasing the legs. Just allowing the legs to go from side to side.

And then we do the other side bending the right knee in front of you. The left knee right behind the right heel. Left foot just coming down from the left knee. Make sure you're comfortable.

And then we do the other side bending the right knee in front of you. The left knee right behind the right heel. But you can sit up tall. Use your hands if you want.

And breathe. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, twisting to the right. So the left hand on the outside of the right knee, right hand behind you.

Of course the left hip will lift off the floor. So only now when we come back to center, we try to drop the left hip down, arms up. And you exhale, you allow the hip to come off and you twist to the right. So you inhale, try to push the hips down, lift up through center.

Exhale, twisting to the right. Right hand behind your hip. Left hand to your right knee. Keep going a couple of times.

Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Last one. Inhale. Exhale, we stay. Again, choose what you want to do with your neck and head.

Some people like to gaze over the left shoulder. It helps the neck relax. Others want to look over the right shoulder. Just draw the chin in so the neck and head is not hanging in front of the rest of the spine.

One more deep breath in. And out. Exhale. Slowly release.

Coming back. And just straightening the legs in front of you, hands behind your hips. Lift the chest. Just take a moment where you breathe into your belly.

And coming slowly up. Moving into more both side stretches and twists so you can again be on your pillow. It can be nice to have the hips slightly higher to keep the spine nice and long. So we're just opening the legs out in front of us.

So again, if you usually have your legs really wide, just be safe in your hip joints. So maybe you take a narrower stance with your legs. So keep the left leg where it is. Just bend the right knee so the right foot can come on the inside of the left thigh.

If this is a pain in your knee, you can work it out. So if you have a pain in your left thigh, if this is a pain in your knee, you can roll up a towel or something to have between your knee and your thigh. So it's not as closed or you can have something underneath your knee. If this is also a lot for your hamstring, you can have a little pillow under the left knee.

So just make yourself comfortable first. And then we start to inhale, lift up long spine. Exhale, just over to the left, right arm stretching overhead. Inhale, arms up.

Exhale to the right, keeping the left leg heavy. Inhale up. Exhale to the left. Just a couple of more from side to side.

So we're trying to really create length when we breathe in and breathe out, just hugging the baby. Last one. Next time we stay with the left hand on our fingertips to the left, take the right hand to the back of the head. Inhale, try to pull the right elbow back and up.

Gaze to the right, push the back of your head into your hand. Exhale, trying to close with the right elbow facing the left. Inhale, you open up again, back of the head pushing into the hand. Exhale, reaching the right elbow forward and over to the left.

Keep going on your breath. And here also it depends the size of your belly. For some people it's just a tiny little movement. And for others, it's possible to go a little deeper down and forward.

Just keep moving with your breath. And last one. And slowly release both arms. Take your right arm over to the right and just use the push of the right knee, pushing to the left foot and open up through your left arm.

So open the chest, take a deep breath into the front of the left hip and the belly. And slowly sit back down. Stretch the right leg out to the right. And slowly bring the left foot to the inside of the right thigh.

Same goes here, something between or underneath your left knee. Or maybe even under your right knee so you can have a slight bend in the knee. Keep moving with the breath, inhaling arms up. Exhale, side stretch first.

Inhale, lengthen up. Exhale, side stretch. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, keep the front open so we're not closing up.

Inhale, heavy in the hips, heavy in the legs and steady with the breath. Last round. And this time, stay on your fingertips on your right hand. Take your left hand behind your head.

Push the back of the head into your hand. Lift the left elbow, turn up towards the ceiling. Inhale, exhale, close with the elbow, back down. Inhale, lift up, chest up.

Exhale, close with the elbow, back down. Inhale, lift up, chest up. Exhale, turning to the right, bringing the elbow down. Inhale, open up.

Exhale, turning. So just keep going on your own breath. So even if this seated sequence doesn't seem like a lot, it's taking really good care of our back. So for a lot of us, it feels, we feel it in our back when we have a growing belly and also less movement maybe than we're used to.

So just moving the spine in every direction is really important. So forward, back, side to side and also rotating like we're doing now. Last one. And coming back up, releasing the arm, taking both hands behind you and now left hand over to the left, pushing into the left knee, using the left knee, the left arm to lift your hips, right arm to the ceiling, reaching to the ceiling with your arm, pushing the hips slightly forward.

Take a big breath into your front body. And slowly sit back down. Now both hands behind you so you can straighten out both legs again. Again, don't, if you're used to having them really wide, just take your legs a little narrower.

Push into your hips, lift the belly, hug the baby slightly in towards you. You can stay here, just drop your head or walk the hand slightly in front of you. You can walk forward on your fingertips or maybe for some without pushing it, just maybe trying to lengthen forward so you have a little forward fold. So showing from the side, we're trying to avoid rolling back on our tailbone here, trying to roll forward on our hips so we can help to sit on the pillow that lifts the hips, lengthen the spine.

And then with a straight spine walking forward and when you have come slightly forward with a straight spine, you can drop the head and allow the upper spine to round a little bit. And just breathing into the back of your legs, into your low back, into your upper back, into your neck. And give yourself a couple of more deep belly breaths here. Remove the breath all the way down into your belly.

Maybe open the mouth, release the air out. One more time, inhale all the way down to your belly. Exhale, relax. Slowly walking yourself up.

And bringing the feet together by drawing the feet in. So moving into, you can have two options here. If you're super pregnant in the last end of your pregnancy, you might want to do the first one. Depends totally on how you feel.

If laying on your back just for a short time doesn't feel really good, just do the first option. If not, you can do both. We'll do two rounds. So first option is hands behind your hips, feet hip distance or even wider, rolling the shoulders back, lifting the chest, lifting the belly.

For some it's enough to just walk the feet a little bit forward and tilt to the front of your hips. Keep hugging the baby up and in. This can be plenty. Like I said, if you're in the end of your pregnancy or if you have a tough pregnancy.

If you are up for a little bit more, you can walk the feet closer in. Toes pointing forward, push into the feet and start to lift your hips. Lift your belly up. Just breathe here.

Try to lengthen your tailbone forward so you're not dropping your hips too much. Focusing on lifting the chest, breathing. And then slowly coming back down. If that was enough, keep doing what you just did.

If you want another variation, you roll onto your back, bring the feet close to your hips. You bring the shoulders underneath your body and start to roll the hips up. Lengthen the tailbone. I can't really blame that I'm pregnant right now.

I'm just messing up my words. Lengthening the tailbone forward and walking the shoulders underneath you. You can rest the inside of your palms towards the ceiling. Stay here.

Or if you have the space, walk the shoulders even more underneath your body and clasp your hands together. Push the forearms down, push the feet down. Activate your glutes, lift the hips. Also inner thighs rolling down.

Keep opening the low back. And breathe. One more deep breath. And then slowly, if you're on your back, release the hands and roll all the way down.

If you're seated, you can do the same with your hands behind your hips. If you're on your back, just allow the knees to go from side to side. The same thing if you're seated up after doing this. You just allow the knees to move from side to side.

And if you're on your back, just slowly roll over to one side. Push yourself back up. One last pose before we move back down. It can be with the pillow underneath your knees.

You can sit on your pillow or you can use the pillow in front to lean on. So you have the soles of the feet together a little bit away from your body. I like to wiggle on my hips a little bit so I can be on the front of my hips and not on my tailbone. This will help the tilt of the pelvis to lift and lengthen the back.

So again, you can use the pillow in front if you want, underneath if you want. Just try to have a little lean forward so you can relax the head. Relax the face. And then just breathe into your whole back body.

It can be nice to just close your eyes. And again now just allow the belly to relax. Allow the hips to relax. Allow the shoulders to relax away from the ears.

Relax the jaw. Relax your face. Relax the jaw. Relax your face.

Allow the whole body to be heavy. And then inhale through the nose down to your belly. Open your mouth. Exhale.

Inhale. And relax. Inhale. And relax.

Slowly coming back up. Moving on to our side. So when we are pregnant, we don't want to spend too much time on our back lying flat. So one nice way to do it is to lie on your side and just take a pillow or two between your knees and ankles.

You want to make sure you don't have just one underneath your knees and then your ankles collapse together. I want to make this feel really nice for your back. So just resting with maybe your head on the pillow or on your arm. I will just have my microphone available.

So just make yourself comfortable with your arm overhead or your head on the pillow, pillow between the knees. You can also have a pillow underneath your waist if that feels better for your belly. You can also have a pillow underneath your waist if that feels better for your belly. So you just stay down.

Make yourselves really, really comfortable. And then drop the breath. Drop the control of the breath. So just allow the breath to come and go.

You just close your eyes and notice. Connect back into your own body and connect to your baby growing in your belly. Please allow yourself to have some time here to just be and pay attention. A pregnant Savasana as long as you need.

Thank you so much for joining.