Hi, I'm Michelle, and today I'm going to take you through a nice gentle routine for lower back pain
if you're pregnant. Now, this routine is basically all on your hands and knees or elbows and knees,
and line side on the ground. So it's suitable for any stage of pregnancy. Just check the information
below for the ACOG guidelines regarding safe exercise in pregnancy and of course, all the
exercises should feel comfortable throughout just discontinue if you have any discomfort anytime.
So let's get started. All you need is a mat at home, I've actually got a towel roll here to a
little towel if you knees tend to get so when you're in kneeling, you can use something like
a little towel or a cushion underneath your knees. I'll use that just to demonstrate today
as well. We're going to start coming through taking your hands out in front of your body.
Keeping your elbows soft. If your wrists are sore, which they sometimes are during pregnancy,
all these exercises can be done in this position as well if you're looking at if you've got
problems with Carpal Tunnel or sore wrists. So starting with your head down, let's take a couple
of deep breaths breathing in, and breathing out slowly. Okay, let's start by breathing in,
and round the back, tilt the pelvis under, roll through, breathing in, and breathing out,
squeeze the shoulder blades together, breathe out until down. Don't hyperextend the back, just keep
it generally flat. Now we can lift right up with the shoulder blades, middle of the shoulder blades
up towards the ceiling, tuck the bottom under and breathe out just coming through to flat and we'll
do that one more time at home lifting up, rounding right that should feel quite comfortable. Now you
wouldn't be doing these exercises if you have a disc issue. But for generalized discomfort,
these exercises are really nice. Now we're going to start here by taking one here. So
I'm going to go bring my right hip around to the side towards my right shoulder, and back to the
other side. Breathing in, and take it back again. Just slow and steady breathing in, to one side,
across and back. So getting some nice side tilt through the spine here and back out and take a
breather. Now we're going to slide the left hand through and underneath the body. Reach through
and down, reach to as far as you can across can feel that stretching down through your shoulder
blade and into low back. Just gently these muscles stretch across through to the side of the back and
coming back up slowly. Remember the importance of relaxing the breath with these breathing in,
and breathing out, and rotate through. Big stretch across. And, come back up. And now just come back
into resting down onto your forearms. Just bringing your bottom down towards the heels
as far as it feels comfortable. Now lifting the bottom away from the heels, stretch the arms out,
and gently see the armpits down towards the ground. Now you can have your knees apart
if you're in the latest stages of pregnancy so that bub can sink down and just breathing
out and relaxing there in that position. So you can see this gives a lovely stretch into the low
back and also into the bottom and just taken as far back as it feels comfortable for your body.
And now coming up, it's more for hands around to the right side. So you've still got your
heels and bottom in that same position and now you're sinking the right armpit down towards the
ground. You're gonna feel this through the left side of your lower back and perhaps into your
bottom and just breathe out, which is synched down, breathing in and breathing out. And now
slowly walk the hands back around to the other side. This time we're stretching out the right
side of the lower back by walking our hands around to the left, and again sinking the armpit down to
the ground. Breathing in, and out into the stretch, and once more breath in, and out,
and coming back. Now you can bring your hands back to center. If your shoulders are sore, just keep
your elbows bent, and now slide your bottom right back down as far as it feels comfortable so the
bub is sinking down between your legs and now you're getting a nice deep stretch in through
the bottom in through the lower back and you can bring your head down and relax in that position,
breathing in, and breathing out, and one more stretch, breathing in, and out, and let's now
slowly walk the hands back up. I've got just a couple of stretches to go, how you going at home?
I hope they're feeling comfortable for your back. And we're going to bring the right knee in and I'm
actually deliberately using the towel roll here so it's softened my knee, lifting up and bringing the
left leg forward. So what that leg forward, and we're going to go into a lunge stretch here. So
you stretch through the front of your hip. When you pregnant, these muscles become very tight,
and they can tilt your pelvis and they're very good. That tilt in position is very good
at causing back discomfort lower back because company in particular. So you're breathing in,
and as you breathe out, trying and sink this hip down towards the ground. If it's too hard
to lean on the ground, you could be leaning on a lounge or on an exercise ball in that
position as well. I'm just using my hand there just to demonstrate and let it slide back up,
and we've got the last one of those to go so that left leg comes back. Take the right leg
wouldn't try get a good distance from that front heel on the back knee. And again,
lunging down, thinking the front of the hip down and as crazy as it sounds,
this is a great stretch to help the back. Breathing in, and breathing out, tilt down,
and once small breathing in, and breathing out. Just tilt down, and coming back. And we're going
to finish off lying on the ground now. So, I'm going to use my little towel here as a pillow
you might have a cushion at home. But we're just coming down slowly onto one side and we're going
to finish off with the nice rotation stretch in this position. So lowering your body down slowly.
Make sure that your head and neck are comfortably supported, and bring your arms both out in front,
my knees are stacked on top of each other, and we're going to breathe in, and breathe out, and
lift the arm, and rotate across. So you're really opening up through your chest. I've hit the wall
there, but you know what I mean here can stretch right back and really open up through your chest,
but you're also getting a lovely rotation through your back. Come back through and breathing in,
and we'll do that one more time breathing in, and breathing out. Take the arm right across, really
open up and come back to center and remember that when you go to roll to keep things safe,
keep your knees together, coming over onto your back and then you can repeat the same exercise
on the other side if you'd like to allow you to do that now while you're finishing off this routine.
So, you can see we've gone through a nice little routine thereof exercises
suited to general lower back stiffness and discomfort. I really hope these exercises
help you at home and help you through your pregnancy. Subscribe below if
you'd like some more exercise videos from me. I'll see you next time. Bye for now.