20 Minute Yoga Beginners Core Strength & Balance | Pregnancy Yoga Perfect for Beginners w/ Tessa

Hello, thank you for joining me today. We're going to be doing a sequence for strength and balance and this is for anybody in their second trimester of pregnancy. You don't need any props, so let's go ahead and get started. If you don't have time to watch this video right now, go ahead and save to your watch later and just do it whenever you get a chance. So let's go ahead and start in child's pose, always creating more space for her tummy, making a few adjustments. So big toes are a good bit apart, knees nice and wide apart, wider than hip distance, and just grounding into our practice to start. Go ahead and bring your head to the floor, letting the hips fall towards the heels and you can just let your hands rest by your head and just tuning into our breath and allowing our hips to open a little bit and just notice if you're holding your head up and just let your head really rest and just know that for the next 20 minutes or so you get to focus just on yourself and what you need. Just allowing those shoulders to relax, allowing the abdomen to soften and just really grounding to start. A few more breaths and let's go ahead and walk our hands forward, stretching the spine. Go ahead and press through your palms, spread your fingers nice and wide and allowing your low back to open, allowing your whole spine to just stretch, tucking the chin in, lengthening through the neck and coming into tabletop. I'm going to stack your hips over your knees and your shoulders over your wrists. So before we get going, I'd like to just mention a few things. So for plank, doing the right things will help you build strength in pregnancy, but doing the wrong things in any version of plank will affect the spread in your abdomen in a really unhealthy way. So just a few tips. If you ever start to feel a pain in the middle of your abdomen, you need to like take a step back for sure and allowing the belly to just kind of hang out like this, overarching the low spine, it makes your abdomen spread in a really unhealthy way. So the key here is to suck your abdominal muscles in towards your spine as you engage that pelvic tilt. So just really keep all that in mind through these different variations. So starting in tabletop, we're going to kind of explore engaging the abdominals a little bit more. So go ahead and just scooping the pelvis, you don't want to round your spine, just creating a true tabletop position, tucking the chin in, so forming a straight line from your tailbone all the way through the crown of your head. So just that nice neutral position, you're going to feel a lot of ease in your low back as you draw the abdominals in towards your spine. Soft bend in your elbows, I'd like you to keep that neutral position in your spine and go ahead and just lift that left leg. It becomes a little bit harder to not over arch, so just keep pressing the thigh back, tuck the tailbone in, keeping the abdominals really engaged here. Another two breaths and opposite side, go ahead and lift that right leg, not allowing the abdomen to just hang out, really drawing the abdomen in, tucking the tailbone in as we press the thigh back. And go ahead and release that leg and go ahead and re-center, make any adjustments, nice neutral position in the spine, soft bend in that right elbow, go ahead and just lift that left arm, engaging the upper abdominals a little bit more here, drawing the abdominals in without rounding the spine and opposite hand, soft bend in that left elbow, so tucking, scooping the pelvis, lift that right arm a little more, engaging those upper abdominals, especially on the right side and release. Go ahead and lift that left leg, scooping the pelvis, lift that right arm if you feel ready. Full abdominal wall is engaged, drawing the abdominals in towards the spine, pressing the thigh back, scooping the pelvis. Two more breaths and release and opposite leg, opposite arm if you're ready. True tabletop position in the spine still, scooping the pelvis, reach through your toe tips, through your fingertips. One more breath and release. Coming into dog pose, go ahead and spread your fingers wide and a little bit wider than hip and shoulder distance. Go ahead and press on up, downward dog, just enjoying that space in the spine and the low back, feeling that stretch in your legs as you drop the heels, taking about three breaths here. Even here, careful of just letting the belly hang out, really keeping the abdominals engaged softly, even in a more neutral position like this. You might need to walk your feet back a little bit. Coming into full plank, go ahead and drop your hips and drop your knees. So starting with knees down, notice if your belly is starting to just hang out, your hips are starting to drop, scoop your pelvis, draw your hips back. Go ahead and straighten that right leg, soft bend in the elbows and drop that right knee. Go ahead and straighten that left leg. Core is fully engaged, drawing the abdominals in towards the spine. You can engage both, lift both knees if you feel ready or keep both knees down, whatever feels right. And about three more breaths here, drawing the abdominals in, not allowing the belly to sag. It's not going to be helpful. One more breath, pressing back into dog. Go ahead and walk your feet forward a little bit if you need to. Nice long spine. A few more breaths here and dropping the knees, coming into a nice spacious child's pose, bringing the knees nice and wide apart and just a nice little rest here. Letting the head rest, bringing the hands by your head and really just enjoying these last few breaths here in child's pose. Go ahead and bring your arms overhead, stretching the spine, drawing the chin in, pressing the palms, coming into tabletop once again, stacking the hips over the knees, shoulders over the wrists, and just really learning how to engage your abdominals throughout the day. Scooping the pelvis, drawing the abdominals in towards the spine, coming into supported side plank. Go ahead and just bring your knee in and I'd like you to angle your shin out, your lower leg out, so for more balance, and go ahead and just bring your left foot onto the ground. So make sure that you feel nice and stable. Make sure that your shoulder is over your right wrist and you can gradually begin to open up and you can gaze overhead. I'm going to take about five breaths here. This is fantastic for the pelvic floor, the obliques. About two more breaths, reaching through the fingertips, really engaging that core, even here scooping the pelvis, and go ahead and release. Tabletop and cleaning the slate, stacking your limbs, and opposite side. I'm going to go ahead and show you from a different angle, so you can just bring that knee forward. If you want to challenge your balance a little bit more, you can leave your shin lined up with your knee, but this just helps make balance a little bit easier, angling that leg, and go ahead and just support yourself with that right foot. Make sure your shoulder is over your left wrist, and go ahead and open. About five breaths here. Relax your neck, engaging those upper abdominals, really reaching through your right fingertips. About three more breaths, scooping the pelvis, lower abdominals are engaged. Go ahead and release. Tabletop, downward facing dog. Go ahead and tuck those toes under, feet hip distance apart, long spine here. About three more breaths here. Even here, not allowing the abdomen to just hang out. Walking the feet forward, a little wider than hip distance apart, full forward fold. Go ahead and lengthen that spine, and full forward fold, grabbing hold of your calves or your ankles. We're at the point where any forward fold, the feet need to be separated, just to create more space for the belly, and press through your feet. Go ahead and bring the arms overhead, and keeping the arms overhead, notice if you're overarching in your low back, and draw, scoop the pelvis, draw the tailbone in, drawing the shoulder blades forward. And rooting down through the feet. So even in this standing position, abdominals are fully engaged. Go ahead and keep that position of the pelvis. You can just rest your arms, and go ahead and just relax. So as we get further along in our pregnancy, our kind of natural feeling is to want to do this more and more as the belly grows. So it's going to be like starting in your second trimester with good habits, is just really helpful as we move along. So I'm going to go ahead and face forward, and feet are about hip distance apart, and continuing to work these lower abdominals. You can rest your hands on your hips if you'd like, and we're going to do some heel lifts in Tadasana. So first, just feel nice and stable through your feet. Rooting down through the tripods of the feet, below the big toe, below the little toe, center of the heel, feeling nice and solid. And best advice I can give in these balancing poses is feel stable first, and move slowly. So draw that tailbone in, scooping the pelvis. Go ahead and keep that position, and just come on to the balls of your feet, and hold at the top. Abdominals are fully engaged here, nice and slow. Let's come back down, doing about five or six. And come on up. If your low spine starts to overarch, this is going to feel really difficult. This forces your pelvis into the right position, which is beautiful. And just at your own pace, do about three more. Holding at the top. If you're having trouble balancing, make sure that you're starting from a nice, strong position. Holding this last one. Holding for about five seconds. Keep tucking the tailbone in, drawing the abdominals in towards the spine. Relax your face, and release. And go ahead and shake it out, and grab a drink of water if you need to. And coming back to Tadasana with feet about hip distance together. So starting with a nice, strong base, go ahead and transfer your weight to your left foot, and go ahead and just start to lift that right knee. And our abdominals are already very much engaged here. If you want more of a challenge, go ahead and lift that right leg. And if you can, go ahead and interlace your fingers over your knee, tucking the tailbone in even here, feeling solid through your left foot. About two more breaths. And release, and go ahead and transfer weight to the right side. Feel solid first before you try and lift that left foot. Go ahead and lift. And this is fantastic for all these muscles in here, preventing diastasis recti. Go ahead and lift that left leg if you can, and release your fingers. About three breaths. Relax your face, feeling rooted through that foot. One more breath. Go ahead and release, and go ahead and transfer the weight to your left foot, and go ahead and just lift that knee. Moving right into Tree Pose, go ahead and just angle that right knee out, and you can set your foot on your calf. So as we move forward, I don't want you to overstrain your abdominals, so just really listen to your body. If you feel like you want more, and your abdominals want more, you can slide that foot up for your position. And same thing, scooping the pelvis. Abdominals are engaged here. And relax your shoulders. Two more breaths. Let go, clenching your toes. And release. And opposite side, transfer that weight to your right foot. Lift that knee. Abdominals are fully engaged. And Tree. And this is a great place to stay. If you want more, go ahead and slide that foot up for your position. And breathe. Scooping the pelvis, relaxing the shoulders. Three more breaths. Find a spot on the floor that you can focus on if you're struggling with balance, and go ahead and release. And Tadasana. Go ahead and bring your feet together. Rooting down through your feet, scooping the pelvis, rolling the shoulders back. Come into prayer position. And just feeling strong and solid like a mountain. That is it for our practice today. If you enjoyed today's video, you should check out our app, Yoga Plus. There's some really great content on there that you won't find on YouTube. I look forward to seeing you there. Welcome to Yoga Plus. Courses available from pupil to yogi. Sort by yoga, fitness, and instructors. Create your own routines. Access the Pose Library. 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