Tummy Time for Mama

(waves whooshing) Hi, so welcome back. I'm very happy you're here to share this practice with me. Today we're going to be doing the sequences focused on the core, a little bit in the back and the muscles around the spine. I recommend it for mammas who are about three months out of birth, just because you can give your abs some time to heal naturally before you start to really actively bring them in. But if you feel like you're ready and prepared for it, then feel free to join in and ease up when needed, just really listening to what's going on with your body today.

We'll use a blanket just to support us, especially your tailbone for some of it. I think that's about all we'll need for this practice. Let's just get started. We'll start actually sitting on our knees. So sitz bones resting on the heels.

If that's uncomfortable at all you can take your blanket, double it up and just give yourself a little cushion right there if that feels better for you. Otherwise, just rest your sitz bones on your knees. Rest your palms down. We're just going to do a couple of tilts. So just leaning forward with the torso opening through the shoulders.

Big inhale. Exhale, release it back. Navel towards the spine. So you get a little bit of stretch in the quads here. Just a little one.

Inhale. There's a little arch and a little stretch happening here. Exhale. Draw the navel in even closer to the spine. Good, one more.

We're just warming up those muscles slowly. The whole entire abdominal wall active here. Good, and we'll come back to center. Neutral spine. Then we'll add a big arm circle, just to warm up those shoulders a little, opening.

Exhaling down and around. Good, this time inhale, reach out a little bit, tilting your torso. As you exhale you're just going to scoop the belly, naval in towards the spine. Pause with your arms in front of your shoulders. Feel the abdominals getting a little warm in there.

Shoulders down away from the ears. Then just bring yourself back up into a neutral spine, and relax your fingers back down onto your legs. Good. Now we're going to come back onto our tailbone a little bit here. This is when you might really need the blanket if you have a sensitive tailbone or sacrum, like I do.

You're just going to come back onto it. We're just going to rest here, tilting back a little bit with the torso. Navel towards the spine, again getting that sense of the abdominal wall starting to get a little active here. Same idea. So we're just warming it up.

So we'll just come up a little bit, opening through the shoulders. As you exhale keep the elbows nice and high. Draw the naval towards the spine. Let's just do two more. Really connecting with the breath, so big inhale.

Exhale. Let's pause here, good. Now just lift your sternum, open your shoulders a little bit. If you want to, you're just going to lift the feet off and start to balance a little, reaching your arms, opening through the heart and chest. Pausing here, feeling a little bit of that fire, that sense of heat getting activated here.

Navel draws still towards the spine. Breathing. Good. Then just cross one leg on top, and come back up. You might now remove the blanket or put it behind, unfold it and put it behind your spine if you want a little cushion around your spine.

Otherwise you can just set it aside for now. We're going to do a little rock and roll movement. Again, naval stays towards the spine the whole time. If you want to uncross your feet you can, or you can have your right leg crossed. You can rest your hands here or on the top of your knee.

There's a lot of options. You're just going to come back rolling, and then roll up. See if you can keep your feet off the ground a little bit. So inhale. Exhale, navel towards the spine.

Two more. And last one. And a little balance here, coming back up through Navasana and then switching the cross of the legs, if they were crossed. If they weren't that's fine. We'll just do a few more.

And back. Exhaling up. It's okay if the toes touch. And two. Good.

Last one. Just balance for a bit, a breath or two if that feels right for you. Just pausing here, good. Crossing the legs, and we'll just come into seated, and take a little pause. We're going to do now a little bit of working with plank.

We'll start to come out onto all fours. Palms under the shoulders, knees under the hips. We're going to sink our sitz bones back on our heels, and we're just going to come up. Relax our forehead down to the earth. Come up on a breath into kneeling, and then float back down onto all fours, already feeling your navel drawing towards the spine.

Tuck the toes and then take yourself into Downward Facing Dog. Let's pause here for a couple of breaths, just feeling the connection between all the different body parts, the heels to the hands, tailbone tilting, sinking under those heels. Drawing the thighs back. Lengthening out the spine and the belly. We'll do what we just did one more time.

So we're going to sink down onto all fours, keeping your navel drawing in towards the spine. Then just floating your sitz bones back on your heels, just for the exhale. Inhale, coming back up into this kneeling. Exhale, floating your fingertips down, just flowing through it, tucking the toes and taking yourself into Downward Facing Dog. Pausing here for a few breaths.

Lengthening it out. Good. Then we can do what you just did, or you can take it into plank. How about we start with supported plank? So knees down.

Then we're going to lower down to the earth through Chaturanga. So the elbows are going to graze the ribcage, just kissing them. Coming down, hover for a breath, feeling your navel drawing towards the spine, and then just come down on your belly, and scoop your heart and your shoulders open. Good. Then lower it back down, keeping your shoulders nice and open, and pressing your way back.

Let's just go all the way back into Child's Pose for a breath. Just pausing here. Good. We'll come back up. Let's try that one more time.

Let's go straight into Downward Facing Dog, so navel towards the spine, sitting back onto those heels, pressing through the hands, feeling energy moving through the body. We're going to come into plank, or supported plank with the knees. Feel the weight distributing throughout the body, really activating that core, just holding all those internal organs in place with the muscles of the abdomen. Then lower down on an exhale, so you're kissing the ribcage with the elbows, opening through the shoulders. Inhale, open through the chest.

Draw the heart space forward. Elbows go back. Good, and just release it down. Come through all fours and come back again into Child's Pose. You can pause in Child's Pose.

Otherwise, we're going to just flow through it again. Check in, see how your body's feeling. Here we go into downward facing dog. If you want to this time you can come into plank without using the support of your knees, if that feels good for you. But starting with the weight distributed throughout the body, feeling that strength in your arms, strength in the belly, good.

The crown of the head in alignment with the tailbone. Take a big deep breath and lower down to the earth nice and slow, good. Scoop the heart and sternum forward. This time if you want, you come into Upward Facing Dog. You may just want to stay in a little Cobra, engaging those triceps, lengthening out through the spine.

So see what feels right for you. Then sink back into Child's Pose again. Good, just pausing, softening everything out for a breath or two, relaxing the shoulders, relaxing the face. Good. So now we're going to come all the way onto our tummies.

I call this one tummy time for mom, but it's actually really fun to do with baby. I have a lot of fun being inspired by Ruby, because she kind of plays around getting ready to crawl just doing this, like what we do in yoga. It's amazing to see how supple their spines are and have a lot of fun just playing around with it, getting close to the earth again. We'll just soften our bellies, give them a nice massage with the earth, just kind of rocking back and forth, pausing here. We'll bring our hands under our shoulders.

We'll lengthen the crown of the head away from the heels, and we'll just scoop the heart open. Then we'll lift our, just play around, lifting your hands off, just ensuring that your shoulders are down and away from the ears, giving your neck room, and that you're activating your lift with the muscles between the shoulder blades and around the spine. Good, and take another inhale. Exhale, let's just float the palms together. Rest the forehead on the palms here.

Then we'll just bring our feet and legs together. Lengthen them out. This time we'll just take our hands open like big wings, and start to reach back towards our heels, palms facing the body, rolling the shoulder blades down the back. If you want to play around with lifting your legs up, you can feel free to do that. It's just like you're soaring through the sky.

You can imagine playing with baby, or maybe baby's right there with you, just saying hello. Good, a couple more breaths. The next exhale you're just going to bend your elbows and rest your forehead again on your palms, relaxing everything out, maybe giving yourself a little rock through the sacrum, softening the belly. Good. So same thing.

This time we're going to connect the feet, and we're going to bend the knees. Then keep the feet connected and sort of open the knees a little bit. Lift the legs up if you can. Get a little active in that booty. Then open those arms and reach them back.

If you can, you can open the legs and grab the heels. Just getting a little shoulder opener, if that feels right for you. Just pausing, maybe breathing into the belly, giving yourself a massage there with the ground, massaging those organs. I'm sure, if your baby is watching, he or she is completely amazed by this one. Get a couple more breaths.

It's okay if you're just right here, or right here, it's perfectly fine. On the next exhalation, just lower back down. Soften all those muscles around the spine. Maybe rock and roll it out a little bit. Good.

And now we're going to just work our way onto our backs. So you can just roll over, and just get acquainted, let your spine get acquainted with the earth in this position. Good. We're going to draw one knee in towards the center. Soften that hip flexor.

Extend the other leg out. Feel free to play around with this angle of the leg. See what feels right for your abdominals right now. If this feels really good and you want to add a little extra something something to it you can just kind of lift your head, neck, and shoulders off. Keep that length in the neck, a little room for the air passage to come through.

So we're not crunching here. It's like a nice, long spine making an arc, as opposed to a crunch. Good, hold it here. Take an inhale. On the exhale let's just switch legs.

Inhale. Lift a little bit more, even if it's just a teeny tiny bit, and it's not even visible to the naked eye. Exhale, switch. Inhale. Exhale, switch.

Just stay with this for as long as feels right for you. If you want to pause, you can pause and come back to it. Otherwise just keep going. Play around with this. You can come down and keep doing this with the legs.

Good. You can release the arms and just reach them out by the hips. The important thing is we really want to stay with the breath and feel all the different layers of the muscles as they're activated with the legs switching through space. Good, let's just bring both our knees together now. Give ourselves a nice big, huge, yummy hug.

Drawing the navel towards the spine, ahhh, and relax it down. Remember when we couldn't do any of that, laying on our tummies or any of that because there was our big beautiful baby right here. Now it's either right in front of us or somewhere nearby. Oh, how fast it goes by too. This is another one that's actually pretty fun to do with baby.

I do this with Ruby. She's about, almost seven months, by the way, and she's a big girl, so it adds a little extra umph to the Asana. But she really likes it. We'll start out just by adding a little, I have her right here sometimes, and I'll just peel my pelvis up. Imagine you're holding her, and just bring it down.

Then extend the legs up. Then you can bring them down a little bit of an angle, enough where you feel like you're getting activated right here, navel's towards the spine. Exhale, bring them back on top. Then float the feet down. I have my hands here as if I had my baby.

If you don't you can just bring them down here by your hips. Good, peel it up. Pelvis comes up, there's a little squeeze happening here, and then vertebra, vertebra it comes down. Then extend those legs up. This time you can bring a little deeper angle into it if you want, and then bend the knees, and go right into it.

Peel it upon an inhale. Get a little squeeze happening. Release it down. Good. Those legs are going to come back up.

You can bring them, if you feel like you have the strength and energy, all the way down like this, until they come back to the ground. Then just drag the soles of the feet back up. This time you might peel it up, extending one leg, and then float it back down. Good. Then just go straight to the other leg, peel it up.

There's a little squeeze happening right here. Your abs are activated. Float it back down. Then bring the legs out. Navel drops towards the spine, good.

Just release it down. Bend the knees if you need to. Good, gentle with yourself here. Walk your soles of your feet back towards the sitz bones, and let's just do the one-legged lift one more time. Up.

Float it down. And up. Again, you can do this with your little one right here if you'd like. And down. Give them a fun little ride.

Good, and inhale. This is the last time we'll do this. We'll just float them back down, and pause for a breath here. Ahh, just resting the belly. Then walk the feet back in, and we'll just come into a bridge.

So lining up the feet with the sizt bones, knees with the sitz bones. Everything shooting forward just to protect the joints. Sometimes it's helpful to put a block between your knees just to remind yourself to do that, if you have one nearby. Then here we'll just peel it up. We're just getting a nice stretch, a nice arc in the spine happening, and stretch to the abdomen.

Good. Taking the pressure off of the uterus, letting gravity work for you here, pausing. If you'd like to do a shoulder opener you can clasp your hands and wrap your shoulders under. A couple more breaths, that's all. On your next exhale, wherever you are, you'll just roll it down, vertebra by vertebra, nice and slow, controlled movements.

Ahh, beautiful. Then we'll just walk the feet out. Reach the arms up above the shoulders. Just let yourself rest for a breath. You're going to take one arm, let's take let's say our left, and stretch it way up as you contract the obliques of the right side.

It's like you're trying to reach your hip towards your shoulder, contracting a little bit. Then inhale. Go through the other side. One leg is lengthening, the other hip is reaching up towards the shoulder. A couple more.

Reaching through that ribcage, opening, widening it, a couple more. Good, and then just finding your way back to the center, letting your legs just fall open and soft, opening your feet a little wider. Maybe just rock side to side. Just open your arms like a big snow angel, palms facing up, shoulder blades under the back, soft neck, soft throat. Just bring your awareness to your tummy just for a couple breaths, noticing how it feels after being activated and stretched out a bit.

Maybe notice the relationship between your abdomen and your spine, just working together. Just softening for another breath into the earth. Good, and we'll just roll over onto one side. Let's just slowly come back up into seated, nice and carefully and slowly. We'll just finish in a nice cross-legged position, lengthening out our spine.

A big, deep, energizing breath into our tummies. Exhale through the nose. Beautiful, thank you very much. Namaste.