Prenatal Yoga - Heart opening practice
You will need:
- No props
- Blocks or pillows/bolster as you progress in your pregnancy.
Energy level - Low
Stage of pregnancy - Suitable for all
We start seated connecting to the breath and work through a neck and shoulder stretch and pelvic tilts, to promote mobility and warm the joints, feel free to rock the pelvis right back here to find the stretch and length through the lower back. We then progress to a seated chest and back opening flow which will come in handy as your breasts start to grow, but also once baby is born and feeding and baby holding pulls your posture forward into a more rounded position.
As the body warms, we flow through cat/cows, remembering in prenatal yoga we only move through the "angry cat" posture and avoid "cow" to ensure we are not over stretching the belly (it's stretching enough as is). We enjoy another really nice kneeling chest stretch then ground down into downward facing dog and slowly move to standing for tricep stretches and a bound forward fold. Arms, neck and shoulders should be feeling amazing by now!
Once the body is warm and moving freely, we come to seated and slow things right down with double pigeon (glute) stretch, I offer many variations in finding a suitable glute stretch for your body and growing bump and then we move into a restorative, side-lying chest stretch and finish in a supported heart opener with pillows or the bolster holding your body on an incline.