Best Pregnancy Stretches

My neck…

my back…

My neck and my back.

Ok, and my glutes, hips, and round ligament pain, but they can’t really make a hip hop song with that. 😉

Pregnancy Aches, Pains and Hormones

Aches and pains come with the territory of growing a small human, which can alter our center of gravity and put additional pressure on our limbs. There are also hormones surging through the body to support the little one.

One of the major hormone shifts that occurs during pregnancy is through relaxin, which loosens the joints and makes us extremely flexible. Because we have so much relaxin coursing through the body, it’s easier to overstretch the muscles, which can be painful and take a long time to heal. This is a huge reason why it’s important to exercise and stretch within stable limits, and avoid trying to reach your “max,” whether it’s through a workout, yoga class or stretching. Like I’ve said many times before, focus on maintaining not adding!

Stretching can help to ease some of the aches of pregnancy, and can also help to promote full range of motion within the joints. When we have full range of motion, we’re less likely to alter our movement patterns, which can lead to muscle imbalances and potentially injury. Also, stretching feels sooooo good. 🙂

Prenatal stretches

Here are some of my favorite prenatal stretches. As always, check with a doctor before making any fitness changes and honor your body. Instead of stretching to your max, stretch to a comfortable point (without trying to force yourself into a deeper version of the stretch) and focus on taking deep breaths.

Prenatal Stretches

1) Cat-cow:

Come onto your hands and knees with your knees stacked under your hips and your hands stacked under your shoulders. Lift up through your core and keep your neck long so your spine is straight.

Cat-cow

Take a nice big inhale, drop your belly, and gaze up towards the ceiling.

cat-cow2

As you exhale, round your back, gaze towards your belly button (or if you’re like me: where your belly button used to be), and feel the nice stretch through the length of the spine. Continue this pattern, taking long deep inhales, and long, cleansing exhales.

cat-cow3

2. Spinal balance

Once again, start on hands and knees with knees under your hips and hands stacked under your shoulders. Keep your neck long (chin lifted and spine straight) and press down through the knuckles of your hands.

Spinal balance

Lift one foot off the floor, and straighten the leg behind you, while lifting the opposite hand, extending it in front of you. Press out through your heel and try to keep your hips parallel to the floor.

spinal balance 2

Gently lower down and repeat on the opposite side.

3. Tailor sitting

Start in a seated position and bring the soles of the feet together. Let the knees gently fall out towards the sides as far as they’ll go. Do not press down on the thighs at all, and enjoy this awesome inner thigh (adductor) stretch. Focus on sitting up tall, and take nice deep breaths.

tailor sitting

4. Gentle spinal extension to forward flexion

Start standing with your hands supporting your low back. Drop the shoulders and gaze towards the ceiling as you gently arch through the back. (Avoid over-stretching the abdominals here. Keep the movement small and gentle.)

gentle spinal extension

Keep your hands where they are as you carefully exhale and fold forward. Bend your knees as much as you need to, and enjoy the hamstring stretch. Slowly rise, making sure your head is the last thing to come up.

flexion forward

5. Standing hip flexor stretch

Start standing with feet hip’s distance apart. Step one foot back and come up onto your back toes. Carefully lower the back knee down. You can stay right here to stretch out your quadriceps and hip flexors, or if you want more, take one arm overhead (whichever leg is BACK use the same arm) and reach up and over. Hold and breathe for about 15-20 seconds before repeating on the other side.

standing hip flexor stretch

As great as it feels to stretch, remember that our muscles also need stability during pregnancy through strength exercises where the pelvis remains stable. (My lovely Physical Therapist friend, Jess, taught me about this.) Strengthen the muscles to support the ones that are causing you discomfort. For example, for my sore hips, I’ve been working on exercises like squats, outer thigh work (mostly though band exercises at barre), hip extensions, and bridges. As always, talk to a doc or Physical Therapist if you need help with your pregnancy aches and pains.

What’s your all-time favorite stretch?

Some more of my favorites are here, here and here.

Sending lots of love to you!

xoxo

Gina

Photos by the amazing Danny Chan

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9 Comments

  1. Erin @ Her Heartland Soul on August 6, 2015 at 4:24 pm

    How weird am I that I thought this was going to be a post about pregnancy stretch marks when I saw this title? Sometimes your mind conjures up weird things! haha

    • Fitnessista on August 6, 2015 at 10:24 pm

      haha i could totally write a post on that

  2. Cassie on August 6, 2015 at 5:14 pm

    Yes to cat cow! I try to do it several times a day to help with the 34 week back pain!

    • Fitnessista on August 6, 2015 at 10:24 pm

      ahhh it feels so good 🙂

  3. Katie @ Live Half Full on August 6, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    I’ve been loving modified pigeon to help with my lower back and hips!!! We do it in my prenatal yoga class and basically you just turn slightly to the side when you bend vs straight and it works wonders!

  4. Melissa on August 6, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    Gina–After the first two lines, all I could think of for the rest of the post was the hip hop song by Khia. LOL!! And that’s all I’m gonna say about that!

  5. Amber @ Busy, Bold, Blessed on August 7, 2015 at 5:34 am

    I’m not pregnant, but I love all those stretches! They are the best.

  6. Jenn on August 7, 2015 at 9:22 am

    Would these be good stretches postpartum?

  7. Mumberry on August 7, 2015 at 7:24 pm

    What a great post! The standing hip flexor stretch is my favorite – feels so good!

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