Pregnancy Middle Row Exercise

Commonly Used For: Pregnancy-Related Pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do a Middle Row Exercise, which is a good exercise to do during pregnancy to help keep those shoulders back. As our bellies get bigger, it tends to want to pull us forward, especially after the baby even, when you're holding that baby so much, and everything's getting pulled forward. This is a good exercise to open your chest up and get your shoulders back where they should be. So, the first way you can do it is just by squeezing your shoulder blades together. So, getting your arms bent at a 90-degree angle here on both sides, knees bent a little bit, and then you're just going to squeeze your shoulder blades together, like that. If that's easy for you, what you can do is use a TheraBand or any sort of exercise band that has a little bit of stretch and resistance to it [here's one at Amazon.com]. You can tie it around a railing or a banister, or tie a knot in it and close it in a door, and then, you're just going to do the same thing, just do those shoulder blade squeezes. If you don't have anything to tie it onto, like I don't right now, you can do it by sitting down. You can hook it onto your foot, wrap it around your hands, sitting up nice and tall, and then pull back. Same thing, letting those elbows slide along your sides, squeezing your shoulder blades together, trying to get your shoulder out of that forward slump position and into a nice, back position. So, that's your Middle Row Exercise.

Pregnancy Modified Squat Exercise

Commonly Used For: Pregnancy-Related Pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do a Modified Squat Exercise, which is a good way to do squats during pregnancy if doing the regular squats that I've demonstrated in my previous exercise videos are too difficult for you. So, what you're going to need is an exercise ball [here's a Swiss Ball via Amazon.com.], that you can get at any sporting goods store or online. You're going to put it up against the wall, turn around, put it so it fills in the small of your back there, lean into it a little bit. You want to make sure your feet are about hip distance apart and your toes are pointing straight forward. And then, you're just going to slowly squat down and come back up. You want your bottom to kind of follow the curve of the ball as you go down and up, just leaning back into the ball, letting it give you support, making this exercise a little bit easier during pregnancy. Down and up. If at any point you feel pain, cramping, contractions during this exercise, then you need to stop and contact your doctor. So, this is your Modified Squat Exercise.

Pregnancy Pillow Positioning Techniques

Commonly Used For: Pregnancy-Related Pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you some pillow positioning techniques that might help you sleep more easily while pregnant. So, first you're going to need numerous pillows. I like five, if you're going to hit all the different positions. So, of course you'll need one under your head, here. If you're a curvier person, and have a really thin waist here, then it might be more comfortable for you, to put one actually underneath that curve of your waist to help support you there. Another pillow might be more comfortable underneath your stomach, depending on how large your stomach is. And then putting pillows between your knees, here, can be helpful. So that would be four pillows there, depending on your comfort level. If keeping both knees bent isn't comfortable for you, and you're having sciatic nerve problems, one thing you can try is to straighten your bottom leg, get one more pillow to stack on top there, and bend only your top leg. So the bottom leg will stay straight and the top leg will be bent, which is more comfortable sometimes if you're having sciatic nerve problems, than keeping both knees bent. So this is one way to do it, you don't necessarily need all these pillows but, just depending on your personal body type, these are all the different options. If you don't want to have five pillows in bed with you, the Snoogle® pillow, is one of the brands, probably some other brands out there. [Here's the Snoogle on Amazon.com.] This, this, it's a long, curvy pillow, that you can use to kind of wrap around your body. So you can either have it wrap around the front. So underneath your head, between your knees, and underneath your belly, to help support that extra weight in front there. That's one way. Or, if you like to lean back a little bit while you're sleeping, but still stay mostly on your side, you can put the Snoogle behind you. Still coming between your legs, and underneath your stomach. Wrapping around so it comes underneath your head, but now you have a pillow on your back, too. So if you wanted to lean back a little bit, now I have some support on my back, between my knees, and under my stomach still. So this is kind of a nice option if you don't want to be messing with multiple pillows at once.