10-Min Deep Core & Pelvic Floor Workout | Postpartum Safe, No Equipment

If you want to lift, run, jump, and laugh all without any leakage, this 10-minute core and pelvic floor workout is for you. These are 9 of my favorite deep core exercises and pelvic floor that I've personally used to rebuild my core safely after having 3 babies of my own. All right, team, we are giving you a quick and dirty core workout and pelvic floor that you can do all from the mat. It is 9 exercises, We're gonna flow through each exercise for about 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest. We're gonna stay on the mat the entire time. We're using just our body weight, no fancy equipment. You can do this at home or anywhere. Honestly, this is a little bit more of an upscale core and pelvic floor workout. So I'd suggest starting with my beginner core repair program first, but I'll link that in the description below. But this is a great way to upscale your core. I'm now 3 years postpartum and these are exercises I'm continually using and building upon to keep my core and pelvic floor strong and healthy after having 3 babies myself. So Rachel's gonna offer some modifications. You can follow along with me for the more advanced version. Let's just dive right into it. We're gonna start on our backside. We're gonna spend the first 40 seconds together just breathing. And I know that sounds boring and that's why most people don't do core and pelvic floor, I'll be honest. But I promise you it's really important to connect your breath to your muscles and get that mind-muscle connection there. So we're gonna start by a big inhale, belly expands. And on the exhale, take your hands and literally think about shoelace interlaces interlacing around a shoe as you— there you go— pulling it together, pulling your abdominal muscles together. So inhale, belly expands. Exhale, pulling the shoelaces of the shoe together. I'm a very visual learner, so I like to use my hands. I'm thinking about two things here. First and foremost, you'll see the hands wrapping. So inhale, expand. Exhale. I'm thinking about my hip bones coming together like there's a string across my hip bones and they're literally pulling together. And then the second string is attached from my ribs to my hip bones. And as I decrease the air, my ribs come closer to my hip bones. So there is 4 strings or 2 strings. One's going horizontally and one's going vertically. Okay, you got 2 more seconds here. Big inhale and exhale. Okay, now you've made that mind-muscle connection. We are moving on. Your next move, you're going to give me a knee lift, a knee lift. Hold here for a second, engage that core, and then lower. 2, 3. Here we go again. Lift, lift. Now it's a 3-count, slow. 2, 3. Nice work. I really want you to maintain that active core throughout that entire slow lower. So it's a lift, a lift, and then slow, slow, slow. Rachel's giving you a single leg option. The closer your knees are to your chest, the easier this is gonna feel. The more advanced or the farther you get those knees away from you, the more you're gonna feel that core fire up. Last one right here, slow. 2, 3, nice work. We're gonna go into a classic dead bug, but we're gonna do a single-sided dead bug. So opposite arm and leg are gonna extend away from each other. I'm going to scale it up. I'm going to be pushing into this leg, forcing my hip bones to stabilize as we go into the single-sided dead bug. Here we go. So reach away, come back together. Reach away, come back together. Now how much length you can get here. The goal is to see how far you can get your heel and your hand away from your body. The farther the limbs extend away, the more pressure you're going to put on your core, right? And so your core is a muscle just like anything. If you've experienced that abdominal separation, okay, you might see some soft coning. Soft coning is okay. If it gets to hard coning where it's really tense here, that's when you want to back off and shorten the range of motion, okay? But your core is a muscle just like anything else. We build muscle. How do we build muscle? By creating or putting tension or resistance. One more. That's just what you're doing right there. Take a break. Big inhale, big exhale. You're going to reset, single-sided dead bug other way. Again, I'm giving you ways to scale it up by pushing into this leg. You don't have to take that option. We go in 3, 2, and 1. Opposite arm and leg extend away. My opposing hand is pushing into this knee. The harder I push, the more resistance I create, the more that core is going to turn on. Reach and bring it back together. So you're really thinking about maintaining that ribs to hips, hip bones pulled together, that really active core the entire time, right? Pelvic floor is very active in this, in this core engagement. Reach away and pull it back in. We're going to transition over into more of a side plank position following this. Nice work. Last one. Awesome job. All right, bring it up and over to a side plank position. We're going to hit each side. Rachel's going to give you the clamshell option, so soles of the feet are going to touch as she lifts off. She's opening and then coming down, working these glutes and obliques. I'm going into a side plank lift off, so I'm fully lifting and reaching in 3, 2, let's go. Reach, hold for a second, lower with control. Inhale, exhale, lift off, hold here. Inhale down using your breath. Exhale, lift off, hold and lower down. Shoulder is stacked over elbow, strong glutes. Your glutes, your hips are connected to your pelvis, are really, really important for stabilizing your pelvic floor. Often overlooked are these hip abductors, these outer glutes, very important for stabilizing our pelvis. That is part of the deal here. We are strengthening our outer glutes, we are strengthening our obliques, and we are using our breath. One more for 3, 2, and 1. Nice work. We're going to stay here. This is what I would call probably the most challenging exercise. My outside leg is going to extend. We're going to hit the inner thigh, also your hip adductors, important for stabilizing that pelvic floor and probably my weakest muscle group after my 3 babies. I'm going to come into a lift off and hold for 3, and then I'm going to reset. Here we go. Here we go. Exhale, lift, hold for 3, 2, 1, lower, reset. Exhale, lift, hold for 3, 2, 1, lower, reset. I'm hitting both inner thighs. Obliques are turned on. Core is turned on. Very challenging exercise. Inhale, exhale, hold, hold for 3, 2, 1, lower down. Rachel's giving you the more scaled-down version, still hitting the inner thighs of just that bottom leg. Here we go, lift and hold, hold for 3, 2, 1, take it down. You got one more hold in you. Lift and hold, hold for 3, 2, and 1, set it down. Awesome job. Same moves, other side. But before we do that, we're going to come over into a all fours position, tabletop position. This is where we're going to focus on taking our pelvic floor, which is a muscle, through the full range of motion. We are going to relax it. When you're in this all fours position, you're going to relax, lengthen the pelvic floor, and then you're going to exhale, tighten that core, tuck the toes, hold and hover. Hover for 3, 2, 1. Knees hit the mat. Inhale, release the belly, release the pelvic floor, lengthen. Now exhale, contract. Everything is tight. Lift off and hold. Knees hover. Hover for 3, 2, 1. Knees hit the mat. Lengthen. I know this sounds really funny, but think about as you exhale, contract, lift and hold, and set it down. As you breathe out, think about lengthening through that pelvic floor, almost like breathing through your butt. I know that sounds funny, but you're going to exhale, contract, lift, hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. I'm a very visual learner. Now think about lengthening through. Nice. Awesome job. Great. A great exercise to continue to hang out in, or then from this you could go fully into child's pose and think about fully lengthening your pelvic floor. All right, we're going to go back into those side plank liftoffs or clamshell liftoffs, and we are there in 3, 2, lift, hold for 3, 2, 1. Take it down. Your pelvic floor is a muscle just like your core, just like your bicep. If you don't take it through that full range of motion. If you focus on just doing a half bicep curl, you're not hitting that full muscle. We talk a lot about contracting our pelvic floor through Kegels and such exercises, but we don't often talk enough about lengthening our pelvic floor, which is what we were just doing in that last exercise. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Take it back down. Nice work. Here we go. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, Oh, 1. Take it back down. Nice work. Last one, lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, and recover. All right, your final exercise, last one, is that same Copenhagen version or an advanced version of that side plank is where I'm going to activate this inner thigh and this inner thigh. Lift and hold for 3 in that lifted position. Set down and reset. All right, Rachel's got your modification. We go in 3, 2, Let's go. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Set down, reset. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Set down, reset. Nice work. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Set down, reset. Nice work. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Come on, it's your final exercise. This is advanced core training. Yes, you can. You got this, team. Team, set it back down. Take a quick break. Get in. You got 2 more. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Relax. Last one. Here we go. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Rest and recover. Awesome job. Quick and effective. A great routine you can add daily, weekly, however it works for you. I've personally used these exercises, like I said, to go from a 4-finger down to a 1.5-finger abdominal separation after 3 babies. Really restoring my core and pelvic floor to avoid leakage in all activities. I'm so grateful for this strong core foundation. I hope you enjoyed it. Love to see you back on the mat soon. Awesome job knocking out that workout. If you loved it, hit subscribe to my channel. I've queued up another core workout you might like here. Otherwise, I would love for you to join me in a 28-day core repair program. You can find it all in this playlist right here. Have a great day.