15-Minute Birth Ball Pregnancy Workout (Easy Labor and Delivery | All Trimesters!)

Hi, I'm Lindsey Baumgren of Nourish With Love and I'm coming at you with a pregnancy ball workout. So all you're gonna need is an exercise ball and your body weight for this quick workout. We're gonna flow through seven of my favorite pregnancy ball exercises to get you ready for labor and delivery. This workout is safe for all seasons of pregnancy. But as you notice, I am in my third trimester. I'm about 35, 36 weeks pregnant, and so I'm gonna take this workout at my pace and you can take it at yours. A lot of the moves are really gentle, low impact, strength, focused and also focus on just creat mobility in your hips and in your lower body to open up your pelvic floor and get baby into an awesome birthing position so you can take this workout at your pace. It's going to round us out around 15 minutes. We'll do a quick warm up and have some cool down exercises built in too. But we're going to be focusing on seven pregnancy ball exercises. We're using an exercise ball for a great tool to have on hand during your pregnancy. And we're going to move through those seven exercises at 45 seconds of work, followed by 15 seconds of rest. And you're only going to do each exercise once, so it's going to move really fast. And these are just awesome exercises to build into your prenatal workout routine. So let's go ahead and get started. I'm going to turn to face you. I'm just going to find a nice comfortable seated position on my ball and we're just going to do some good belly breathing. Okay? So I'm going to have my hands right on my baby and my hands are going to mimic what my core is doing. So as I inhale, belly is going to expand and as I exhale, belly is going to contract. I'm thinking about hugging the baby in and up with my abs. So big inhale and exhale. That core is wrapping around you nice and tight. The deep transverse abdominal muscles are what we're focusing on. Inhale, exhale, hug the baby with your abs. There you go. We're gonna do two more just like it. Big inhale and exhale. A great exercise to come back to throughout your day. Big inhale and exhale. Nice. From here, we're just gonna create a little bit of mobility in the just gonna move the hips side to side. Just pushing those hips side to side. A great exercise to just open up the hips, create some mobility. Really great to take the pressure off the tailbone, the pelvic floor just. Good. Now we're gonna switch to front to back. So you'll just go front to back. Just getting the hips and the pelvic floor moving in all directions on this ball. Really great movements to bring throughout your day. If you have low back pain during pregnancy or if you're struggling with that sciatica pain, which can be on that rear L side as well as spd, which is a little bit more on the front, that pelvic girdle pain. All of this hip mobility is really great for that. Let's go back to side to side because it feels really good. Nice. Just pushing those hips side to side. And now we're going to do hip circles. So I'm going to draw a half circle this way and a half circle this way. Draw those half circles side to side. Nice. Awesome job just letting things open up and creating some movements. These ball exercises are just so good for opening up the hips and really good just to bring in throughout your day. I prefer to sit on a pregnancy ball during a lot of my workday actually. So people think I film workout videos all day. I'm actually behind a computer a lot. Right. Doing a lot of the back end stuff. And so I like sitting on a ball. Just helps keep my core engaged, adding a little movement. Now if you can, you're going to draw a figure eight with your hips. So you're going to go half circle all the way around. So you're thinking about drawing that figure 8 or that infinity sign, which can feel a little bit funky, but getting that full range of motion in those hips. And these are gonna take us through our final warm up exercises. And then we're gonna jump right into those seven exercises. Give me about two more big figure eights. Nice. Reposition yourself on the ball if you need to. Okay. You're gonna bring those feet a little bit in more narrow. So my knees are right in line with my hips. If that feels good for you. We're gonna do that belly breath again and then we're gonna move into a seated march. So I'm gonna pull opposite knees up. Just pulling those knees up to engage that core. You don't have to lift very high. Maybe it's just taking that heel just off the mat. Do what feels good for you. That's going to be our first exercise and we're going to go through it for 45 seconds. So first let's start with the belly breath. Big inhale, belly expands, exhale, hug the Baby nice and tight. Can you continue to hug that baby nice and tight and breathe through it as we march? In three, two, let's march. So just marching and marching. Nice. I'm going to sit my hinging back just a little bit here. Engaging that core. Nice. Just breathing through it. Just a nice little seated march here. You're just going to feel that instability, that shifting, really activating the core with this first exercise is what we're doing. I mean, that core turned on so many ways to activate your core and work your core throughout your pregnancy that don't involve crunches or planks. That can be high pressure, inter abdominal pressure. Really great for just strengthening that core in a friendly way that doesn't cause that abdominal separation or increase it if you have multiple pregnancy. As this is my third pregnancy, so I'm coming into it with some existing doctor. Nice. You hear 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. Now you're just going to relax. We're going to transition. You're going to take two fists and you're going to put them between your knees and you're going to squeeze your knees with your inner thighs for three seconds and then release. So it's a three second squeeze. Okay, we start in three, two. Let's go. Squeeze the knees together for three, two, one. And relax. Nice work. Squeeze, squeeze those fists. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze for three, two, one. And relax. If you had one of those Pilates sponge balls. Squeeze for 3, 2, 1. You could use one of those. I'm just using my fist, using what I have here. Squeeze and hold for 3, 3, 2, 1. You're going to continue to do this 3 second squeezes. You're wondering, why am I doing this? It's. We're activating the adductors, which are the inner thighs. Not only do these muscles help stabilize our pelvic floor, but they can also be related to that pelvic girdle pain you're having. So first we're going to activate them and then we'll stretch them at the end. Hold for the final three, two and one. Nice. So gently relax. And now we're going to move into a glute bridge position. So I'm going to slide down my ball. Right. I'll adjust my mic pack here. Okay. I'm going to scooch back a little bit so I stay in center frame with you guys. Okay. There we go. Get comfortable. My upper shoulders are on the ball right here. Okay. And I'm going to just do glute bridges from this incline position. Let me just adjust My mic. We go in three, two. Let's go. So lift and squeeze. Lower with control. Lift and squeeze. Lower with control. So just keeping that incline position, allowing me to still work my glutes and hamstrings. Right. Lower with control. If you're not feeling your glutes activate, try drawing your heels closer to your butt. The closer my heels are to my butt, the more glute engagement I'm going to get. The farther those heels get away from my body. A little bit more hamstring I'm going to get. Okay, nice work. Just flowing through these glute bridges. Your pace, your tempo. You got about 10 seconds left. Nice work. And then we're gonna move back to a wall. Nice. Finish it last. 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. Nice work. Lower all the way down safely to a seated position. And then get yourself up to a standing position. And now I'm gonna take this ball with me back to the wall. So I'm coming back to the wall here and I'm going to place the wall or the ball on my upper back and we're going to go into a wall squat. So now I'm going to place the ball on my upper back shoulders and I'm going to be pushing it into the wall so I can sit back into the wall. And I'm just going to be performing a squat right there. So the ball is on my upper back shoulders. It's going to roll with me as I perform a squat. 45 seconds of squats in three, two. Let's go. So I'm just squatting down, standing tall. Having this allows me to sit back into those hips, knowing that I have that stability behind me, that support behind me. Nice. Just flowing through these squats. Your pace, your tempo. Awesome job. Nice work. All the way down. Drive through those heels to stand tall. Striving for that 90, 90 bend, right, hips in line with knees. Drive through those heels and stand. Take it down, drive and stand. Nice work. You're gonna be here for 45 seconds and then we're just gonna do a 15 second burnout. So where we would normally rest, you're gonna hold at the bottom of that squat and you're gonna hold. It's just like a wall sit. You're gonna hold it for 15 seconds. Okay, we're there in five, four, three, two. Sit back and hold. You're holding here for 15 seconds, trying to find that 90, 90 bend. It's gonna burn. I know. Legs are on fire. Keep breathing through it. It's like a contraction, right? Just Keep breathing through it. You have 5, 4, 3, 2, and stand. Awesome job. So from here, this ball is going to drop down all the way to the floor. I'm going to come into a kneeling quadruped position. Okay. And I'm going to push my butt into the ball. So this is where you decide how hard this exercise is by how hard you push your butt into the wall. So what this is doing is going to force my core to work for me. So shoulders are stacked over wrist. I'm on all fours. I'm pushing my butt into the ball, into the wall, holding that position. So inhale, belly expands, exhale. Sit my butt back into that wall, and I'm going to do shoulder taps right here. 45 seconds. In three, two. Let's go. So shoulder taps. Nice. We're keeping that constant tension on that ball is going to keep that core activated. Keep pushing those hips back into that wall. Nice work. Tapping side to side. You got it. This is like the safer version of a plank and shoulder tap for a pregnant mama. Still really forcing you to work the core. I promise it's harder than it looks, right? If you're really pushing that bottom into that ball, you are going to feel that core turned on. Always harder than it looks, right? Come on, keep pushing. Yes, you can. 10 seconds here. A shoulder tap. Finish strong. You got it. Nice work. Stay with me. 3, 2, and 1. Awesome job. You can take that pressure off the ball. We're gonna come back up to a standing position for our final exercise, which is a wall push up. So I'm gonna take the ball, I'm gonna place it against the wall, and my hands are gonna be on the ball. Performing a modified incline. Push up and push away. 45 seconds. We go in three, two. Let's go. Take it down and push up. Your last exercise, right here at the wall. Inhale down, exhale, push away. Inhale down, exhale, push away. Nice work working that upper body a little bit here. This is your last exercise. Then we take it back to stretching for the final right round of our ball exercises. You're doing so good. Stay with me. I gotta look back at my timer. Nice work. You guys lead with the chest. Push away from the wall. You're gonna feel those shoulders, all those small stabilizing muscles working in the core, the chest, the shoulders. Stay with me. 10 seconds here. You got it. Nice work. Finish strong, Finish strong. Last one. 5, 4, 3, 2. Give me one more, because you can. Awesome job. All right, now let's take it back to a seated position. For our final stretches. Awesome job, you guys. You know, place that ball on the ground again, come into a nice seated position. We just have a couple stretches to finish this out. So those adductors, which we strengthened, right, by doing these adductor contractions, we're now going to lengthen by stretching. So you're just going to find a nice wide stretch, seated position on the ball, and I'm just going to push side. Nice. Inhale up, exhale, hinge and stretch. Dropping shoulder down, pushing into that inner thigh. Thinking about lengthening through these inner thigh muscles. They often are overworked or they're tight during pregnancy because they're working extra hard to support the lack of core stability. And that can sometimes cause that pulling down the pubic symphysis, causing that SPD pain, or people call pelvic pain sometimes. It's often referred to as lightning crotch, that pain. This is a really good stretch to help avoid that pain. Let's go one more. Nice. Awesome job. From here, I'm going to come off my ball into a kneeling position and I'm going to use the ball to support me with some rollouts to stretch my hip flexors. So I'm going to take one leg outside the ball and I'm just going to roll into it. Opening up my hip flexors right here. Nice. Ball is just supporting me. Nice little hip flexor stretch. This should feel really good. A great way to open up the hips. You can take that foot out to like a 45 degree angle. Nice. Hold it here for 3, 2, 1. Let's go for the other side. So roll back. Step my other foot out. Roll into it. Just resting my forearms on the ball for support. Nice way to open up those hips. Just breathe into it. Think about relaxing that pelvic floor. We spend a lot of time contracting it. Especially towards the end of our pregnancy, we really want to focus on relaxing and opening up that pelvic floor. Hold it here for 3, 2, and 1. Awesome job. The final stretch is a nice supported child's pose. So knees go nice and wide. Big toes to touch. You can sit those hips back and roll the hands away from you on the ball. So just really opening up those lats. That should feel really good. Opening up those hips. Big inhale and big exhale. Thinking about creating length from fingertip to tailbone. Again, really just opening up those hips. If you want to, you could always roll the ball over to one side and then roll it over to the other side. Really opening up through those lats. Bring it back to center. Let's do one final hold for 3, 2 and 1. And that is your pregnancy ball workout. Awesome job. Thank you so much for joining me. You can carry these pregnancy ball exercises with you into your entire pregnancy. Awesome way to keep moving. Keep those hips nice and loose, keep baby moving down and shifting into that proper position transition. And of course if you want to find more of our pregnancy friendly workouts or stretches, you can find them all@nourishmovelove.com have a great day. Thanks so much for joining me for that pregnancy ball workout. I hope you liked it and if you did, I'd be so grateful if you dropped a subscribe to my YouTube channel here. And if you want more of our pregnancy friendly stretching videos for low back pain, sciatica spd, you can find those workouts here. Otherwise, you can find all of our pregnancy friendly workouts in this playlist right here. Have a great day.