15-Minute Labor Prep Prenatal Yoga (Safe For All Trimesters!)

Hi, I'm Lindsey Baumgren of Nourish Move Love, and this is your prenatal yoga routine for the third trimester. As you can tell, I'm in my third trimester. I'm about 36 weeks pregnant. Of course, these exercises are safe for all trimesters of pregnancy, but this prenatal yoga routine was specifically designed for the third trimester to create great alignment of your pelvic bones and your hips, as well as get baby into an optimal position for birthing. You're not going to need any equipment for this prenatal yoga routine outside of a yoga block. And if you don't have a yoga block, you could always just use a thick bowl or something of that nature to just add a little bit of an incline and help support you throughout this routine. Okay, so we're going to flow through about 10 yoga poses. Again, safe for all trimesters of pregnancy, but specifically designed for the third trimester to get baby in that great alignment that we want. And we're going to start right here on our mat. So I'm going to come into a nice tabletop position. I'll go ahead and go from the side so you can see my belly drop with me as we do some belly breathing. So finding a nice tabletop position. Shoulders are stacked over wrists, hips are stacked over knees. We're just going to do some belly breathing. So belly, you're going to inhale. Belly is going to drop, exhale. I'm going to hug baby nice and tight with my core. If you want to add a little bit more to that, you can inhale belly drops. And as I exhale, I can gaze down to baby, gazing at my belly button, pulling my shoulder blades apart. Nice. Inhale belly drops. Exhale. Hug baby with those abs. Thinking about those deep transverse abdominals that are going to wrap around baby. Nice. Inhale belly drops. Exhale. Hug that baby. Nice and tight. Let's do two more. Just like it. Big inhale belly drops. Exhale. Pull that baby up nice and tight. Nice. One more. Big inhale belly drops. And exhale. Can you hold baby in that hugged position and continue to breathe through that as you add some hip circles. So you're just going to sit those hips around, drawing little half circles with my hips. Nice. Just little half circles or rainbows with my hips going, thinking heel to heel. Nice. Sit back heel to heel. Just creating some mobility in those hips. Starting to create some movement here. This entire routine is just designed for you to flow at your pace and do what feels good for you today. We know every day of pregnancy looks a little bit different, so just do what feels good for you today. Going to take two more hip circles. Nice work. One more hip circle. And now I'm going to grab that yoga block. Bring that yoga block in and I'm going to place my arm, one forearm on it. It doesn't matter. You're going to do both sides. One form is on the block. The opposing hand is going to come behind my head. I am going to inhale and exhale, open up. Inhale, drop, exhale, open up. Little T spine or thoracic spine rotations right here. This is to mobilize big inhale, exhale, open the mid back and the ribs. I've been having a lot of rib pain right here on this side. Really great way to mobilize the mid back and ribs and just improve our breathing. And we all know breathing is connected to so much, especially throughout pregnancy. So just a little thoracic spine mobilization right here. Nice. Supporting myself with one form on the block. Rotating through that mid back. Nice. Opening up those ribs. Awesome job. Just continue to breathe through. We're going to do two more on this side and then we're going to switch over to the other side. One more here. Awesome job. From here, you do a quick child's pose. Block comes out. Sit the hips back, big toes to touch, big stretch. Just reaching those fingertips away, creating length from fingertip to tailbone. Come back to the other side. So I'm going to my opposing forearm on the block. Hips stay stacked over knees. Hand comes behind the head. Inhale, exhale, open. Inhale, drop, exhale, open. Nice. Inhale, drop, exhale, open again. Thinking about that mid back, thinking about those ribs. Inhale down. Exhale, open. Just connecting your breath to the movement here. Going at your pace. Whatever feels good for you today. All of these movements are just about getting our body in that great alignment that we want to avoid those common pregnancy aches and pains as well as get baby in optimal position for that third trimester. As we prepare for those final weeks of pregnancy, building up to labor and delivery. Give me one more here. Inhale down. Exhale, open. Nice work. Let's push back into one more child's pose. Using the block or not. That's up to you. You're gonna just push back into child's pose. Big toes to touch, opening the hips. Big inhale and exhale. Now that we worked on the upper body, we're gonna move to our lower body. So we're going to move into some knee Hikes. So now I'm going to take the block. I'm going to place one knee on my yoga block. Okay. This could be a book. Make sure it's just nice and stable still in that quadruped position. But what I'm going to be doing is pulling my other knee up to meet it. So I'm just going to lift. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Set the knee back down. So just lift and hold for 3, 2, 1. Set the knee back down. So if you're wondering why we're doing these, this is to get our pelvic bones moving, right? Create a little bit of movement in those pelvic bones, creating a little asymmetry to allow baby to move down into that birthing position. Head down and just move its way down. Right. So creating a little bit of asymmetry in our pelvic bones, creating some movement on both sides of the pelvis helps baby move down into that optimal birthing position. Those three second holds, you're gonna feel that core fire up as well. Lift and hold. Hold that knee up for 3, 2, 1. You're gonna give me one more on this side. Lift and hold. Hold for three, two, one. Awesome job. Let's take that block out. Let's go back to those hip circles. So I'm just gonna sit side heel to heel, and heel to heel. Might need to take those knees a little bit wider. Again, just those hip circles should feel really good. Awesome job opening up those hips. We're gonna do those same knee hikes on the other side. One more hip circle here. Nice. I'm gonna bring that yoga block back in. Put my opposing knee on top of it. Always place a towel on it if you need a little bit more cushion or support. And now I'm gonna draw my opposing knee up to meet it. We're gonna lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Set it down nice. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, one. Set it down nice. Trying to get those knees in alignment. Bring it and hold it for 3, 2, 1. Feel that core activate and fire up. Try not to dip too much into that upper body or shoulders. Really focusing on keeping the weight even in neutral. Spine. Lift and hold. Hold for three, two, one. Set it back down. Awesome job. You got three more here. Okay. You got this. Lift and hold. Hold for three, two, one. Set it down two more just like it. We're getting close. Lift and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Last one right here. We're gonna lift and hold. Hold for three, two, one. Awesome job. You can set that Yoga block off to the side. We're going to go from tabletop to child's pose. So I'm going to take my knees a little bit wider than I normally would. So I'm going to go tabletop, push back, child's pose. Shift forward, Tabletop, push back, child's pose. Nice. Just a little bit of movement here. Now your option is to stay right here. Now, if you know that your baby is not head down, maybe you want to find an inversion. You want to find down dog. Or you could always bring your forearms to the ground and even take this up into a dolphin and then back into child's pose and go back into that dolphin and back into child's pose. Those little inversions, that down dog or dolphin movement can help flip baby and help give them head down. So if you know baby's not head down, that's something you could add. If baby is head down and you're worried and you just want to make sure baby stays head down, you can just stay right here. Tabletop, sit back, child pose, back up to that tabletop, back to child's pose. Nice. Couple final stretches here. We're gonna go into some bear crawl holds to activate the core and then we'll move up to standing position. Take one more right there. Now I'm gonna come back into that quadruped tabletop position. I'm gonna tuck my toes under and I'm gonna lift my knees and hover them off the mat. Bear crawl, this is really going to activate my core right here. So I'm gonna take a big inhale, belly spans. Exhale, pull, belly tight, tuck the toes, lift the knees and hover for 3, 2, 1. Set the knees back down. Inhale, belly drops. Exhale, belly tight. Lift those knees and hold. Hold for 3, 2, 1. Drop it back down. Nice work. Inhale, belly drops. Exhale, belly tight. Lift those knees off the mat and hold. Hold for three, two, one. Nice work. Last one. You're gonna give me a five second hold. Inhale, belly drops, Exhale, belly tight. Lift and hold. Hold for five, four, three. You got this? Two and one. Now, can you walk your hands back to your feet, drive through your heels and stand up nice and tall. We're going to come into a standing position, so go ahead, just get comfortable standing. Let that blood transfer wherever it needs to. Okay? Take a couple shoulder rolls here. Get really comfortable in your standing position. Awesome. We're going to step nice and wide. Finding a star pose. Big reach, fingertips and toes pointing out, making a big star with your body. And you're gonna drop into goddess. So star the goddess. Star to goddess. Right here. Up and down, big reach, pull down. Think about squeezing through your back as you pull down. Squeeze, big reach and pull. Nice work. Go. 3. Awesome job. Go. 2. Last one. Hold that goddess. Hold it here. Just hold it here. Feel everything start to fire up just a little bit in that lower body. Hold here. Hold. Nice work. Hold for three, two, one. Big reach to star. Let's go. Warrior two. So I'm gonna face. Doesn't matter which side you do. We're gonna do both sides. I'm gonna find that heel to arch alignment. Bending into that front leg. Bringing my arms up to my sides right here. Finding a nice Warrior two hold. Awesome job. You can reach four forward hand down and you supported. You could take the elbow to the knee right here and just hold here. You'd go all the way down. I'm gonna go elbow to knee. That feels good. It's gonna hold, baby. Right here. Staying low in that leg and reverse my warrior. Staying low in that front knee. Sweeping back, coming back down. Let's go. I'm gonna take the elbow to knee again. Reach overhead. Staying low in that front leg. Awesome job, you guys. Nice work. Let's bring it back. You can straighten through that front leg. Take the arms out. We're going to tick tock forward and down. Little triangle inner thigh stretch. That should feel really good. You can always grab that yoga block if you need that additional support. Bring it back up. Let's open up to that star pose again. Heels in, toes out, big reach. Let's go down and up for three. Nice work for two awesome jobs. Last one, reach tall. Open up. Warrior 2 on the other side. Dropping down into this front knee. Thinking about pulling this front knee out towards my pinky toes. Heel to arch alignment right here. Reach forward and down. I'm going to go elbow to knee. Wrap that hand around belly. Nice little support right there. Always grab that yoga block if you need it. Nice work. Reverse that, Warrior. Stay low in that front leg. Reach back. Let's go elbow to knee again. Reaching overhead. Nice work. Awesome job. Come back to standing. Straighten through this front leg. Arms come out. Tick tock. Little triangle action to stretch that inner thigh. If it feels good for you again, you can always grab that yoga block. Bring it back up to star. Nice right there. Big, big forward fold. So what I'm going to do from here, I'm going to take my hands, I'm going to walk down my right leg, walk across, over to my left. Leg walk back up. And now I'm going to go down my left leg, walk my hands down my left leg. Walk across. Nice little forward fold. Feel that release in the hamstrings and that lower back. Walk it down. Walking your hands down your legs, side to side. Nice little low back stretch. A nice little hamstring stretch here. That should feel really, really good. Awesome job. Walk it back up. One more walk across. You got it. All the way down. Walk across. Nice work. Awesome job. From here I'm going to bring this yoga block back into play and I'm going to just drop down into a nice wide leg seated position, supported on my yoga block. Okay. Can always find a higher incline. If that feels good, you can find the bottom of a stair. Maybe you just hold here. Supported in that low squat. I'm thinking about relaxing through my pelvic floor. A lot of times we're thinking about pulling up. Now it's time to relax. Right, I'm going to take opposite hand side to side. Sweep. Put it down and sweep. Stretching through that side body. Nice big sweeps. Awesome job. Big sweeps. Side to side. Nice work. One more. Nice. And then from here I'm going to pull my feet into that butterfly position. Soles of the feet to touch. Sit up nice and tall. Take pubic shoulder. Rolls up, back and down. Back and down. I'm going to take my arm, I'm going to round through my spine and then I'm going to open my chest. Round through my spine and open the chest. Round through the spine. Back of the hands to touch. Open palms. Come to me. Round through the spine. Back of the hands to touch. Open. Nice work. Two more just like it. Round through that spine. Open up. Last one. Round through that spine and open up. And then you can just come into a nice comfortable seated position right here. You can continue to hang out here in this awesome position, stretching through these inner thighs and just opening up the hips. But that wraps up our prenatal yoga flow together. I hope you found these exercises helpful and found the reasoning behind them helpful as well to continue to create movement throughout that pelvic floor and those pelvic bones. Getting baby to work its way down. If you enjoyed this prenatal workout, you can find more of our pregnancy friendly workouts@nourishmovelove.com and we also have postpartum workouts ready for you when you're ready to jump back in after baby's born. Thanks so much for joining me and have a wonderful rest of your day. Thanks so much for joining me for this third trimester yoga routine. If you enjoyed it, I'd be so grateful if you dropped a subscribe to my YouTube channel here. And if you want more prenatal stretching workouts, you can find those right here. Otherwise, you can find more third trimester workouts right here. Have a great day.