Yoga Roll Up & Breathing Abdominal Exercises for New Moms

Video Transcript

"Start laying on your back. Make sure your spine is straight. Adjust your hips. Feet, legs are straight. Shoulders are even. And you're going to use your breath on this. The breath-work is the most important part. Inhale. As you inhale, you are going to reach your arms up. Really stretch. Get length away from your toes. You are going to get length all the way in here and in your abdominals. Stretch your belly as you reach away with all of your fingers. Deep inhale and then exhale. Slowly, like you are moving underwater, bring your arms up until they are parallel with your body. And as they get parallel with your body, pull yourself up. Just pull as far as you can. Pulling away with your fingers. Look towards your fingers and your toes and at exhale you are pulling your abdominal muscles down, down, down, down, down. Even if they are shaking, hold it until your breath is all gone. And then you just naturally have to breathe it in. Bring your arms stretching out. And then exhale. Come up, pulling those abs down into the ground. Using your breath to pull your navel stretch a little farther. Reach away with your arms. And inhale, back down. I want you to do eight more of these. Inhale and reaching up; exhaling all the way down. Okay, so starting from after finishing the last ab series, we did ten of those. With your arms reaching, you are going to be laying here. Just lift your knees up. Put your feet flat on the ground. Knees are parallel and we are going to do some special crunches. It's really important; the breath-work. It helps to put your hand on your belly at the beginning of this just to feel on the inhale. Don't get discouraged if you can't get it right away. Just keep trying. On the inhale, you are going to stretch your bell like a balloon. That means you push your diaphragm down. And inhaling, expand your belly, and I do mean expand it as much as you possibly can. Stretch all of those tissues in there. And exhale. Just like a deflated balloon. Let your belly shrink, shrink, shrink, shrink. Pull it down. Pull, pull, pull, pull. Awakening all those muscles in there that got loosened during pregnancy. Let them awaken, little by little. Pull them down into the ground and then from that point, you are just going to (not lifting up) just tilt your pelvis up. Maybe lift an inch off the ground. Your everything from your navel up is flush on the ground. Just your hips and pelvis have tipped forward. And that's the exhale. Inhale, let it come down very slowly. Tiny movements here. The smaller the movement."