Standing Side Stretch Prenatal Yoga Position for Pregnant Women

Video Transcript

"Warrior 1, so come to standing, the next two poses that we are going to do a warrior 1 and warrior 2. These are great poses to build strength in our legs, particularly if you plan on having a natural childbirth it is important that you develop strength in your lower body. There are also hip opening exercises which will help when your legs are straight and you are in labor. So the first pose is to set your feet so that they are a foot apart and you can slide your right foot and take it pretty far back about may be four and a half to five feet and then take the right toes up. It is about a half inch or so. Bring your hips so they are square towards the front, pull your belly and drop your tail bone. Bring your arms in front of you, bring your fingertips and elbows so that they are in same distances apart, reach the arms overhead. So to draw the left shin forward keep the right heel right into the floor so you should feel a nice opening here in the hips, you should also feel a stretch in the right calf, keep the belly pulled in, tail bone dropped down and lift your ribcage up. Hold here for two more breaths, the right foot forward and let us switch to either side, and back of the left foot and the hands to the hips. Again pulling the navel in gently and the tail bone dropped down and then start to bend the right knee, the left leg will be straight. Keep the left hip coming forward and keep the left heel pressing into the floor. When the arms, the fingertips and elbows are in the same distance apart keep that distance even and reach the arms over head, lift the ribcage up and let us hold here for two breaths. Now exhale as you set the left foot forward."