Difficulty: Beginner
Categories
Tag: beginner
Categories
Seated Deadlift
Seated Kettlebell Deadlift (Exercise Classification: Beginner)
Equipment: Kettlebell
*If you do not have a kettlebell, don’t worry! You can use a standard weight, a milk jug full of water, or anything that weighs ~5-10 pounds that can be safely held in your hands. You can also modify by doing the exercise without any weight.
- Start seated in a chair with your feet a little wider than your hips
- Hold a weight of your choice (kettlebell, dumbbell, gallon of milk, etc) in your hands with your arms straight
- Hinge forward at the hips as you lower the weight as if trying to touch the floor (the weight may actually touch the floor- that is OK).
- Push your heels through the ground and gently squeeze your bottom as you rise back up.
- To decrease stress on your pelvic floor muscles, gently exhale (through nose or mouth) as you rise back up. This is the hardest part of the movement.
Categories
Supine Bent Knee Hip Raise
Difficulty: Beginner
Description:
Lay on the ground with feet hip length apart.
Hold any sized weight, or if you are comfortable hold your baby under their arms; directly over your hips, they can be facing away or facing you, whichever is more convenient.
Push through the floor to raise your hips off the ground, holding for 2-3 seconds at the top, and then lower back to the ground.
Categories
Stroller Lunges
Difficulty: Beginner
Description:
Place hands on the handlebar of the stroller.
Stand in a relaxed position then take one step forward and dip your entire body down with your back leg bending until your shin is parallel to the ground and your front leg is at a 90 degree angle to the ground. As your press forward extend your arms in front of your face pushing the stroller forward.
Carefully, press back into a standing position by pressing up and back with your front leg and pull the stroller back to the original positon. Switch legs and repeat.
Categories
Straight Leg Lift
Difficulty: Beginner
Description: Lay down on your back and place feet on a sturdy chair or couch about a foot or so from the ground. Press your heels into the elevated surface and press your hips upwards squeezing your glutes. You can help balance yourself by pressing your elbows into the ground next to you.
You can add a weight or your baby for more difficulty.
Categories
Standing Calf Raises
Difficulty: Beginner
Stand up on your tip toes! Push through the ground with your toes to lift the heals off the ground. Use a wall or chair back for support.
Categories
Seated March with Weight Overhead
Seated March with Unilateral Weight Overhead (Exercise Classification: Beginner)
Equipment: Kettlebell
*If you do not have a kettlebell, don’t worry! You can use a standard weight, a milk jug full of water, or anything that weighs ~5-10 pounds that can be safely held in your hands. You can also modify by doing the exercise without any weight.
- Get a weight that you can lift overhead with mild to moderate difficulty and sit down in a chair. Your feet should completely rest on the floor.
- Push the weight towards the ceiling as you alternate legs and march in place.
- Remember to breath as you do this
- Perform for 1 minute with the weight in 1 arm. Rest for 1 minute. Perform another 1 with the weight in the other arm.
- If this pinches in the front of your hip, move to a slightly higher chair or try moving your feet and hips apart from each other.
Categories
Abdominal Decompression
Abdominal Decompression (Exercise Classification: beginner)
Equipment: wall
- Place the outside of your pinky fingers just above your hip creases with your hands laying flat with no inward pressure against your belly.
- Use your hands to gently scoop under and lift your belly up and hold. This helps to decompress your belly and take pressure off of the structures in and around your hip crease.
- Hold the upward lift for 10-15 seconds then relax. If this feels good, you can hold for a longer period of time as it is not dangerous.
Categories
Shoulder Wall Slides Facing the Wall
Shoulder Wall Slides Facing Wall (Exercise Classification: Beginner)
Equipment: wall
- Face a wall and start by standing ~ 6 inches from the wall
- Rest the pinky finger side of your hands and forearms on the wall shoulder distance apart with your elbows at chest height.
- Your feet should be hip distance, or a little wider, apart and your knees soft with a small bend.
- Slide your arms up with wall in a straight line.
- At the very top, take a deep breath in through your nose as you reach towards the ceiling and lean into the wall a little.
- If it feels good, you can also shrug your shoulders towards your ears as you do this.
- Then exhale gently through your mouth as you let your forearms slide back down the wall to their starting position, leading with your elbows.
- Forearms should touch the wall the entire time.
- Repeat for 5-10 repetitions.
Categories
Back to Wall Shoulder Flexion
Back to wall shoulder Flexion (Exercise Classification: beginner)
Equipment: wall
- Start standing with your back resting against a wall
- Walk your feet out so that the wall is supporting your low back and your thighs do not feel like they are working to hold your up
- Place your feet roughly hip distance apart.
- Breathing normally through your nose, start with your arms down at your side and your thumbs facing the ceiling in a “thumbs up” position
- Keeping your elbows straight and your low back on the wall, raise your arms in front of you moving them overhead. The movement should come from your shoulders.
- Once they are above you, take a deep breath in through your nose as you reach up like you were trying to make yourself tall and touch then ceiling.
- Then gently and slowly exhale through pursed lips as if blowing through a straw as you bring your arms back down to your sides.
- Repeat 5-10 repetitions.