In this episode, we delve into essential exercises and tips tailored to each trimester of pregnancy to support optimal mobility, stability, and overall well-being for expectant mothers. In the first trimester, we empower you with the hallmarks of mobility, as well as the importance of breathwork with pelvic floor awareness. In the second trimester, we address how you can work around the new sensations you are experiencing and what it means to focus on strength and stability as a signal of protection and resiliency to the brain. Finally, in the third trimester, we dive into intuition and relaxation, ensuring you move and modify movement throughout the trimester. Let's dive in!
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What You Will Learn In This PT Pearl:
5:05 - Tips For First Trimester & Top 5 Mobility Exercises
9:00 - Symptoms During the Second Trimester
11:30 - Breathwork & Pelvic Floor Awareness
15:08 - Top Stability Exercises For The Second Trimester
20:20 - Two Additional Mobility Exercises To Consider For The Second Trimester
22:10 - Third Trimester Exercise Considerations: Pelvic Floor Relaxation
To Watch the PT Pearl on YouTube, click here: https://youtube.com/watch/
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Optimal Body Podcast.
[00:00:08] I'm Doc Jen.
[00:00:09] And I'm Dr. Dom.
[00:00:10] And we are doctors of physical therapy, bringing you the body tips and physical therapy pearls
[00:00:13] of wisdom to help you begin to understand your body, relieve your pains and restrictions,
[00:00:18] and answer your questions.
[00:00:19] Along with expert guests, our goal of the Optimal Body Podcast is really to help you
[00:00:24] discover what optimal means within your own body.
[00:00:27] Let's dive in! and ways that you can do that. And I really wrote this program for me because I realized I was doing another program and it was taking an hour plus. And I was just like, I don't have the energy or the time for this. So how can I still increase my strength, especially in this postpartum stage? How can I still improve my power as I age? Because that declines naturally as we age.
[00:01:42] And how can I help to protect my joints,
[00:01:44] relieve pain and reduce injury Education and community support and ability to win prizes along the way, so please come join you already have $40 off plus This additional discount use code optimal check out and get in with the community So this will be a fun episode because I basically am just gonna hand it over to you Talk the whole time
[00:03:00] Because we're talking about
[00:03:02] Mobility but more specific than mobility exercises and things that you want to be focusing on
[00:04:05] the use of taking element to add in that extra hydration
[00:04:07] and those missing electrolytes that is needed to help you thrive, especially during pregnancy
[00:04:11] and breastfeeding when you're sustaining life.
[00:04:13] It is exhausting.
[00:04:14] It takes a lot out of your body
[00:04:16] and you need to be replenishing your body.
[00:04:18] And again, it's for everyone.
[00:04:20] We even had our mother-in-law staying here
[00:04:22] and taking and using element.
[00:04:24] And she said, she noticed herself when she's at home
[00:04:26] and she's not using it.
[00:04:27] She feels more lethargic. doing that before, building another human. Yeah, it's pretty wild and first trimester. And so a lot of times, you know, I think first not beating yourself up for not getting to the workout that you were supposed to do or whatever that may be, you know, it's, it's okay. There's a lot of changes happening in the body. You're trying to fuel yourself as able because a lot of people have, again, just this nausea they're wanting to throw up.
[00:05:45] They're just. Good, you're getting your upper back to relax, you're using your breath with movement, you're, you know, it's okay It's okay throughout pregnancy to twist through your upper back But I think a lot of people feel a lot safer during it particularly in first trimester Getting that rotation. So that's a good one. You can do that in bed
[00:07:00] You could do it before you go to bed after you know before you wake moving a little bit more actively, maybe you're just sitting and stretching into it. Great thing to start to open up around the pelvis and around the hips. And wall angels, I love because we're getting shoulder mobility with some active strength
[00:08:22] really around your upper back and your during pregnancy, which is something not a lot of people think about in general. Yeah, and I hope that it's starting to become a little bit more normalized
[00:09:43] through social media.
[00:09:44] You see a lot of women as they then you'd get up, you'd feel a little, oop, a little twinge in your pelvis or something. Little zing. Right. Definitely. And you would just have to center yourself and you found that doing some of the strength exercises that helped you learn how to control around the pelvis a little bit more helped with those pains.
[00:11:01] Definitely.
[00:11:02] And we do have a podcast specific
[00:11:04] on pubic symphysis dysfunction. is so huge and important to understand how to balance the pressures that are all happening and that inter-abdominal pressure to help kind of protect the core a little bit more, especially during loaded movements, which is even if you're not exercising, if you have a kid, if you have a job
[00:12:21] that requires a little bit more manual activity,
[00:12:24] like we're going to be loading the body.
[00:12:27] We're going to be loading the body, as you contract, there's not a forceful, like pelvic floor contraction, but there's a natural pelvic floor contraction with that exhale. So as you exhale and that rib cage starts to drop, there's this instinctual lift of that pelvic floor kind of coming away from the surface that you're sitting on
[00:13:40] and then pulling up and in around your belly area.
[00:13:46] And this is what we call hugging the belly Tighten contracted do i have a pelvic floor that tends to be more on the relaxed or lose side and i might need to work a little bit more on the tightening up of it. Because again for the longest time it was just. Kiggle yeah kiggle kiggle learn how to contract that pelvic floor when in reality many people. Don't need the kegler the contraction as much as they need to learn how to fully relax and let go exactly like that it's so important so.
[00:16:02] And we continue to run through this all through pregnancy. Okay, that's a new sensation.
[00:16:04] That's okay, not something to fear.
[00:16:06] What can I do about it?
[00:16:07] And some of the exercises will just name off
[00:16:10] really quickly Copenhagen planks.
[00:16:13] So you're kind of like in a side plank
[00:16:15] with your top leg on something,
[00:16:17] usually starting at your knee because it's a little harder
[00:16:20] at your foot and then trying to lift the bottom leg
[00:16:22] up into a full side plank.
[00:16:24] And that'svis pushing that
[00:17:41] hip back so I'm not twisting from my trunk so much I'm twisting from my hip and that to the crib and picking your kit up or picking the kit up off the floor, but taking out the car seat or pulling up a stroller, like these things require strength to tell a woman not to lift over 10 to 20 pounds is so crazy to me. Yeah, to decondition your body for the nine to 10 months coming up to arguably one of the times
[00:19:00] that you'll need the most strength and endurance
[00:19:03] in your life.
[00:19:05] So yeah, I don't quite understand that premise, groceries in from the car while I'm also carrying my kid. Again, just like Jen said, there are a lot of times that in early postpartum you might find yourself needing to carry or lift relatively heavy objects, especially for having had a baby. As far as the mobility-specific exercises and second trimester, this is where maintaining
[00:20:23] what I just talked about in first, I'm meaning like if I were to grab underneath my butt, I can feel a bone right here. That's my ischial tuberosity. And I would put the ball on right on the inside of that ischial tuberosity. So it's not going up any holes,
[00:21:41] but it's going along that pelvic floor tissue
[00:21:44] to help relax the load and the tension.
[00:23:01] You can just use bands.
[00:23:03] You just use body weight if you feel maintain all the exercises we already talked about, great. Now really focus on pelvic floor relaxation too. So maybe you're getting a bath at the end of the night and you're doing a little bit of one work internally to kind of touch on some areas that have a little bit more tension and working on that relaxation with the breath work.
[00:24:20] This is just, we need our pelvic floor
[00:24:22] to move out of the way so the uterus can contract
[00:24:25] and do what it needs to do to push baby out. information in your hands that you can best prepare yourself. Other things we also want to say is that, of course, every pregnancy is different. And we want to make sure that you continue to consult with your OB or with a pelvic floor physical therapist, somebody who can more, you know, better direct you based on your specific pregnancy.
[00:25:40] Because of course, there are other complications, other high risk pregnancies that
[00:25:44] you know, we might not have the same recommendations for. I can try Mester can be really helpful. I know women early on who report leaking already or pelvic floor type symptoms. So starting to get with a physical therapist and understand what the pelvic floor really does and how you can help manage it is gonna be so important. Third trimester, I met with my pelvic floor therapist to understand how to breathe, to push
[00:27:02] while relaxing the pelvic floor.
[00:27:04] Because typically what I just, we just highlighted
[00:27:06] was on an exhale, your pelvic floor lifts, right? something. It's like a little belly hammock and you just think. Yeah, I'm trying to get that tension around the belly to relax. Then also he would go in underneath my rib cage and do some manual release underneath my rib cage that goes along with breath work to try to, again, relax that tension, reduce any restriction and get some
[00:28:22] movement around the area. Then he also gave me massage, which was so nice. That's just