HIP MOVEMENTS ON STABILITY BALL: side to front, front-to-back, and circular

"LAUREN ROTATION" EXERCISE

SHOULDER PULL w. X-er tube

SQUATS (make sure knees stay behind your toes)
preferably hold on to a bench or the kitchen sink while squating for support.

ROWING wrap an X-er tube around your trainer, a tree or a door handle.
Sit very straight, with abs in and back tight and slightly arched as you
pull your elbows back by squeezing the shoulder blades.

LEG CURL w. feet on stability ball. Place feet on top of ball, lift pelvis and roll the ball underneath your hips.
If this is too difficuly modify and do the PELVIC LIFT.

PELVIC LIFT (These last 2 exercises are fine through out pregnancy, as long as you keep moving. Do NOT lie still on your back. When the exercise is over, please turn to your side to prevent vena cava compression while resting.

PUSH UPS on your knees (or toes if you are strong enough).

LATERAL SHUFFLES walk slowly sideways with good posture with an elastic ankle band, to help prevent the "Pregnancy Waddle" that can hurt your back.

PLANK the most important abdominal exercise during pregnancy to prevent diastasis, support your back, better labor, and ensure a flat stomach once again post baby. On your toes (or knees if toes is too hard), and elbows, hold in abs and glutes ensuring that the back does not sag.

BICEP CURL to help strengthen arms to carry your new baby. Place one or 2 feet on an-Xer tube and curl arms up just as you would dumbbells, w. elbows into your sides.

CAT STRETCH a great abdominal exercise. Arching and rounding your back. Releasing and flexing your abs. Do a KEGAL as your back comes down.

C-CURVE to prepare for labor. Sit as erect as possible with hands behind knees attempting to arch the back, lifting the chest and doing a KEGAL. Then round the back, flexing the abs and letting go of the KEGAL.

STRETCHING

HIP & SCIATIC STRECH if doing it seated on the floor is too difficult, sit on a chair and place one foot up on your knee and bow forward until you feel a deep stretch in the hip.

TRICEP OVERHEAD STRETCH, grab elbow w.hand. SHOULDER STRETCH lifting arms up & back.

QUAD STRETCH hold foot close to buttock. - HIP STRETCH, with foot under knee, lean down.

HAMSTRING stretch reach for one foot. Repeat on the other side

INNER THIGH STRETCH gently allow knees to open wide.

Rejoice that your work out is over and you just helped your baby's development by improving your circulation.

LAUREN ROATION

LAUREN ROTATION™ FOR Lumbar posterior facet syndrome in pregnant women or

Preventing Low Back Pain in Pregnant Women

By Birgitta Lauren, www.expecitngfitness.com May 8th 2008
70% of Pregnant women are prone to get (mechanical) back pain, with some cases going on to become recurring and chronic (more serious).
 Since the predominant source of Low Back Pain in pregnant women is of lumbar posterior facet origin, most of the same basic assumptions and practices can also be applied to this group, much as it is in other patients with PFS (Posterior Facet Syndrome). 

the Lauren Rotation ™

Dr. David Sibley MD-FAAOS of the Physicians Spine Institute in Beverly Hills,
Consultant, United States Davis Cup Tennis Team, Mercedes Benz Cup and
Diplomat of American Board of Orthopedic Surgery etc… has proven conventional medicine wrong with his research, that with dynamic movement one can improve and rebuild connective tissue and cartilage between the facets of the spine. The Lauren Rotation does exactly that. This exercise reduces low back pain in individuals suffering from PFS by “cushioning” the facets by rebuilding the connective tissue, as well as improving posture, muscu-skeletal strength, flexibility, range of motion (ROM) and gait in the lower lumbar, pelvic and hip region in pregnant women.

EXERCISE DESCRIPTION
The exercise is performed by placing one’s hands on a table, or a sofa back, bending at the hip (90 degree angle). The back needs to be flat and horizontal, abdominals pulled for support. Especially when pregnant.  The Right leg is then lifted or extended back and rotated in as large of circle as is possible (by opening the hip joint ) around the side, forward and back down in a very controlled movement. This rotation should be repeated 10-15 times in one direction. And then repeating the same with the Left leg, after which the Right and Left leg will perform a rotation in the opposite direction.  This exercise can be performed for 1 – 2 sets of each leg going in both directions first without any additional resistance. A person’s leg can be heavy enough to start. When the exercise gets easier to perform, ankle weights can be added and made incrementally heavier. 
This exercise if performed 2-3 times a week can not only prevent low back pain, but it will also strengthen and firm gluteus, outer & inner thighs, oblique’s, abdominals, and low back muscles. Because of the work by the “gait controlling” gluteus medius during this exercise, a “new-mom-to-be” can also prevent or minimize the infamous “pregnancy waddle” in her last tri-mester by doing the “Lauren Rotation”. Waddling is due to slack gluteus medius muscles and can have serious effects on a woman’s back and alignment for years after pregnancy.

Start by holding on to a tree, table or sofa. Bend forward at the hip and raise your leg back.

   
      
Open your hip and start rotating your leg around in as large of a circle as possible.



Do 15 continuous dynamic rotations on one leg, repeat with other leg and then rotate each leg in opposite direction.