Yoga Standing Hip Rolls during Pregnancy

During pregnancy, especially during advanced pregnancy you experience stiffness in different parts of your body due to the additional weight of the baby that you bear. Your movements too are very careful and limited. This exacerbates the feeling of stiffness and rigidity.

The prenatal yoga standing hip rolls is an easy exercise to do. But in spite of the ease while doing this exercise, you need to consult your gynecologist before you proceed to do this pose. For this exercise, as for all other prenatal exercises, you need to have a friend, or preferably your yoga tutor around to help you out.

Stand facing a table at about half an arm’s distance from you. Cross your arms, and place your forearms on the table as you lean against it. Place your head on your forearms. Ensure that your abdomen is not under any kind of pressure when you are in this position.

Stretch your spine and keep your back nice and long. After ensuring that you have placed your arms on the table securely, you may walk your feet away from the table for a step or two, to arch your back a bit more. Keep your feet slightly apart to provide for space for your baby, as you proceed to do the following moves. A distance of a couple of feet is fine depending on your height.

Now begin to do the hips rolls by moving your hips to your right and stretching them as comfortably as you can. As you do this, the left side of your abdomen is slightly compressed. Pause at this stage for between two to three breaths and then move your hips to your left, compressing the right side of your abdomen.

Introduce a variation by lifting your hips up a bit and then lowering them as you swing from side to side, to do circles with your hips. Repeat this process of swinging from right to left for as long as you find doing it to be comfortable.

This exercise relieves the stiffness that you feel around your hips and waist, especially during advanced pregnancy. It stretches your hips and lower back as you go from one side to the other. But as your do this, do not go too far, and avoid straining your abdomen.

This exercise also helps you to adjust to the physical changes that rapidly take place in late pregnancy, and also prepares you for labor to undergo a relatively painless delivery.

Sources:

Hip Roll Exercises

http://www.livestrong.com/article/156412-hip-roll-exercises/

Yoga for Pregnant Women : Standing Hip Rolls for Prenatal Yoga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVmv-M3y5CU

Standing yoga poses:

http://www.yoga-poses-and-beyond.com/standingyoga.html

Standing Hip Rolls for Prenatal Yoga

http://www.ehow.com/video_2351572_standing-hip-rolls-prenatal-yoga.html