http://diet.com Prenatal Fitness Expert Dara Zall Kelly takes you through a lower body workout that you can do during pregnancy. Learn safe and effective moves for you and your baby. Visit Dara's site at http://ppodfitness.com

Video Transcription

[Music Playing] Hi! Welcome to diet.com. I Am Dara Zall Kelly and I am here to talk to you Prenatal Fitness. As you can see I am joining you on our quest for prenatal fitness and I am here to talk to you about safe and effective exercises that you can do throughout your pregnancy from the first trimester all the way through your last trimester, and it will help in labor, delivery and beyond. As always, please consult with your doctor before beginning any exercise program and if you feel any pain or discomfort during the exercises, stop immediately and call your practitioner. This is going to be the first of the three part series and today we are going to do the lower body. So I am going to start you up with some basic moves that are gear towards strengthening your entire lower body from the glutes to the quads and the hamstrings, everything you need to help you carry that weight that extra weight throughout your pregnancy and help you become strong and more ready if there is such a thing for labor. So, that being said, let us start up with some basics and I am going to have you start with your basic squat with the physio ball. Now, they are several options for these but the basic move that I am going to have you start off with is the wall squat with your lower back firmly place against the ball on the wall, a sturdy wall, and you are going to bring your belly button to your spine. So, here we go down, holding and coming up all the way, a belly button to spine lower back pressing right in to that ball. You are saying “okay, I have done this a million time before; I need a little bit more advance”. I am going top have you say well, let grab if you have weights at home, try grabbing some three to five pound dumbbells and holding them in your hands go straight down and lift up, down and lift up. And I should mention that I generally advice people to do two set of 10-12 repetitions of each exercise. So we have done our two sets of 10-12 repetitions, and then I am going to have you move on to what we called the Walking Lunge. So, belly button pulls the spine nice and tight, abs tight all the way around. You are going to take a giant step forward, forward you go, dropping the back knee to the floor, and push yourself up and continue that walk down and lift and down and lift. Not enough room in your house? You are in a place where you can move freely? That is fine. One you just take foot forward, one foot back, down and lift and a stationary lunge. All the while, knee does not go over your toe, belly button to spine, abs and thigh and breathe. So now that we are finish with our walking lunge, kind a felt what it is to be slightly off balance and I am going to take as one step further to have as really use the entire lower body, glutes, quads, hamstrings all the way down to the calves and the feet and add in a little bit more of your core, your abdominals and your lower back working on that balance and stability which as a prenatal women, we sometimes tend to loose a little bit off. So it is nice to work on it when you have the chance. So, what we, do belly button to spine, abs and thigh. We are going to do a Single Leg Deadlift which sounds a lot scarier that it is. So you are basically going to pull those abs in, squeeze the glutes, your finding your stable base right here and you are going to extend the same arm and leg and come down and lift up, and come down and lift it up, 10 on each side. Okay it is a little bit too easy right this you say, so what do we do? We add some resistance. Add to five pound weight the three pound weight to five pound weight, a soup can if you are at home and bring it down, and lift up and squeeze those shoulder blades together back. So it is down and squeeze the shoulder blades together and back. So, that is the beginning of our lower body workout. Stay tuned later in the season for some more alternatives. But for now, get yourself started and work on your basics. Focus on abs in tight, back straight, really using focusing on tightening those glutes, quads, and hamstrings. Always remember check with your doctor before you start any sort of exercise program again and always, always, always remember to breathe and if you feel any sort of pain shortness of breath or dizziness, please stop your exercise and consult your doctor. Thanks and we will see you soon.