Prenatal Movement Essentials Program Guide

Welcome to the Prenatal Movement Essentials Program Guide. Here’s what’s included.

 

  • How To Use This Program

  • (Find Your) Practice

  • Meet Your Teacher

  • On Modifications

  • Before You Begin

  • LEARN

    • Diaphragmatic Breath

    • Deep Tissue Rolling

    • Squat

  • PRACTICE

    • Mornings with Amanda | Gentle Full Body Prenatal Class (0 mins)

    • Middays with Amanda | Prenatal Class to Reconnect to Your Body (0 mins)

    • Evenings with Amanda | Refreshing Deep Stretch & Muscle Release (0 mins)

  • Developing Your Practice

HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM

Prenatal Movement Essentials with Amanda includes 3 guided classes, 6 workshops, and a few helpful introductions to the program to get you started.

Based on widely accepted prenatal health guidelines, Prenatal Movement Essentials will help you adapt and relearn foundational movements to allow you to move through your pregnancy safely and confidently. Once you feel comfortable with the basics, apply each principle to your daily movements and favourite classes. As you progress through your pregnancy, your body and your baby will require different things; be curious and careful in exploring movements that feel good for you, and tune in to what your body needs each day. Be patient with yourself as you grow familiar with these modifications. With time, the movements will become more natural. We hope you enjoy these classes and workshops, and gain strength and confidence with movement and in your body as you prepare for the arrival of your baby.

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(FIND YOUR) PRACTICE

Amanda has designed these Prenatal Movement Essentials classes and workshops to support you moving during your pregnancy, to give you restorative and refreshing practices to keep your body feeling good, and to help you prepare for delivery and postpartum. Start by learning the essential modifications and prenatal movements, then explore the short Morning, Midday, and Evening classes. Follow along to the artfully-filmed, and expertly-guided classes in your home, at the gym, in a hotel room, or wherever you are.

Amanda’s classes will help you maintain and build foundational strength and mobility, move confidently and powerfully, whether you’re doing these foundational exercises for the first time or rediscovering movement in a new stage of your life. Get comfortable with each movement, learn how to prepare and engage your muscles, and have fun with new techniques. Challenge yourself to incorporate this newfound strength and creativity in your daily life.

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MEET YOUR TEACHER, AMANDA

Amanda has a long history with sports and movement. As a young girl, she practiced gymnastics and figure skating before moving on to a career as an elite junior tennis player where she first developed a foundation in conditioned training. Amanda compliments that dynamic training with over 15 years of practice and 10 years experience as a yoga teacher with a strong focus on restorative yoga. She teaches people how to access movement from where they are now and at whatever stage they are in their life. Now, after moving through her first pregnancy and entering the postpartum phase, Amanda will empower you to create a personalized daily prenatal movement practice to meet you where you’re at, each step of the way. She believes that when we move our bodies, we move our lives forward, opening ourselves up to new opportunities for self-expression, connection, and lifelong health.

WATCH AMANDA’S MEET THE TEACHER VIDEO

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ON MODIFICATIONS

Developing a movement practice takes time and exploration, especially during pregnancy. As you explore these new patterns and movements, feel free to individualize exercises as you go in order to create a practice that fits you. As you progress through your pregnancy, this might look different, even from day to day. Approach each class and workshop with patience and intention, modifying moves to match what your body needs. The focus should be on quality over quantity. Return to these classes and modifications as often as you need in your pregnancy to grow, redefine, and develop new strength at your pace. As you move through this program, ease in or build up to find a comfortable balance between what feels good in the moment and what challenges you.

The following general modifications are designed to ease you into prenatal movement and create a safe and fun practice:

  • When practicing higher-impact movements, try stepping instead of jumping or walking in place of running.
  • Avoid positions that rest on your tummy and back if they are uncomfortable. Support your body with pillows, blankets, or bolsters where needed.
  • In any position that requires twisting, maintaining alignment from your hips to your shoulders is the key. Move slowly and focus on your upper body position. Be careful not to over twist.
  • For movements that involve a hip hinge or flexibility component, only move into the position as far as is comfortable. If you feel any abnormal pain or discomfort as you lean into a pose, take a moment to pause and define the bounds of your range of motion.
  • Any movement can be done without weight. Form comes first! If you feel confident and would like to begin adding weight, be mindful of where your body is in strength and balance. Start low and build up from there. When carrying weight in a low posture and moving up, keep your knees bent and the weight close to your center for stability. This is especially important when picking up weights.
  • As you put together these foundational movements, take your time and move through the patterns slowly. A foundational pose with proper form is more important than moving through a sequence too quickly. Start slow and build up the pace as you gain confidence.

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN

In this program, Amanda shares fundamental movements and modifications for pregnancy. Although these classes and workshops include familiar movements, Amanda teaches you how to incorporate them into a new and personal prenatal movement practice. To help you move with confidence, the Welcome and Before You Begin introductions with Amanda are included in this program. These quick introductions will help you enter your practice feeling confident and well-prepared. Modifications of Prenatal Movement will address ways you can adapt movements to suit your body and areas to be mindful of so that you can move safely. Although the modifications may feel challenging at first, they can be accessed no matter where you are starting from. Listen to your body, and feel free to adjust your movements and level each day.

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LEARN

The ultimate goal of Prenatal Movement Essentials is to encourage comfortable and effortless movement throughout every stage of your pregnancy. It is important to prioritize safe and quality movement over intensity or speed, focusing on what your body needs each day. Use these workshops to reestablish and refresh your prenatal fitness practice, then apply these modifications to your favourite movements and classes.

01 / Diaphragmatic Breath

In this workshop, Amanda introduces you to diaphragmatic breathing, a fundamental technique to connect to your core and keep you moving safely and with intention during your pregnancy. Developing proper breathing techniques is great for both prenatal and postnatal movement, and will benefit you in every season of life.

02 / Deep Tissue Rolling

The Learn Deep Tissue Rolling workshop is a great way to massage and release muscle tension across your whole body. These relaxing and satisfying techniques will loosen your body, stretch out hard-to-reach areas, and restore circulation and hydration to your tissue. Rolling can be used across your whole body, from your feet to your back. Feel free to experiment, finding positions that feel good for your body.

03 / Squat

In the Learn How to Squat Safely workshop Amanda teaches a fundamental movement for pregnancy, delivery, recovery, and in parenthood. This movement is important to relearn and adapt to a prenatal practice, especially in preparing for labour.

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PRACTICE

Refresh your movement practice and explore what your body needs in this new season of pregnancy. Wherever you’re starting from, these movements can bring your practice joy and energy. Once you build the foundation with Prenatal Movement Essentials, NM has so many other programs that you can explore and modify using these techniques. Check out Movement Foundations or Yoga Foundations to keep learning with Amanda, or Strength Foundations if you’re looking to continue increasing functional strength and endurance. If you’re looking to add new disciplines and styles of exercise, explore the Challenges by NM Collection – a great place to discover new movements and teachers. We are here to help you move from where you are. You just have to show up, hit play, and move in ways that feel good to you.

Mornings with Amanda | Gentle Full Body Prenatal Class (0 mins)

Amanda leads you through a full body morning practice designed to help you feel refreshed, working through mobility stretches, gentle rolling, 360 breathing, weighted squats, and weighted get ups before finishing with a therapeutic squat hold.

Suggested equipment: a single dumbbell.

Middays with Amanda | Prenatal Class to Reconnect to Your Body (0 mins)

Amanda takes you through a midday routine connecting you to your core with 360 breathing, bird dog variations, side planks, downward dog. Then, using a chair, work on your hamstring mobility, push ups, and tricep dips, before finishing with therapeutic neck stretches. This class will leave you feeling revitalized and ready for the rest of your day.

Suggested equipment: a single dumbbell.

Evenings with Amanda | Refreshing Deep Stretch & Muscle Release (0 mins)

Amanda guides you through an evening practice to relieve stress and tension from the day. In this class you will move through gentle rolling and stability-focused lunge holds. From there, practice a few familiar yoga poses using blocks if you need them: pyramid pose, triangle, forward fold, squat. Finish with deep, intentional breaths to help you connect with yourself, your body, and baby.

Suggested equipment: a pair of dumbbells, bolster.

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DEVELOPING YOUR PRACTICE

To develop a prenatal movement practice requires only one thing: to start. And we can only start from where we currently are. We have created Training Plans as a roadmap to get you from where you are now to where you want to go. Don’t wait until you are stronger or more flexible. Now is the perfect time to begin. The purpose of these Training Plans is to learn to sequence the movements together confidently and get comfortable with a daily practice. They will also prepare you to create your own flows and adapt movements to fit your body. Feel free to cycle through the Training Plans as many times as you need – they are designed to be repeated. With repetition, openness, and the discipline to show up for just a few minutes each day, you will see incredible benefits from integrating the Prenatal Movement Essentials program into your life.

  • Taking rest is critical and is not being lazy. It may seem counterintuitive that we need to give ourselves permission to rest, but lack of rest or feeling guilt and shame when practicing rest is a common problem. Allowing yourself to be “at rest” helps you to be more effective when you are “at work.” It also decreases stress and anxiety in everyday life. Rest is an important practice to begin and maintain, especially when exploring these new movements and muscle groups in Prenatal Movement Essentials.
  • If you take a day off, just pick up where you left off the next day.
  • If you have any questions along the way, we are here for you. Reach out anytime to info@movementbynm.com

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