Are pregnancy hip stretches safe? Yes, they can help relieve stress, tension, pain, and discomfort. Stretching helps grow the muscles and relax your whole body to make you more rested while you’re pregnant – whether you’re lolling around, strolling around the mall or working out. Although it’s always a pleasure, stretching can highly beneficial during pregnancy.
Safety tips to consider while stretching
Pregnancy hip stretches can be helpful for your body when you follow safety tips below:
Warm-up. To avoid injury, warming up before stretching is important. A couple of minutes of exchanging knee raises or lively walking can help.
Don’t jump. Jumping while you’re straightening can lead to a tight muscle. Hold each of your stretches for 20-30 seconds, reaching in each pose and hold at a position where you can sense the stretch and no pain.
Don’t exaggerate it. When you’re pregnant, your body creates relaxin, which relaxes the muscles in the pelvis for faster delivery. But because relaxin impacts all ligaments, your whole body is more flexible, which can lead to injuries and overstretching. Listening to your physique and limiting it to a different motion that feels good is the best way to protect yourself.
Pregnancy hip stretches to avoid during pregnancy
It’s safest to evade stretches like deep backbends, bow pose in yoga or contortions like a camel. You may get calf spasms when you tip your toes, so you need to flex your feet. Also, after your first trimester, you need to prevent from lounging flat on your backside for an extended period.
6 Best hip-opening stretches
Squats / garland pose
Squats strengthen your thighs and open your pelvis to help you ready for childbirth.
- Stand up with your feet pointing forward or a little outward, or slightly broader than hip-scope, apart.
- You must gradually and gracefully bend your knees and lower down your body, stretching the arms out in front for stability if needed.
- Stabilize your weight on the balls of your heels and take a breather.
- Inhale and gently rise back up and repeat the process.
Hip flexor stretch
Hip flexors are the muscles at the top of your thighs that let you raise your knees and down at the abdomen.
- Kneel on your right knee and place your left foot forward so your legs create a right angle.
- Place your left hand on the left thigh for stability and put the right hand on your right hip.
- Lean forward and adjust your body mass to the forward leg. You will sense the stretch in your right thigh.
- Put hold about 30 seconds and change legs and go over again.
Butterfly/tailor pose
This is a great hip-opening stretch for the hips, inner thighs, and groin. Aside from it helps widen the hips, it also alleviates aches in the lower back.
- While sitting down on the floor, bring the soles of your shoes altogether, letting your knees to point at to each side.
- Grabbing your feet, bring in both heels closest to your body.
- Bend forward a little and hold on that position. Concentrate on inhaling huge deep stomach breaths.
- For deeper stretches, you need to squeeze your thighs down with your hands to grab your knees closer to the floor. You must hold that position and concentrate on the stretching out and your breathing.
Pigeon
With this position, use a yoga strap to help you alleviate this hip-distance until your flexibility improves.
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- Sit down on your carpet with one leg stretched behind you.
- You must bend your front limb to 90 degrees angle and, if resting on a mat, move your foot to the inner edge of your carpet.
- Breathe as you put your knee down flat.
- Hold close for a couple of minutes and go over on the other side.
Seated straddle
- Stretch your legs out wide with your extremities bent.
- Squeeze your hamstrings and pelvis into the ground to adjust your spine.
- Hold in this pose if this is good of a stretch for the back of your legs or go your hands out towards you.
Figure 4
The hip stretch is the best way to free the hips and tight glutes! You’ll be surprised by how much more comfortable you can move and squat.
- Start lounging on your back with your knees bent and feet being flat on the ground.
- Raise your right leg and cross your right ankle around the knee.
- Grab hands across the left leg to join under the thigh.
- Bring your left thigh towards you while having your torso hard-pressed against the ground.
- With your right elbow, gently press your right knee away from as you bring your thighs closer.
- Breathe in for 3 to 5 minutes, extending the stretch with every breathing out, change sides.
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Keep in mind, stretching helps with your freedom of movement and avoid muscle injury. During pregnancy, it’s important to have your muscles and joints flexible or an easier delivery.
If you don’t do pregnancy hip stretches during your pregnancy:
- You could make your muscles tight, so work less efficiently.
- You could lessen your joint movement.
- It can result in spinal injury, which can trigger mild to severe back pain and can affect certain muscle groups to constrict. Spinal misalignment can eventually alter the form of the major muscle groups.
Other advantages of pregnancy hip stretch during pregnancy:
- Pregnancy hip stretches before and after workout avoid injury and tight muscles.
- It provides oxygenated blood to the muscles, to give more energy and remove toxins and lactic acid out of the body, so you’ll feel less tightness of the muscles.
- Stretching also brings more oxygen to the baby to help him grow.
- It’s help balance the biochemical impacts that pregnancy can have on the body
- It keeps become flexible, calm and relaxed.
- It relieves physical and mental stress.
- Stretching helps lubricate the joints so you can move easily and with discomfort.
- It can help you handle inner and emotional stress during pregnancy.
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Therefore, different pregnancy hip stretches not only helps for the preparation of childbirth, but also support in the practice of making a great time for yourself to rest and revitalize before the pressures of parenting become challenging, so that once the baby’s out, you already know how to take care of yourself to be able to babysit him.
Read also:
- 8 Tips on How to Keep Pregnancy a Secret
- When Does Lightening Occur in Pregnancy?
- The Safest Belly’s Position During Pregnancy When Sleeping
