While developing more finesse for our Spinning Babies® Parent Class, a delightful email arrives praising the benefit one woman received from the windmill exercise. This exercise is named after the lifting and rotating of our arms to achieve a nice stretch in our muscles and fascia between our lungs and ribs.
Windmills adds a gentle stretch to the back end. Loosening up the deeper muscles of the buttocks is good because it lets them lift off the sciatic nerve (think of the relief of relieving hip or leg pain). We list windmills as one of our recommended daily activities on our website. See Sarah Longacre of Blooma do the windmills on our Daily Essentials video. Whether you are pregnant or not, ten windmills a day add comfort and ease for your lower back.
Birth Tip: Four Restorative Techniques
The Three Balances℠ are three techniques we at Spinning Babies® put in this order to gently sift or jiggle the abdomen, align the lower uterus so baby has room to settle head down for birth, and gently address the muscles to the pelvis to relieve pain and also make room for baby.
These techniques include: The Jiggle, Forward-leaning Inversion, and Side-lying Release. Putting them in this order is part of our brand trademark (please note the ℠, or “service mark,” after the name which means using the name or teaching them in this order to a class, or promoting your services using our trademark identity without a license from Spinning Babies® is a no-no).
Where ever three sisters are there likely cousins, friends, and sometimes even late-in-life little siblings! We bring in Standing Sacral for the mobility of the sacrum. These four techniques together are fantastic, hence being called the Fantastic Four. Bookmark the list to use them once or twice a week. But you can use them more – we recommend Forward-Leaning Inversion daily!
Birth Story
“I just wanted to share my birthing testimony with you ladies. I’ll make it short! I started going into false labor a month before my due date. Closer to my due date my contractions got closer together but very inconsistent.
I found out that baby had not yet engaged at all from a check up at almost 40 weeks and I was pretty sure she was sunny-side-up [posterior]. I had purchased the relaxing yoga routine from the Spinning Babies® website and started doing that at about 36 weeks to de-stress and relax. The windmill exercise was a lifesaver on my back.
I was worried about being forced into a cesarean delivery being past 40 weeks. So I browsed around the website at 40 wks and 3 days and decided to try the The Three BalancesSM plus Standing Sacral Release. I did 3 sets of each of the four stretches spaced out in the day with my husband’s help.
I was getting in bed for the night and felt baby literally spin! I texted my family and shared with them that I thought I would have my baby in the morning.
Boy was I right! Not even 10 minutes later, I felt a pop and my water broke! We went to the hospital where I experienced the birth of my dreams. Completely unmedicated (they made me get a fluid iv, though), labored upright and on my side for 3 hours and pushed for just 20 min. Perfect baby girl 6 pounds 12 oz.
I have pointed every pregnant momma I encounter to this website! Aside from my other exercise program and mindset preparation, this helped me so much engaging baby and get me to my dream birth. Tell the ladies thank you so much for setting up this website and sharing so much knowledge with the world! It truly was empowering! ” – Dancee Pinkston, Fearless Momma
Spinning Babies® Certified Parent Educator Training
Childbirth educators, please consider entering our Spinning Babies® Certified Parent Educator Training. When certified, you will be able to teach a Spinning Babies® Parent Class module to pregnant parents. Your own personal teaching revolution starts with a Spinning Babies® Workshop.
“Why do I love teaching Spinning Babies® Parent Classes so much?! Because it works!” – Shanna Baker Switzer, SpBCPE
See the next Certified Parent Educator Trainings here.
