One Core Project: Phase 4 (Short) | Core Strength After C-Section or Hysterectomy

Duration: 13:39 2463 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

This video introduces Phase 4 of the One Core Project, specifically designed for individuals recovering from a C-section or hysterectomy who need to rebuild core strength after initial healing phases. The session begins with a targeted warm-up routine focused on activating and assessing the posterior pelvic tilt muscles. Participants are instructed to use a block between their knees while performing gentle tilts on both sides of the body, paying close attention to any imbalances in muscle engagement or pain levels. This assessment phase ensures that the right side is not compensating for weakness on the left before moving into strengthening exercises, allowing users to adjust pressure based on which side feels weaker until balance is achieved. Following the warm-up and activation drills, the workout transitions into a series of dynamic strength-building movements performed in one to three rounds per session. The first exercise is the bird dog, where participants extend opposite arms and legs while maintaining a stable spine and drawing their belly button inward; modifications are offered for those needing less intensity or additional challenge through elbow-to-knee touches. This is followed by full planks held for thirty seconds with options to drop to knees if necessary, leg lifts performed on the back using an anchor point for stability, and sprinter sit-ups that involve reaching one foot toward the opposite hand while keeping the lower core engaged throughout the motion. The routine concludes with a dedicated cool-down sequence combining breathing exercises with posterior pelvic tilts to promote relaxation and self-grounding of the body. Instructors emphasize taking deep breaths through the nose to expand the rib cage before exhaling fully while flattening the back, ensuring that the core remains active yet relaxed at the end of each cycle. The program suggests performing these three cycles two to four times a week over a period of two to four weeks, after which users can transition into a maintenance phase or return to previous phases as needed for continued recovery and long-term strength building in daily life.

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All right, let's get right to it. So, we're going to start with our posterior pelvic tilt. We're going to warm up those core, warm up those abs so we can get ready to go. So, grab your block, put it between your knees, light squeeze, go ahead and do your posterior pelvic tilt, gently pressing down your right hand. You're going to focus and feel that right quadrant kick in. We're still going to assess it every time we do this before we warm up or before we get started with the program, we want to warm it up. 3 2 1, go ahead and relax. We're going to do three of these on the right, three on the left, see where we're at from a balancing perspective. Go ahead and do a posterior pelvic tilt, flatten that back out, good, and gently press down on that right side. Right hand, feel that right side engage. I want you to assess because we're going to do the left after this so you can feel the difference or if they're the same, we'll we'll go with that. And 3 2 1, and then rest. Just relax, just relax. We got one more. Good, posterior pelvic tilt. Press down with that right hand, gently, focus on that lower right right quadrant quadrant of the core, feeling that activity, feeling that that wake up happening before we start the strengthening. And 3 2 1, go ahead and relax. Now, we're going to switch over to the left side. So, go ahead and do your posterior pelvic tilt, tilt that pelvis, push down that left side, left hand down, focusing on that lower left quadrant, comparing the left to the right, which one's different, are they the same, just taking notes. And 3 2 1, relax. Got two more. Go ahead and do your posterior pelvic tilt, flatten that back out, gently press down that left hand, focus on that lower left side. Feeling is there a difference? Is it the same? And 3 2 1 Go ahead relax. You got one more. And go ahead and do your tilt. Press down left side focusing on that lower left quadrant. And now I want you to think of yourself, is there a difference? If there is, we're going to be doing something next to help balance it out. If not, we're going to be doing both hands at the same time. And 3 2 1 Go ahead and relax. Now if the left side seemed limited, let's go and put more pressure on the left side for 3. If the right side, put it on the right side. And of course, if if it's equal, we're going to push both hands down. So let's go ahead and do your posterior pelvic tilt. Pressing your hand down, the appropriate ones, down. Hold for that full eight count. And 3 2 1 Go ahead and relax. Make sure you take that full rest. Relax your shoulders, relax your head. We're just focusing on warming up and activating that core before we get into the strengthening program. Go ahead and do your posterior pelvic tilt. Gently press down that weakened side or both hands if it's if it's equal, holding for that full eight count. And 3 2 1 Go ahead and relax. Good, we got one more. And go ahead and do your tilt. Press down. Now keep in mind, if you need to take a little bit more time to balance it out, you can pause the video and do a few more reps. That's That's okay. And 3 2 1 Go ahead and relax. We have one more warm-up exercise before we get to the strength program. All right, so we're going to go right to the half plank and finish our warm-up. So come up to your elbows, on your knees, get in the half plank position, tuck that tail underneath, and then you're going to slightly draw back or pull back those elbows. Holding that for the full eight count, really focusing on driving a lot of energy and activation to that lower core as warming it up to get ready for our strength. Three, two, one, down and rest. Really important to rest each time, relax those shoulders. We just want to activate and kick in that core so we can get the strengthening at the best way we can and protect you as we do it. So, come back up. On your knees, tuck your tail. Nice, pull those elbows back. Holding, remember don't be aggressive on pulling those elbows back, just a light shift. And three, two, one, and down and rest. Now, the goal is is to warm everything up so that we start doing more dynamic moving and strengthening that you're always protected and the right muscles are doing the work. So, let's go and come back up. Tuck your tail, slide those elbows back, pulling them back towards your knees. Good, and then hold. For three, two, one. Now, our warm-up's done, we're going to kick it into this the the strength workout that we're going to do one to three rounds of a of the strength exercise. So, let's get started. All right, so your first strengthening exercise here in in phase four is our bird dog. So, come up onto hands and knees, knees will be underneath your hips. Hands underneath your shoulders, getting a nice good strong posture. Your body should be nice aligned, you shouldn't be rounding your back or your shoulders at all. And uh what we're going to do is you're going to start with your left leg, right arm. So, it's going to reach your left leg straight out. Right arm straight out. We're going to hold this for a count of 10. So, nice and strong, you're reaching to the wall, reaching back, trying not to lift up. Good, and go ahead and switch sides. Nice. Right leg, left arm. Remember the modification, you can keep your hands down and just lift your leg. For people that are maybe more challenged, you can hold that for that full 10 seconds. And we're going to do three each side here. All right, go ahead and bring that leg back down. And let's go ahead and switch sides. Reaching out. Good. Remember the the more challenging, if you want to challenge yourself, you can bring that elbow to your knee and back out. And you can do that for the full 10 seconds or you can do 10 of those. Go ahead and switch sides. Reach out. Good. Once again, if you want to challenge yourself, go ahead and bring that elbow to your knee. Good. And back out and do a couple of those. Perfect. And reach out and hold that position right there. Now, keep the hips nice and flat. Try not to over rotate. Nice, good, firm position. This is great. Go ahead and rest. We got one more time. Switch sides. Good. For that full 10 seconds. Now, keep in mind, you got to keep that belly button drawn in. You want to keep your body nice and stable, nice and straight. Your line and your head is all aligned. You're not lifting up. You're reaching out. This is always better to do on a firm surface. It's going to be a little easier. You're going to feel more solid. And go and come back and rest. Awesome. Let's get the next exercise. All right. So, our next exercise is going to be the full plank. So, let's get up into full plank on your elbows, up on your toes. You can hold this position straight up, nice and straight. Good. We're going to hold this for 30 seconds, maintaining integrity, staying strong. And now, a couple modifications, you could go to your knees and hold that for a minute. Now, the goal is to really get to that that full plank. So, let's come back up to that full plank. If you want to advance this a little bit and challenge yourself, you can do a a toe point and just alternate, maintaining really proper proper integrity of your core and your strength. Good and hold. We should be feeling this in our shoulders, a little bit in our legs, a little bit in our in our core, helping you maintain that. And three, two, one. Go ahead and relax. All right, let's get to the next exercise. It's going to be our leg lifts. So, what you're going to do is you're going to lay flat up flat down on your back. You're going to anchor yourself overhead so you're grabbing a hold of like the couch or a table or something that's firm. And then I want you to go ahead and bend your knees up like you're in a chair. Good. Grab a block if you have one. This is really good to have a block put between your knees. Anchor your upper body down. Great. We're going to do this for 30 seconds constant motion maintaining that back. You want to keep that back pressed against the floor. So, let's go and keep those knees bent. Let's go and bring yourself down nice and slow. And then back up. Remember, you're only bringing yourself down as as far as you can to keep that back nice and flat. If you come up and you need to reset yourself, feel free to reset yourself. Don't force it. Just nice and slow. Now, a couple modifications is you can do this for 10 or 15 seconds if you're not able to maintain that integrity until you build enough strength up there. And of course, if you're stronger and you want to challenge yourself a little bit more, you can actually roll up further. So, go ahead and bring your knees up and what you're going to do is you roll your hips up. Keep coming and then back down. You got to be under controlled motion the whole time. Let's try that one more time. Come on up and roll up and back down. Just be careful just not to let your knees fall to your chest. It's a it's all coming from the lower core and drop and come back up. And down and rest. Nice job. For the last strengthening exercise, we're going to come up and do our sprinter sit-up. So, go ahead and sit up. All right, you're going to slowly keep your hands out in front of you, sit sink back down till you feel your abs fully kick in, hold that position, then you're going to reach your right foot to your left hand. There you go, good, and alternate. Awesome, keep it up, maintain that. Now, if you want to advance this a little bit, you can go all the way down and then come up and touch that foot. Perfect. Let's do one more like that. If you're ready for that challenge, go ahead and challenge yourself. And then you hold. Now, if this is too hard to do, you can modify by just doing it less time. Start at 10 or 15 seconds. And rest. Go ahead and roll yourself down nice and slow. And awesome. So, remember, this is one cycle. So, I want you to go back through the core the four core, and I want you to do them again. So, you go back and do your bird dogs, go back and do your planks, your leg lifts, and your sprint squats you can or your sprinter sit-ups. You can do those three cycles three to five times a week. All right, once we finish our one to three cycles of our strengthening, we're going to finish with our finishing exercise, our posterior pelvic tilt and breathing. So, grab your block, put it between your knees. All right, let's go ahead and take a nice deep breath in through your nose, feel that rib cage expand. As you exhale, I want you to do a posterior pelvic tilt, flatten that back out, focus on that core being strong, holding that, and go ahead and take a nice deep breath in through your nose, holding that position. As you exhale, I want you to relax, relax your core, relax your body. And go ahead and take a nice deep breath in through your nose, feel that rib cage expand. As you exhale, you're going to do your posterior pelvic tilt. Good, holding that position. I want you to take a nice deep breath through your nose, feel that rib cage expanding out and up and down into the table or into the floor. And as you exhale, I want you to go ahead and just relax. Go ahead and take a nice deep breath in through your nose, feeling that rib cage expand. As you exhale, I want you to do your posterior pelvic tilt, activating that core, getting your body self-grounded. Holding, and nice deep breath in through your nose, get that rib cage expanding. Good. As you exhale, go ahead and just relax. Go ahead and do a few more. Go ahead and take a nice deep breath in. Expand that ribs. As you exhale, press down. Holding that, focus on that rib cage expanding, nice deep breath in. Hold, and then as you exhale nice and slowly, go and relax everything, relax your core, relax your shoulders, relax everything. Good. Nice deep breath in. Hold. As you exhale, I want you to go ahead and breathe or go ahead and do your posterior pelvic tilt, press your back down. Hold. And then as you inhale through your nose, feel that rib cage expand. Hold. And then as you exhale, I want you to go ahead and let your body relax, let your core relax. We got one more. And as you take a nice deep breath in, as you exhale, posterior pelvic tilt. Holding. Last one, nice deep breath in, get that rib cage up, out, down. And then as you exhale, relax. So, if you do that 2 to 4 weeks of this program, we're going to I'm going to move you over to a maintenance program that you can do. And then you can always come back to any one of these phases, and you'll find the ones that you like the most. I would encourage you to keep doing them and as you get done I want you to go back and then finish the do the maintenance programs and follow that in your day-to-day lives and of course keep this breathing as part of that. Thank you.