Yoga + Stretching Workout + Pregnancy-Friendly Workouts

10-Minute Recovery Flow Yoga

By: Lindsey | July 29, 2019

An essential, but often overlooked, part of your fitness routine — muscle recovery! This 10-Minute Recovery Flow Yoga Routine was designed to support healthy muscle recovery. Flow through these 8 hip-opening yoga poses to increase range of motion and decrease lower back pain.

*If you’re having trouble seeing the 10-Minute Recovery Flow Yoga Video above, try turning off or pausing your ad-blocker. If you prefer, you can also view this Yoga Flow on YouTube here.

*This is a sponsored post in partnership with NOW®. All words and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Nourish Move Love, making the content you see on this blog possible.

If you’ve done any of my full-length workouts, you know that my workout style tends to be more ‘upbeat strength and cardio’ and less ‘relaxed yogi’. Slowing down, allowing time to stretch, rest and recovery my muscles takes intentional effort.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t take muscle recovery as seriously as I should. As a group fitness instructor, I’d say most of us don’t take it seriously until we are affected by an injury.

We all know that exercise is GOOD for our bodies. But by its nature, exercise and intense workouts put our muscles, connective tissues, joints and ligaments under stress and strain.

Thus, muscle recovery is a fundamental part of a well-rounded fitness routine.

Taking active recovery and rest days ultimately supports our training goals in the long-term AND can improve our exercise performance in the short term.

It’s taken me 30 years to learn this, but after having my son Brody, I cut back on the number of classes I was teaching and naturally started incorporating more rest days into my fitness routine. As a result, I saw my body bounce back even stronger than I was before I had my son.

What is active recovery?

Active recovery is any kind of low-impact movement that gets blood flowing through your muscles, particularly after intense exercise.

I recommend an active recovery day, or an active recovery workout minimum once a week. If you’re new to fitness, pregnant or postpartum, you may want to incorporate at 2-3 active recovery workouts a week.

Active recovery exercises have also been proven to lessen Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness {DOMS}. DOMS is the reason why you might feel fine during your workout, and then struggle to walk down stairs 24-to-48 hours later.

Depending on your personal needs, active recovery can look like:

Foam Rolling or Myofascial Release — like these 7 Foam Rolling Exercises for Sore Muscles
A Brisk Walk
Intentional Stretching — like the 8 Recovery Flow Yoga Poses below

I’m at a point in my pregnancy {30 weeks pregnant} where I’m starting to cut back on workout intensity. But I still expect a lot from my body — teaching high-intensity HIIT classes paired with the physical demands of growing a human while chasing a toddler. Being intentional about supporting muscle recovery went from something I tried to do, to something that’s 100% necessary.

I’ve found what works best for me is two-fold:

Adding 1-2 days a week of recovery yoga and restorative yoga to stretch and release tight muscles; like the gentle yoga flow routine below.
Paired with supporting recovery-based supplements, specifically magnesium.*

When it comes to supplements I take during pregnancy, specifically in my second and third trimester of pregnancy, magnesium is an all-star. It’s an essential mineral that plays a role in important body functions, including muscle repair and growth.* And yet research suggests that a significant number of individuals have magnesium deficiencies {Nielsen}.

I’m sharing more on the benefits of taking a magnesium supplement below, as well as, the specific NOW® magnesium supplements I personally take.

The Workout: 10-Minute Muscle Recovery Yoga Flow

Add this 10-Minute Yoga Flow, designed to support muscle recovery, to your yoga practice. Flow through these 8 active recovery yoga poses before or after a workout or on rest days.

These yoga poses are designed to specifically open the hips and relieve low back pain. Which also makes this yoga flow great for pregnancy.

Equipment: Bodyweight, yoga mat and optional yoga block to assist with poses and range of motion.

Instructions:

Yogi Beginners — hold each yoga pose for approximately 30 seconds. Repeat all 8 yoga poses {which is really 10 yoga poses because you perform poses 4 and 5 on the right and left sides of the body} x 2 sets.

Advanced Yogis — hold each yoga pose for approximately 60 seconds. Repeat all 8 yoga poses x 2 sets.

Puppy Dog Stretch
Rag Doll
Down Dog
Low Lunge + Roll to Edge of Foot {right side, then left}
Low Lunge + Quad Stretch {right side, then left}
Wide Leg Fold
Legs Up the Wall
Reclined Squat

Puppy Dog Stretch

Rag Doll

Down Dog

Low Lunge + Roll to Edge of Foot

Low Lunge + Quad Stretch

Wide Leg Fold

Legs Up The Wall

Reclined Squat

Benefits of taking a Magnesium Supplement {Especially During Pregnancy}

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a big fan of taking a magnesium supplement specifically during my second and third trimesters of pregnancy for these reasons:

Muscle Recovery: There’s a lot of research on the role of magnesium in muscle function {Nielsen}.* Have you seen or heard of athletes taking epsom salt baths? Epsom salt is actually a form of magnesium, and research from the Cleveland Clinic suggests that an epson salt bath can help relax muscles and relieve pain in the shoulders, back, neck and skull.
Bowel Movements: glamorous, I know! Pregnancy hormones tend to cause constipation and magnesium helps with that too.*
Avoiding Muscle Contractions and Cramps: Magnesium supports normal muscle contraction and relaxation {Zhang}.* Fellow mamas know, pregnancy can increase leg cramps while sleeping.

NOW® Recovery + Magnesium Supplements

If you’ve been following my blog for the past year you know I’m a huge fan of NOW® for sports nutrition and quality supplements. And that holds true for my magnesium supplements as well.

NOW® offers a variety of magnesium supplements. The below are my personal favorite and how I use them.

NOW® Magnesium Supplements:

Magnesium Capsules — I take two capsules in the evening around dinner-time or bedtime to maintain muscle relaxation during the night.* This also helps keep my digestive system regulated each morning.*
ZMA Capsules — this supplement contains zinc, magnesium and vitamin B-6, all of which support muscle recovery.* So on my ‘tougher’ workout days I’ll replace my dinner-time or bedtime magnesium capsules with two ZMA capsules. My husband is also a big fan of the ZMA capsules and takes them most evening as well.
Magnesium Flakes — I love adding these to my baths {whenever I actually make time for getting in the tub}. I’ll be doing a lot more magnesium bath soaks postpartum.
Magnesium Spray — Whenever my husband and I indulge in a 10-minute massage spray we use this magnesium spray, which can also be sprayed directly on sore muscles.

If you’d like to try these magnesium supplements you can get $10 OFF your NOWfoods.com purchase of $40 or more using code: NMLNOW10

Note: these are the supplements I personally take, but you should check with your physician or midwife about what might be best for you, especially if you’re pregnant or nursing.

For more on how I personally incorporate NOW® supplements, sports nutrition and natural foods into my daily routine check out my posts on:

Try NOW® today and GET $10 OFF your NOWfoods.com purchase of $40 or more using code: NMLNOW10

Receive $10 off your nowfoods.com purchase of $40 or more (before taxes and shipping). Must use coupon code NMLNOW10 in the Promotion Code field at checkout. Offer only available on nowfoods.com. Some exclusions apply. Limit one coupon code per transaction. Offer cannot be used on previous purchases. NOW Health Group, Inc. has the right to end any promotion at any time.

This is a sponsored post in partnership with NOW®. All words and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Nourish Move Love, making the content you see on this blog possible.