“Mama-Get Ups” aka, “Surrenders” are an exercise I teach to both prenatal and postpartum clients so they can get up from the floor safely and avoid injury as their belly grows during pregnancy or when holding a young baby or child, postpartum.
Getting up off the floor is a challenge in-itself. Getting up off the floor when you have a growing belly or you are picking up a young baby or toddler is an extra challenge – especially if they’re asleep and you don’t want to wake up!
Mama-Get-Ups are also a way to keep your core, low back, and pelvis in a safe position as you move into an upright position when your center of gravity is shifted.
With this movement, you will train hip & pelvic mobility and stability, glute strength, core strength… and, if you’re holding a child (or a weight), upper body conditioning!
This movement is fully-functional and is a nice compliment to prenatal and postpartum exercises.
Mama-Get-Ups
- Start by kneeling and sitting back on your heels.
- Next engage your glutes and focus on core-canister breathing as you drive your hips forward so that you are in an upright position.
- Kick one leg through so your ankle is in line with your knee – at about a 90-degree angle.
- Step through the whole foot, especially your heel to engage your glute as you come to standing.
- As you step through, move slowly and focus on breathing with your core-canister to maintain proper intra-abdominal pressure, which in-turn will help to keep your ribs, hips and pelvis evenly stacked as you move.
- Move slowly back down into a kneeling position and repeat.
- Try this while leading with the same leg for one set and then swap legs on the next set or alternate legs for each rep.
If you find this movement difficult, here are some movements to practice first, which will help you progress to the full movement.
Kneeling Hip-Thrusts:
If your knees don’t feel great on the floor, practice this with a rolled up yoga mat or carpet for support under your knees.
- Start with your hips back resting on your heels.
- Find your core canister breath.
- As you exhale, engage your core canister and your glute muscles to drive your hips forward into a more neutral, upright position.
- Repeat this 8-12 times for 3 sets.
Once you have mastered this movement, proceed to the next movement pattern.
Kneeling Kick-Throughs:
- While kneeling in an upright position, bring one knee forward so you are in a kneeling lunge position.
- Once again, focus on core canister breathing to keep your ribcage stacked over your hips and pelvis.
- When your foot lands, aim for a 90-degree bend in your knees and hips, so that your knee is stacked over your ankle. That last note is important because this will set up you for safe knee-tracking once you are reading to progress to the full movement.
- Repeat this 8-12 times for 3 sets alternating legs.
Note: If your knee doesn’t feel good on the floor, try practicing this on one side at a time with a pad under the knee that isn’t moving forward. If using this option, try 2 sets on each side.
Kneeling Lunge Pelvic-Tilt
Next, practice hip mobility via pelvic tilting in this position.
- Start by place one leg forward in a kneeling lunge (you can pad the knee that isn’t moving if needed).
- Tilt (rock) the pelvis forward and back 8-12 times for 2-3 sets on each side.
- Practice core canister breathing as you perform this motion, keeping in mind to stack the ribs over the hips as you move your pelvis.
Once you have mastered the above movements, it’s time to perform the full movement – Mama-Get-Up!
Adding Weight
The next progression is to add weight or leverage from your arms.
When you are ready to add weight or leverage , restart the progressions by adding weight or leverage in the lower options first.
- Try the hip thrusts by first extending your arms forward and squeezing your palms together for chest and shoulder engagement.
- If this feels good, try holding a dumbbell close to your chest. Be sure to engage your shoulder blades when adding weight to help stabilize your upper body.
- Take care not to forget about all the above checkpoints when adding on: Core Canister Breathing, glute engagement, stacked ribs, etc…
- Proceed with the arms extended and/or dumbbell in the kick-through progression before adding leverage or weight to the full movement.
Practice the Mama-Get-Up movement for 3-4 sets with 8-12 reps in each set.
Add this to your weekly rotation of movement to improve confidence, strength, and stability as you move safely throughout your pregnancy and postpartum journey.
