There have been a couple of starts to this conversation in this forum, but I’d like to raise it up again. I’ve been enjoying DYWM for a couple years, and have taken it on more regularly in the past year as I transitioned to working from home. I’m drawn to some of the more challenging vinyasa classes with Fiji, Crista and Tracey, and enjoy ones that are less than 45 minutes, as I try to do them daily, and can’t afford to spend too much more time than that.
I am now pregnant, and though I appreciate your pre-natal content (including the new content with Julia!), I can’t help but feel babied in many of the practices, and they leave me craving the challenge of what I was doing pre-pregnancy.
I would love to keep on practicing with the classes I was enjoying pre-pregnancy, but would like some guidance on how to modify poses safely. Do you have such a resource available or alternatively, could you produce a video or blog post that can guide us pregnant people through how to safely take a non-prenatal class?
Funny how much you sound like I did during my first pregnancy!! I of course was very accustom to the more challenging classes and taught advanced classes in studio for the duration of that pregnancy. My second pregnancy was much different, due to the conditions I developed and the way my body felt, especially during yoga, I had to stop practicing at month 5. The real theme here is that practicing during pregnancy is really about learning to listen to your body and to follow the cues as compassionately as you can. This is not time to start trying to push into a new frontier in your yoga practice, but you can maintain what your body is used to as long as it feels good. Things to modify are fairly common sense, avoid poses that are putting pressure on your belly cobra eventually gets replaced with table top etc., avoid deep twisting, no jarring movements so maybe avoid the hop up and hop back, or any inversion that would have an abrupt landing. Try not to strain in any pose, I did the 80% rule, go into a pose 80% of what I normally would. Blood pressure does become an issue in pregancy so make sure you stand up slowly from forward fold or come half way up first. The prenatal classes I have on the site from years ago are fairly dynamic compared to most prenatal, in addition do the classes you like but modify them to meet your body’s needs. I hope this helps, If you have any other questions about this please feel free to ask!!
Thanks so much for your thoughtful response. Soon after this conversation, I had to take a break, myself, due to a hip issue that wasn’t resolved from my last pregnancy that was growing worse as my belly grew. I’d been using daily yoga to relieve it, but turns out I needed some physical adjustments that yoga alone couldn’t provide. All this to say that you are absolutely right. The key is to listen to your body, and something I just learned is that if you are experiencing chronic pain, sometimes yoga is only part of the solution. I just returned to the mat after taking a month off to heal, and found your Prenatal Modified Flow to be perfect for where I am right now.
Hi,
Thank you so much for this post! I am in my first trimester and feel physically fine. I have been having a strong, daily yoga practice for many years and have been enjoying your “power” classes. Is it still some asanas that I should avoid during this first weeks, even when I dont have a belly, and feel physically fine? Like the deep twists and backbends like full wheel, or are they all fine as long as it feels good in the body?
Thank you so much! xx
In the first trimester you want to move in ways that feel good, but also be aware of not pushing yourself. Avoiding deep twists and deep backbends is advised, these are things that can be brought back in when you are in the 3rd trimester when things are more established in your body.