My Journey With Yoga While Pregnant
It's interesting, this whole doing yoga while pregnant thing. Most people love it. And I would have thought the same could be said for me, but instead it's been a real struggle.
As it turns out, now in the latter part of my second tri-mester I am finally starting to understand what my new "practice" is and how it's helping me. But it's been a journey to get here.
My Practice Before:
My yoga practice, from day one of getting into yoga, has been powerful. And I mean that in the physical sense. What I loved about the type of yoga I found (hot power vinyasa) is that it challenged me physically (and mentally too) but that it required a new type of strength, strength with grace, that I adore. I have great body control naturally, and I loved that yoga worked well with that for me. I liked being precise, stepping lightly, creating long lines of energy. I enjoyed moving fast, although as the years have worn on I appreciate a slower class more now (not just in pregnancy!). All of that is to say I didn't realize how limiting pregnancy would be on what I thought MY yoga was.
In the First Trimester
In the first part of my pregnancy I felt like crap and the heat didn’t help, so while I was probably still physically capable, I found that the heat and pace of the class left me feeling a little defeated. Mind you this was NOT prenatal yoga this was intensely hot, sweaty, power yoga.
In the Second Trimester
This is when those SI joint issues kicked in and I realized over stretching was my issue, so I got more into strengthening. This CAN and should be a part of yoga, and it was for me, but I was still moving too fast in my practice to protect my SI joint safely. It took me a while to realize that a small home practice (developing this app with Heather) was really the best way to get my yoga in, and sadly, not taking my usual classes.
I’m not to the third trimester yet of course but as this belly is growing it's getting really hard to step forward and back so I am resigning to the fact that that is pretty much done for me.
It’s interesting to see how different yoga is for different people in different pregnancies, for me this time around it’s learning to take things slower and shorter.
In the later modules and sessions, we slow it way down, focusing more on the breath work, meditation, and gentle strengthening/light stretching that yoga is so beneficial for (hello pelvic floor!).
Anyways I wanted to share this with you guys and I wanted to document it for myself! Everyone says you forget everything bad in pregnancy once the baby comes so I want to make sure to capture what I was feeling so one day I can look back and remember more clearly.
Also, key to a happy pregnancy workout or yoga sesh?? The clothes!! Shop my top finds for pregnancy athleisure attire on my LikeToKnow.It Page or directly below!
