Prenatal Yoga

Happy Friday!!  Today I woke up this morning at 5:45 with a bad headache and just felt tired.  But I fought my urge to stay in bed and went to bootcamp.  It was a great class and after our warm-up I was glad that I was there.  At the end when we were stretching I made up my mind that I needed to try out prenatal yoga today.  I have just been feeling heavy and I also needed an extra good stretch since my body was sore from bootcamp (a good sore but still sore.)

My friend had just gone to the Yoga House in Charleston and she had great reviews. The yoga studio is close to my house as well so I decided that this yoga studio would be the place I would go.  I was introduced to my instructor right away and felt very welcomed.  Going into the yoga class I had no idea what to expect.  I had done bikram yoga and yo-pilates classes before  but never just a yoga class- let only prenatal yoga. 

I was happy that the class was small today- just the instructor, myself, and another girl who was 19 weeks pregnant.  Their was no humming, musical instruments, or oils in this class and I was so thrilled.  The yoga class consisted of stretches and breathing exercises, a squat set, and more streching on a pillow (my favorite part). We did downward dog, the cat-cow pose, the child's pose and more poses that I don't know the name of.  At the end of class I felt streched out and super relaxed. 

Baby Woos Enjoyed Yoga too:
While stretching and focusing on our breathing I actually could feel where Baby Woos was inside me... it was a pretty crazy feeling.  I didn't feel any movement but I could feel a hard ball inside me.  Baby Woos was especially noticable when we were doing the cobra pose. 

    



I really enjoyed that during certain stretches the instructor would come by and push on our muscles and deepen the stretch.  While I was doing the downward dog the instructor pushed down on my heels and lengthened the stretch- it felt so good.  During the last 20 minutes of class we would hold stretches over a pillow (it has a technical name but Im not sure what it is called) and it was SO relaxing.  At one point I almost fell asleep.  With the lights turned off and the yoga music in the background I could have taken a nap right there and have been in heaven.

I am definatly going to continue with prenatal yoga classes once a week. 




Additional Benefits of Prenatal Yoga:

• Improve sleep
• Reduce stress and boost emotional well-being
• Enhance vitality and day to day energy
• Increase the strength, flexibility and endurance of muscles needed for childbirth
• Decrease lower back pain, nausea, carpal tunnel syndrome, headaches and shortness of breath
• Decrease the risk of preterm labor, pregnancy-induced hypertension and intrauterine growth restriction — a condition that slows a baby's growth

http://yogahousecharleston.com/
http://yoga.about.com/od/yogaposes/An_Index_of_Yoga_Poses.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/prenatal-yoga/MY01542