Now looking back on my pregnancy, I was really not into fitness prior to getting pregnant and even during, I barely worked out because it just wasn’t apart of my life at all. I did however partake in prenatal yoga in the first 6 months of my pregnancy. My husband even went with me and we went Sunday mornings from November to March and looking back at how awesome that studio was, I wish I had done more. I had all the time in the world, I don’t know why I did not take advantage of it.
I guess you don’t realize the amount of time that you have until you have your first child do you realize NOW how much time you do not have. Your time, all depends on everyone else; the nanny, the grandparents, your husband, the daycare, the timing of everything that is not open during the times that your child is being watched by someone else.
Now taking yoga consistently, I realize the absolute benefits and the strengths that I gained from taking the classes. I definitely should have used it to de-stress after being a teacher in the south Bronx for my first year (hello classroom management fail), and being pregnant for the first time and my weight being out of my control.
If I were to get pregnant again, I now know that I would work out during the entire pregnancy. I have been in bootcamp recently where a lady who was 39 weeks was still doing burpees and push-ups and running like myself, who was the farthest from pregnant, and she was doing just fine.
There is a myth about pregnant women and that they “shouldn’t lift anything heavy” or they “shouldn’t push themselves” or they “shouldn’t be running” or basically what most theories say “sit on the couch and eat cake and get fat”.
That is the stereotype that fit pregnant women are changing these days and their body bounce back time is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!
I can say I gained 60lbs (a lot of water weight) and as soon as I gave birth within days I lost 20 of that. I was able to get down to just 10 pounds left and literally could not get rid of it. I realized I needed to actually do something to get rid of it. I took up Yoga again and boot camp classes as well as fitness classes; basically anything that was forcing me to work out.
Knowing what I know now about Yoga and fitness, it could have changed my entire pregnancy, but that was not the mindset that I was in.
This is an excellent article from parents.com on Amazing Benefits of Prenatal Yoga, you should read it in full but I will summarize it for you. Some of the benefits of prenatal yoga:
- You are toning your muscle groups – this is very important because if you are that tired pregnant, this is the absolute last thing that you ever want to do.
- It prepares you for delivery – this is great because of the deep breathing that is practiced and the different hip exercises that are done, all help ease that area and most importantly keep you calm.
- You feel more connected with your baby- there are poses that you can do in order to lay on your back and feel the baby moving with your breath.
- Might help out with certain symptoms of pregnancy – You can use yoga to help with deep breathing exercises and stretching and toning muscles, all which can help with symptoms like nausea, lower back pain, headaches, shortness of breath, insomnia, and more. Work it just for this reason!!
- Healthier pregnancy – Now, just doing yoga alone, and eating like crap, will not make you have a healty pregnancy. You need to continuasly be exercising, going to yoga more than once a week, I would say at least 3-4 times would be keeping you in shape as long as you are not pounding a whole chocolate cake weekly either.
But you are doing yoga to better yourself in so many ways that it’s important to stick with it. Most yoga insructers know how to modify for women who are pregnant and which positions are better than others and which not to do. When it was modified for me, I did not feel as if I was missing out on the class at all, because yoga is not just one way, but it is used as a practice to work for your body and that is what is so great about yoga.
