Prenatal Yoga (1/3) | Prenatal Yoga (2/3)
I came in the next Saturday at The Lotus Healing Centre. Upon opening the door, Martin was already sitting behind the reception desk and had greeted me with a warm smile. He then handed me a form to fill-out and went on to chat with me as I was filling out the form.
After a while of waiting, the room was already prepared and heated. This time, Martin ushered me and the other pregnant ladies to come in. Upon entering, I was so amused to see bolsters, pillows and blankets laid down on each of the mat.
The bolsters were held at an angle from the ground by the block and on top of each bolster is a pillow. Instead of the usual Shavasana, we are required to lie down on this makeshift recliner. After settling down to our comfortable positions, we can then cross our legs Indian style or bring the soles of our feet to touch, close to the body and knees on opposite side. These two positions are said to aid in opening the pelvis. If this is too strong for some of us, we can then just stretch our legs out and cover our lower body with the blanket if we needed warmth.
The yoga poses for pregnant women is much like the yoga poses that I’ve done before but just gentler. We do our sun salutes, twists and side stretches sitting down. We start with our cat poses sitting down and sometimes do a reverse table top when we are feeling more adventurous. After this, we just transition to a box position from which we do our spinal balances and modified side planks. We then transition to standing poses and do our warriors and triangle poses. While we are standing, our prenatal-yoga-certified instructor makes sure to thrown in a couple of squats and leg workouts which she said could help in opening the pelvis more and help in coping up with the demands of labour. And to cap off the practice, we do our modified Shavasana by lying on either side with our head on a pillow with a block underneath it and our opposite leg up on a bolster. After we have settled down, our instructor Natalija makes her rounds and cover our body, neck down, with a thick blanket to keep us warm. We do our Shavasana for at least 5 minutes, do a Namaste bow and we’re done!
What I like most about being in a prenatal yoga class is that I am in this with other individuals who are in the same journey as I am. It is actually empowering to see other pregnant women who are already in their last trimester still exercising and pushing themselves to come in even though it is not that easy to move around anymore. If they can do it, I know I can do it too.
I am already almost done with the term and I am planning to renew my membership after this. I am so happy to see that they are now offering terms in 5-session blocks. I think I’ll be doing this up until I am already near my baby’s due date!