Pregnancy Yoga: It’s All about Breathing Anyway

There are only two things you can do about exercise: you do it, or you don’t. During pregnancy, yoga has the double benefit of being safe and effective at the same time. But none of these will actually translate into a healthier term unless you stick by it.

The reason this article drones on about committing to a routine of exercise during pregnancy is obviously due to personal experience. Suffice to say to anyone who has yet to experience their first yoga lessons that it is nothing like it seems.

Build All Those Dormant Muscles

Pregnancy yoga places an emphasis on building pelvic muscles, and unless you have been weight-training with a very meticulous personal trainer, you might not have noticed their existence at all. Trying to exercise muscles that are hardly there and barely trained is not the easiest of tasks, but if you stick to a gradual routine, you’ll feel the benefits in every area of your life.

Pregnancy yoga takes on the breathing aspects of the discipline by letting you experience the full potential of your respiratory system. A lot of us breathe shallow, which results in bad posture and worse energy levels.

Mudras & Meditation

Mudras are a set of gestures which are best translated as isometric endurance exercises. They are often set to music, which introduces rhythm and tempo to your routine.

And then there’s the seemingly mysterious practice of meditation, which is really about sitting or standing very still without feeling distracted. You may be surprised how much easier it is to tame your hormones once you put your full attention to it, in a world that consists solely of you and your unborn child. By harnessing our very sense of time, a half-hour meditation may feel like an eternity, and a well-spent one at that.

So if you are contemplating an oath of exercise during pregnancy, consider pregnancy yoga. Many expecting mothers have stayed on long after their children were born, and for very good, if quiet, reasons.