Prenatal Yoga

I had just started taking hot yoga when I found out I was pregnant.  I really enjoyed the instructor, Jeff at Quest Yoga, and the challenge of the hot class.  The hot class offered the good things about traditional flow yoga but was more difficult because of the heat.  While I cannot imagine ever giving up CrossFit to do yoga as my primary mode of exercise, I have found that yoga gives me something CrossFit does not: forced meditation and forced stretching.  CrossFit certainly allows me to push myself physically and mentally (your body is capable of so much more than you realize), but it doesn't allow me to ever just be still and clear my mind.  It's too frenetic.  And while we're all supposed to stretch pre- and post-WOD, let's just be honest here.  Most of us don't.  Furthermore, if we do stretch, it's usually only because it's written on the whiteboard as a mobility WOD.  So I was disappointed when I realized I couldn't do hot yoga while pregnant.  The regular yoga classes didn't fit in with my schedule during Session, so when Katherine let me know that Quest was starting a prenatal class, I was happy to sign up.

I missed the first class because I was too nauseated to go anywhere.  My first experience at prenatal yoga was the group's second meeting, and I have to say that it was not like any other yoga class I'd ever experienced.  For starters, our instructor that was technically the assistant instructor because the main teacher wasn't able to get there on time (something about keys to another studio?).  So the assistant instructor introduced herself (she's a doula with five kids that she home-schools, bless her heart) and told us her goal for that night's class (abdominal stretching).  As she started to lead us through the practice, she confessed that she didn't know how to use her iPod (so a student went and got the music started) and then confessed that she didn't know all the names of the poses.  I thought this was a little strange, but figured I'd just go with it.  To make a long story shorter, I will just list the oddities of this class:

• We began with "ohms."  I have never actually had to "ohm" at a yoga class.  Ever.  But that's how we began our class.  It was awkward because there were only the four students and the instructor, but I managed to get through them without giggling.
• We did some very basic poses (Warrior 2, child's pose, the easiest version of triangle, cat, cow, etc), but we also spent a lot of time in corpse pose.  I definitely didn't feel like I was doing much abdominal stretching.  
• After going through the series of poses, she then told us that we were at the part of the class she was looking forward to the most.  And then she launched into an explanation of her philosophy of self-healing and the power of energy healing.  I'm not one to judge.  If this woman believes in those things, and they help her, that is fantastic.  But as someone who has had a massage therapist try the Quantum Touch method on me after a car accident, I have to say that it's not for me.  Anyway, because she was such a believer in those things, she wanted to share with us the:
• Mayan Abdominal Massage.  I have tried very hard to find a youtube video of this, but I can't find one that's what we did.  But here's her explanation... If your uterus is out of alignment (which can be the result of strenuous exercise), you can do this massage every night for 30 days, and it will realign your uterus.  You can do it lying on your back or standing, so do whatever works for you.  Essentially, there are six points (sternum, left upper rib cage, left hip, pubic bone, right hip, and right upper rib cage) on your body that you will use as starting points, moving clockwise around your body.  You will move the energy from each of those points to your belly button on the exhale of three consecutive breaths.  So, starting at the sternum, inhale deeply, and on the exhale, use your fingers to move the energy from your sternum to your belly button.  Repeat twice.  And then continue on around the circle.  30 days later, your uterus will be all aligned, YAY!
• She closed the class by asking us to join her in song.  We were going to sing "May the Long Time Sun Shine Upon You" three times: once to ourselves, once to our babies, and once to our community.  I don't know if any of the other students had heard this song before, but they abstained from joining in.  I didn't know the words and was trying so hard not to die laughing that I didn't trust myself to even try to sing along with her.

Needless to say, the lack of any challenge in the poses and the fact that I spent a lot of the class wondering if I was trapped in this SNL sketch, I didn't get what I was looking for.  Truly, it was the most bizarre yoga class I'd ever attended, and I realized that if my first experience with yoga was that class, I'd probably never return.  But I decided to go to one more class to see if there was anything I felt like I could glean from it.

Last night's class was run by the lead instructor, but there were still only four students.  However, this class was much more challenging.  The poses, while still pretty basic, were held longer and were given with more modifications so we could really get the most out of the pose.  There were no ohms, no Mayan massage, and no songs.  There were some affirmations ("I believe in birth," "My baby will come at the right time," and "I trust nature"), but nothing else out of the ordinary.

I left feeling very relaxed and with the realization that I need to do more stretching.  Also, I realized that everything is harder now.  I'll be six months pregnant tomorrow, so my stomach is really starting to stick out.  Between the weight that I've gained and the fact that my stomach protrudes significantly now, everything, even the most basic squat, is much more difficult than it used to be.

Based on what we did last night, I plan to continue going to the classes.  I'm just hoping for more classes like that one and fewer like the one led by the assistant. Namaste!