Pregnancy yoga

[rainand]

Hi,

Has anyone had any experience of attending pregnancy yoga classes or doing yoga at home? Is it worth the £10 per session? And how early in your pregnancy did you start?

Alternatively I could carry on with my circuits class (but a dumbed down version) at £2.50 for the session.

Which am I better off doing?

I'm doing pregnancy yoga which I find very relaxing and helped massively when I had a bad back. It only costs £20 for a course of 5 classes where I am though, which is a bit more reasonable. However I was a total fitness freak before getting pregnant and the yoga is nothing more than a bit of stretching and breathing, compared with circuits which really can be quite demanding. You're comparing apples with pears there.
That said if you feel up to the circuits (however scaled down) I'd say go for it. I was so knackered up to 15 weeks that I pretty much gave up all exercise, save for walking the dogs and a bit of Erin O'Brien ante natal DVD. Now at 31 weeks I'm living for the day I can get back in the gym.

I did pg yoga (although £5 a session) and it was brilliant, lots about breathing, pain control, exercises to ease pg niggles, hypo birthing. I thought it was great, and I am usually very cardio. I also liked lying on the floor and tuning out for an hour once a week. started about 15 weeks in both pg.

I also did Aquanatal in both pg and swam a bit. A lot in 1st pg, but in 2nd pg the only time I could get to the pool was at 8am after I'd dropped DS off once a week, and swimming that early made me throw up. Every week for about 4 weeks, so I stopped.

Hi, I carried on doing normal yoga until about 36 weeks (when I fell & displaced my sacrum so any activity was excruciating!)... but only because I trust my yoga teacher implicitly (I've been doing her classes for 5 years and yoga for around 15) and she was happy to deal with me and my new limitations.

I preferred to continue as usual as the classes are more dynamic (sporty) and testing, plus we do breathing and all that anyway. Somehow, pg yoga seems like it would be too unchallenging and boring for me.. not that I've ever done it!!

The most important thing, in my opinion, is to find out what movements/ positions are off-limits in pregnancy and then listen to your body. If you feel up to doing circuits and your teacher is happy for you to continue (& you trust them), then why not carry on for as long as you feel up to it? Yoga could be a good option to consider once you start wanting to slow down or focus on breathing and concentration...

Have a wonderful pregnancy whatever you decide!

I'm also pretty active, carried on doing normal-ish gym stuff until around 22/24 weeks and just slowed down/ reduced weights if it felt a bit much. I started pregnancy yoga at about 26 weeks. To be honest I found it far too unchallenging and boring, but I wasn't doing any other antenatal classes so stuck it out for the breathing etc. By about 33-35 weeks it really came into its own and by 38 weeks I was struggling with some of the moves (even though still doing around an hour of very brisk walking each day). I'd leave it for a few weeks to be honest.