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[revolting]

What does your routine look like? What poses are you avoiding now that you are pregnant? Are you emphasizing any?

[mamaharrison]

We just moved and so I am off schedule, but cannot wait to get back to yoga. My love is bikrim yoga, but I was unable to stay with my practice during DD pregnancy, this time I am going to try to wait until my second trimester for hot yoga and go with prenatal yoga and alignment focus classes until then {and for the duration}. Already avoiding anything on my belly since I am tender and protective of my womb already at 5 weeks--which I wasn't last time. That has been the only thing that I have altered so far.

[chicajones]

I've been doing YogaGlo for the past few months, but had gotten lazy with it the last few weeks. I want to start up again but am thinking I might wait until I'm a couple of weeks in with my pregnancy. I don't want to be over-careful but I also want to gradually work up to practicing again. 

[LittleGriff]

I do Baptise power vinyasa yoga once a week. I haven't explicitly been avoiding anything, I'm just so darn exhausted (and hot!) that I have been throwing a lot of child's poses in when I simply cannot do another Chaturanga/upward dog. Being on my belly is fine so far, that will be short-lived I'm sure, but I'm being more cautious in backbends. I wasn't in my first pregnancy and did a number on my back. My ab muscles are a disaster at this point ... so I'm fairly cautious anyway. Sometimes I have a teacher who likes to do a 10 minute meditation at the beginning or end of class. It used to annoy me. I wanted to just move! But at the moment I love it. Can we sit here quietly for another hour please!
 

[tetiana]

:treehuggerI was a bikram yoga addict before this pregnancy. As soon as I found out I was pregnant I stopped primarily because of the heat. My studio also offers rajashri pregnancy yoga which is a variation of bikram with a little less heat, I am going to start that when I hit 12 weeks if that doesn't go well with me(they claim to keep the room temp at 98 but if it feels any hotter I won't risk it) at that point I will definitely enroll in prenatal yoga.

[tetiana]

Not sure why my post prefaces with " tree hugger" WEIRD

[Millie Ivy]

I'm a yoga teacher,finishing teacher training right now. I'm already making a few mods,like not doing more than maybe 75% effort,cautious in backbends, taking breaks when i need them,using cooling breaths, and belly forward in twists.
But I'm continuing my practice softly, and being mindful of my body. A big thing I'd urge any pregnant mama to be aware of (esp first timers who don't have the previous knowledge of this) is that the relaxin hormone that makes you all stretchy during pregnancy will make it easier for you to go deeper in poses than you previously could. Please don't use this to actually do more,as you could cause injuries that don't crop up and become known until after the pregnancy is done and your hormones and connective tissues return to some semblance of normal. That's a big reason why teachers caution taking up a new yoga practice in your first trimester.

Anyhoo,yay yoga!

[revolting]

I've heard twists and backbends aren't great in pregnancy. As an Rh- mama possibly carrying an Rh+ baby, I'm a bit nervous about balance poses where I could fall on my belly. I tried Gaiam's prenatal yoga video today: perhaps it's better for mamas further along, but I would have appreciated a more vigorous workout. I'm going to try a Zen Mama prenatal yoga workout video soon. Hopefully it'll be better. Anyone have a video they love that still gives a good workout but avoids deep twists and back bends?
 

[Millie Ivy]

I'm in the midst of writing a prenatal series, and part of my "research" is viewing as many prenatal yoga dvds as I can. I'll let you know what I think of them, and if I particularly like one or another.

As for backbends and twists, you're right, they are to be avoided in general with a few exceptions.  In my case, I have a strong practice in place already.  And when I say backbend, I mean a heavily modified bridge pose (just lifting hips maybe to half my ability), or a slight backbend in tadasana. (mountain pose, and just slightly bending back while opening my heart, maybe a two inch bend)These are technically back bends still.

Twists should be practiced with care.  Belly forward at all times.  So my upper spine can twist some, lifting up through my spine, but my lower spine stays neutral, belly faces forward.  If twists, even modified, create too much heat or anxiety, then the yogi should come out of them.

Does that help?
 

[phatchristy]

I wonder, if there's any beginner pregnancy yoga dvds that I could perhaps do.  I have very limited experience with yoga a couple of years ago, and otherwise do some other dvds/workout games for exercise.

What I really want is something for relaxation.  I'm still going to continue to do my other exercise tapes.  But, it just so happens I'm in a highly stressful time in my life (which actually is the reason why my cycle went off--I do nfp--and I wound up pregnant!).  I want to keep things low key and low stress when I can, keep my blood pressure at bay and all those good things to prevent any issues coming up this pregnancy.

[flatlander]

I haven't been doing yoga during this pregnancy so far. I'm totally feeling ready to start getting back in to it, but I lent a friend all my prenatal DVDs. She's about 37/38 weeks along, so it won't be long before I get them back. But I'm wondering if any of you have suggestions for asanas I could do to get back in to a regular practice.