The Benefits Of Yoga In Pregnancy

Posted on Jan 6 2016 - 3:56pm by Editorial Staff

Yoga

If you are pregnant but still want to keep fit and healthy throughout your pregnancy, yoga could be a good option for you. Yoga is an ancient Indian form of exercise that has a holistic approach, with advocates claiming that it helps to boost both your body and mind – meaning that if you are pregnant, yoga could help to keep your pregnancy hassle-free and minimise your discomfort. Because yoga tones and strengthens the body, it also helps you to prepare for the birth and post-natal stages. Let’s have a further look at some of the health benefits you can gain from practicing yoga whilst pregnant.

Breathing

Although we never really have to remind ourselves to breathe, this can be an important process in preparation for labour. Breathing is a huge factor when you’re delivering a baby, as it helps to relax your body and help you deal with the pain of giving birth. Pranayama, the breathing part of yoga, will help you to do exactly this. When practicing yoga, you are encouraged to use conscious breathing in order to help still and calm the mind. Using these breathing techniques not only helps you to be calmer and more relaxed, it also allows more oxygen into your body as you will learn to breathe deeper, using the abdominals.

Pelvic Floor Exercises

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles which are attached to the pelvis. This muscle supports your vital digestive and reproductive organs, as well as the foetus during pregnancy. When you are pregnant, it’s extremely important that you exercise the pelvic floor muscle due to the greatly increased load which it is supporting. When practicing yoga, the pelvic floor is often lifted in order to strengthen the muscle – which is important during pregnancy as a strong pelvic floor muscle can often help women to be more comfortable when carrying a baby.

Better Posture

Anyone who has been pregnant before will know that during the final trimester, the lower back muscles start to hurt and some women will experience bad posture due to this. As the foetus grows and your belly starts to expand, the centre of gravity also changes. For us as humans to walk upright, there needs to be a balance between the abdominals and the lower back muscles. However, when the abdominal muscles are weak, the lower back muscles will over compensate – causing pain and poor posture. Although it’s not advisable to do any major core exercises during pregnancy, there are certain gentle yoga exercises which you can do in order to work all four abdominal muscles in order to retain their strength and reduce the strain on your lower back. These exercises can also assist in getting your body back to its pre-pregnancy shape after the birth.

Did you take part in yoga classes during pregnancy? How did you benefit from it? Or, are you a first time expectant mother who is looking to take up yoga to improve your pregnancy and birth? If so, you should check out Synergy FX yoga classes.

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Editorial Staff at I2Mag is a team of subject experts.