Category Archives: pregnancy

Review of Yoga Journal’s Yoga for your Pregnancy

Yoga Journal’s Yoga for your Pregnancy is a great little video for a pregnant woman who is starting to feel the aches and discomforts of pregnancy and really just wants to get a delicious stretch. I bought it used a few weeks ago, and Sunday afternoon seemed like a nice time to do something not too strenuous for my body. However, after I finished the program, relaxed and pleased, I went on Amazon and found that many had rated the video poorly. I was shocked! It turns out, however, that many of them are regular yoga practitioners, and they, not surprisingly, found the program too easy. I didn’t. Here’s my take:

The video is composed of several segments: a 30-minute energizing routine, a 15-minute relaxation routine, and smaller videos on breathing, meditation, birthing-room yoga, along with a short postnatal yoga practice. One option allows you to do the energizing and relaxation routines along with the breathing and meditation all in a row, which adds up to an hour of practice. There is one glitch here, in that both the 30-min and 15-min routines set you up for a shavasana at the end, and playing the program in a row doesn’t skip this. Since I did the 1-hour program today, I wound up doing two short shavasanas and then continuing on with the breathing and meditation sections — a little ungainly.

As to the main practices: this is not flow yoga. The instructor sets up each position, instructs you quickly on the variations, and you then spend a brief amount of time doing the asana. There are three women on the screen, each doing a different version or level of difficulty. Now, I really liked the way they organized this. In most videos, the star instructor does the most difficult poses, setting them up as a kind of standard, while the other practitioners do variations that you can barely see in the background. In this case, the main instructor, Kristen Eykel, usually demonstrates a pose of intermediate difficulty, while the women in the back show a harder and an easier variation. Eykel also describes the modifications — up or down in difficulty — so that you do not have to look at the screen. However, the practitioners also switch it up sometimes — the one who was doing the more difficult standing exercise might do the easier bending asana. They are at various stages of pregnancy, but the modifications they do seem to be more based on their bodies and abilities, rather than on trimester.

This is such a small detail, but I really liked it — it simply seemed more real. After all, when I usually practice yoga, I’m not at the same level for all asanas. While I’m sure all the women in this video are advanced in their own practices, the way the video is set up makes exercise more approachable.

The asanas themselves are generally not difficult — really not difficult. You will get a good stretch, and you will build strength a bit, but you will probably not break a sweat or feel exhausted if you have done any yoga before. I did not see much of a difference in intensity between the “energizing” workout and the “relaxing” workout.

The breathing segment is particularly nice. I found it one of the more approachable breathing practices I’ve seen on a video, but it was still long enough for me to feel relaxed and refreshed. The meditation segment was not the most convincing meditation I have done, but I tend to think it’s hard to meditate with a video playing in the room anyway.

All in all, my body felt noticeably different — no more pain, no more stiffness — after doing the program, and I’ve been in a calm, happy zone in the hours since. I’m looking forward to checking out the birthing-room yoga segment and the postnatal yoga practice — both nice extras on the DVD.

Review of Shiva Rea’s Prenatal Yoga

I recently went to a prenatal yoga class at a local studio, and while the place was nice and the instructor was friendly, I was a little surprised when she explained that their philosophy is to do the same vinyasa flow as in their regular classes. The only modifications were to move the leg around the belly when going from downward dog to a standing position, and to do shavasana on the side. Frankly… it was a bit tiring, and moving my leg so awkwardly led to knee pain in the following weeks. Maybe I would have really enjoyed it had I been a hardcore yogini with a regular practice, but I was really just a pregnant woman with a body that changes every day, and I’d sort of been hoping for a practice tailored to my condition.

Note the three levels of modification!

Enter Shiva Rea’s Prenatal Yoga. I hadn’t really worked with any of other videos, since they tended to seem a little difficult. The prenatal workout is really accessible, however, with just a slight bit of challenge. Moreover, it really seems to be designed for pregnant women — there are gentle warm-up movements and exercises specifically for stretching and strengthening the pelvic area. Many of the standing moves are done with a chair, which makes the stretching more relaxing and less strenuous. It really is a gentle, relaxing hour-long yoga practice that you simply want to repeat.

What most impressed me, however, was this: Shiva Rea has two other women, in their second and third trimester respectively, doing modified versions of the positions next to her, but you don’t even have to look at the screen to know what modifications you need to do. With every move, she also explains out loud how to modify it in case of discomfort or if your pregnancy is advanced. She even tells you to move your block to the other side of the mat when necessary. I’ve always found it a bit perverse that yoga videos will show modifications, but then force people to squint at a little body in the background of the screen. A woman in her third trimester can actually use this video without having to look at the screen — now that’s smart.

Review of Naia’s Bellydance Prenatal Fitness

I recently worked with Naia’s Bellydance Prenatal Fitness for the first time, and can report the following: this is a useful little workout if you are pregnant, tired, but want to move a little anyway. It is not strenuous in the slightest, which could be good or bad depending on your point of view.

Naia grooves to pregnancy

If you are a pregnant lady who has done years of bellydance and wants to keep running marathons in the third trimester, you will probably not get much out this program. Just avoid it and avoid the disappointment. However, if you are a pregnant lady who hasn’t been sleeping well, or who has a bit of back or knee pain, or who just does not want to commit to an hour-long workout that day, this is very good. I’m only in the second trimester and generally feel pretty energetic, but I expect this will only come in more handy as I get further along. I also think it could be useful outside of pregnancy on days I’m lazy, want a simple 30 minutes of dancing around, or when I’m suffering from mild back pain and don’t want to take chances with a more aggressive workout.

Now to the program: it is divided into five sections, a warmup, lower and upper body, travel steps, and a bit of dance. The bellydance moves are quite basic, though I did find myself a bit confused in the travel steps section. (This is not my strong suit, so I would have liked a little slower instruction here — but it’s also something to grow into.) There’s quite a bit of emphasis on stretching, which felt very good. And there was precious little of the “think about the miracle of life growing inside of you” kind of talk which I have found in other prenatal videos, and which, frankly, drives me up the wall. (I’m not dancing for my fetus, I’m dancing for myself. My fetus can learn to dance once it comes into the world and has mastered the whole walking thing.)

I corresponded a bit with Neon, who conceived and designed the video (and, full disclosure, sent me a review copy from WDNY). She did quite a bit of research on pregnancy and labour to create this program. I’m not a medical expert, but I can confirm that there is nothing in this video that feels extreme or like it would put undue pressure on any part of the body. And given that everything I’ve read about prenatal exercise advises women to perform moves that bellydance incorporates anyway, I’d rather just do something that’s like dance than a dozen boring pelvic tilts.