Trying Out Yoga

I’ve decided to try yoga on a regular basis - my hamstrings and quads have been really tight and I don’t stretch as much as I should (yea yea - practice what I preach, I know) I tried doing some youtube yoga videos, but I learned that my attention span for that is 20 minutes max. After that, I find the tv needs to be dusted, the floor vacuumed, amongst everything else. So I bought a Groupon to a local yoga studio that I heard great things about. It turns out to be hot yoga, which I dislike when I am not pregnant. When pregnant, you aren’t supposed to do it since you can’t get your core temperature up that high. I took the class anyways since I didn’t want to just walk out, but decided not to return. So I found another groupon to a different studio.

I went to a class where there were a lot of people who clearly have been practicing yoga regularly for a long time. I was really tired, didn’t feel well and didn’t have time to eat lunch between clients, but I went anyways. I am glad I did. The stretching felt great!

Since then, I've been to a couple other classes. One of the instructors know I am pregnant (he had asked if I had any injuries he should know about), but the other one didn't ask, so she just thinks I can't do a lot of the moves. Ah well. I am enjoying it. It feels so good to stretch, especially my hip flexors and hamstrings, but I am struggling not to do some of the moves (like lying on my back now, twisting, boat pose or other ab holds, cobra or up dog, long holds of plank...). I need to get over myself.

It’s hard dealing with not being able to do something that I used to be able to do (pre-pregnancy) - like easily touch my toes without feeling pressure in my stomach - but I need to get over that. Just like I need to get over that I cannot run even close to as fast or as long as I used to be able to - or that it’s okay that my clothes aren’t fitting and I had to buy new sports bras and wearing my baggy clothes. It's a real struggle though.