Pregnancy & Astanga

[Guest guest]

PLEASE, I need help and advice. I would love a

recommendation on an ashtanga book of postures for pregnant

women, or something comparable (i.e. different style,

maybe iyengar). Tips or variations would be great. I

have two pregnant women in two different classes I

teach, and feel limited on the poses I'm having them do.

[Guest guest]

i'm pretty sure kim toledo used to give the

pregnancy classes at tim millers place. she is going to be

taking over dennis dean's classes, so she might be

somebody to e-mail. she can probably be reached through

his web site <a href=http://www.ashtangayoga.net/

target=new>http://www.ashtangayoga.net/</a> or his

e-mail dennis <br>i don't know what

hers is. <br>the other option would be to contact

catherine (don't know her) who teaches the pregnancy class

currently at tim's place. could probably get her through

web site for tim <a href=http://www.ashtangayogacenter.com/

target=new>http://www.ashtangayogacenter.com/</a>

or their e-mail<br>ashtangayoga

[Guest guest]

Pantierm!<br><br>I am not into Iyengar but Geeta

S. Iyengar wrote a book called YOGA - A GEM FOR

WOMEN. Iyengar's daughter wrote this one. Another

resource maybe is restorative poses written by Judith

Lasater called Relax and Renew. I used to go to Lisa

Walford (Iyengar teacher at Yogaworks - Santa Monica)

class and she would have everyone else doing Level 3 to

5 stuff and then she would have 2 or 3 people doing

restorative work too on the side and they seem to have much

more fun too. Another resource is Viniyoga person,

Gary Krafsow (www.viniyoga.com). Probably your best

bet is to a teacher who strictly does Prenatal yoga

at a respectable studio in your area.<br><br>Good

luck,<br>soulcube

[Guest guest]

Yoga Vermont, primarily an Astanga studio in

Burlington, has specialized prenatal classes based the

Primary Series. One of the founders, eciano, is a member

of this site. You can email them from their website,

yogavermont.com and I'm sure they'd point you in the right

direction in terms of resources. (Check out the photo of

the very pregnant woman on their site!)<br>I was in a

workshop led by Kathy McNames, another founder, and this

nearly bursting woman went through the whole thing. Her

locust and bow were amazing! After class, a friend told

me that pregnant women gain a lot of flexibility

because of how much their hips/pelvic area have to open

up to get let the little one out. So enjoy it while

you can.

[Guest guest]

at one of the first classes i took, i was

directly behind this woman who was very flexible and had

no problem with any of the series. i noticed out of

the corner of my eye that she seemed a little

overweight, kind of poochy. wow, i thought, just think what

she could do if she would just lose a little weight.

well, a few postures later it became clear that she

was, in fact, a full fledged hard body that was about

2/3rds of the way thru her px. she was quite fluid and

didn't seem to miss a beat. i didn't see her after that

though so i have to presume that at some point the

pregnancy limited her ability to continue. <br> <br>i am

sort of curious to hear what the women in this forum

who have been pregnant have felt like and how they

adjusted their practice over the course of the pregnancy.

i take care of pregnant women. i commonly recommend

they work to improve their abd and back tone early in

the px to minimize the discomfort that occurs late.

the physical changes in a woman's body over the

course of a px lead to all kinds of discomfort,

disability, etc. i think mild yoga, maybe hatha, would be

ideal for many but would like to get some first hand

feed back from those who have been there

[Guest guest]

I don't know what makes me cringe more: Trayam's

description of an Everest-induced eyeball burst, or a very

pregnant woman doing ashtanga. Sorry to all the baby

lovers out there, but...oh geez I can feel the daggers

coming at me already. I better leave.

[Guest guest]

yoga for pregnancy by janet balaskas is worthwhile...

[Guest guest]

Sun! What's up with that? I've seen pregnant

women doing astanga (okay, one), and it was quite

lovely. Maybe because she was such an accomplished

practictioner and looked so at ease, and just flew through the

poses. She did not (she was about 6 mos. pregnant) do

vinyasa, however, which would have been scary, I admit.

And she skipped kurmasana, and supta, I believe. She

did drop back for backbends, and did it more

gracefully than me on my best days. I think once you go

through pregnancy (maybe I'm making an assumption here,

but you seem like someone who'd eventually want a

child to frolic with?) you'll change your mind about

what looks okay for pregnant women to do. Especially

pregnant yoginis, who seem so much more graceful than

their non-yoga-practicing counterparts.

[Guest guest]

btrex,<br><br>i understand what you are saying,

but no--i've never really wanted children. i suppose

that could change but i just can't imagine it right

now.<br><br>i'm quite surprised and impressed that pregnant women

can be so flexible. i didn't mean to insult

anyone.<br><br>sun