First of all, it’s not really a floor. Floors are hard and sturdy, immovable. If it was a “floor” it would be too inflexible to allow a baby to pass through it. It has to be elastic and stretchy. Think of it as a pelvic “hammock.” It’s like a muscle sling that cradles your internal organs and keeps everything in place. During the nine months of pregnancy, you slowly weigh down that sling as your uterus and baby get bigger and heavier. The hormone relaxin makes all your soft tissues more springy and flexible, and that hammock starts to sag under the pressure. Then the big day comes, and the muscles are stretched beyond capacity. It’s amazing that our bodies return to some semblance of normal after this process. There are things you can do throughout your pregnancy that will help prevent damage to your poor pelvic floor.

Four legged mammals do not suffer incontinence or prolapse after birth. Why? Because their pelvic floor is located behind, instead of underneath, the uterus. There is no weight burdening the muscles during pregnancy. The key to saving your pelvic floor is getting the baby’s weight off of it as often as possible. Think like a cow! Get down on all fours throughout the day. (Not in public, though!) Cat-Cow, Child’s pose, and Puppy pose should become your best friends. Use your abdominal muscles to support the baby, squeezing him in toward your spine to protect your lower back. (Click here for descriptions of the Top 10 Poses for Pregnancy)

Lay down on your left side for at least 20-30 minutes, as often as you can during the day. There is no such thing as too much rest during pregnancy! Place a pillow in between your knees and then just breathe slowly and evenly. This would be a good time to practice your kegels! 

Buy one of those big, inflatable exercise balls and sit on it instead of the couch. Spread your knees and rock your pelvis from side to side, back and forth, and around in circles. This can be a huge relief for a sore low back. Remember your kegels. The pressure of the ball helps to support your pelvic floor and prevent or relieve hemorrhoids. (The ball can also be a great place to spend early labor. Bouncing lightly up and down helps the baby descend into the pelvis.)

Did I mention to practice your kegels?

Parents and teachers are starting to realize the benefits of yoga for today’s kids. Children are naturally flexible and strong for their body size, so they move easily into poses that challenge adults. They bring an energy and freedom to yoga poses, trying new things without ego getting in the way. There is a lot of laughing and wiggling, and I always leave class with a big smile on my face. Isn’t that the essence of yoga? To experience the joy in each moment and just “be”? 

By SHARON LEE TEGLER For The Capital

Outside, the weather was chilly. But the gym at Severna Park Elementary was pleasantly warm for last Wednesday’s after-school yoga class.

Fourteen children carefully positioned their feet on colorful yoga mats. With eyes closed, they listened to the background music, relaxed and breathed in through their noses.

“Breathing is important because it brings oxygen to our muscles, tendons, and joints so we’re able to stretch,” said teacher Jessica Switzman. Beginning with centering exercises, she led the students through several simple postures. Each movement flowed fluidly into the next and, before long; the children were performing more challenging poses.

[...] Read the full article at HometownAnnapolis.com

Yoga is an effective treatment for postpartum depression, with none of the side effects associated with anti-depressants, which is particularly important if you are breastfeeding. Find a gentle, slower paced class to ease your body back into shape, while calming your poor, sleep-deprived brain. This article does a great job explaining, medically, why yoga is effective. It’s not magic and it’s not mumbo-jumbo!

[...] Different aspects of yoga such as asana and pranayama have indispensable applications in the treatment of depression. For example, specific postures (or asanas as they are called in yogic parlance) are said to have a regulating effect on the endocrine system. There is evidence (from preliminary studies) to show that the regular practice of yoga reduces the production of stress hormones when exposed to stressful situations. The medulla oblongata in the brain controls respiration and the production of certain stress hormones. During stress, when the breathing becomes rapid, signals are sent to that part of the medulla oblongata to secrete stress hormones. However, with the regular practice of yoga, the breath remains steady even when confronted with stress and consequently, this reduces the brain’s impulse to secrete stress hormones.

Therefore, yoga brings about hormonal balance and stabilizes the endocrine system. The practice of relaxation techniques balances cortical activities and the nervous and endocrine systems, thus reducing the body`s predisposition to react to stress. As a result, the body produces less adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol, all stress hormones, and a state of harmony is achieved.

Read the full article at Natural News.

I have added a Yoga and Health Store to my blog! Just click on the link above and browse my selection of books, music, dvd’s, yoga gear, prenatal yoga and kid’s yoga products! I’ll be adding to the store regularly, so keep checking back. All purchases are made through Amazon.com and are guaranteed safe and secure.

From Rachel Yellin, a prenatal yoga teacher in San Francisco:

“Doing prenatal yoga doesn’t mean you’ll have the ‘perfect’ birth; it means you’ll be able to accept the perfection of the birth you’re given, regardless of whether it goes according to your plan.”

read more at  Yoga Journal.

Prenatal yoga is a great preparation for childbirth. The poses strengthen and open those areas of the body that are involved in labor, while minimizing pregnancy aches and pains and helping you to sleep more deeply. 

10.  Pranayama: Deep, slow breathing, in and out through the nose,  helps to keep you calm and relaxed during the potential stresses of pregnancy. It is also a great form of pain management for labor. 

9. Child’s Pose and Puppy Pose: Gets the weight of the baby off your pelvic floor, helps calm the mind and slow the heart rate. Separate your knees to make room for your belly, and place a pillow or cushion underneath your chest for support and comfort.

8.  Urdhva Hastasana: Upward Salute is energizing and refreshing. Stand straight and tall with your pelvis tucked under.  Sweep your arms up to the ceiling and then back to your sides, lifting your chest and pointing the crown of your head toward the ceiling. Repeat as many times as feels good.

7.  Vrksasana: Tree Pose keeps you balanced and centered. Have a chair or wall nearby in case you feel unstable. Tuck your pelvis underneath to counteract that pregnancy-induced lordosis.

6.  Utkatasana: Chair pose keeps your lower body toned and strong during pregnancy. Separate your legs wider than hip distance and place your elbows just above your knees, with hands in prayer position, to support your upper body.

5.  Virabhadrasana I and II: The warrior poses are wonderful for strengthening the muscles of the lower body while creating openness in the chest and torso. Take a shorter stance than usual, and use your kegel muscles to help tone your perineum.

4.  Sukhasana:  This “easy pose” is a great starting point for some gentle spinal twists, side bends, and deep breathing.

3.  Baddha Konasana: The Bound Angle Pose, or butterfly, is a gentle hip and inner thigh stretch which helps relieve tired, achy legs. Just make sure you sit up straight on top of the sitting bones.

2.  Malasana: or less poetically, squatting, is also a great preparatory pose for childbirth. It opens the pelvis and helps prevent leg cramps. Women traditionally gave birth in a squatting position, as opposed to flat on their backs, because it helps the baby descend into the pelvis and shortens the birth canal. Make sure to practice your kegels while performing this pose, to strengthen and increase blood flow to the pelvic muscles.

1.  Cat – Cow is the best prenatal yoga move you can do! It takes the weight of the baby off your pelvic floor, which helps prevent a later prolapse. Most pelvic floor damage is caused during pregnancy, not during labor as you might assume. Those poor muscles are holding up a lot of weight for months and months, and they get all stretched out and weak. There is a reason why four-legged mammals don’t end up with pelvic floor damage, incontinence, or uterine prolapse: their uterus is placed in front of, instead of on top of, the pelvis. You can mimic this benefit by spending as much time as possible on all fours!  Cat – Cow also helps move your baby into a head down, face down position before birth, minimizing the chances of a breech or sunny-side-up delivery. In my first pregnancy, I flipped my full term, 10 pound, sunny-side-up baby into a face down position by spending about a week on my hands and knees. I wouldn’t have been able to deliver him otherwise!

My wonderful husband took a trip to Berkeley right before Christmas to be with his father, and together they found this beautiful Singing Bowl. It was the perfect gift and I am thrilled to own it! It takes a great deal of concentration and a steady hand to achieve a smooth, even ring without scraping. The bowl starts out with a lower frequency and overtones, and as the energy builds, the lower fundamentals drop out and the higher overtones really start to ring. I can feel the vibrations buzzing around my eyes and in my sinuses. I think it would be beneficial for a cold or congestion. It’s quite energizing. I am interested in learning more about these types of bowls, their use in meditation and their healing properties. They can be really expensive, particularly the antique ones, which apparently become richer in tone as they age. Last Christmas my mom bought me some gorgeous Tingsha bells, but I seem to have lost them! I could just cry. I’m sure they are buried away in my house somewhere, in the same black hole where all the socks seem to end up.

Being a singer, I am fascinated by the connection between yoga and music. The two disciplines truly complement each other. I haven’t been singing as much as I used to because I found that the competitive music world was making me unhappy. I used to beat myself up after every performance, focusing on all the things I could have done better. But singing doesn’t have to be an ego-driven pursuit. It can be done for the pure joy of creating something from your heart and soul. That is how I want to live my life. To do things because they bring joy to me and to the people around me. I believe my singing comes from a more authentic, less studied place now as I have discovered yoga. I feel a deep respect for my body and what it is capable of, finding beauty in its “flaws” and weaknesses. Like my bowl, whose little imperfections and subtle differences simply add to the unique character of it’s sound.

My Yoga Online has a comprehensive, intelligent collection of articles dealing with yoga anatomy and alignment, health, nutrition, meditation, and much more. I visit them  daily for insights into safe yoga practice. Injuries, unfortunately, can happen in yoga class if the teacher is unaware of alignment principles, or if the student doesn’t follow instructions properly, pushing themselves into an unhealthy posture in order to look more flexible.

By Kregg Weiss

Regardless of the position of the Yoga twist (lying, sitting, standing, or inverted), I follow a simply principle: the spine should not be in a forward bend, back arch, or side bend in any form or degree prior to twisting. The twisting Yoga pose should not be combined with /involved in another position or plane. If the spine is in another plane (ie back arching), the spine has reduced space along one edge of the vertebrae. Adding a twist to the uneven space can lead to acute or chronic injury. For those with spinal disorders like scoliosis, this principle is even more important. If the spine is already moving into another plane and then one twists into a pose that is adding the transverse plane motion, the vertebrae can be experiencing severe blockages and may worsen the condition of the spinal disorder.

Twisting Yoga poses like Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Twist pose), Parivritta Trikonasana (Revolving Triangle pose), and Parivritta Parsvakonasana (Revolving Side Angle pose) create joyous benefits. The twisting motions increase mobility in the vertebral column, massage internal organs, massage nutrients in and through the spine, aid in moving material through the digestive system, tone back and core muscles, and balance energy flow throughout the main energy channel (Sushumna)that travels along the line of the spine.

In order for all these physical and energetic benefits to occur, we need to apply proper preparation and alignment prior to rotating into the transverse plane of the spine. I like to imagine twisting like turning a screw into a bolt. If you are just slightly misaligned, the threads do not match, the threads endure grinding pressure, and the motion is limited or even impossible to occur.

Just like lining up the threads of the screw and bolt, I like to take time to line up the vertebrae in the most spacious placement. From this alignment, the vertebrae rotate evenly without pressure going into the intervertebral discs and without adding further blockages into the body.

[...] Read more at My Yoga Online

Yoga for Kids (7-12 years)

Thursday, 4:00-4:40pm
NEW PRICE $20.00 per month
(bring your own mat)

Our kid’s class is still enrolling! Tuition has been discounted to $20 per month. Call 491-0825 to sign up now.

Prenatal Yoga
NEW CLASS
(For Pregnant & Recently Pregnant Moms)

Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00pm
Begins January 6th
$20.00 per month

Take some time to take care of yourself. Come enjoy our soothing prenatal yoga class. This class is designed to relax and rejuvenate, relieve stress, and teach relaxation and breathing in preparation for birth and to recover from birth. Maintain or regain your physical fitness while bonding with your beautiful baby. New moms are welcome to bring babies (up to 1 year old).

Put on some relaxing music and try this gentle routine about 20 minutes before bedtime. Spend a good 10- 15 minutes in Savasana after the final pose, using an eye pillow to help relax your eyelids and forehead. You can rub a little bit of Lavender or Chamomile essential oils on your wrists and temples to help induce sleep, but skip if you find them stimulating. Remain in each posture as long as you can without strain or discomfort, and feel free to use blocks, blankets, pillows, bolsters, etc. to help you maintain the poses without tension. 

For insomnia, your best bets are deep stretches, forward bends, and inversions. Try not to get your heart rate up, and breathe slowly and evenly throughout. You must not practice backbends, arm-balances, core strengthening poses, Sun Salutations, or the Warrior Poses before bed. They are very stimulating and can make sleep more elusive.

10. Hero Pose: Virasana

9.   Child’s Pose: Balasana 

8.   Puppy Pose: Uttana Shishosana

7.   Downward-facing Dog: Adho Mukha Svanasana

6.   Standing Forward Bend: Uttanasana

5.   Wide-angle Seated Forward Bend: Upavistha Konasana

4.   Head-to-knee Forward Bend: Janu Sirsasana

3.   Plough: Halasana

2.   Happy Baby: Ananda Balasana

1.   Legs-up the-wall Pose: Viparita Karani - position your hips further from the wall than shown, so that                                                                           legs can rest on the wall without muscular effort.