While pregnant and soon after P was born, I received lots of questions about my vinyasa yoga practice during pregnancy. So, in honor of happy mommies and happy babies (and before it’s too far from memory), this post offers suggestions + videos as to how to modify your yoga practice — especially a vinyasa practice — during pregnancy.
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| SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS & MODIFICATIONS |
| Speak with your doctor or midwife. This is, I hope, the obvious disclaimer before thinking about practicing yoga or doing other physical exercise during pregnancy! I had a healthy pregnancy, and my midwifery practice (one I cannot recommend highly enough — Loudoun Community Midwives in Northern Virginia) encouraged me to continue the exercise and yoga regimens I had practiced prior to becoming pregnant. Anything that’s offered below is what worked for me in my own practice during pregnancy as well as what I offer to pregnant practitioners who attend my classes; it should not be misconstrued for medical advice. |
| Are you brand new or much newer to yoga? Rather than try to modify a vinyasa yoga practice yourself, seek out prenatal yoga or hatha classes near you. The MindBody app can be really helpful to this end. Maybe call the studio first or pop by and ask about the studio’s offerings. Let the teacher know that you’re expecting (and even if you’re not actually telling people yet, it’s still a good idea to let the teacher know and ask for privacy about it). S/he should be willing to offer you modifications. |
This post has been updated spring 2023 as I’m pregnant with my second!
My Practice Before Pregnancy
Before pregnancy, I practiced vinyasa yoga five to six times/week in a heated studio and ran or walked three to four times/week.
Once pregnant, I continued yoga in a heated space, between 85-90 degrees (again, as I was doing this regularly beforehand, this was okay for me, my body, and the baby).
I also continued walking and also running well into my third trimester — on the day I went into labor, I walked/jogged (…yogged…), a solid attempt to get her out, as she was a week late and waaaay too comfortable. Seemed to work. 🙂
One Additional Note Here
Again, this is what I did and what worked for me. I’ve been practicing vinyasa yoga for over ten years and teaching for over five. Although prenatal classes can be lovely, I wanted to learn how to modify my regular vinyasa practice.
You gotta do what makes sense for you, for your body, for your pregnancy.
I was super duper careful to not over-stretch in the heated space.
As you might already be aware, the body produces new hormones during pregnancy, and some of those hormones increase flexibility and openness to prepare the body for birth.
In my own body, this manifested in greater awareness of my joints. Like, they felt more…there.
I REALLY noticed my SI (sacro illiac) joints during pregnancy, and so I was extra cautious in poses (or avoided them altogether) that would put a good bit of pressure on the SI joints (like flipping my dog, which I skipped, and dancer pose, Natarajasana, which I did with more lift and without much backbend).
Do you have an established yoga practice?
Great! Super early on in my pregnancy, I didn’t really need to modify too much. Around week ten or eleven, I did choose to start skipping intensive core stuff and avoided really deep twists (elbow outside of the knee) as well as poses directly on my belly (like locust aka Salabhasana).
- I probably could have waited even a bit longer to take these out of my pregnant practice, but in honor of “listening to one’s body,” I really did try to listen.
- For me, making these modifications when I did made sense, felt good, and allowed me to focus on other areas of strength building and opening that felt particularly wonderful as I became increasingly front-heavy.
Suggestions for how to modify your vinyasa yoga practice during pregnancy
These suggested modifications are for a typical vinyasa class
…aka “flow” yoga, where breath is linked with movement. I’m not pregnant in these pictures, as I only realized post-baby that it would be good to do a post like this…alas.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wider Stance
Wider-legged chair pose (Utkatasana)
- Feet hips-width distance or even much wider as belly gets bigger, arms forward or toward ceiling.
- Softness in shoulders, strength in legs, and still hugging belly toward spine (literally hugging the baby).
Rather than chair twist (Parivrtta Utkatasana), take a wide-legged, open twist or modified prayer twist.
- Feet hips-width distance or even wider.
- For the prayer twist, try bringing the left elbow inside the left knee as you turn chest to the right. This feels good on left hip and allows a twisting/opening again across the chest (but avoids twisting around the belly).
- Or, place hand on block (…or an Amazon box haha…use whatcha got) between feet and slightly forward, right arm reaches open, hips are back as if sitting in a chair; again, there should be no actual twisting around the belly, as belly is essentially facing down. Twist is happening across the chest.
Twist Open, Not Closed
Instead of seated twist/half spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana), take an open seated twist.
- Basically turn the other direction than you would in Ardha Matsyendrasana.
- Rather than bring the left elbow outside of the left knee to twist, bring the left elbow to the inside of the left knee and twist open to the right (then repeat on the opposite side).
Skip Traditional Core Work
- Instead of core work like planks, low planks, boat poses (Navasanas), crunches of any kind, etc., take cats/cows and/or bird-dogs.
- Avoid poses on your belly, like locust post (Salabhasana), bow pose (Dhanurasana), or cobra pose (Bhujangasana), and again, take cats/cows and/or bird-dogs.
Once my belly was bigger and/or any time I wasn’t sure what to do in a class to modify? Bird-dogs and cat/cows.
Bird-dog with the bind — a heart & hip-flexor opener
I did SO.MANY.BIRD.DOGS whilst pregnant. And they always felt good and were incredibly helpful in building strength in the belly — drawing toward the center line of the body — where I really needed it most during pregnancy: hugging AROUND the baby.
More on Cats & Cows
- Shoulders stack over wrists, hips over knees.
- Inhale drop the belly, open across collar bones, and tilt tailbone toward wall behind you.
- Exhale press through palms and round the spine, drop the head in, tailbone tucks, curl around the baby to give baby a hug. Repeat 5-10 cycles.
More on Bird-Dogs
- Find your strong table-top shape.
- Extend right arm forward, left leg back. Hug shoulder in, draw toward center line, and imagine a long line from the extended arm, through the midline of the body, then back through the active leg and foot. Hips are level.
- Inhale reach and extend a bit longer, exhale, draw in, elbow toward opposite knee.
- Repeat five to ten times, spend a few breaths in child’s pose, then switch sides.
- Elbow and knee definitely do NOT have to touch, especially later on in pregnancy.
- I sometimes would add in a heart opener — a half lifted bow pose…an Ardha Dhanurasana…of sorts (see pic above).
- This helped me have a back-bending experience without a full-on backbend, and felt great on my quads/hip flexors and wasn’t too much on my SI joints.
- With the arm that’s extended forward, reach it back, catch the opposite foot or ankle. Draw toward center line and press the foot into the hand, hand into the foot as you draw shoulder back and heart forward and up.
Bird-dogs aka elbow-to-knee
Bridge? Wheel?
Bridge on a block
- Wheel might feel great for you.
- If it does, great! I know many women who practice backbends throughout pregnancy. Yes, even into third trimester. There’s debate about this (…there’s a debate about a lot of things in the yoga world…). If you have concerns about what’s right for you, talk to your doctor or midwife.
- Bridge felt better for me, especially on a block.
- In bridge pose, root down through your heels and your big toe mounds, lift your hips toward the ceiling, shimmy your shoulders underneath you a bit more. Keep pressing through your heels and the inner edges of your feet. Use your legs to push hips up more than your glutes (your butt). Find space between your chin and your chest.
- Again, modify your vinyasa yoga practice during pregnancy:
- I opted not to “flip my dog” — moving toward a wheel — somewhere during second trimester. My SI joints were tender (see toward the beginning of this post about everything being extra open and flexible), and that type of movement (pivoting to drop the foot then lifting the hips) was a bit too much pressure for my SI joints.
Take Up More Space
- You’re pregnant! Everything is just…bigger. So in order to modify your yoga practice during extra big/pregnant time, take up more space. Do this in:
- a) Downdog & updog (feet extra wide toward side edges of mat)
- b) Forward folds. Have lots of space between your feet, big bend in your knees, and maybe use a block, skipping the bind altogether.
- c) Standing poses with squarer hips, like Warrior I and High Crescent Lunge. Take a wider stance to help find more stability and grounding (balance can be off when you’re gradually more and more front-heavy).
Modify Your Vinyasas
- At some point in second trimester, I started to modify my vinyasa yoga practice by changing up the vinyasas themselves (transitions between poses/sequences). This included taking just about every other Chaturanga on my knees.
- So in Sun As, for example, from a stance with feet hip’s-width distance apart, I’d:
- Inhale reach arms high,
- Exhale bow forward and fold,
- Inhale halfway lift,
- Exhale step back to high pushup,
- Inhale shift forward/look forward,
- Exhale drop to my knees with elbows in close to sides,
- AND same exhale, lower chest & chin toward the floor (crocodile pose) without my belly ever touching the floor, elbows glued to my sides.
- I’d then inhale and press down through the tops of my feet, lifting my knees off the floor for updog (again, belly never touches the floor),
- Finally exhale to downdog (either drawing through the belly to lift up and back or again dropping my knees down before pressing back).
Lots of Low Squats
Yes, that’s an Amazon box.
- SUCH a good way to modify your vinyasa practice during pregnancy.
- Maybe take low squat (Malasana) on a block. But I found that it felt all kinds of good for the hips and inner thighs. Not to mention that this kind of hip opening in particular is excellent prep work for birthing a BABY.
- Lift the pelvic floor/mula bandha and drop your tailbone. Can also alternate between Malasana and a deep-bent-knee forward fold (Uttanasana).
Use More Block
Blocks Helped Me
- Modify my vinyasa yoga practice during pregnancy
- Not overstretch
- Find more space when baby girl belly became a large, round, wonderful obstacle
- Chill & feel more balanced
I used a block in
From above:
- Wide-legged forward folds (Prasaritas)
- Open chair twist (Parivrtta Utkatasana)
- Triangle (Utthita Trikonasana)
- Revolved triangle (Parivrtta Trikonasana) — one hand to block and the other to hip, twisting across the chest with belly facing the floor (i.e. no actual twisting around the belly)
- Side angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana) (pictured below with block handy, although not in use)
- Revolved crescent lunge with an open twist (a version of Parivrtta Anjaneyasana)
- Bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
- Forward folds (like Uttanasana)
- Final rest (Savasana), with block between shoulder blades (I did this during first trimester; moving into second trimester, I opted for Savasana on my side with a block or blanket between my knees, my head resting in the crux of my elbow or also on a block)
Pay Attention to Balance
Downdog…eight months pregnant 😀
- Yes, your balance will feel different!
- I found that a vinyasa yoga practice during pregnancy actually helped my balance overall.
- I never felt like I was going to fall over or completely lose it. (…Remembering things was a different story lol.)
- Maybe you take certain standing balancing poses, like tree or dancer, near a wall. Totally fine. But you’ll still use the muscles that you use to draw in toward the center line — again, this notion of hugging around the baby — which are the muscles you need to maintain for strong pelvic floor health during and after delivery.
Inversions?
- Yes, I inverted throughout pregnancy.
- Again, I’d
- a) talked to my doctor about it,
- b) had a regular inversions practice before becoming pregnant,
- c) had a healthy pregnancy with no complications, and
- d) chose to continue taking inversions (like headstand, handstand, and Pincha Mayurasana). For me, they felt good.
Lastly. Skip Stuff!!
- You’re pregnant! If it doesn’t feel quite right? Don’t do it!
- Feel like REST is the best way to modify your vinyasa yoga practice during pregnancy? DO IT. Try “fetal” pose, on your side, maybe a block or blanket between your legs and another blanket underneath your head.
- Most important: take care of yourself and your baby.
Are these suggestions for how to modify your vinyasa yoga practice during pregnancy helpful? Please comment, pin, & share with mamas-to-be!
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