Guest Blog Post: Group Yoga for Mommy Fitness

Group Yoga for Mommy Fitness

While reading through Robin Merrill’s previous guest post about Yoga for Pregnancy, I found myself nodding emphatically. As a thirty-something mom who had a late pregnancy, I sincerely regret not discovering yoga before childbirth to help me with labor and an easier delivery. Still, the important thing is that this mommy has discovered yoga (Sivananda yoga, to be specific) and is proudly reaping the calming, soothing, relaxing benefits of it in an otherwise frazzled, day-to-day existence.
I came to learn about Sivananda yoga through another mommy friend who was bemoaning the fact that her post-partum body had more jiggle and wiggle than a Jell-O salad. Sivananda yoga aims to make practitioners healthy and resistant to a wide range of illnesses and disease, with the emphasis on full yogic breathing. This makes perfect sense to expectant mothers, as pointed out in Robin Merrill’s guest blog post, because Lamaze uses a lot of deep breathing to get a mom ready for labor and birthing. After a couple of levels of Sivananda yoga done thrice weekly, my friend had noticeably toned upper arms and a belly. For these reasons alone, several of our other girlfriends and I signed up for a beginner’s course with a private Sivananda yoga instructor, to be done three times a week.
One great benefit of group yoga for mommy fitness includes being able to give each other feedback when certain sessions prove to be difficult to accomplish. For instance, one of our friends had difficulty doing the Plow because of tight hamstrings, but with encouragement and support, we were able to help her achieve the right pose without too much discomfort on her part. Also, since Sivananda encourages healthy eating, we usually bond over brunch after our morning sessions and discovered that we now automatically gravitate towards more fiber-laden and less sugary and carb-heavy fare. One of us is now a vegetarian and we’re all inspired by her!
I confess to have attempted to do hatha yoga on my own by way of instructional videos and a book before, but lacked proper discipline to push through with it on a regular basis. I gave up on it eventually, tried to do aerobics and other halfhearted attempts at keeping fit, and failed miserably. Signing up with my girlfriends in a class meant a systematic approach to it. Also, even if I am hesitant to admit it, there’s a kind of healthy competition involving all of us. It’s not about having the best shoulder stand or the most perfect fish pose, but knowing that we are all aiming for the road to health and well-being and doing it together as a group. As mommies, that’s the best gift we can give to ourselves and our families.

This guest blog post was written by proud WAHM (work at home mom) and budding yogini Kristen Swope. She does freelance writing about everything from swimming pools to home lighting. She devotes most of her quality time to taking care of her five-year-old daughter Isabel and husband John, and keeps sane and centered through Sivananda yoga thrice a week.

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