Pregnancy is a time of extreme happiness and caution in every woman’s life. There are some drastic changes taking place in your physiology. Your body has to pump double the amount of blood, your legs swell, and you experience acid reflux and intense back pain. On the other hand, the hormone Relaxin relaxes your muscles, joints, pelvis, and hips.
In other words, your body starts to function like never before. To prepare your body and mind for labor and delivery you have to cut short high-risk activities. You need not leave every exercise, you can make certain adjustments to be safe when exercising during this phase of life. Yoga offers you a wonderful way to stay fit during pregnancy.
However, you should remember that there is specific yoga in pregnancy exercises which you should never do. Read further to know what these are.
5 Yoga Exercises To Avoid During Pregnancy
In case you have developed a regular yoga practice before pregnancy, you may continue the practice but only after proper consultation from your doctor.
With that said, given below are five yoga exercises you should never try during pregnancy.
1. Yoga Inversions
Yoga inversions are a big NO when it comes to remaining safe during pregnancy. This is the riskiest of yoga poses that put you directly under the risk of losing balance and falling off. The inversion mostly includes those poses where your feet are off the ground like in Headstand and Handstand.
Even if you are confident of practicing inversion poses before pregnancy, doing these when you are expecting can lead to you feeling disoriented. You have to avoid every yoga pose that takes away the blood and oxygen from your baby.
Look for a Yoga Alliance certified teacher to learn more about safer Inversion poses you can do without risking yourself and the baby.
2. Overstretching
Your body produces Relaxin during pregnancy. This hormone prepares the pelvis for delivery. On the other hand, Relaxin impacts your entire physiology and makes you feel more flexible than usual. You should be aware of how your body’s flexibility is changing as during specific yoga poses you might overstretch and damage the muscles and ligaments.
In other words, avoid overstretching when practicing yoga in pregnancy. You have to remember this, especially with standing balancing yoga asanas. The flexibility given by Relaxin can also lock your knees and make your leg joints wobbly.
3. Closed Twists
Back pain during pregnancy might attract you towards practicing intense twists. However, closed twists like Twisted Chair or Twisted High Lunge can constrict the veins providing oxygen-rich blood to the uterus and help the baby survive.
Moreover, doing closed twists also constrict arteries that carry the waste away from your baby and keep the environment clean and healthy. You should enroll in a Yoga Alliance course to learn the best yoga in pregnancy asanas.
4. Full Supine Poses
Yoga poses where you have to lie on your belly or back are something you should avoid at all costs. These yoga asanas block the Vena Cava, which is the artery responsible for taking your blood towards the uterus. Doing these yoga asanas compresses the space which the baby needs to grow and move, especially during the later stages of pregnancy.
5. Intense Backbends
Unfortunately, if you prefer deep backbends during pregnancy, it is a bad call to make. You should cut out any backbend yoga asanas to keep away from the situation of Diastis Recti. Although this happens during pregnancy, deeper anterior pelvic tilting with yoga puts you at a greater risk of Diatis Recti.
Conclusion
Yoga keeps you calm and relaxed during pregnancy. Enroll in a reputed yoga school to know what yoga in pregnancy asanas you should avoid when expecting.
