Prenatal yoga Canberra – the importance of core stability in pregnancy
The dynamics of your spine change during pregnancy as your spine adapts to the additional weight of your baby. This additional weight can often lead to poor posture and back pain. But with prenatal yoga, you can do a lot to help this.
In prenatal yoga, it’s important to focus on the flexibility and strength of the spine, to prevent or alleviate back pain and stiffness.
One of my favourite prenatal yoga practices is Dru Yoga’s ‘Energy Block Release 1’, modified appropriately for pregnancy. This sequence moves the spine in all directions and pumps energy upwards, releasing stiffness and blocked energy. This Energy Block Release (or EBR) is at the core of each of the Canberra Prenatal Yoga classes. (And it’s easy too!)
One of the important points in doing EBR1 is to stabilise your core stability muscles before beginning, and check in during the practice to make sure you’re maintaining that stability in your core muscles. I’ve talked about the core stability practices earlier, and it’s really important that you understand what it feels like, and use this core stability at all times in the yoga program.
In fact it’s worth engaging your core stability muscles whenever moving your spine while you’re pregnant (just lightly is enough unless you’re lifting a heavy weight – try not to do this anyway!). Core stability should become a habit, setting you up for a quick recovery from birth and preventing any back issues postnatally.
Rebecca Perry, Canberra Prenatal Yoga
