The joys of yoga at 8 1/2 months

So this morning I spent time decluttering my house, helping my son to water our new plants, and watching my husband attempt to hang a picture on the bedroom wall for about 25 minutes afterwhich I decided to do some yoga. I haven't practiced yoga in at least a week and I decided that the pouring rain outside provided the perfect condition for some calming and relaxation.
Ok, so anyone who has really practiced yoga knows that it is not all calm and relaxation. Some days it takes real work! Now add eight months of pregnancy to that work and you have found yourself in something of a pickle.

I am a huge fan of http://www.yogatoday.com/. If you haven't heard of this website and love yoga, go there; you will not be sorry! Well, I looked at the list of classes on Yoga Today and found that all of them sounded like they would be a bit too much for me and my protruding stomach. So I turned on Namaste Yoga, found on FitTV, thinking it would be a little easier. No. It was much too quick-paced and I ended up turning off the tv after about ten minutes (it could have been closer to five).

I went online to see if there were any free downloads for prenatal yoga. (I forgot to mention, Yoga Today's hour-long videos are absolutely free! And there's a new class every single day!) While I did not find anything too worthy to mention, I did find some great information on prenatal yoga, its benefits, and those things which we pregnant women should stear clear of in our practice.

Practicing yoga during pregnancy helps to improve circulation, it relieves tension around the cervix and birth canal (so hopefully that baby will ease on out with our barely realizing anything happened!), relieves fluid retention, helps to calm and relax those who may tend to get a bit hormonal (my husband claims I was always hormonal), raises energy levels, and of course, helps to maintain something of our physical fitness and womanly shape.

While those in their first and second trimesters can do quite a bit more than those of us nearing the end, there are options. We can bring our practice down a notch with simpler poses such as Butterfly, which helps to relieve tension in the inner thighs, and Sleeping Abdominal Stretch, which relieves stiffness in the spine. If we want to stick with our regular practice we can modify and modify some more. Widen the knees when in Hero and Child's pose, and cut out things such as lying on the back or belly, breathing intensely (such as in Breath of Fire), and deep twists and backbends.

While nothing compares to free, I did find a website that offers what look like quality video downloads. For $4.99 and $5.99 you can download about an hour's worth of yoga or Pilates and follow along at home. I will have to try them out and let you know the final review. Or, you can try them yourself and let me know! Enjoy!