Fitness & Pregnancy

The first time being pregnant for any mother brings up a lot of worries and hesitations especially in today’s social media extravaganza! What you can and cannot eat, how you should feel, the baby apps, all the things that can cause birth defects or miscarriages, to say the least; but the best thing my OB could have ever told me in those earlier months was that "Pregnancy is not a disease, so live your life."  Now of course there are obvious things that do need to be given up, but I wasn't going to stop teaching yoga and I was not going to stop seeing my chiropractic and acupuncture patients.  Now that I have reached 35 weeks I can look back a talk about the ups and downs of living my life during pregnancy.

The first few weeks of pregnancy it seems like you are on top of the world.  You are reading everything about it on the internet and you analyze everything you feel or do.  I had no issues teaching my hot yoga class the first few weeks.  I had a lot of people questioning my teaching it, and even many telling me that it couldn't be good for me to do it.  I had been teaching it for 2 years and the room only got up to 86 degrees.  We do have intervals between our poses so my heart rate would go up but not for extended periods of time.  I still had a lot of energy while teaching and did not feel limited with the positions. It was not until week 8 or 9 weeks when I noticed decreased energy and also a shortness of breath during teaching. I listened to my body and would hold poses longer without as many intervals, and if I felt like I needed a break I would always go into Childs Pose.  During this time I also noticed I was extremely tired if I practiced yoga more than 2 or three times a week.  Luckily I had two other teachers that helped with classes, so once again I listened to my body.

Once I hit around 12 weeks, my energy level increased and I no longer was as short of breath during yoga. I could teach a higher intensity class with ease again, and was also able to practice at least 4 or 5 times a week.  The problem during this stage of pregnancy was planking for me.  Planking caused a sharp deep pain in my right round ligament area.  I didn't know if this was just something I was over analyzing or if it was too much internal pressure. Either way I again listened to my body and put my knees down when I planked. I continued to ease up on my planking the whole second trimester. 

Now into the third trimester and still having energy I decided to add some normal planking in.  I no longer had the round ligament pain but I was weaker from the weight gain.  I knew it was important to have strong pelvic floor muscles for delivery, so I continued doing the proper planking practices while listening to my body when I needed to put a knee down or go into Childs Pose. Teaching Yoga with a growing belly also gives its limitations physically.  I no longer can keep those feet just a few inches apart during Chair Pose or Forward Bend.  They are now wider so there is room for the belly.  I do not practice head stands or any twist poses, but still teach them in class.  Also I do not lay flat on my stomach but tell my yogis to.  I practice all the stomach poses with them just as much I can do on my hands and knees. 

As a teacher who still wants to grow with my personal yoga practice it is somewhat frustrating with the weight gain and positional limitations, especially when I practice along a Kino MacGregor video who puts me to shame when I am zero months pregnant.  During these times I feel frustrated and somewhat of a beached whale, I remind myself of the bigger picture.  I had many goals of only gaining 20 pounds throughout the pregnancy, and even with constant workouts and eating healthy that number is long gone.  My legs are thicker, my butt is bigger and my arms are Hulk Hogan-ish.  Yet I have never felt more amazing, have had very minimal back pain, sleep very well and I have been living a normal life. 

With the end just a short distance away I will practice more specific poses that help with hip opening, making the delivery processes smoother.  If the delivery doesn't go by my Yoga Birthing Method Notes, Acupuncture for quick delivery notes, or chiropractic techniques to open the hips notes, I know I am in great hands with my OB.

 I would love to hear feedback on all those that were able to push through their normal exercise routine during their pregnancy.  For all the runners, swimmers, cross fitters, and weight lifters, what were your ups or downs and what were your outcomes?  The best motivation for me is hearing from other people and learning of your experiences.

Benefits of Exercise while being Pregnant

·        reduce low back pain

·        improve blood circulation

·        reduce water retention

·        strengthen the pelvic muscles

There are also some specific poses or asanas that are believed to:

·        relieve digestion problems such as nausea, constipation and gas

·        help you manage blood pressure

·        help you overcome fatigue

·        help you cope with labour pain or experience less pain.

http://www.babycenter.in/a1028402/benefits-of-yoga-during-pregnancy#ixzz41C2VtBBG

The Treatments, The Differences & How They Affect You

I attended Logan college of chiropractic in St. Louis, MO, and not only do they do a great job of educating their students about practicing chiropractic, they really push natural techniques that help with tissue healing, and over all healing.  They offer many homeopathic techniques that will help with patient care.  I took interest in the Graston technique after I was treated in the student clinic and had great success in my own personal physical issues.  I took the classes and have been using the Graston technique ever since. 

Since 2008, I have added similar techniques that aid in tissue healing called Gua-sha and Cupping.  These two techniques along with Graston and Chiropratic have increased my over healing rate with patients and decreases the time needed to heal.  The only thing about these techniques is they do leave noticeable bruises during the first few treatments.  Therefore I just wanted to do a short description of the three so people understand why it looks the way it does and also the differences between the three. 

First off the Graston technique uses stainless-steel tools that were developed in the United States.  There are six official Graston tools that are all different shape and sizes to help specific areas.  These tools are designed to enhance the clinician's ability to detect adhesions, scar tissue or restrictions in the affected areas.  A combing technique is performed over the area to break up the collagen, link fibers and increase the amount of blood flow to the area to help with healing.  The longer the area has been injured the more red dots come up.  These dots are called petechiae, which will cause bruising.  There is a 24-48 hour soreness with the treatment.  The bruising heals, the pain gets better and range of motion increases.  It takes a few treatments to notice a change in the tissue.  There will be a noticeable difference in the amount of petechiae that appear as the tissues heals.  This is one of the reason I really like this technique because not only does the patient get results fast, I can see that the tissue has its normal circulation again. 

 

Gua-sha and Graston have very similar combing techniques but do have different philosophies on the practice.  Gua-sha is an Eastern Asian medicine technique that has been around much longer then Graston, and is used for more than just soft tissue problems.  Gua-sha is defined as an instrument-assisted unidirectional press-stoking of lubricated area to help create transitory therapeutic petechiae called "sha' representing extravasation of blood in the subcutis. That definition might sound a little strange but simplified, the combing technique is done to bring up petecahiae to get rid of adhesion and increase circulation.  Very similar to the Graston Technique.  In Eastern Asian medicine, raising sha removes blood stagnation considered pathogenic.  Modern research shows the petechiae produce an anti-inflammatory and immune-receptive effect that can last for days following a treatment. The Treatments can relieve pain, stiffness, fever, chill, cough, wheeze, nausea, vomiting etc.  The tools are usually smaller than the Graston tools, and are made from jade rock, whale bone or a hard plastic.  Some practitioners use lids off of baby jars.  There is really no right or wrong Gua-sha tool, as long as it has an edge that brings up the petechiae without harming the patient

Cupping therapy, is the method of using glass or plastic cups to create localized pressure by a vacuum.  Again that sounds a little edgy but this technique has been used in Eastern Asia since ancient times, with a recorded 3500 years of use.   The philosophy is again a little different in definition but overall it does produce similar results as Graston and Gua-sha.  Cupping follows the traditional acupuncture meridians.  These meridians are pathways in the body which the energy of life flows.  Cupping therapy is mainly performed on certain meridians to open up the flow and help with healing.  Another healing aspect of cupping is through the release of toxins in your body by bringing up circulation in the area of injury or pain.  Just like the Gua-sha and Graston, cupping leaves bruising after treatments.  But as the area heals the bruising is less noticeable, and the patient feels better.  I have used both the glass with fire, and the plastic cupping.  I prefer the plastic cups that come with a vacuum tool.  They are very easy and fast to use.  The majority of the time I will treat my patient with Graston or Gua-sha first and will then place the cups over the area of the most petechiae.  This really brings a lot of circualation to the surface and even though the patient is bruised and sore for a few days it, the results are fast and effective.