Yesterday in yoga I realized my rear end had become jiggly. This is something I’ve worked hard to avoid my entire adult life and a quality my yoga teacher praises as being essential for childbirth. Well, looks like my body is ready for having this baby! In every class we do juicy hips- hip circles, figure eights and samba-like shaking to become soft and supple. She reminds us frequently not to clench lower body muscles during standing poses. Flowing squats (starting with arms high in the air then squatting and bringing hands to the ground or bolster) are used to strengthen and tone the pelvic wall instead of traditional kegels. In Jane’s classes we strive to be comfortable in our new bodies and quiet in our minds, plus the beginning is like therapy as we go around the room introducing ourselves and mentioning anything we’re concerned about or would like focus on. We do what feels like hours of shoulder strengthening exercises (which I’ll get around to posting one of these days!) to build strength for hours of baby holding. And after class my friends and I round it out with Arizmendi Bakery‘s pizza of the day. What’s not to love?
This morning I decided to take the bus to the JCC because free parking has a 2 hour limit and I didn’t want to pay for the garage. I had scheduled my morning with water running, Hebrew lesson and a massage! I saw my bus coming so began running and waving my arms, but it drove away without me. I was indignant that the bus driver didn’t wait for a pregnant woman but still made it to class on time via another bus and a slightly longer walk.
Today and also on Tuesday I felt strong and motivated in the water. Tuesday’s class was crowded with girls I knew so naturally I focused more on chatting than exercising but still got a good workout. Today the instructor didn’t show up. She’s a doula so we all know that she often doesn’t have time to find a sub. Six of us were there so we ran the class ourselves, moving up and down the pool in pairs, remembering what exercises we could. This suited me just fine since I needed to leave early. After 40 minutes I moved to the warm pool to stretch, then took a leisurely shower and hurried upstairs to my Hebrew lesson. My Hebrew is actually improving since I’ve been doing my homework lately and I was able to read and make sense of a couple paragraphs before going back to writing and verbs! The reward for exercising and studying today was a wonderful prenatal massage. I’m so glad I purchased the Yelp JCC deal when I saw it (a cheap month’s membership and a massage) and am sorry my month is ending soon. Back to paying for water classes next week!