13 tips for modifying your yoga teaching whilst pregnant.

I had a question on Instagram the other day from a yoga teacher about how to modify your yoga teaching whilst pregnant.

It was such a great question that I wanted to answer it in a longer format blog post – so here it is!

SO much has changed in the yoga teaching landscape as we currently are in the midst of Corona – largely that many classes have moved over to zoom. 

For a yoga teacher “Zoom yoga” has its benefits: 
* Yay! We can still teach and try maintain some income.
* Less commute time (students and teachers!)
* Being able to teach to students location independent!

Zoom yoga also has it’s drawbacks:
* No human interaction and
* Sometimes odd camera angles which make feedback more tricky

On top of this, one of the main differences in teaching a Zoom yoga class is that more often we are required to demonstrate more than we would in a regular teaching environment. This is because – whilst we can hone our verbal cues to the nth degree – some students are simply more visual or kinaesthetic learners. In a regular class environment – those visual students who are not getting the verbal cues can easily take a quick glance over to the left or right to see what the other students have done with their arm/leg/head. In a zoom setting, students are most likely practicing by themselves and, if they are less familiar with the practice, you and/or your style of teaching and particularly if you are moving in a more dynamic/fast paced way, if you suddenly stop demonstrating – they may get ‘lost’ and not have anyone else in the room to “check in” with.

Demonstrating a lot can be quite exhausting – and especially if you are pregnant! (Being out of breath even in the early stages of pregnancy is very real!) So whilst I want to share my thoughts in specific reference to “Zoom Yoga” I also want to share my thoughts on modifying your teaching whilst pregnant.

  1. If you feel comfortable to share with your students – let them know you are pregnant.
    This is obviously not for everyone – for a variety of reasons: you may be early in your pregnancy and not wanting to tell anyone, you may choose to keep your personal life/body out of the yoga space entirely, you may know people in your class struggling with infertility and wish to be sensitive to them. For whatever reason – if you don’t feel comfortable sharing with your students (and it is your choice) then jump over to some of the next points. (For me – with classes and students that I have a standing relationship with, who have practiced with me for a while – I have felt happy to share with them, for other classes where there are brand new students I don’t mention it at all – so I think this is both dependent on you, your scenario and how you feel!) Having your students know that you are pregnant does help create understanding if you choose to omit some things from your demonstrating/teaching.
  2. SLOW IT DOWN
    Even if you are teaching a more “power” or dynamic practice – you can still create a VERY strong practice by slowing things right down. (Whoever thinks that a long hold/slow class can not be strong, sweaty and powerful has clearly never held a deep chair pose for longer than 5 breaths!)
    The benefit of teaching a slower class (and especially via Zoom if you are demonstrating a lot) is that you can guide people into the postures and then once people are there – you can come out of the posture and give yourself a break, whilst everyone else breaths on!
    Poses to hold longer for a strong/power practice might be: chair, revolved chair, warriors, side angles, revolved side angles, high lunges, arm balances, balancing poses – I can guarantee that if you hold any/all of these poses slowly for an extended time, your students will for sure get the ‘sweaty-yoga-glow’ that they signed up for! Give the “halve-your-sequence-double-your-holds” theory a go! Often students can actually move deeper mentally into the practice and refine the physical postures more easily when the class is slower.
  3. GET FEEDBACK 
    If you decide to ‘switch things up’ from how you usually teach – as in the slowing it down example above – take it as an opportunity to get feedback from your students. You can even begin the practice with “I’m trying something new today!” And then ask for feedback at the end – students may really enjoy this slightly modified style of teaching or get a lot of value from longer holds! You can then adjust accordingly based on how you feel and the response from the students.  
  4. GIVE FEEDBACK
    One advantage of slowing things right down in teaching is that it provides you with some opportunity to get out of the postures to give a bit more personal feedback to your students. (This can be extremely useful in a Zoom setting – to help maintain that personalised in person/yoga-studio feel to the class). For the students who you know are around for the “physical-yoga” you can come out of the posture and then offer them options to take up the intensity – moving a bit lower in the chair, challenging the balance, activating certain areas of the body a bit more.
  5. LET STUDENTS GET LOST
    This is a tough one for the A-type teachers out there! I hear you! But, giving yourself an opportunity to come out of demonstrating and using more verbal cues – may get some of your students feeling a bit more “lost”. Let them get lost. There is often a lot more valuable teaching and learning that comes up through the things we DON’T get right/understand, than the things that we can do with ease.  What comes up for you when you get lost? What is triggered in you when you feel you’ve lost your way? Are you able to maintain a sense of grounding and calm or do you swing quickly into frustration and fluster? How can the breath facilitate this experience for you? These valuable inquiries are yoga in action! Your students may learn something profound about themselves.
  6. WATCH YOUR POSITIONING LOW TO HIGH
    This is a big one to look out for when teaching whilst pregnant as your body is regulating the increased blood volume in your system. If you are feeling light headed or out of breath avoid coming up too quickly from a low position to a high position. If you know you are going to make a transition from low to high in your sequence – come out of your last posture a little bit before you cue it/your students so that you have time to take it slow as you come to stand. This is also true for taking your hands over your head. If you feel light headed at all – don’t lift your arms above your head – this is an easy cue that not many people will need a demonstration for – and more awkward than a yoga teacher not demonstrating, would be a yoga teacher on the other end of a zoom call that’s just passed out!
  7. SEQUENCE MOMENTS OF PAUSE
    Speaking about “out-of-breath”, progesterone in early pregnancy can leave you feeling strangely out of breath! Add teaching and moving on top of this and you have yourself a very racing-breath-yoga-teacher! Quite early on in my flow classes (before it was public that I was pregnant), I began to notice how out of breath I was (and was actually rather surprised by this “What?! I’m fit and healthy!!”) especially during teaching. What I began doing was sequencing moments of pause or reflection more intentionally into my classes. Whatever theme you are working on – take some time to build some key reflection points, some affirmations or mantras into your class. Invite students to the top of their mat with their eyes closed to take in these nuggets of wisdom – whilst you catch your breath! Many students will also get a lot of value from this moment of pause. (Especially if you’ve had them in longer holds!)
  8. DIRECTION OVER DEMONSTRATION
    There is a big difference between actively demonstrating a yoga pose and showing a direction in which to move. The more directional cues you can give the less you will need to fully demonstrate. Twists are an easy example to see this in action – If you are seated ready for Marichyasana C with your left knee bent, as preggie belly grows – you may find it near impossible to twist the body to the left in the way that you might usually demonstrate. You can however, give an effective directional cue but simply turning your shoulders, arms and head to the left. In order to be clear and perhaps exaggerate the movement- you could even take the arms out wide to show the direction of the turn, without actually taking the twist yourself. Apply this to other postures too!
  9. SPECIFIC POSTURES TO AVOID IN PREGNANCY
    If you are yoga teacher, I would definitely encourage you to do a pre and postnatal training, if not to be able to teach pregnant students who may come to your regular classes, but for your own knowledge and benefit. As with everything in pregnancy I believe this is very person-to-person specific on things to “avoid” in pregnancy – depending on your experience and prior personal practice, your health in pregnancy, your experience in pregnancy and how your body generally feels! Some specific pointers:
    * Core work: it is actually a good idea to try maintain some degree of deep core connection in pregnancy – activation of transverse abdominals to help with minimising diastatis recti post birth. This is different from core work where you are ‘crunching’ or intentionally increasing intra-abdominal pressure. Adjust your teaching to fit this – as most people will benefit from connection to the deeper core anyway, rather than the superficial rectus abdominis “six pack” – which become challenging to access in pregnancy!
    * Inversions: although there is no physical evidence for inversions being contraindicated in pregnancy, there is an energetic component to this theory from a yogic perspective. You can read more about my take on inversions in this IG post. Decide what feels right for you.
    * Backbends: For me early on, I have taken my back-bending WAY down. I wanted to share this – because there is no hard-evidence to suggest that back-bending is contraindicated in pregnancy – and I believe it is largely dependent person to person, practice to practice and the stage of pregnancy you are in. However, for me, intuitively it has felt that I don’t want to exacerbate the separating of rectus abdominals – which is happening anyway in pregnancy. Minimising this as much as I can during pregnancy feels good and intuitive to me. It may feel different to you! Even though I am only 21 weeks, even poses like cat/cow have become way less “extreme” in their ROM for me. This I don’t think would even be noticeable to students in my class – but it is a marked difference in my body and my experience. So feel free to “scale back” your postures – whatever they are! Pretend you are a very stiff beginner!
  10. GET CLEVER WITH YOUR SEQUENCING
    If you are in third trimester and don’t want to lie on your back for extended periods of time – don’t sequence it into your classes! If you are getting uncomfortable lying on your belly, don’t sequence prone positions in your class. It seems obvious, but thought I would just state the obvious.
  11. TEACH YOGA, NOT “FOLLOW-MY-SEQUENCE
    This will be dependent on where and how you teach as sometimes if you are teaching for a studio, they may require you to teach a specific style of yoga (dynamic/flow/vinyasa etc) in which case it may not be possible for you to adjust your teaching style. (It could also be an opportunity to have a conversation with your studio owners about creating a slightly different class style on their schedule if you are pregnant and unable to keep up with the phsyical demand of it.) If I reflect on my own journey of yoga teacher – the style I am currently leaning towards is quite different to where I started – it is much more “teaching people yoga” rather than “follow my sequence”. The “follow my sequence”/ vinyasa/flow style practice is still a way I love to teach and practice, I have just ALSO seen huge value in sharing yoga in a way that is actually teaching people about their bodies, the postures and how to make them accessible for them. This requires a lot less DEMONSTRATION and a lot more OBSERVATION as a teacher. This may be something you wish to explore! 

    Similarly you may wish to ask your studio owners if you can take a few restorative-flow type classes – or ask if you could switch with someone on the schedule!
  12. BED DOWN A MOVEMENT SEQUENCE/PATTERN AND THEN LET STUDENTS FLY!
    If it’s not possible for you to shift from teaching a flow/“follow-my-sequence” style class and you are not feeling the energy for a full flow demonstration, then I would suggest taking the time to bed down a set sequence with your class (not too long) through a single demonstration and then inviting them to repeat this same sequence 3 or even 4 times over. It’s a powerful learning moment when students realise that actually if they take their thinking mind out of it, the body will soon just know where to go! (#YOGA!) Once they have it in their bodies, you can always layer in ways verablly that they can deepen the sequence as they go without needing to demo the whole thing. 
  13. GET COVER
    I originally put this final point as “listen to your body” but HOPEFULLY as a yoga teacher – you are well tuned into that already! So the advice here, if you are feeling shoddy and you’re financially able to – get cover for your classes. Early on in my pregnancy (ie: before it was public knowledge) I had to get an emergency cover as my head was stuck in a toilet bowl, throwing up the little food I’d been able to keep down. It did happen to fall on a sunny bank holiday weekend Friday evening – so I felt it probably looked like I had simply indulged/wanted to indulge in a few too many sangrias – I can assure you, this was not the case! (Sangria – I wish! haha!) If you are able to, it can really be an act of self love and loving boundary setting to get cover when you need.

I hope these pointers have been useful for you if you are a pregnant yoga teacher looking to keep yourself in the teaching game as optimally as you can! If you have anything else that would be beneficial that you wish to share – please do leave a comment below!

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