While it’s only prudent not to engage in strenuous exercise during pregnancy, physical activity and strengthening exercises can help with some common discomforts of pregnancy and even help prepare your body for labour and delivery.
Prenatal yoga class is something you can consider gently introducing into your daily regimen. Apart from practicing deep breathing to consciously relax and to keep you limber, certain yoga asanas or poses can also help in opening up the pelvic region to relieve tension around the cervix, as well as alleviate symptoms like swollen legs and cramps. But of course, you’ll want to check in with your doctor before attempting any form of exercise while you’re expecting.
We tapped Yoga Movement founder Alicia Pan, 37, to share her yoga tips for pregnant women, what equipment mums-to-be can use at home to make yoga more comfortable, her own pregnancy fitness routine (she’s a mom of two kids aged one and three), as well as juggling a business as a mother and entrepreneur.
If you find Pan familiar, you might remember her for her singing stint (she signed with a record label and flew to Taiwan at the age of 19), but these days, she is busy running a fitness empire of 100,000 Yoga Movement members and six yoga studios that include a new 6,000 sq ft flagship at Orchard Road. She tells us more.