Many Pregnancy Classes fall short in challenging pregnant women enough to see tangible results.
Of course, it does depend on what the results you are looking for are.
If you are doing a Pregnancy yoga class that aims to nourish your nervous system and leave you feeling calm and relaxed, then you don’t need to be ‘worked hard’.
But if your goal is to feel strong through your pregnancy, empowered for a confident birth and to improve your chances of a smooth post-birth recovery, then your exercise should be at a level that either maintains or improves your strength & conditioning!
Unfortunately, many “pregnancy” classes are just too conservative to get these sorts of results, because they are designed to cater to the majority and AVOID symptoms, rather than BUILDING strength.
This is why I don’t run ‘pregnancy specific’ classes anymore, and instead, pregnant women can come to ANY of our classes. Because the women I see are not all the same (even if they are all pregnant). They each have their own beliefs, experience, pain & injury history and goals – all of which will impact on their exercise during pregnancy. So we tailor the session to meet them where they’re at and progress them as they get stronger, whilst keeping things safe and in line with the pregnancy exercise guidelines.
This doesn’t mean all “pregnancy” classes are pointless! It just means that the onus may be on YOU to take ownership; to learn how to challenge yourself when something is too easy and to understand your body signs when something is too hard.